Last Sunday February 5th, we introduced liturgical media within our celebration of the Eucharist in the Sports Hall. This inaugural liturgy featured the extensive use of twin screens and two laser projectors on either side of the altar to enhance our worship and deepen our understanding of the Eucharistic Liturgy. Speaking to the students at Morning Prayer last week, Mr Cyril Murphy, Director of Liturgy, explained what is involved and called on the boys to involve themselves as well…
‘Today in our lives, we are used to all sorts of media: social, commercial, and advertising – so what is liturgical media?
Liturgical media is any digital or electronic content used for the purposes of worship and liturgy – this digital content can include graphics, video clips, moving images, animation and music tracks. We have been preparing the content for four months in conjunction with Mike Wilson’s company – Ditto TV – a London based studio that specialises in media communications. Mike put his creative team and head creative designer, Tone Davies, at our disposal, pro bono, and they have produced some wonderful content for us. Dr Richard Leonard SJ, an Australian based expert in this field, is also pitching in, along with Cathal Burke, a Dublin based media and communications graduate and technician.
We are doing this to bring you more fully into the richness of this liturgy and to make it much more accessible and interactive with your increased participation. You are a digital, visual generation and this is your preferred method of communication. We are cutting down on wordiness and text and endeavouring to stimulate your senses through a visual medium. Our Sunday Liturgy needs to be a better experience – a richer experience – for you. This will be 21st Century Liturgy and we are asking that you leave your ego at the door and get involved. In time we expect that you will create your own content around the Gospel readings of the day and bring it to your peers on Sunday for our liturgy, thereby being true disciples for Christ.
At a very basic level, I hope to see a big response within the Mass itself, both in terms of spoken and sung responses, all of which will now be clearly visible on the screen. The success of this will not be measured by how cool and slick this technology turns out to be – the success of this will be measured by the quality of your engagement:
- Are you joining in?
- Are you moved?
- Does it make you think?
- Has the gospel become more relevant to your life today?
- Are you stimulated to participate in the Eucharist?
- Will you reflect or ponder on something you saw or heard during the liturgy later that day, later that week?
The summit of our week
If we can’t do this in Clongowes, where can we do it? Our Sunday liturgy is the most explicit expression of our ethos and and our mission here in Clongowes. It is the summit of our week and underlines the centrality of the Ignatian ethos – that Jesus Christ is the model for all human life.
The new facility will also be a great resource for the college in other areas. The quality of the dual laser HD projectors is superb and will allow us to view games, matches and films as well as being suitable for awards and presentations ceremonies and conference use.
But, first and foremost, this is a communication tool designed to enrich our worship here in Clongowes, not to entertain us, but to form us – to unite us into one faith community that is engaged in the supreme prayer of our church, the liturgy of the Eucharist.
I appeal to you to give it a go and join in this Sunday and on every Sunday to come.’
Cyril Murphy, Director of Liturgy
