BROADCASTING LIGHT IN A TIME OF DARKNESS Bringing Christ to our Community via live-stream… BY JEREMY KIOLBASSA, DIRECTOR OF MUSIC AND LITURGY
The Beginning
To me, the past eight months have seemed to speed by while feeling like a lifetime all at once. I look back on the week of March 9th with a host of mixed emotions. For one, this was the last time that our parish choir was able to sing together. On Wednesday, March 11th the choir performed a sung vespers service for Lent. Together we chanted the Psalms, the first being Psalm 62. Today, one verse in particular resonates: “In God is my safety and glory, the rock of my strength. Take refuge in God, all you people. Trust him at all times.” In all honesty, I don’t remember singing that line. I had to go back to the breviary and re-read the words. Like so many little “pre-pandemic” moments, this single line of poetry floated by undetected, and only in hindsight can I truly appreciate its significance. Like most people at the time, we had no idea of the true scope of the impending pandemic, or what it would mean for our church. Rumors about “closing down for a couple weeks” really started to circulate on Monday, March 9th. I remember having a conversation with Fr. Steve where we discussed the possibility of livestreaming Sunday Mass, although at the time the idea still felt like speculation at best. The idea of closing down was just a rumor, after all. In reviewing my emails from that week, I found a message from Thursday, March 12th, saying “the Archdiocese of Chicago has not moved yet to cancellations.” Within 24 hours of this message, we got word that the schools would in fact close, and Masses would be suspended until further notice. It was at that moment that it became clear that we needed to figure out how to broadcast the weekend Mass, and fast. I spent the rest of Thursday intensely trying to figure out how to livestream video to our Facebook page, and researching live-stream apps (I think I downloaded five or six that day). We decided to broadcast from the school chapel, since it is a more intimate space and easier to control, especially when it comes to sound. We didn’t have any video equipment, and it seemed silly to purchase if we were in fact only going to do this for a couple weeks. I soon came across an app that enabled us to use multiple devices as cameras. For our first broadcast, we cobbled together all of the devices we could find. Our cameras and “control room” consisted of three iPhones and an iPad, propped up on miscellaneous furniture and books. We had managed to create a mini studio out of an unlikely hodgepodge of equipment. Despite the haste with which it was put together it all worked. We broadcast our first Mass on Saturday, March 14th, and have broadcast every day since then.
MARCH 2020
MARCH 27, 2020 In March 2020, St. Benedict Prep created an e-learning platform with live and pre-recorded instruction for over 670 students because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Fr. Steve celebrates the first All School Mass during Lent 2020.
