La Messe blanche - The white Mass
Image: the Wayside Cross in Shipshaw, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Québec.
btw, if you ever get to do one of these White Masses near a Wayside Cross in Quebec, know that I am a very jealous person! These are powerful sites full of prayer, nature and magic.
Talking with my mom the other day about church services, she mentioned that she much prefers when an elder from her community of Saint-Charles-de-Bourget, Saguenay, QC does the Mass. I asked her what that looks like. She said that an elder who has knowledge of Scriptures and of the general flow of Mass would officiate an outdoor Mass every Sunday (when a priest was lacking in the community). This is actually what we call "les Messes blanches" (the white Masses) in Quebecois and Acadian cultures.
Back in the beginnings of the colonies, these settlers didn't have the luxury of a priest assigned to their hamlets and woodland communities. Most ordained or religious folks would be out in the wilds preaching to and converting the various Indigenous peoples who live here (I know.. gross). Itinerant priests were mostly the norm at this time. It was the missionaries’ opinion that the European settlers were too few in number and too scattered over a vast area, far from religious assistance. There was a similar problem in Europe: the convents and grade schools were generally located in towns, while outlying regions received only rare visits from itinerant priests. Also, with most men either tending to faraway fields, out fishing, or traveling for years in the wilderness as coureurs-des-bois, most folks had no time to go to a church (if they even had one) every Sunday.
As the Acadians got deported and sent to far-flung lands where sometimes Catholic assembly and ritual were banned legally, they'd rely on these White Masses to conduct their services and stay together as a community. They'd keep mariages and funerals for when they happened upon a Catholic clergyman. For communities like the Acadians living in the Côte-Nord (even nowadays really hard to get to), they were without a priest until the end of the 19th century. They'd conduct the White Mass, sing canticles, and vespers. The entire service ended with this chant:
"Bonne mère des matelots, Que votre bonté nous garde. Par pitié, sauvez-nous des flots. Notre-Dame de la Garde! Par pitié, sauvez-nous des flots." (Dupont, 76).
So, for my own spiritual path, I take the spirit and intent of these White Masses for my own rituals. I use the scripts as a ceremony, select appropriate readings, and it's done at my altar at home, and I bake my own communion bread (my great-grandma's community of Havre-Aubert on the Magdalen Islands used to do this for their parish. Every household took turns every Sunday). After all, many churches are closing their doors and getting demolished due to lack of parishioners, but the beliefs and the rituals don't die with the buildings. It's something we can still do. Obviously it's a tedious thing to pull together EVERY SINGLE Sunday. I just do it when I have a high need of a personalized and intimate Mass service, or even during an ancestor's passing anniversary or an important festival day. Also, as someone who doesn't live anywhere near a francophone parish, it's my way of conducting my own service in my mother tongue. It heals me.
You're probably asking me: How do I know what to say and what to read?! Fear not! Follow the link below! It's the United Church of Canada's liturgical script in BOTH French and English!
Note: When they say A,B,C in the PDF, they're talking about the Liturgical Year A, B, and C. 2025 is year C. Liturgical years start the first Sunday in Advent. And it just repeats itself in sequence! The Gospels are read in this order.
Year A: Gospel of Matthew
Year B: Gospel of Mark
Year C: Gospel of Luke
Eastertide and Advent/Christmas: Gospel of John
You simply avoid from "Service at the Table" to "Sharing of the Bread and Cup" in the PDF. Most of the prayers here, apart from the Lord's Prayer, are reserved for ordained clergy to recite. Traditionally, White Mass speakers also avoided these passages.
For our own spiritual practice at home when we conduct these Masses for ourselves, we can bless homemade bread or hosts bought at a Catholic store with our own holy water cultivated on Easter morning. Sure, you may avoid saying the Sanctus prayer, but you can still bless your bread your own way and partake. We are all blessed with the Holy Breath of Life, so it's not a stretch for me that we can do this.
https://egliseunie.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/LitBil-Dimanche.pdf
