's condition before the Law of Moses, when thick darkness covered
the earth; the second, at dawn, the time of the Law and the Prophets with
its growing light; the third, in full daylight, the Christian era of
light and grace. Another interpretation, adopted by St. Thomas Aquinas,
is more mystical; the three Masses stand for the threefold birth of
Christ, the first typifying the dark mystery of the eternal generation of
the Son, the second the birth of Christ the morning-star within the
hearts of men, the third the bodily birth of the Son of Mary.{8}

At the Christmas Masses the "Gloria in excelsis" resounds again. This
song of the angels was at first chanted only at Christmas; it was
introduced into Rome during the fifth century at Midnight Mass in
imitation of the custom of the Church of Jerusalem.{9}

It is, indeed, from imitation of the services at Jerusalem and Bethlehem
that the three Roman Masses of Christmas seem to have sprung. From a late
fourth-century document known as |95| the "Peregrinatio Silviae," the
narrative of a pilgrimage to the holy places of the east by a great lady
from southern Gaul, it appears that at the feast of the Epiphany--when
the Birth of Christ was commemorated in the Palestinian Church--two
successive "stations" were held, one at Bethlehem, the other at
Jerusalem. At Bethlehem the station was held at night on the eve of the
feast, then a procession was made to the church of the Anastasis or
Resurrection--where was the Holy Sepulchre--arriving "about the hour when
one man begins to recognise another, _i.e._, near daylight, but before
the day has fully broken." There a psalm was sung, prayers were said, and
the catechumens and faithful were blessed by the bishop. Later, Mass was
celebrated at the Great Church at Golgotha, and the procession returned
to the Anastasis, where another Mass was said.{10}

At Bethlehem at the present time impressive services are held on the
Latin Christmas Day. The Patriarch comes from Jerusalem, with a troop of
cavalry and Kavasses in gorgeous array. The office lasts from 10 o'clock
on Christmas Eve until long after midnight. "At the reading of the Gospel
the clergy and as many of the congregation as can follow leave the
church, and proceed by a flight of steps and a tortuous rock-hewn passage
to the Grotto of the Nativity, an irregular subterranean chamber, long
and narrow. They carry with them a waxen image of an infant--the
_bambino_--wrap it in swaddling