FRIDAY POTPOURRI: YAY GOD

This is my opinion:  I’m a bells guy.  I like bells at the Mass.  I am not among those who think Jesus divinely ordained bells to be rung at Mass nor do I think they are a tool of the devil as they seemed to be proclaimed while I was at the seminary.  I think they are cultural.  Like dance is not a cultural aspect to our western worship, bells are (or should be used as such.)

Here is why:  When one achieves a level at a computer game, does the screen go black with a little silent note that says, “level achieved?”  No!  There is all kinds of noises; explosions, trumpets, music, etc.  When the President of the United States shows up, do we stand quietly and respectfully as he walks into the room?  No.  They play four “Ruffles and Flourishes” followed by “Hail to the Chief” amid cheering applause.

I will now restrain myself by boring you with way too many examples to get the point across that, culturally, when something significant happens, when someone significant appears, we greet the occasion with a joyous sound.  (Okay, I lied, two more examples.)  When Jesus entered Jerusalem (Hosanna!)  And when he appeared to the Apostles after His Resurrection, He had to say TWICE to them, “Peace!”  I can only imagine it wasn’t because they were silently recognizing that He was there.

For these reasons, that is why I am all for ringing bells at the epiclesis.  Not because we have to rouse those praying their rosaries to pay attention to something important is happening (what I was taught) BUT that something cool, awesome, mind blowing, and important is happening.  It would be inappropriate to cry out in joy now (something that Catholics are not great at in general anyway - case in point is the singing of the “Hosanna in the Highest” at many a parish) but ring a bell in celebration is both meaningful, cultural, and appropriate.  Even if you were not Catholic, you would understand something special is happening here.

What is going here?  (Now we move from my opinion to the teaching, paragraph 79 subparagraph c of the GIRM.)  The epiclesis is the point of the Eucharistic prayer when the priest stretches his hands out over the gifts that are about to be consecrated and “implores the power of the Holy Spirit that the gifts offered by human hands” becomes the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, “for the salvation of those who partake of it.”  It is the invocation of - the calling down of the Holy Spirit to do His work.  It is a moment of awe.  It is a moment of celebration.

MONDAY DIARY: ALMOST EXCRUCIATINGLY TRUE STORIES: THOSE ORDINATION BELLS ARE RINGING

You are invited to the priestly ordinations for the Diocese of Cleveland this coming Saturday at 10AM.  It is a particularly happy one for St. Sebastian since one of her sons, Deacon Jeremy, will become Father Jeremy Merzwieler.  (I'm so proud!)

This past Saturday he and a bunch of seminarians descended upon St. Sebastian parish for a rehearsal for his First Mass of Thanksgiving which will be held at St. Sebastian this coming Sunday at 11AM to which, once again, you are invited.  Below you will see Fr. K directing the cast of a thousands into an organized, fighting machine.

Dinner on the lawn followed and a crew of the more brave ventured to the top of the bell tower where it proceeded to rain.  Hard.  So that we were soaked.  It didn't rain once drop other than the five minutes we were up there.

But then again, it only made it more memorable.

TRIVIAL TRIVIA

Trivia Day!

 

Here are two bits of interesting trivia for a rainy Wednesday.  Did you know that the Church developed a means whereby music could be remembered and shared? 

 

Think on this:  A button box accordion is not a chromatic instrument.  Not only are the buttons next to each other in harmony, the change keys when you are pumping in and out.  Writing music for such an instrument is extremely difficult although my uncle did develop a method.  But by and large, you learn how to play this instrument and various tunes by sitting down with another player and copying what he was doing.

 

Now consider music before musical notation.  How does one pass on music or be assured that one’s music will be remembered after one goes on to playing harps in heaven?  There are no recording devices and it would only take one period of people moving on to other more contemporary things to cause them to forget an old song.  “How did that go again?  No, that’s not quite right.”

 

Along comes Guido of Arezzo, a Benedictine monk (leave it to the Benedictines) who gave us the famous do re mi . . .” of Sound of Music fame.  He took the pitches from a hymn to John the Baptists (whose birthday we celebrated yesterday.)

 

Ut queant laxis resonāre fibris
Mira gestorum famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti labii reatum,
Sancte Iohannes.

Interesting bit of trivia #2:  Did you know that there are words to the Westminster Chimes, the song played on four bells at the top of the hour by your chiming clock – such as in the St. Sebastian bell tower?  According to my sources, “The music was inspired by a phrase from Handel’s symphony, “I Know that My Redeemer Liveth” and the words and music were arranged by William Crotch in 1793.”

 

Lord, though this hour,

Be Though our guide,

So, by Thy power,

No foot shall slide.

 

Westminster is also played unwittingly by “secular” universities, governmental institutions, and the like.  Please don’t tell them this.  Law suits will ensue.  And they can’t, for similar reasons, change to the St. Michael Chimes.  Perhaps they can go with the Whittington Chimes since their legend is more governmental.  Though they originated in a church tower, a young boy, who was running away from horrid conditions heard these bells and thought they told him Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of Londontown.  Later he found his fortune and indeed became the Lord Mayor.  But to ring this tune, you would need twice as many bells and that gets expensive, something most of these non-religious institutions can ill afford.  So let’s keep this story between us.

