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The Bells Are Back!
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January 29, 2026
The installation of our new electronic carillon system (our bells) is now complete. As of Thursday, just in time for the Knights' Italian Dinner, the bells were ringing to the delight of so many. We are even able to play music through the system and we greeted our arriving diners with Italian dinner music!
The bells are currently scheduled to play according the following schedule:
Daily on the hour, from 9:00am to 6:00pm, Westminster chimes followed by the number of strikes at the top of the hour corresponding to the time of day.
Angelus Bells - Every Day - 9:00 am, 12:00 pm, 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm, following the hourly strikes. After the Angelus Bells play, a random selection of seasonal music will be chimed. The Angelus bells will not play at 12:00 pm on Sunday.
Weekend call to worship bells at 10 minutes before each Mass (with the current exception of the 8:00 am Mass on Sunday)
We extend our heartfelt thanks to all of our generous donors whose support made this beautiful enhancement to our church possible.
Donation receipts will be mailed shortly to use for tax purposes
ABOUT CHURCH BELLS
For centuries, bells have called the faithful to worship, peeling through towns and across the countryside. Bell towe
rs have the distinct privilege of pointing toward heaven and were often the tallest buildings in towns before the invention of the skyscraper.These bells were not timekeepers in the sense of tolling each hour. When the bells were rung, they signified that either it was time for Mass or for the traditional Angelus prayer, generally said at noon, though sometimes in the morning and evening. Many Catholic churches still ring their bells at noon for this reason, to pause at noon and turn your thoughts to Our Lady, seeking her intercession amidst the chaos of a busy day.Tower bells chime out the celebration of the Mass and prayers to Our Lady. Christmas is associated with bells for a similar reason—these would toll out the call to Midnight Mass.The bell in our bell tower is not a real bell, it is just decorative. With the exception of the 4 speakers remaining in the bell tower, the original bell system was removed during the church's renovation several years ago. Therefore, to bring back the bells we need to purchase a new system. The system we would install is a state-of-the-art digital system that plays through the bell tower loudspeakers. The volume and frequency of the playing of the bells would be totally under our control, as would the chimes and hymns that are played. While Hillsborough County has no restrictions on church bells, we would be sensitive to our neighbors and not play them too loud or often.
The sound of these "bells" is amazing, able to play various chimes as well as 100 different hymns for all of our liturgical seasons. Listen to these samples of the sound of the bells: -