Choir from screengrab by Diocese of Lansing, via YouTube
CV NEWS FEED // A bishop in Michigan shared a video about the origins of the famous Christmas hymn “Silent Night,” followed by a beautiful rendition of the hymn performed by four of his dioceses’ high school choirs together.
As the video progresses and the choir sings the traditional hymn, there is also a powerful video narrative about a young woman who finds peace in encountering Christ in the Eucharist.
Bishop Earl Boyea of the diocese of Lansing, Michigan, shared the video on the diocese’s web page. He also posted the video on X (formerly known as Twitter) on December 15, where he wrote: “Dear friends, here is my Christmas gift to you and your loved ones featuring, as it does, the combined choirs of our four diocesan high schools. Jesus Lord, at Thy birth!”
The video begins by setting the scene where Silent Night was originally written and composed.
“The time is Christmas Eve, 1818. The place is Oberndorf, by Salzburg in northern Austria. A young Catholic priest is making his way through the cold night air,” Boyea narrates. “In his hand, is a six stanza poem he had penned two years prior as a [response] to the horrors of the recent Napoleonic wars.”
Boyea continues, “The young cleric walks nearly two miles to the home of the parish choir master. Together, they write and sing and play and compose a new carol in time for midnight mass. The priest is Fr. Joseph Mohr, the choirmaster is Franz Xavier Gruber. Their carol is entitled ‘Stille Nacht’ or in English, ‘Silent Night.’”
“Ever since, Fr. Mohr’s poem has sown peace wherever it has been given voice in song. Most notably, this includes a Christmas Day truce on Europe’s Western Front during the Great War in 1914. Where, though, is the most critical conflict in our world today? It is here,” the bishop said, pointing to his heart:
As the Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn observes, the line between good and evil runs through every human heart. Hence, let us give our heart to the child in the manger this Christmas. He is our Prince of Peace. Brothers and sisters in Christ, please now enjoy my Christmas gift to you.
Following this introduction, a combined four diocesan high school choirs begin to sing the hymn. Throughout the choir’s rendition of the hymn, the video cuts to a short story about a young adult woman who encounters Christ in the Eucharist.
The video shows her walking through a town, observing as it is adorned with Christmas decorations. She stops into a coffee shop, and as she is walking again on the street with her coffee, she witnesses a family walk out of a Catholic church.
Curious, the young woman decides to enter the church. Inside, she sees a priest exposing the Blessed Sacrament for adoration on the altar. At the sight, she turns and walks out of the church.
Later she is shown working on her computer, in a study room at her college.
Eventually, the girl hangs her head. She stops what she is doing and leaves, evidently sad and frustrated. As she walks, she is drawn to the church that she had stepped into once before.
The Blessed Sacrament is exposed again on the altar when she enters. She appears to be the only person visible in the church, and she sits in one of the pews, hanging her head again.
When she looks up again, opening her eyes, she sees the monstrance in shining beauty. The young woman steps out of the pew and approaches the monstrance with tears in her eyes, and kneels down before it.
The young woman then rises and reaches out towards the monstrance, but does not touch it. She lowers her hand, and stands before the monstrance for a moment, face to face with the Blessed Sacrament. As the final stanza ends, she is seen leaving the church.
As she walks back down the street, a small smile touches her relieved face, and the hymn comes to an end.
Watch the full video here.
