The 92-year-old bell atop the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe in downtown Tijuana rang out again on Sunday, July 22, following more than a decade of silence.
The clock, imported from Holland around 1920, stopped working about 15 years ago but the Archdiocese of Tijuana did not have the money to fix it. Funds for the repairs were raised by the non-profit group Cultura Sin Fronteras (Culture Without Borders), which had it sent to Puebla in Mexico’s interior, where it was restored and then returned to Tijuana.
The clock was actually repositioned in the bell tower straddling the cathedral on Friday, July 20, when state officials joined Tijuana Archbishop Rafael Romo to unveil a plaque naming the cathedral as Baja California’s first formal historic monument.
It began ringing again on Sunday at the cathedral’s noon Mass, which is traditionally celebrated by the archbishop.
The bell now chimes the Himno Guadalupano in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe every hour on the hour.
Cultura Sin Fronteras — i love it!
what a great thing, for those who can to help those who need the help. there is nothing like the sound of church bells to lift one’s spirit.
friends of mine at a benedictine monastery in the midwest were called by some “new” neighbor complaining about the abbey’s bells. the monk asked, “how long have you lived here?”
when the irate caller said something like “two months,” the abbot said, “we’ve been here for more than a hundred years – why did you buy a house near a monastery if you don’t want to hear monastic bells?”
great answer, i thought!
I certainly miss bells here in Columbus, Ohio. It’s not that there aren’t any. Some churches don’t have bells but the closest Catholic Church is about 1 mile away and is silent after so many years. It’s become just another one of those beautiful that some look upon as a disturbance and/or anti-christian ravings.
I remember all the bells ringing on Sunday mornings when I was growing up. It was wonderful! And it was a great honor for whoever was chosen to ring them. The town near where I live has a horrendous siren from WWII days that is played everyday at noon, but then a lovely hymn or two follow, so all is well. The bells were silenced just at the time of all the big changes of the sixties. Many of the bells in the churches of my home town were sold. I think some serious researcher and writer should try to piece together just why so many evils began in the early sixties. Why would there be such a complete departure from tradition? Some may say it was the death of John Kennedy, but could his death be part of a greater assault?
JKF had nothing to do with it. There are many reasons why bells are less common today. First, they are extremely expensive (why on Earth were bells sold by churches in your hometown?) Second, depending on the application they can be costly to maintain and when they are not maintained they go silent. Third, in some localities there are noise ordinances, even for bells that must be observed. Fourth, fewer and fewer people seem to care.
The local parish church bells chime hourly … now the bad news: They are not bells but electronically produced sounds, and they remind me of the sound of the clock in my childhood Jewish friend’s home. In other words, phony this and phony that … One parish I’ve seen has electric light votive candles … For these reasons, max, I posited the idea about cyber confession … after all, now that so many Catholics have spoken ex cathedra that Catholicism is symbolic, then why not? Just run an electric only confessional in cyber space … that way only hackers would know who confesses what.
You went from church bell to “cyber confessions?” Really?
In any event if confession by electronic means was acceptable (it is not), measures could be taken to ensure that “hackers” were not able impinge upon the security of the sacrament.
JLS, in addition to the theological problems with going to confession via cyber-space, you might cause your iPhone or SmartPhone to explode if the sins were too numerous — or wild!
as for catholicism being SYMBOLIC, that’s not a four-letter word, as the CATECHISM POINTS OUT:
507 At once virgin and mother, Mary is the symbol and the most perfect realization of the Church: “the Church indeed. . . by receiving the word of God in faith becomes herself a mother. By preaching and Baptism she brings forth sons, who are conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of God, to a new and immortal life. She herself is a virgin, who keeps in its entirety and purity the faith she pledged to her spouse.”
188 The Greek word symbolon meant half of a broken object, for example, a seal presented as a token of recognition. The broken parts were placed together to verify the bearer’s identity. The symbol of faith, then, is a sign of recognition and communion between believers. Symbolon also means a gathering, collection or summary. A symbol of faith is a summary of the principal truths of the faith and therefore serves as the first and fundamental point of reference for catechesis.
1383 The altar, around which the Church is gathered in the celebration of the Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same mystery: the altar of the sacrifice and the table of the Lord. This is all the more so since the Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of his faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from heaven who is giving himself to us. “For what is the altar of Christ if not the image of the Body of Christ?” asks St. Ambrose. He says elsewhere, “The altar represents the body [of Christ] and the Body of Christ is on the altar.” The liturgy expresses this unity of sacrifice and communion in many prayers. Thus the Roman Church prays in its anaphora…
Praise God! I bet it sounds beautiful and hopefully it may enlighten many around to look to the heavens and seek our Lord. There His peace and love will move greatness into the hearts of many. Seeking the Lord at the sound of a beautiful bell, one that chimes calling God’s people to look to the heavens and remind them that church is there, the Mass and the beauty that surrounds them in Christ our Lord!
Children children remember your Abba Lord! Children children of all ages, yes like His little children, we enjoy the ringing of the bells, loud and clear they chime! Can you hear them? Return oh children to humility and to more simple times!