Good Friday. What a difference a year makes. I had already determined that the shutdown of 2020 had led to the launching of many new liturgical livestreams across the denominations, especially among Catholics. But this week, and especially during the Triduum, the magnitude of the change was revealed.
Loading up Youtube this morning on my iPad, I saw not only my usual subscribed feeds---St. Mary Pine Bluff, St. John Cantius, the Sanctuary of Lourdes, and others---but suggestions for streaming of Good Friday tenebrae and other services (there is no mass on Good Friday) but ones from all over the world. I couldn't help myself. There were dozens going on at once in difference time zones. I decided to chase one after one in my recommendations. England to Ireland to South Africa. Mumbai. Pittsburgh, and (my favorite find a new subscription) the Catholic Cathedral in Bahrain streaming their Good Friday services in Arabic. It was beautiful to hear Arabic in a liturgical Christian context.
I spent only a few minutes at each one, before jumping to another, catching various parts of sacred chanting or homilies in English about the seven last words spoken by Christ on the cross.
Of course there were no Orthodox services today, because they have a different liturgical calendar and Good Friday for them is not until April 30 this year. But the Armenian Church, which is its own thing altogether, follows the western calendar, and so they will going full blast today too.
I should add that the one Catholic livestream which didn't interest me was the one from the Vatican itself. I do not mean this as a denigration of the Pope, but watching that stream, I feel like I might as well be watching CNN. I'd much rather watch the stream from an obscure parish with a simple chapel. Catholic doctrine says that the Host is just as sacred there. Nothing special about the Pope that way, no matter what the mainstream media might want to tell you.
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