Interested in change ringing?  Here is an interesting site.
 

MONDAY DIARY: PRETTY CLOSE TO EXCRUSIATINGLY TRUE STORIES

According to Bill Bryson's book, "At Home," the idea of a weekend did not exist until the 19th century.  Until then the weekend was considered Sunday at that was it.  The term itself did not even exist until 1879 and even then it meant the latter part of Saturday (after work) and Sunday.  So having Saturday AND Sunday off is a rather modern thing for which we should be very thankful.

Unless you do not have Saturday and Sunday off.  There are plenty of these.  Postmen, firefighters, policemen, many of those who work in the medical field, clerks, cooks, waitresses, . . . the list could go on and on.

Priests could be added to that list also.  It depends, of course, how busy one's parish is and how much you are willing to work, but the weekend is not generally a "day off."  Even after the Mass schedule is over we usually might have a program or service or event to attend - or even help out with one of the evening Masses at a local parish.  But once in a blue moon, for example New Year's Day, there was NOTHING.

Well that is not entirely true.  Fr. Pfeiffer had something to do - but I had NOTHING and nobody wanted anything from me.  "Got no deeds to do, no promises to keep . . ." 

The last of our people left around 3PM and I locked the doors and daydreamed about what to do with the remainder of the day.

Okay, I'll admit to not doing anything exciting by other people's standards - but by me, it was a glorious afternoon!  The rectory always - ALWAYS - has people in it.  It is very rare to have the whole joint to myself.  So I did things I usually can't - walk around in PJ's, drinking coffee, playing music too loudly (I don't even like to do it but the point is that I could) and left the toilet seat up in the downstairs necesarium.

Another advantage to living at a church is that there is so much stuff to do when there is nothing to do.  I enjoy going up in the choir loft and playing the pipe organ.  Since you use your feet, you can play Heart and Soul all by yourself.

Just kidding.  I would never play Heart and Soul in the church.  But even if you do not know how to play the organ there is an advantage, if you are adventuresome, to having a pipe organ.  One can go exploring among the pipes.

This is not so interesting if you have an electric organ.

Same goes for climbing the bell tower to look at the bells.

That reminds me of a story from when I was a seminarian.  I was working at St. Augustine to help earn money for the school year.  They had fake bells in the bell tower BUT they also had a real bell that was not longer in use.  When it was time to take a break, I would turn off the artificial bells, take my lunch up into the bell tower and ring the Angelus manually.

My sister joined me one time.  I warned her that it was going to be MUCH louder than she could imagine.  She did not believe me.

So we were up there ringing the Angelus when all of a sudden the bell just went absolutely quiet.  It still swung back and forth but it was no longer going BONG! BONG! BONG!  After a few moments it occurred to me that the clacker, the big heavy thing inside the bell responsible for making it go BONG had fallen out!

Now this was particularly disturbing because the way to get into the bell areas was through a trap door located DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH THE BELL.  From there it was SEVEN STORIES straight down.  At the base of the bell tower is the shrine to St. Joseph.  At first the only thing we could think of was that this heavy bar of medal had fallen seven stories right on top of St. Joseph's head.

Fortunately, it has missed the trap door (by inches) and had landed safely (safely being a relative term) on the floor of the bell chamber.  The pin that held the clacker in place and shimmied out so my sister did her best to hold it back in place while I tried to put the pin back in.

We were very thankful that more damage was not done than there was.

Since then the bell has been taking out of the tower for safety reasons.

I hope we did not have anything to do with that decision.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

SYMBOLIC SATURDAY - DOES THIS RING A BELL WITH YOU?

Fear not, we are almost finished with bells!

Most parishes still have bells at the starting gate, that is they ring a bell to start the mass. It is a wonderful device for coordinating musicians, people, ministers, and the priest when everything is ready to begin (as opposed to the rather more clumsy methods of waving at the musician, having walkie-talkies, or someone announcing, “Please stand now and sing.”)

In many parishes the sanctus bells are still rung. This is a small bell or cluster of bells that the server rings a little before and during the consecration. Contrary to popular belief they have not been banished from the liturgy like the maniple. In fact in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2003) it states in paragraph 150, “A little before the consecration, when appropriate, a server rings a bell as a signal to the faithful. According to local custom, the server also rings the bell as the priest shows the host and then the chalice.”

Some people make the point that now that the mass is in the vernacular and not in Latin (most places anyway), we do not need the bells to tell us where we are in the Mass. I suppose there is a kernel of truth to this. But on the other hand it goes against the grain of popular culture to such an extent that I am surprised that more people do not use them. Think about it. If you get a point in a video game, win a jackpot on a machine, - even if your elevator doors open at your floor successfully there are bells. But even better than these at mass we have Jesus Christ now present! Ah, but – that’s just me. When bells are used it usually occurs at the epiclesis and at the major elevations. They may be rung once, or three times in imitation of when the bells were rung in the Latin Mass, or there may be a tower of three bells struck with a hammer.

