When you need Windows tech support during Mass, you’re doing it wrong

I always wish for more silence during Mass and so on the plus side I got it this weekend.

On the other hand the silence was due to the perseverance in stupidity.

The occasion was an attempt to display a video during Mass. So projected on the back of the sanctuary I saw first the glow of the projection than nothing. A minute or so later I see the Windows desktop and the mouse cursor opening up VLC. More clicking goes on. VLC is closes. Start menu comes up and more attempts to play video. Several more times VLC makes an appearance with more clicking. Than attempts to play video using Windows Media Player. Than VLC once again. Than a couple of instances of opening Task manager and some troubleshooting.

This took somewhere between five and ten minutes, although it felt embarrassingly long. I was just stunned that they just kept trying and trying amidst the uncomfortable silence. The priest after a while punctuated the silence with some jokes about what was going on. I kept hoping that he would just tell the deacon playing the video to just give up. Finally he did and the video was never played. Our Diocese has started having annual Eucharistic Congresses and that was the occasion for the video.

This episode of course played into my bias regarding any multimedia presentation during Mass. It always seems so clumsy and out of place. Plus projections on the sanctuary wall leave a bad taste for me.

I remember another episode of video during mass that could have made an outtakes reel. This time it was a portable projector screen which they moved out and extended just before the video was to be played. While displaying the video the screen slowly started to collapse back down so it was slowly shrinking. Somebody would come out and extend it again, but it would happen again. It was really quite funny in a perverse kind of way and their was sporadic laughter during the whole attempt.

Videos that get displayed during Mass are all from the Diocese and are usually confined to just the annual Bishop’s appeal. Unfortunately they usually just replace the homily in most instances because of their length. I can certainly understand the appeal of the video message instead of just reading from some document to disseminate the same information. It is just that the whole thing has always feels clumsy to me and out of place with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

One of the problems is that since parishes are rarely actual communities any more, the Mass becomes seen as the only mode of disseminating information to parishioners. A captive audience. People aren’t even expected to read the bulletin since most parishes have the “Liturgy of the Bulletin” at the end of Mass where sections are read out. Than there are the speakers disseminating information about some apostolate also appended towards the end of Mass. In the age of so much social media, this is hardly used and everything must be presented during Mass.

Even as a geek I am a bit of a Luddite when it comes to the Mass and the intrusion of technology. Especially as what should be a dead-simple task of playing a video has gone awry in so many attempts I have seen — even with something as simple as a DVD attached to a television. Really there are larger problems that must be solved regarding diocesan communication. In the meantime though should be given to video presentations and the mode of them. Plus “If at first you don’t succeed”, please give up and let the Mass proceed.