Sacred Signs
by Romano Guardini

BELLS

SPACE enclosed within the walls of a church reminds us of God. It

has been made over to him as his own possession and is filled

with his presence. Walled round, vaulted over, shut off from the

world, it is turned inward toward the God who hides himself in

mystery.

But what of space unenclosed, that vast expanse that stretches

over the level earth on all sides, boundless, high above the

highest hills, filling the deepest valleys which those hills

encircle? Has it no connection with things holy?

It has indeed, and the symbol of this connection is the steeple

with its bells.

The steeple is an integral part of God's house, and rises out of

it up into the free air, and takes possession of all wide space

in God's name. And the heavy bronze bells in the belfrey tower,

so beautifully molded, swing about their shaft and send out peal

on peal in waves of good loud sound. High and quick, or full-

toned and measured, or roaring deep and slow, they pour out a

flood of sound that fills the air with news of the Kingdom.

News from afar, news of the infinitely limitless God, news of

mall's bottomless desire, and of its inexhaustible fulfilment.

The bells are a summons to those "men of desire" whose hearts are

open to far-off things.

The sound of bells stirs in us the feeling of distance. When they

clang out from a steeple rising above a wide plain and their

sound is carried to every point of the compass, and on and on to

the hazy blue horizon, our wishes follow them as long as they are

audible, until it comes home to us that there is no satisfaction

of desire in far distant hopes, or indeed in anything outside

ourselves.

Or, when the pealing bells of a mountain-built church flood the

valley with their clamor or send the sound straight up to the

zenith, the listener, straining to follow, feels his heart expand

beyond its usual narrow limits.

Or again, the bell tones in some green glimmering forest may

reach us faintly, as from a great distance, too far off to tell

from where, and old memories stir, and we strive to catch the

sounds and to remember what it is they remind us of.

At such moments we have a perception of the meaning of space. We

feel the pull of height, and stretch our wings and try to respond

to infinitude.

The bells remind us of the world's immensity and man's still more

immeasurable desires, and that only in the infinite God we can

find our peace.

O Lord, this my soul is wider than the world, its longing from

depths deeper than any valley, the pain of desire is more

troubling than the faint lost bell notes. Only thyself canst fill

so vast an emptiness.