Glory to Jesus Christ!
After years of being silent the bells in the bell tower at my Latin Church are ringing again!
Phase one is a single tone at 8am and 8pm. They were first played on the day we celebrated Mass for Sr. Philomena of blessed memory, which seems especially lovely. Apparently there are mechanisms being repaired/restored after which additional bells, tones, will come back.
I remember well these bells tolling when I was growing up in this small town and in the 4 years since I began attending Mass there have yearned to hear them again. The Methodist church not far away has what is probably an electronic system which plays wonderful music on their "bells" every noon.
The Orthodox parish I sometimes attend has a beautiful set of bells, on the ground, which are always played before liturgy and have given me an entirely new love of bells with worship.
Apparently our bell tower was retrofitted some years ago, all expenses paid by the cell phone company that rents the space for cell tower signal transmition. Another by-product is that the local community before that had very limited cell phone reception. Apparently this renting of church bell towers by these cell phone companies is very common. I've wondered what the things that look like screens were that are visible in the bell tower. Mystery solved.
