No more bells?!?!

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Pug said:
Our parish has the bells in three places, the epiclesis and then at consecration.

Does anyone else have bells at the epiclesis anymore? (I mean at the Holy Spirit part right before the consecration of the host).
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At my Mother Parish and the Mission Parish we have the bells at these three times - and at the consecration they are rung three times for each of the Body and the Blood.
Fergal said:
Yes we use them at our Parish in the good old fashioned way!! When I became Altar Server Coordinator, I was always amazed at the length at which some servers would ring the bell and the brevity of some others. There was no uniformity. So, I did a little research and discovered the perfect way to make sure all rang then for the same amount of time.

We do it now as follows once at the consecration and three times at the elevation of the Sacred Host and the Chalice.

It has solved all problems. Wonderful tradition.
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So, where did you find this information? I was asked some time ago when I had a Kindergarden CCD class by one of the moms why the bells were rung three times at the consecration. I have yet to find anything specific as to why so if you could share what you found I know I would be grateful!

Brenda V.

P.S. I have noticed that the trend seems to be a 3 to 1 of parishes that do ring the bells to those that don’t. Sounds like a good trend!
 
At my parish not only do the altar servers ring the small sanctus bells at the consecrations, we also ring the tower bell. That really emphasizes the sacredness of the moment.
 
AlexB said:
At my parish not only do the altar servers ring the small sanctus bells at the consecrations, we also ring the tower bell. That really emphasizes the sacredness of the moment.
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Right on I wish my old Parish I grew up in still kept these kind of traditions.
 
Brenda_V said:
and at the consecration they are rung three times for each of the Body and the Blood.
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Yes, we do as well, but a few years ago that was not the case. We had been doing one very long ring, but recently changed that to three shorter rings.
 
I forgot to mention that the Mother Parish has electronic “tower bells” and they used to be rung but the neighbors complained so they are no longer used - ever and that made me sad, at least we could use them during Sunday Mass times but we have to be good neighbors too.

I grew up with Churches that rang their bells on the hour - the Protestant as well as the Catholic ones.

Our new church (the one that is a Mission right now) has plans for a real bell tower with real bells - we’ll see how the neighbors like those.

Brenda V.
 
I said yes, two of the Churches that I regularly go to still use them and one doesn’t.
 
Brenda_V said:
I forgot to mention that the Mother Parish has electronic “tower bells” and they used to be rung but the neighbors complained so they are no longer used - ever and that made me sad, at least we could use them during Sunday Mass times but we have to be good neighbors too.

Brenda V.
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Who was there first – the church building or the neighbors? Anyone who moves in near a church should have no right to complain about the bells. I could see complaining if they were sounding full peals at 3 AM for no good reason, but when they are used at regular intervals during normal hours, allowing one irate citizen to ruin it for everyone is simply unjust. Most college campuses have bells, and I’ve never heard anyone complaining about those. If you move next to the fire station, you should expect to hear sirens at night.

By the way, although my seminary does not ring bells at the Consecration, they have five tower bells which ring for all liturgical events. The parish downtown rings their clock chimes (with four real bells) every fifteen minutes, 24 hours a day, and nobody complains, because they have been sounding for about 100 years. They have two, matched, 4-chime altar bell sets from Germany, one high pitched and one low pitched, which they use at the Elevations, while simultaneously sounding all the tower bells for a few seconds by remote control. Also, there are many sets of altar bells in a box in my closet for future use (thanks, eBay!).
 
My church recently started using the bells again. They had not used them for a long time. I like them! 🙂 It adds to the reverence of the Consecration.
 
Pug said:
Our parish has the bells in three places, the epiclesis and then at consecration.

Does anyone else have bells at the epiclesis anymore? (I mean at the Holy Spirit part right before the consecration of the host).
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Mine does. Although sometimes the servers forget the epiclesis bells. We just brought the bells back though about 2 months ago, so I’m sure the servers will get better with practice!
 
I looked up the details on my church’s tower bells:

Great bell: 7,150 pounds, 69 inches in diameter, named Sancte Petrus Quirinus, sounds the note “A”.

First bell: 2,940 pounds, 54 inches in diameter, named for St. Jean and St. Bernard, sounds the note “D”.

Middle bell: 2,230 pounds, 45.5 inches in diameter, named for St. Peter and St. Paul, sounds the note “F”.

Small bell: 1,795 pounds, 40 inches in diameter, named Sancta Maria, sounds the note “G”.

They were made in France, and installed in my church, in 1906, and have been ringing ever since. 🙂

**Crazy Internet Junkies Society
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Brenda_V said:
I forgot to mention that the Mother Parish has electronic “tower bells” and they used to be rung but the neighbors complained so they are no longer used - ever and that made me sad, at least we could use them during Sunday Mass times but we have to be good neighbors too.
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Brenda,

A lot of Pastors are “electronically challenged”. The control unit on just about all of those bells cans be controlled. If there are electronic strikers on actual bells however, that would be difficult to change. But if you have the tower loudspeaker arrangement, there is a volume control function specifically to keep neighborhood’s happy…

Joe B
 
My parish, which is actually a University Parish has recently reintroduced bells at the epiclesis and consecration due to our new pastor. He’s also brought back servers after what was probably a 20 year absence.

Both these changes have been met with strong resistance from the “old guard” who see the pastor as rolling back the clock to the Pre-Vatican II Church.

Interestingly enough, this pastor is recently ordained and received all his education and formation in the Post-Vatican II church, whilst most of the folks complaining about the changes are former hippies all from the Pre-Vatican II era.
 
I was trying to count the number of parishes where I’ve gone to mass; I think it’s six. 5 out of those 6 did not have bells. The parish I attend now does. I used to go to the Cathedral (about 3 years) and they never had them. I went to the University parish for about 3 years and they never had them. the other three parishes I’ve gone to were just for visits (2 or 3 times each), so I don’t know if they normally use them or not…

Oh, actually I guess I’ve been to mass at seven churches - St. Peter’s Basilica does have them of course!
 
Its good to hear so many story’s of these bells. I told my buddy i use to altar serve with about this thread and he was happy so man people still use them as well. When I have gone to mass the times i suppose to hear the bells ring the memmory of them still rings in my head. haha:D
 
We have two sets of bells.

The little set is rung at the Epiclesis.

Both the litte and the large set are rung at the Elevations.

The little set is rung again when the priest communicates.
 
JButky said:
Brenda,

A lot of Pastors are “electronically challenged”. The control unit on just about all of those bells cans be controlled. If there are electronic strikers on actual bells however, that would be difficult to change. But if you have the tower loudspeaker arrangement, there is a volume control function specifically to keep neighborhood’s happy…

Joe B
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Hmm, I am not sure exactly how it is but the Church itself was built over 30 years ago about the same time the neighborhoods were going up (some homes are older than the church others are about the same age). I don’t know how many of the neighbors complained but they may have done so because they are electronic (sound that way too so maybe they are the kind that can be controlled) so they don’t always sound that beautiful. I do know that we had an announcement in the bulletin about the fact that there were some neighbors (must be a large number) complained so we stopped. I still liked them but then again, I don’t live that close to hear them during the day.

Brenda V.
 
One of our former pastors, ahem, “lost,” ahem,the Sanctus bells and no one has seen them since. I sure miss them.
 
Our parish does not ring the bells at the Consecration.

But I didn’t vote because the question asked if we STILL ring the bells and that implies there was once a time when they were rung. Our parish has never had sanctuary bells.
 
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