Midnight Mass Westminster Cathedral

Midnight Mass Westminster Cathedral – The Nativity of the Lord

This is a spiritual boon for the housebound and sick. It also means that the Cathedral’s many friends across the world can benefit from the beauty and solemnity of Cathedral worship.

Wherever you are in the world, you are most welcome.

We hope that participating in the Mass online will encourage you to visit us in person and to experience this beautiful Cathedral.

Since 2009 the Vatican has conducted a liturgically similar Christmas Eve Mass earlier in the day. First at 10:00 pm, designated a Mass during the Night, then subsequently earlier in the evening.

It centers around the announcement of the angels, in glory, to the shepherds in the field, and is a very joyful mass. The darkness of midnight is meant to be a symbolic reminder of the lack of true light in humanity before Jesus was born.

The midnight mass is about 1.5 hours in length, even about 10 or 15 minutes more if you count the choir prelude to the mass, due to a great amount of music.