One of the great traditions at Trinity-Pawling is the ringing of the All Saints’ Chapel bell each morning to call us to prayer, to community, and to a new day. The rhythmic and consistent ringing at 7:50 AM, 7:55 AM, and 7:58 AM, are reminders of time and date, for sure, but they are also reminders of history and our place in this family that has gathered for nearly a hundred years in the Chapel to start the day.
As such, the tolling of this bell is important. Bells, in general, are of import. They summon us. They remind us of time. They memorialize people. They gather us together. They ring out when everything else is silent. They maintain consistency, memory, and hope.
As such, during the Spring Term, Monday through Friday, I will toll the Chapel bell at the times when we would traditionally gather (7:50 AM, 7:55 AM and 7:58 AM; and on Friday at 10:50 AM, 10:55 AM, 10:58 AM). In a small way, this will give us some consistency and some faint reminder that when all else falls away, our daily gathering place — the Chapel — still summons us.
In time, we’ll have a chance to respond to this tolling, and return and gather together. In the meantime, know that, in the famous words of John Donne, “Therefore send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”
God bless and stay healthy and safe.
by Father Lennox