Christmas at Corpus Christi Cathedral takes planning, preparation and a whole lot of Spirit

Lights! Camera! Action!

The Christmas Masses at Corpus Christi Cathedral are some of the most well attended events year-round in the Diocese of Corpus Christi. People need to show up a half hour before the Masses, because the Cathedral fills up quickly, Father Pete Elizardo, rector of Cathedral, said.

“There will be ‘The Lessons and Carols’ before the Midnight Mass, which begins at about 11:15 p.m., so people need to start showing up about 10:45 p.m.,” he said.

Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey will be the celebrant at the Midnight Mass and Father Elizardo will celebrate the 5:30 p.m. Vigil Mass and the Christmas Day Mass at 10 a.m.

The production of these events takes the concerted effort of a large cast of players.

Father Elizardo, Lee Gwozdz, Cathedral choirs director and organist, and Marty Wind, general manager of KLUX Radio and their team of professionals, organize the liturgy, music and broadcast of the Midnight Mass to make it available for everyone to see and hear, live, on the television, Internet and radio. In addition, hundreds of volunteers give their time and talent to make it a joyful occasion for all.

The Cathedral choirs have been practicing since September and will sing at the Vigil, Midnight and Christmas Day Masses. In addition to the Masses, the choirs will sing at the Christmas pageant on Dec. 21-22 (see story on page 16). These efforts involve six different choirs and several teams of professionals.

“The choirs are full to the max for the first time in history. We are ready. This is the earliest they have ever been ready,” Gwozdz said.

Assistant Director Nan Borden directs the Cherub Choir composed of first through third graders who will sing in the Christmas pageant along with all the other choirs. Dr. Guadalupe Rivera Jr. will conduct all the choirs for the Christmas Masses and Gwozdz will be the director and organist during the Masses.

According to Gwozdz, Vigil Masses traditionally celebrate the pomp of the ceremony.  The 5:30 p.m. Vigil Mass is geared more to the youth and family. The youth and children’s choir consists of 40 high school students and 50 choristers who will sing along with the hand bell choir.
The adult choirs provide the music at the Midnight Mass along with the bell choir and an orchestra of trumpets and harps composed of paid professionals and parishioners who volunteer their services.

On Christmas Day the music of the Mass is more traditional. The Mens Schola Cantorum will provide traditional chants of Christmas at the Christmas Day Mass. The songs take months of planning, preparation and rehearsing. The choirs will sing five or more songs for the Vigil, Midnight and Christmas Day Masses.  

Father Elizardo has 10 altar servers at every Christmas Mass. No altar server has to pull double duty and within the Mass itself each altar server is assigned one role. Because “they have great zeal and passion they try to make everything flow very smoothly,” Father Elizardo said.

In addition to preparing for the Masses, Father Elizardo is in charge of decorating the cathedral and does most of the sanctuary design. Decorating the cathedral involves forethought and the ability to work well with local floral shops. The arrangement of flowers is the hardest part, because “you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Father Elizardo said. The flowers arrive a week before Christmas.

Vickie Compian, Arts and Environment Coordinator of Corpus Christi Cathedral, is in charge of a group who decorate the wreaths. The Christmas trees come from Gills Nursery and are ordered in July.

Everything is custom made. Volunteer carpenters build the manger and take great care that it is fitting for the cathedral. The lights are the last things that go up. The youth, altar servers, members of the parish and choir members volunteer to go up on tall ladders to decorate the outside of the Cathedral.

A five-person crew with KLUX runs cameras and audio behind the scenes during the Midnight Mass, taking care not to disrupt Mass. They also broadcast “The Service of Lessons and Carols” and the Midnight Mass live via television, Internet and radio.

Richard Luna is the point man and video director. He is stationed in front of all the monitors and switches and directs the camera shots for the two cameramen. Video engineer Anacleto Villareal shades cameras for all sorts of lighting. Luna’s wife Ruth is audio director and is in charge of 32 microphones and anticipates who will speak next in order to open a mike.  She mixes all the choir microphones with the ambience of the church so the audio is enjoyable.

While Luna and his team are controlling the Cathedral, Russ Martin is back at the station taking the feed from the Cathedral over the Internet and broadcasting it live on KLUX HD Radio and KDF TV on Cable 47 UHF and Channel 13 on most cable systems.

“I love doing it and it’s very fulfilling, especially when we get a call from viewers who say they loved it. One time I got a call from a ship captain in July who wanted a video of the Christmas Mass the year before. He wanted it for his crew, because he knew the ship would be at sea during Christmas,” Luna said.

Father Elizardo said the behind the scenes preparations also involve planning his homily for the Mass. With everything that occupies his mind in preparation for the Christmas season, Father Elizardo said he must schedule an appointment with himself.

“It’s an appointment I can’t afford to break. No cell phone. Too much is at stake there. The reality is there are many people who go to Mass only on Christmas. I definitely want to give them a gift of understanding–what this gift is that we have here in celebration of the Mass through the gift of our Savior, but also that the gift of the Eucharist is given every Sunday. It is an invitation from our Lord that He is always there. I remind them of God’s love,” Father Elizardo said.

He said he takes into consideration that people come from all walks of life. Some people have experienced 50 Christmases together; they may be celebrating their first Christmas as a married couple or the first time with their newborn baby; and then there are those who may be experiencing loss.

“I want everyone to feel they’re not alone,” Father Elizardo said. “I don’t want to make it a Pete moment, where I wrote all this down and I read what I wrote. It’s really a Christ moment. I’ve done my part by studying scripture, taking into consideration the occasion, the people who are coming and I have prepared, but that openness is there now. I allow the Holy Spirit to do his part.

“My hope and prayers is for everyone to be inspired by the atmosphere, the celebration, the music, the words that are preached, and the offering of the Holy Sacrifice. Our whole goal is to make it a beautiful celebration that will lift each person to have a blessed Christ filled year,” Father Elizardo said.