Our Lady of the Scapular in Wyandotte among parishes celebrating timeless, candlelit liturgy to prepare for Christ's birth
WYANDOTTE — It’s just before dawn as people enter the front doors of Our Lady of the Scapular Parish in Wyandotte.
The small congregation shakes off the cold when they enter the dimly lit church. Candles provide the only lighting, with the exception of a few ceiling lights on the wings.
Fr. Mark Borkowski, the priest serving Our Lady of the Scapular Parish, leads the opening hymn in Latin: Rorate Caeli desuper, Et nubes pluant iustem.
“Send the Just One like a dew, you heavens, And let the clouds rain Him down.”
The first phrase from the opening hymn — and the accompanying Introit of the Mass — “Rorate Caeli” is the origin of the name of Rorate Masses, votive Masses to the Blessed Virgin Mary that are candlelit liturgies celebrated in the early hours of the morning during Advent.
“It’s an early morning Mass in the dark,” Fr. Borkowski explained to Detroit Catholic. “The Mass has a Marian theme to it; well, all of Advent has a Marian theme to it. Advent is a season of waiting, and the ultimate waiting I would say is Mary waiting for Jesus to be born while she was pregnant.”
Our Lady of the Scapular celebrates four Rorate Caeli Masses this year: Tuesday, Dec. 3; Thursday, Dec. 5; Tuesday, Dec. 17, and Thursday, Dec. 19, at 7:30 a.m.
Fr. Borkowski leads the Novus Ordo liturgy in English, which is celebrated Ad Orientem, or “to the East,” toward the high altar at Our Lady of the Scapular. The high altar is decked in lit candles, giving the liturgy a timeless quality.
The liturgy begins with the singing of the hymn “Rorate Caeli,” a kind of dialogue between the faithful and God in which God’s people repent for their sins and ask God to send a Savior to redeem the world.
Fr. Borkowski explains that this prayer is answered in the Incarnation when the Blessed Virgin Mary gives birth to Jesus.
“There are a couple of lines in the English translation that we provide that I always find to be quite moving,” Fr. Borkowski said. “’We have sinned, we have become unclean. We have fallen like leaves.’ This is winter, when the leaves have fallen.
“’We have all fallen like leaves, and our inequities have carried us away like the wind,’” Fr. Borkowski said. “For me, that is quite touching. It’s three verses of us telling God how sorry we are and how much we need Him to send the Savior. And the last part is God’s answer: ‘Be consoled, be consoled, quickly our salvation will come.’”
Rorate Caeli Masses have a sense of anticipation to them, a sense of wanting, which helps the faithful get into the proper mindset for Advent, Fr. Borkowski said.
“It’s in the dark because that’s part of Advent,” Fr. Borkowski said. “The world is dark until Jesus comes, and we are here in this darkness. We have our Masses Ad Orientem for Rorate; really, all our Masses for Advent are Ad Orientem. We do have the other altar; we go both ways here. But I felt it would be good for the kind of spirituality for Advent; we are all facing the same direction as we are all waiting; we are all looking up, waiting together for the Lord to come.
“And of course, when you are doing the Rorate Mass, then that’s where all the candles are. Everyone comes to see the candle display; it’s quite impressive,” Fr. Borkowski added.
When Rorate Masses are celebrated in more traditionally designed churches that face the geographic east, the sun begins to peer into the windows behind the high altar near the end of Mass, just after the faithful receive Communion.
It’s an added layer of symbolism to the tone and setting of Rorate Masses at Our Lady of the Scapular (originally Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church), how the faithful begin their wait for the Lord in the dark, and how, like the shepherd in the field, a great light appears when Emmanuel becomes present.
“It rolls everything up into one,” Fr. Borkowski said. “We begin in the dark. We timed it out and finished when the sun was almost up. With the way our church is built, facing the east, so all the windows above the high altar (depicting the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary) begin to light up as we move toward the end of Mass. The Mass ends right after we receive Holy Communion. The Holy Communion, the Real Presence of the Lord, comes to us as the church lights up. It all works together.”
