The Diocese of Lansing in Michigan has released a Christmas video featuring the story of a beloved Christmas carol, a high school student choir, and the beauty of Eucharistic adoration.
Created and produced by Matt Riedl, multimedia journalist for the Diocese of Lansing, the video begins with Bishop Earl Boyea recounting the story behind the song “Silent Night.”
A choir made up of high school students from the Catholic schools in the diocese begin to sing the carol, while the story of a young girl seeking Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is interwoven into the production.
In an interview with CNA, Riedl shared that he hoped to convey “truth, beauty, and goodness” in this year’s video.
“It’s often hard to encapsulate beauty in videos, but I think it’s very important because I think of those things, beauty and creativity is what speaks to the heart first,” he said. “I believe that you have to be captivated by something first before you can then really start to take in the truth that is contained in [the] video.”
Riedl added that he was also looking for a way to “shine a light” on the Catholic schools in the diocese. This inspired the idea to bring together students from each high school’s choir together to perform in one “unifying video.”
The high schools involved were Lansing Catholic High School in Lansing, Father Gabriel Richard Catholic High School in Ann Arbor, Powers Catholic High School in Flint, and Lumen Christi High School in Jackson. The performance was recorded at St. Mary Cathedral in Lansing.
Inspired by the National Eucharistic Revival taking place and the lyrics to “Silent Night,” Riedl immediately thought of portraying a story centered on Eucharistic adoration.
“When I was thinking about ‘Silent Night,’ the first thing that came to my head was: We have a few perpetual adoration chapels in our diocese, and where I grew up in Wichita that was a staple in a lot of parishes — I’ve always found that that is a really great way to grow closer to Christ is just that silent time,” Riedl said.
“So then the idea started germinating in my head that it could be having to do with like a one-on-one encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist in sort of this quiet way,” he added.
“I think that my goal was that I wanted everyone who watched it to be able to kind of see themselves in it to some degree.”
This was the first large-scale Christmas production the diocese has put together, but Riedl already has more ideas for additional videos up his sleeve.
The diocese is currently producing a weekly series called “On the Road to Emmaus,” which is a discipleship challenge tied to the Eucharist. The series is set to conclude ahead of the National Eucharistic Congress in July.
“I thought about doing a similar sort of singing video for the conclusion of that series that would help launch people into the Congress,” Riedl said. “So we’re thinking about a song called ‘Come Find His Rest.’”
Riedl shared that the response to the Christmas video has been “really edifying.”
“To see all the comments from around the country, not even just local to our diocese, of people saying that it made them cry, that it was something that really spoke to them; I’m so grateful that that’s the impact that it’s had.”