SOLEMN MASS FOR THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH FROM THE BASILICA OF THE ANNUNCIATION IN NAZARETH, ISRAEL…

The video below is the celebration of Mass for the Solemnity of the Holy Family at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. After the Mass, there was to be a procession to the Church of Saint Joseph, the site where Jesus, Mary and Joseph, The Holy Family, lived. However, due to inclement weather, they were unable to do so. Instead the “para-liturgy” for that takes place in the Basilica after the Prayer after Holy Communion.

There are some unusual aspects to this liturgy. First, the vestments are quite beautiful and approximate the materials of the Eastern Rite vestments. 

The Mass is a hybrid of Latin and the vernacular in Nazareth. Mostly the priestly prayers are in Latin and the sung or spoken parts of the laity in the vernacular. 

Something quite unusual, which I have never seen before, is at Holy Communion. Children who are not of the age to receive Holy Communion have the Ciborium placed on top of their head. Never witnessed that before. Must be a custom of that area? 

At the end of the Mass, the celebrant blesses the congregation with the Icon of the Most Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. This would have taken place at the Church of Saint Joseph to end the Mass. 

 When I was on a priestly sabbatical in Rome in 2013, we made a pilgrimage to Israel and visited the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Within the basilica there is a chapel built on the exact spot where the Angel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she would conceive the Christ-Child within her womb. 

This is the only place in the world where Catholics recite the Nicene Creed and at the “Incarnatus est” everyone sings or says: “and by the Holy Spirt was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, HERE,  and became Man.”

Another interesting aspect of this Mass, very beautiful by the way, and the way the Modern Mass should be celebrated, especially with the manner of the use of Latin, is that the celebrant, while wearing a miter, is not a bishop, I do not think. He is also wearing a dalmatic under the chasuble. 

What he is not using, that a bishop would, is the pastoral staff, the bishop’s ring and the zucchetto. He must have a special role in Nazareth and thus has the privilege of the miter. He may be a high ranking Monsignor, a papal assistant, who are allowed the miter in some celebrations.