Saturday, October 6, 2012

Bells

I have always loved the sweet sounds of church bells.  When I attended BYU, I anticipated the first few measures of "Come, Come Ye Saints" every hour.  In Boston, the Park Street Church bells would play hymns at noon when I finished my internship at the Congregational Library.  The reassuring melody of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" was the only thing I liked about that internship.

In Edmonton, Jerry and I lived very close to an Anglican Church.  The bells tolled every hour and played hymns at noon.  Most memorable of all was midnight on Christmas Eve.  The bells rang for about half an hour as we listened in our cozy apartment.

Here, there are a lot of churches, but few church bells.  Luckily, we live in reasonable proximity to the sounds of the Catholic Church bells. At noon I am serenaded by "How Great Thou Art."  After an inspiring day of General Conference, the bells inspired me with their call to Saturday evening mass.

I"m hoping that in the future, I have enough control over my destiny to find myself near some church bells.

1 comment:

Joe and Joanne said...

You've been lucky indeed to be so close to the church bells everywhere you've lived! I love their chimes as well. In France you hear them just about anywhere you live there are so many churches -- it's one of the "sounds of my mission" that I recorded and put on a CD and I found CDs of church bells on Amazon; but I haven't made the purchase yet. ;) I think it's different hearing them live than on a recording.

Enjoy Sunday General Conference!