Bells at the Elevation of the Eucharist

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Mrs_Sally said:
And it is a good thing for a random parishioner to start ringing bells from the pews during the consecration?!? :eek:

The bells are not required; the priest saying the Mass makes the decision to use them or not. We can have an opinion, but we don’t get to dictate to the priest or set up our own bell choir in the pews!
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I agree with this. We must set aside our pride and trust our priests. I mean… this is bells. It isn’t anything crucial to salvation and it isn’t inherently morally wrong so why on earth would someone act in defiance in a case like this?
 
Corki said:
If she rings them at the right times, it’s not a bad thing. 🙂
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Ah yes, it is! She is acting in defiance of her priest in a public way over something she has no jurisdiction to decide.

Bells are nice, I really like them. We use them for most Masses at our parish. However, if all our priests decided not to use the bells, I would not 1) demand that the priests start using them and 2) if they said no I would not start rining them myself from the pews! :eek:
 
Mrs_Sally said:
Ah yes, it is! She is acting in defiance of her priest in a public way over something she has no jurisdiction to decide.

Bells are nice, I really like them. We use them for most Masses at our parish. However, if all our priests decided not to use the bells, I would not 1) demand that the priests start using them and 2) if they said no I would not start rining them myself from the pews! :eek:
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Sorry. It was a joke. I guess I didn’t communicate that well.
 
Mrs_Sally said:
Oh, I’m sorry also! Dealing with another issue and got too caught up in my own righteousness! 😛

Forgive me!
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No problem. It’s a stressful issue at this time of year in my parish. Father is getting ready to go on vacation and my boys are begging me to take them to another parish. They hate it when we have visiting priests who mess with the altar servers and everything they have worked so hard to learn (including ringing the bells on time). 😦
 
The 2011 General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) can be found by Googling “2011 GIRM pdf” and going to http://www.romanmissal.ca/GIRM.pdf or the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops {USCCB} website at: usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/roman-missal/general-instruction-of-the-roman-missal/

The “romanmissal” website gives you a downloadable version of the GIRM and the bishops website allows for printing in parts + has the 2011 1514pg Roman Missal for sale ($169) & the 193pg GIRM ($16).

Basically, the GIRM at marker 150 states:
150. A little before the Consecration, if appropriate, a minister rings a small bell as a
signal to the faithful. The minister also rings the small bell at each elevation by the Priest,
according to local custom.

A new priest/administrator came was assigned to my parish and almost immediately got rid of “the bells”, which had be rung under the founding pastor and his 1st successor. Many parishioners left and went to another parish; many who stayed at the parish were still upset. Frankly, I liked them, but he’s in-charge and every new administrator probably has his own quirks about what should/should not be done. What I’d like to see is the pastor go chase down his sheep and ask them to return home.
 
We don’t have bells.

I miss them. I wish we had them. Just to make myself happy, I always imagine my own bells when he raises the Eucharist.

Most/all of the Catholic Churches in Mexico have kept the bells. On this side of the border, you see somecarry-over. The mostly Latin parish churches keep them.

I believe the CCC concept of keeping a tradition if it means no harm to anyone. Bells are not harmful, self-centered pastors eliminate them.
 
Just caught this thread. In my midwest area I have been to many parishes for Mass. I would estimate that bells are used in about 20% of them, at best. I can’t think of a church near me that does.
 
Speaking of bells, I altar served last night and screwed up the bells pretty bad.

I rang them at the first elevation perfectly, but then I started praying for someone I know who is loosing her house. I closed my eyes and started praying and got caught up in the moment. By the time I realized and opened my eyes, the priest had already raised the chalice. There was that awkward silence before I grabbed them and gave them three quick rings.

I’m usually on the money with the bells, but it seemed like ten minutes to me. I opened my eyes, saw the priest with the chalice already in the air. It was like in the movies where time slows down and the moment seems like ten minutes. “Nooooooooooooo…”

It’s the second time I did that. 😊

I can tell when I screw something up. All the old southern ladies come up to me after Mass and say, “Thank you for serving. You do such a wonderful job.” I know I really screwed up when they say that. 🤷
-Tim-
 
We have them at my parish (OF), and this last Sunday, their utility really showed through!

It was a First Communion Sunday, which in this culturally Catholic country, meant that the church was literally overflowing with family members, many of whom probably hadn’t been to mass since their own first communion 🤷 This is a fairly enormous church (building), so there were over 1000 people present, while a normal Sunday might be 200-300.

Despite the best efforts of those organising the celebration, all these disinterested attendees made for a pretty distracted, noisy congregation. Yet when the sanctus bell was rung, it was a universal signal to everyone present that something important was going on, and the assembly became truly silent, for the first (and only) time during the whole celebration.

Without the bell, that powerful moment of silence would not have happened, and those kids’ first encounter with their Eucharistic Lord would have been less memorable for it.
 
PatrickSanDiego said:
We don’t have bells.
Most/all of the Catholic Churches in Mexico have kept the bells. On this side of the border, you see somecarry-over. The mostly Latin parish churches keep them.
.
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Every Mexican church I’ve visited uses bells, though it is usually one large bell like a handheld school bell rather than the cluster of four bells that most American and European churches use. Quite often, someone up in the bell tower will listen for it and strike one of the large bells three times at the Consecration. Ringing tower bells for the Consecration is still done in a few US parishes, and is still common in parts of Europe.
 
I think it is really cool that on Sunday all over the world at roughly the same time that there are bells ringing, or well not the same time for international Mass’s but you get my drift.
 
…And just for the record, my Church that I truly love, but doesn’t use the bells is an irish-influenced Catholic Church, Saint Brigid’s.

