Midnight Song

Midnight Song by Kate McGinn

The dimly lit courtyard held a snaking line of visitors which buzzed with muted conversations, the shuffling of feet, and an occasional entreaty by a youngster to the elders who accompanied them. The group waited in anticipation to hear Pope John Paul II say Midnight Mass at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. Among the crowd were people of all ages, colors and ethnicities. Ahead of us, the melodic cadence of Italian came from an animated troupe while behind us stood a gathering of nuns with dark veils covering their hair and wooden crosses hanging from the rosary beads secured at their waists.

In our group were military families taking a trip to Rome on Christmas weekend. It was a once-in-a-lifetime event for my small family. I had purchased a crucifix to hang in our home and brought my rosary so both items could be blessed by the Pope during Midnight Mass. Growing up in a Catholic family, my favorite mass of the year was this one celebrated on Christmas Eve.

When I was a young girl, we would get bundled up in our winter coats, boots and mittens and crawl into our beat-up Chevy for the drive along snowy highways with the moonlight lighting the snow-covered fields until they glowed. The country church we attended it’s a well-known fact you had to get there early because the church reached its capacity for Midnight Mass. If you arrived late, you’d have to stand in the back and for a young child it was reminiscent to standing among a suffocating forest of human legs.

The choir would start off the standard hymns I’d learned when my dad would play the Christmas album, “Sing Along with Mitch.” The voices of the faithful would swell with hope and love infused into their harmonies. Our song was a prayerful offering to the Creator.

In that dark Vatican courtyard as we tried to stay warm, stomping our feet and rubbing our hands together, our small military group began to sing Silent Night to keep our minds off the December chill in the air and to pass the time. The Canadian nuns joined us and soon a trickle of other groups followed, providing a mixture of accented baritones, sopranos, tenors and altos. Our song grew in strength into something so pure it connected us all in that moment. One carol followed another until the stone walls surrounding us echoed with our words. Goosebumps popped up on my arms, and I felt a chill deep in my chest as I sang along. We--the travelers to this place on this specific night--were one in song and in fellowship.

I remember that night like it happened yesterday and not twenty-four years ago. We connected to strangers with our familiar song. I haven’t any photos or videos to document the moment, but they aren’t needed because the memories are permanently engraved in my mind and heart. I wonder if the other people remember that evening as fondly.

Kate McGinn loves a good story. An avid reader, she enjoyed writing short stories and would begin writing a few chapters of a longer work only to set it aside. Two years ago, she decided to begin her first novel, “Exodus”, a romantic suspense story and the first book in the Clare Thibodeaux series. Book Two, “Winter’s Icy Caress” was published in June 2017. Her third book in the series was published in November 2018. Her current works in progress include a humorous tale about a young woman, Natalie, who is one of the main characters in some of her short stories (Natalie is the main character in “Mucking Around” which can be found in the short story anthology, Bite-Sized Stories V. 2 and also in the recently published “One Million Project: Fiction Anthology” for charity.)

Kate pulls from her own life experiences when writing. She has worked over the years as a registered nurse, an Army Reserve officer, and ran a Bed & Breakfast Inn. Born in New York City, Kate grew up in the Midwest and lived along the Gulf Coast and in Italy for many years before moving to Wisconsin. In her free time, she enjoys reading, golf, hiking, camping, travel and hanging out with a crazy yellow Lab. She and her husband have two adult sons, a lovely daughter-in-law, and live near the Mississippi River in a c. 1855 Greek Revival home.

You can discover more about Kate on the Mom’s Favorite Reads website here: https://moms-favorite-reads.com/moms-authors/kate-mcginn/