Bells
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Bells
During the Consecration
When
Christians were still being persecuted by the Romans and overtly by
Jews, the only bells that could be used were small handbells; but when
Constantine put a stop to the persecutions, larger bells came into general
use. Tradition (small "T") attributes Paulinus, Bishop of
Nola, Campania, Italy, with introducing them around the year 400, and
St. Patrick (A.D. 389-446) is said to have taken metalworkers to Ireland
so they could make bells for the churches he built there. These earlier
bells weren't the great cast bells we generally think of, but were hammered-iron
bells, the technology and/or materials for the former not being readily
available out in missionary lands. It wasn't until the 8th c. that the
gorgeous cast bells came to outnumber the less sonorous iron ones --
bells of great enough size that bell towers began to be constructed
just to house them.
Over
time, founders experimented with their bells' shapes and features to
control for pitch and tone, and eventually devising various methods
of ringing them. Where there were different types of bell in one church,
each was used, alone or with others, for a different purpose -- one
bell or stroke pattern to announce death, another to call the faithful
to prayer, another to announce the grade of the Feast being celebrated,
etc. They were used daily to announce the canonical hours and the Angelus.
Descriptions of these various functions made their way onto the bells
themselves, which were often inscribed with their name (see below) and/or
a line of poetry signifying their use. Just one example:
Laudo Deum verum plebem voco congrego clerum
Defunctos ploro, nimbum fugo, festa decoro.
(I praise the true God, I call the people, I assemble the clergy;
I bewail the dead, I dispense storm clouds, I do honour to feasts.)
During
the Consecration
One
of the most stunning uses of church bells is their ringing at the elevation
of the Host and the elevation of the Chalice in the Mass, an act that
announces to the entire world that a miracle is taking place. Later
this typically came, in most places, to be done only by a small handbell
(the "Altar bell" or "Sanctus bell") inside the
Church, but I am blessed to belong to a parish in which the large church
bells are still rung in that manner. It's an exquisite moment (there
are no words, really) -- one that would compel one to kneel if one weren't
already kneeling!
Note
that each of the bell functions listed are either a call to the faithful
to pray (for the one dying or recently dead, for the storm to pass,
in humility and gratitude to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, etc.) or,
at the least, a reminder to them of God's presence in the world. This
is the essence of their powerful sacramental nature, their sheer beauty
being another aspect of it. So important and beloved are these bells
that, since at least the 800s, they have been consecrated in a ceremony
that grew to involve the bell's being given a name, the reciting of
psalms, an exorcism against evil spirits of the air, a washing in holy
water followed by drying it, an annointing with oils (Oil of the Sick
on the inside of the bell in 7 places, Chrism on the outside of the
bell in 4 places), an incensing of the bell, and a reading of the Gospel
account of Mary and Martha. Though not, of course, a true "Baptism,"
this blessing came to be called "baptism of the bells."
Bring
back the bells! Bring back Christ to every facet of our lives!
For an interesting, almost point-by-point contrast to Mr. Paine's view
on bells, read a passage about bells from J. K. Huysmans' "La-Bas."
Written
by Tracy Tucciarone López
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