…i wish they’d use the bells…😦
 
adrift said:
Over the years our parish has had bells and not had them depending on the desire of the pastor. At the present time, we have bells. Two other parishes I attend also have bells. It has been my experience that the more modernistic the priest the less he will use the bells. It is their choice and needs to be respected. However, I believe that the priest should consider the parish which most don’t.

One pastor said he felt that the bells should only be used at Church’s that had mass at side altars. He felt they were a distraction because the servers would accidently hit them at wrong places in the mass.

Another pastor didn’t like them because he felt the reason they were in use in the first place was out of date. That reason was to call attention to the concecration when people generally did not pay attention by being engrossed in their own personnal prayer. He felt that people should be paying attention and didn’t need the bells.
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Ours uses bells and has a pillow they are put on so they don’t accidentally get bumped during the rest of Mass. I like them.
 
TimothyH said:
Speaking of bells, I altar served last night and screwed up the bells pretty bad.

I rang them at the first elevation perfectly, but then I started praying for someone I know who is loosing her house. I closed my eyes and started praying and got caught up in the moment. By the time I realized and opened my eyes, the priest had already raised the chalice. There was that awkward silence before I grabbed them and gave them three quick rings.

I’m usually on the money with the bells, but it seemed like ten minutes to me. I opened my eyes, saw the priest with the chalice already in the air. It was like in the movies where time slows down and the moment seems like ten minutes. “Nooooooooooooo…”

It’s the second time I did that. 😊

I can tell when I screw something up. All the old southern ladies come up to me after Mass and say, “Thank you for serving. You do such a wonderful job.” I know I really screwed up when they say that. 🤷
-Tim-
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Tim- I had to laugh at your post. “Inattention” by young Altar Servers and/or “nervousness” are probably the most common reasons the bells aren’t rung on queue… at least that’s been my observations. When acting as a Lector/EM, I too always praise Servers after Mass, no matter how bad they do. Why? Because they are SERVING instead of sitting in the pews; to lazy or frightened to serve God. So, don’t sweat the small stuff. God appreciates what you’re doing!👍
 
YES, always, except Good Friday. I have never in my life been at a mass where there were no bells. I didn’t know that existed. :confused:
 
TimothyH said:
I can tell when I screw something up. All the old southern ladies come up to me after Mass and say, “Thank you for serving. You do such a wonderful job.” I know I really screwed up when they say that. 🤷
-Tim-
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:rotfl:
 
I love having the bells, both in the Ordinary Form of the Mass and in the Extraordinary Form. They’re a beautiful way of reminding people of the actuality of the moment of consecration.

A few people have mentioned here earlier that the bells are often brushed off by those who misunderstand them by saying that they were previously used to “get the people to pay attention” since the Mass was “in a language they didn’t understand.” I have to say that I disagree whole-heartedly. Yes, the bells are indeed useful in identifying exactly where you are in the missal when following along at a Mass in Latin (or in any language for that matter,) but for those in attendance, they are so much more than that.

The bells are an example of the use of sacred sound. We ring them at a precise moment to recognize the extraordinary *sacredness *of the moment of consecration. The most amazing thing in the whole of existance is happening! To mark it with the use of sacred silence punctuated with sacred sound is a beautiful thing that should remind all of us how incredibly, amazingly, fantastically huge and precious that moment is for us. How real it is.

We’re only human. We need the beauty of the liturgical tools of sacred sound, sacred space, and ritual to focus our attention to and remind us anew of the truth of the Real Presence. If you personally have the same experience without the bells as with them, then you are a truly blessed person. But even if only one person in the pews needed it, isn’t it worth it to help him or her understand the immensity of the moment?
 
ThereseAgnes said:
I love having the bells, both in the Ordinary Form of the Mass and in the Extraordinary Form. They’re a beautiful way of reminding people of the actuality of the moment of consecration.

A few people have mentioned here earlier that the bells are often brushed off by those who misunderstand them by saying that they were previously used to “get the people to pay attention” since the Mass was “in a language they didn’t understand.” I have to say that I disagree whole-heartedly. Yes, the bells are indeed useful in identifying exactly where you are in the missal when following along at a Mass in Latin (or in any language for that matter,) but for those in attendance, they are so much more than that.

The bells are an example of the use of sacred sound. **We ring them at a precise moment to recognize the extraordinary *sacredness ***of the moment of consecration. The most amazing thing in the whole of existance is happening! To mark it with the use of sacred silence punctuated with sacred sound is a beautiful thing that should remind all of us how incredibly, amazingly, fantastically huge and precious that moment is for us. How real it is.

We’re only human. We need the beauty of the liturgical tools of sacred sound, sacred space, and ritual to focus our attention to and remind us anew of the truth of the Real Presence. If you personally have the same experience without the bells as with them, then you are a truly blessed person. But even if only one person in the pews needed it, isn’t it worth it to help him or her understand the immensity of the moment?
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Actually that’s not the primary reason why bells are rung during the two major elevations. They are rung as an offering of thanksgiving (no matter how meager) for the miracle that has just taken place.

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the Earth…” (Psalm 98.4)

Underscoring the sacredness of the moment and focusing peoples’ attention are certainly auxiliary benefits of ringing the bells but the primary reason is that of an offering of thanksgiving to God.
 
Sharer said:
Tim- I had to laugh at your post. “Inattention” by young Altar Servers and/or “nervousness” are probably the most common reasons the bells aren’t rung on queue… at least that’s been my observations. When acting as a Lector/EM, I too always praise Servers after Mass, no matter how bad they do. Why? Because they are SERVING instead of sitting in the pews; to lazy or frightened to serve God. So, don’t sweat the small stuff. God appreciates what you’re doing!👍
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I ring big tower bells at my parish. I pray (for God’s help) while ringing. It’s usually a long set so there’s usually a technical klinker or two. And guess what? Only the other bell ringer and I are aware of it…
 
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