Thousands of worshippers are expected to celebrate Christmas Day masses at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris as part of the celebrations hailing its restoration just over five years after fire nearly destroyed the 12th century monument.
On Christmas Eve, two services were held in the late afternoon and early evening. A music vigil and a midnight mass were also scheduled.
“Last year, I spoke to you in our building site clothes, in our cathedral that was still under construction," Paris archbishop Laurent Ulrich said in a message on Tuesday before the services.
"And now we're back in Notre-Dame, which has just been opened to worship and visitors. Our hearts are in celebration! 'We've come home’. That's what the priests and faithful I've met have been saying to me over the last few days.
"And indeed, the talents deployed on the Notre-Dame restoration site, like the meticulous care taken in the preparations for this reopening, have allowed the pain of the fire and the five years of separation to be erased, leaving only the joy of the reunion."
On Christmas Day, there will be a mass at 8:30am and Ulrich will preside over a mid-morning service which will be broadcast on France 2.
The Paris diocese warned that no reservations will be possible for any of the masses, and only 2,700 people will be allowed in at any time.
People hoping to be part of the congregation have been warned they might have to queue. "There is a risk of not being able to get to the cathedral." said a diocese spokesperson.
Visitors have flocked to Notre Dame since it reopened on 8 December.
Ulrich led the inaugural mass with 150 bishops and more than 100 priests from the capital in attendance. French President Emmanuel Macron, who vowed the cathedral would be restored after the fire on 15 April 2019, was also in the congregation.
On the eve of the inaugural mass during a re-opening service, Macron saluted the thousands of artisans who worked to rebuild the cathedral.
"We have rediscovered what great nations can do – achieve the impossible," he told a congregation that included the US President-elect Donald Trump,
Since it resumed full operation on 16 December, some 270,000 people have visited the cathedral.
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