Tradition of Marian Simbang Gabi novena lives on

PROOF THAT MANY FILIPINOS VALUE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

MANY Filipino Catholics worry that the spiritual sense of Christmas has lost out to consumerism.

That the tradition of the Simbang Gabi, the Mass at Dawn novena to the Blessed Virgin Mary lives on in our country should give us a strong assurance that many still value the true meaning and importance to our lives of the Incarnation.

In the Simbang Gabi novena the faithful accompany Mother Mary in nine dawn-twilight Masses from December 16 to December 24, the eve of our Lord Jesus Christ’s birth.

In this novena (nine-day prayer) Catholic churches welcome the faithful in the purple hour just before daybreak for the Simbang Gabi Mass.

Some churches have the Mass at 4 a.m., others 30 minutes later. Some churches have two or even three Simbang Gabi Masses— at 3, 4 and 5 a.m.

The novena ends with the Misa de Gallo (the Mass of the Rooster, meaning when the cock crows) on December 24.

Some churches build the Christmas scene on their grounds and reenact the “Panuluyan.” This dramatizes the travails Joseph and Mary (and of course the Child Jesus in Mary’s womb) go through looking for a place for His birth, for there is no room at the inn. They go from house to house whose owners refuse to shelter them—until they settle on a manger.

According to the website of the Arzobispado de Manila, the Simbang Gabi tradition came from Mexico. In 1587, Pope Sixtus V 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.

When Filipinos were still less consumed by excitements derived from the media, people as a rule observed the Simbang Gabi as a family tradition. Adolescents had their first experience of waking up when it was still dark and joined their parents and elder siblings to Mass.

There was some joy too in buying puto bumbong and bibingka to eat at home with hot salabat ( ginger tea) or chocolate eh or chocolate ah.. Until now, some churches still allow bibingka and puto bumbong makers to cook and vend in the churchyard.

Early, innocent romance also blossomed during the Simbang Gabi but things between the courting teenagers and young adults never went beyond points that would have needed instantly going to confession.

Like the Muslim muezzin’s call to prayer at dawn, the dawn ringing of church bells announced the Simbang Gabi Mass in days of old.

Rich communities, whose hermano and hermana mayor and their compadres could afford it, would hire the brass band to rouse the townspeople from their sleep.

Some accounts tell of parish priests and the sacristans going from house to house knocking on doors to remind the people to get ready for the Simbang Gabi Mass. This was often done for the the Mass at dawn of December 24, the Misa de Gallo.

In a largely agricultural and fishing economy, many townspeople who were farmers and fisherman looked forward to attending the Simbang Gabi Masses as a way of getting special blessings before they set out to work in their farms or sailed to fish.

Spending Advent well

The Simbang Gabi is a deep way to observe the final days of Advent. The Church gives us this season we are in now so we can prepare, dispose ourselves, for the arrival in human flesh (provided by Mother Mary) of our Lord Jesus, the Second person of the Holy Trinity.

What treasures of grace we accumulate in our souls by going to daily Mass and, for those who have spiritually prepared themselves, and Holy Communion.

I am one of those who sometimes lose my serenity thinking angrily of those who call themselves Catholic and yet blithely support the Reproductive Health Bill, which will commit the government to spend funds to provide contraceptives that cause abortion in Filipino women.

These Catholics are also the ones who, by their advocacies, wish to make Filipino society like that of the West, people enslaved by utilitarian and pragmatic ways of thinking and behaving that run counter to natural law.

We must remember that a sound spiritual life, a life of prayer and closeness to God, cannot be based on an unsound and unnatural physical existence.

Thank God that the Simbang Gabi tradition is alive and well in our country.

Source:

Bas, Rene Q., editor. “Tradition of Marian Simbang Gabi Novena Lives On.” The Manila Times, 18 Dec. 2011, p. 9.