Third Sunday of Easter
Dear Parishioners,
One of our religious traditions is the ringing of bells. Bells are rung for a variety of purposes. Bells are rung as a call to worship. They are also rung to drive away the devil. Perhaps the sound reminds Satan that people have faith despite his efforts to tempt us into despair.
A very important thing to do is to ring bells at the time of a death. In different places there are different patterns for doing this. In Irish villages the church bell was rung to tell people a parishioner had died. Three rings meant a man had died. Two rings meant a woman had died. After those rings the number of years of the persons life was rung out. Often this could identify a person in a small village before the news spread by word of mouth.
I first became attune to the religious significance of bells when I was in seminary. At the Benedictine monastery where our seminary was, there was a lot of bell ringing. Bells rang every quarter hour. Bells rang several times a day to call people to worship. But the most significant time a bell rang was when a monk would die. There was a large bell specifically for that purpose. When it tolled, we counted the number of rings to see if we could figure out who had died. The tolling stopped us in our tracks. The death bell ringing was also a reminder of the fidelity of the monk to his vows.
Sacred Heart has a magnificent church bell. We ring it at funerals. I have decided we will ring it on Sundays after our 9am Mass as long as we cannot worship together. We will toll it once for every thousand Americans who have died from the COVAD 19 virus (today sadly we rang it 39 times). I hope it will be a noise that will remind our neighborhood that Sacred Heart is still here praying for the good of all. I pray it is a respectful way to remember the dead. I hope it is a sign that evil will never prevail nor drive away the faith we have in the Resurrection.
May the Blessed Mother and all the angels and saints protect you today.
Fr. Mark