Finally, a tradition that has almost completely died out save for some very special occasions in limited situations is the ringing of a tower bell during the consecration. It gives those not in attendance at mass the opportunity to unite their prayers with sacrifice of the mass in a moment of prayer.

None of this is required and is not essential (or even necessary.) But in an age with diminishing belief in the reality of the Eucharist, it might be something at least worth contemplating employing.

SYMBOLIC SATURDAY - I'VE GOT RHYTHM

On special occasions bells may be manually played to add a special celebratory flavor to their toll. There are two examples of this. One is called Change Ringing. I was blessed to come across a group practicing this when last I was in England. With this post is a picture of the Church and of the choir loft (and the "Ye Olde Six Bells" tavern near by.) The bells are played in a certain mathematical sequence rather than any kind of melody. Here is an example of what it sounds like. (It is a cool site!) Quite a challenge! If you would like to read more about change ringing (from whence bell choirs come) read here.

There is a slightly different tradition that I am sure others have also but am only familiar with it from my Slovenian background. Perhaps on Easter of for Midnight Mass at Christmas a group of people would gather in the bell tower, one for each bell, and with hammers strike the bells. Like change ringing it is not to produce a melody but neither is it necessarily a mathematical pattern, but (if I have understood it correctly) rhythms. The effect us quite enchanting and exciting but loses its effectiveness quite a bit if done electronically or via a key board connected to the organ.

More on bells to come.

SYMBOLIC SATURDAY - BELL BAPTISM

The use of bells has had a strong and important use in the Church. They notify us of events occurring, they mark the time, they lead us in prayer, and sing out of God’s presence through the business and terrors of the world. So bells have been treated reverently, almost more reverently than the pipe organ as an object worthy of receiving a special blessing before use.

Last week Melody mentioned that the bells in her parish tower have names. It is through this special blessing that bells receive names. The blessing is called the baptism of the bells but do not take that too literally. The are not baptized but consecrated for use as is the altar or even the church building itself. During this blessing (in which Sacred Chrism is used) the bells are dedicated to a patron saint in much the same way a parish church is. Many bells will then be cast with the saint’s name on them. If you are able to visit a bell tower (make sure they are not scheduled to ring, you’ll be sorry) the name is usually to be found (most often in Latin) toward the top, several inches down from where the bells begins its major downward slope.

The blessing of bells is of course limited to real bells and not electronic mimics. If you would like to read more on the baptism of the bells there is a good article here.

Here is information on the bells of the Cathedral of Saint John in the Diocese of Cleveland from their website. "In the ancient tradition of the Catholic Church, the six bells were named. The largest bell, 3,300 pounds, was named after the first naturalized American citizen to be named a saint, Frances Xavier Cabrini. The second Bell, 2,000 pounds, was named after the first American born saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton. The third bell, 1,200 pounds, was named St. John Nepomucene Neumann. The fourth Bell, 850 pounds, was named Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. The fifth bell, 525 pounds, was named Blessed Katherine Drexel. The sixth bell, 375 pounds, was named Blessed Junipero Serra. All of these saints and blesseds are a part of American History."

Oh, there is more to come on bells.

SYMBOLIC SATURDAY - THOSE WEDDING BELLS ARE BREAKING UP THAT OLD GANG OF MINE

The song of bells is symbolic also. We have all kinds of bells and calls that mean different things. The number and nature of the bells may effect the exact nature of the symbol in any particular parish, but the basic ideas remain the same.

There are two types of bell sounds. There is the toll when a bell is struck as it stands still and the peel, the bell swinging back and forth as the clapper hits the sides.

The toll is most commonly associated with death. The lowest bell is struck once approximately every fifteen seconds or so. But it also an essential part of the Angelus, a prayer that us said at six in the morning, noon, and six in the afternoon. There are three slow tolls during which the first part of the prayer is said. This process repeats three times for the first three parts of the prayer. Following this there is a general peeling of one or more bells during which the last part of the prayer is prayed.

Most parishes ring a bell just prior to mass as a signal to stop talking in the parking lot and get into Church. Many places distinguish between a weekday mass and Sunday mass (or wedding or other remarkable events) by the number of bells that are rung.

Sometimes bells are symbolic by their silence most notably after the Gloria on Maundy Thursday. The bells ring during the Gloria and then fall silent as we commemorate the Passion and Death of Our Lord, not to ring again until we commemorate His Resurrection at the Great Easter Vigil.

To be continued. . .

ANSWERS TO YESTERDAY’S QUIZ:

January* Holy Name of Jesus
February Holy Family
March* Saint Joseph
April Blessed Sacrament
May* Blessed Virgin Mary (Bet you all got that one)
June* Sacred Heart
July* Precious Blood
August* Immaculate Heart
September* Our Lady of Sorrows
October* Holy Rosary
November* Poor Souls
December* Immaculate Conception

* Denotes months that had indulgences attached to them.

And the days of the week:

Sunday Holy Trinity
Monday Holy Spirit
Tuesday Holy Angles
Wednesday Saint Joseph
Thursday Holy Eucharist
Friday Sacred Passion
Saturday Blessed Virgin Mary