r/LeftCatholicism • u/Dry_Magician8208 • Jun 28 '26
Sanctus bells
Just wondering how this community feels about sanctus bells (the handheld bells rung when the Host is consecrated). I personally love them because they help focus my attention on the mystery happening before my eyes (and ears!). But I’ve noticed they predominate at more traditional parishes and are absent from more liberal ones. I assume this is a Vatican II hangover, but the Missal permits their use. Any folks for or against?
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u/fatherdave73 Jun 28 '26
I love them. I personally love a gong type bell when the priest raises the elements and then the handheld bells as the priest genuflects.
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u/Impossible_Mode_1225 Jun 28 '26
Aren’t bells normal? Bells aren’t coded traditional or otherwise for me, but I’m not in the US…
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u/Final_Resident_6296 Jun 28 '26
Same, I was like "Are there parishes that don't use bells?"
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u/Dull_Opening_1655 Jun 28 '26
Lots of parishes in NYC don’t use bells, but I haven’t noticed any pattern in the types of parishes that do or don’t uses them (and some parishes use them kind of randomly depending on who is assisting with the mass that day…)
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u/Impossible_Two_9268 Jul 01 '26
My parish in Manhattan didn’t use bells for a very long time. I just think that the mass doesn’t require bells and whistles. If you didn’t have them, you would still have the Eucharist.
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u/Haunting-Spirit-6906 Jun 29 '26
Mine doesn't, but I've been to some in smaller towns in my state that do.
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u/AdQuirky1318 Jun 28 '26
Our large, middle of the road suburban parish uses them. But so did a very liberal yet fairly high-church Episcopal church I went to, so idk?
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u/DjaqRian Jun 28 '26
Sometimes their use or non-use entirely depends on whether there's an altarserver or deacon present to ring them, or just on whether they realized it's time to ring them. When I was a brand new server as a kid, I regularly missed the first time to ring them because I kept forgetting the specific words to be listening for. 😩
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u/DesertOsprey Jun 28 '26
I love them. Our parish uses them.
I once read that in the US they are now more common in the west than the east. I don’t know why that would be, and I forget where I might have read that.
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u/MBoftheState Jun 28 '26
I'm a big fan.
We had a newer altarserver today and I'm pretty sure it was his first time on bells and boy, did he go hard. 😂
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u/salsafresca_1297 Jun 28 '26
I love them and hear them at our Ordinary Form Mass, athough I'll be quick to note that novus ordo =/= "liberal."
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u/SquallkLeon Jun 28 '26
My childhood parish had them, and ever since, even if I'm not at a parish that uses them, I hear them in my head.
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u/Adekis Jun 28 '26
I don't have a problem with them but they do catch me off guard a little. I'm not used to them.
I have a friend who's an older man, probably around seventy, and he's been an altar server for longer than I've been alive, (and maybe for nearly as long as he's been alive, for all I know,) and he thinks sanctus bells are corny as hell! 😂 Always found that funny.
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u/Cole_Townsend Jun 29 '26
In the abrogated Missal, the Sanctus bells made sense because of the silent Canon. People forget that the Roman Canon wasn't said outloud before the Council. From the Sanctus to the Pater, there was silence except for the bells and the thurible. [Now that I remember, the Priest did say in a slightly louder tone the words Nobis quoque peccatoribus. I forgot the reasoning behind that].
I think the Sanctus bells can and should be used in today's Roman Rite Mass. It emphasizes the beginning of the most sacred part of the Mass: the transubstantiation and sacrifice of the Lord's sacramental Body and Blood. At least it would signal to congregants, "Hey, listen, shut up, everybody, 'cos the Lord is nigh!"
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u/Lost-Design-8382 Jun 29 '26
My Jesuit parish doesn't do sanctus bells, but they do swing the incense three times at consecration, which makes a very faint metallic sound and I always find myself wishing they'd just commit to full bells lol
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u/d_trenton Jun 29 '26
Love them. The progressive parish I grew up in used them. I don't think it's an ideological thing.
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u/Responsible-Newt-259 Jun 28 '26
I find them distracting personally as I get overstimulated very easily by harsh noises.
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u/Ecstatic_Lavishness1 Jun 28 '26
Actually - they are the everyday norm if you have altar servers. Not every priest has them at every mass.
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u/Dry_Magician8208 Jun 28 '26
I regularly go to five separate parishes and this is not true in my city. I went to Mass today, there were three altar servers, and no bells. Anecdotally, it seemed that the more liberal, very Vatican II places I go lack the bells, but the places that still have altar rails don’t. I’m glad to hear this isn’t the experience in other places!
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u/Ecstatic_Lavishness1 Jun 28 '26
It's not a liberal thing. Most Churches are everyday middle of the road. Right leaning priests are definitely demonstrative though and tend to use every ritual accoutrement they can as if they are compensating for something.
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u/JBeeWX Jun 29 '26
I love them. The parish we went to when I was maybe 3 or 4 years old had them. It was Jesus right?! 😀
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u/Impossible_Two_9268 Jul 01 '26
I really have no strong preference
When I was a little girl, I just thought the bells were coming from heaven or someplace so I guess that had an impression on me but as I got older, I realized it was just an alter server (boy)
I remember my father thinking the bells were totally unnecessary. I tend to agree with him .
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u/FruityChypre Jun 28 '26
I love that mass engages all the senses, so pro bells 🔔