Evening Mass

Once a week we have Mass at 5.30pm. I don't often make it but tonight I did and I've been musing on how special evening Mass is. It's currently dark at 5.30 and there's something very moving about going from the dark street to the dimly lit church, the candles on the altar glowing and the dark, silent congregation kneeling and praying. It seems extra quiet in the church at night too, perhaps the people are more tired and therefore more still than in the morning Masses. And Our Lord comes to us in the darkness and stillness; the hidden, terrifying, beloved Miracle of the Mass.