First-first Dawn Mass

Simbang Gabi
St. Francis Xavier, Corio, Geelong
5:30 am
December 16, 2007
Mt 17:10-13

I am interested to know if there are people here attending Simbang Gabi or Dawn Mass for the first very time. Pakitaas po ang kamay? I also would like to ask specially my fellow Filipinos who never been to Dawn Mass in Australia?

It’s a great privilege for me to say my first ever Dawn Mass with you my dear friends here at Corio. You are actually my neighbours. St. Andrew's Parish, Werribee is not really far from here.

I am aware that this year 2006 is the second time that Dawn Masses will be celebrated here at St. Francis Xavier parish through the initiative of the Filipino community. As you know my dear friends, Simbang Gabi or Dawn Mass is one of the longest and most popular among the Filipino traditions in the Philippines. It is when Catholic churches across the nation start to open their doors as early as three o’clock in the morning to welcome the faithful to the Dawn Mass.
In fact, the Mass at Dawn begins the long Christmas season in the country, they say the longest in the world which starts on Dec 16 and ends of the Feast of the Ephiphany or Feast of Three Kings on the first Sunday after New Year’s Day.

As we begin today the first day of the nine-day novena Mass to the Blessed Mother I thought of giving you my friends some historical background about this rich Christian tradition of Dawn Mass.

Simbang Gabi or Dawn Mass traces its roots in Mexico in 1587 when the Pope granted the petition of Fray Diego de Soria, prior of the convent of San Agustin Acolman, to hold Christmas mass outdoors because the Church could not accommodate the huge number of people attending the evening Mass.

The Dawn Mass or Simbang Gabi became a Filipino religious practice in about 1660. To prepare for the Christmas season, the missionary Spanish friars held a series of Masses in the early morning hours, usually at about four in morning, when the roosters crow to announce the coming of a new day. Being an agricultural people, the Filipinos woke up early in the morning in the fields, starting the day two hours before sunrise. By holding Dawn Masses the Spanish priests gave the farmers a chance to hear Mass before setting out for the fields.

During the old times, it is believed that parish priests would go far knocking on doors to wake and gather the faithful to attend the Dawn Mass. (I don’t think your parish priest will like this idea). Today in the Philippines, actually at this very moment, Dawn Mass is announced an hour before the start of Mass by the ringing of the church bells, a brass band or Christmas music all over the town. (I don’t think the council here will allow this idea).

Dawn Mass has become a Filipino tradition, a religious practice handed down from generation to generation. We, who now live in a modern world, living in a new country Australia, would like to share this festive tradition to other people, as we are doing today.

We no longer attend Dawn Mass for agricultural reasons as in the old times. What I would like to emphasise to you my dear friends, we do not celebrate Dawn Mass merely because it is a tradition that we need to do. However, we celebrate Dawn Mass and we are joyfully celebrating it as not only as Filipinos but as whole Christian community because it is a special time where our faith as one Christian family is intensified.

Dawn Mass is the time where we mostly feel the presence of the Lord because it is the spiritual preparation for Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist reminds to “Prepare the Way of the Lord.” We prepare the coming Lord internally and spiritually so that he will be born in our hearts.

So, let us ask God’s grace as we begin the nine day-novena Mass today that we may be filled with peace, joy and hope. We call upon Him as we said altogether in the responsorial psalm: Lord make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved.