The Irish standard., 1912-09-14
BLESSING OF A BELL
ITS SIGNIFICANCE
Has Always Been Closely Unidentified
With the Prescribed Sacrifice
Offered to God.
All of the Earliest Bells Were Very
Small and With Limited Carry
ing Power.
Its Intimate Association With the
Actual Sacrifice Attaches a
Certain Reverence.

Certain Reverence.
One of the most impressive of the
Church's ceremonies is that pre-
scribed for the blessing of a bell. It's
significance is lost sight Of because
so little understood. The Cathedral
Library Association has done a real
service in publishing a pamphlet
which gives the complete ritual ac~
cording to the Roman Pontifical. To
many, the use of the church bell is
limited to simply sounding the warm
ing that Mass or other service is
about to begin; but a reading of the
prayers used in its blessing will serve
to indicate the Church's mind in the
matter, as we'll as make explicit the
other ends for which it is destined.
For this purpose we quote from the
pamphlet one Of the prayers as fol-
lows: 20 God, who through blessed
Moses the law-giver, Thy servant,
didst prescribe that silver trumpets
should be made, through which when
sounded by the priests at the time
of sacrifice, the people, reminded by
their sweet strains, would make ready
to worship Thee, and would assemble
to offer sacrinces--aEd encouraged to
battle by the clangor of these same
trumpets. would overcome the on
slaughts of their enemies, grant, we
beseech Thee, that this vessel, pre-
pared for Thy Holy Church, may be
sanctified by the Holy Ghost, so that,
through its touch, the faithful may
be invited to a reward. And when
its melody shall fall upon the ears of
the people, may they receive an in
crease of Faith; may all the snares of
the enemy, the crash of hail-storn1s,
hurricanes. the violence of tempests
be driven far away; may the deadly
thunder be weakened, may the winds
become salubrious, and be kept in
check; may the right hand of Thy
strength overcome the powers of the
air, so that hearing this bell they may
tremble and flee before the standard
Of the holy cross of Thy Son depicted
upon 1T, to Whom every knee bows Of
those that are in Heaven, on earth,
and under the earth, and every tongue
| confesses that our Lord Jesus Christ,
swallowing up death upon the gibpet
| Of the cross, reigneth in the glory Of
| God the Father with the same Faith
! er and the Holy Ghost, world with
out end. Amen"
The bell has always been closely
i identified with the prescribed sacrifice
! offered to God and by his express
| command. Soon after the deliverance
from Egypt of the 1sraelites, and the
| giving of the Ten Commandments to
! Moses, God commanded him to take
! his brother Aaron and the latter's
! sons that they might be set apart
f. from the other children Of Israel and
| established in q priesthood. Every
! thing pertaining to the sacrifices to
! be offered was prescribed with min
| uteness and detail, including the vest
ments of the priests which were to
be made "for glory and for beauty"
Among the vestments to be worn was
tunic which was to be Of violet, and
among other things prescribed for it's
construction, the following was en-
! joined: "And beneath at the feet OF
the same tunic round about, thou
shalt make as it were pomegranates
| of violet and purple and scarlet, twice
dyed, with little bells set between: so
that there shall be golden bell and
a pomegranate, and again another
golden bell and a pomegranate. And
Aaron shall be vested with 1t in the
office of his ministry, that the sound
may be heard. when he goeth in and
cometh out of the sanctuary, in the
sight of the Lord, and that he may
not die"
Aaron and his sons were to be
priests to God "by a perpetual ordi-
nance" and the sacrifice they were
to offer was to be perpetual obla.
ton unto all generations. This sac
rifice. offered for all through the
AaTQnic priesthood. was to be an
ssS A4 is 81 . - ss {.Ss 4s,s ~ e e