O Come All Ye Faithful
Walking up the steps and through the big wooden doors into the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception for Christmas Eve service is an experience like no other.
Guests are flooded with the sweet smell of incense as the twinkling lights of the interior Christmas trees catch their eyes. Shadows from soft candlelight bounce off the chapel walls and flutter off the colorful stained-glass windows. Instrumental music plays softly — familiar songs as a prelude to a night of singing, fellowship and community.
This is the setting that Scott Paeplow, associate director of Campus Ministry for liturgy and music, and his liturgical team always aspire to design for their congregation for Christmas Eve Mass.
“We’ve created a special, intimate celebration for the Dayton community,” Paeplow said. “It's really wonderful to see people in the chapel together to celebrate the birth of our Lord and the mystery of the Incarnation.”
Paeplow remembers last year’s Christmas Eve Mass well — an almost empty chapel during a strong wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. But this year, he is ecstatic to be able to welcome guests back into the chapel in person for Christmas Eve Mass.
“One of the four presences of Jesus in the celebration of the liturgy is in the assembly, and that was so incredibly hindered throughout the pandemic,” he said.
When the holidays roll around each year, Paeplow said he is often put in a tough spot because some of the spirit of the chapel’s normal worship is absent as UD students go home for Christmas break.
“Despite being such a student-centered community, things get interesting when they leave. But it gives us an opportunity to really be creative,” Paeplow said.
Though most students do head home for the holidays the week before Christmas, a few dedicated students from Dayton stay to contribute to the music of the night’s festivities. One such student is Miley Azbill, a junior health science major and guitarist. She’s been a musician with the chapel since she was a first-year student.
“It has taught me so much about the Church and my faith — my faith is incredibly important to me.”
“It has taught me so much about the Church and my faith — my faith is incredibly important to me,” she said.
Azbill, who started playing guitar in the first grade, is one of many students to go through the undergraduate music ministry program, an opportunity for undergraduate students interested in music to learn principles of liturgical music-making in the Church.
“The program has deepened my understanding and helped me grow as a musician. It’s the perfect blend of my two loves — my faith and music,” she said.
Paeplow said because most UD students are on Christmas break, his staff has used this as an opportunity to bring the community members at Mass into the liturgy in a special way.
“We want to still give the fullness of the celebration that it is due according to our Catholic tradition,” he said. “So, we make the entire congregation our choir. It really makes for a very nice, very cozy, intimate experience.”
The celebration of the Nativity of the Lord is a highlight of the liturgical year, Paeplow said, and he uses familiar hymns like “Silent Night,” “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Joy to the World” to make community members comfortable and at ease when singing.
Azbill said her favorite part of being a musician at the chapel for holiday Masses is the spirit of the season and being able to celebrate her faith with her family, who attend the Mass to see her play.
“It is incredibly intimate liturgy,” she said. “Last year, my sister (after streaming the Mass at home) told me that it was the most intimate service she’d ever experienced. I was so happy that she was moved in that way.”