Română
In this video, Fr. Seraphim Cardoza tells us how bells call people to prayer, mark sacred moments in worship, while the beauty of the church itself points to God’s Kingdom on earth.
Video source: theDoveTV (August, 2015),
watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/QmwqREvEoK8
Fr. Seraphim:
[Perry A.] Why are bells so important for you?
[Fr. Seraphim] Bells are akin to trumpets in the Old Testament, calling people to prayer, calling people to where God is, calling people to the house of God. So before the communications like we have now, bells would call people to the morning prayers, the noon prayers, the evening vespers. Bells would call people to liturgy, our worship service. A certain sound of the bell would tell the folks what’s going on. Maybe they’re working out in the farm somewhere and they can’t get there, but they knew exactly what was going and they would stop everything and they would enter in to the people that were in the church, they were in communion. There’s a certain bell, there’s a certain bells of joyfulness when we believe the Lord comes there into the elements, into the bread and wine. There’s a certain slow bell before we even start church.
Bong, bong, telling people ‘come, come’ and then as soon as the bishop or another priest, someone that represents Christ, that’s all we are, just a representative of Christ, all of a sudden the bells change: bong, bong, bong, bong. Christ is here! Christ is here! But they all had a deep meaning… but I think if people can see our love and if people can see this temple, this church, this God’s kingdom on earth, that’s why the outside has to look like heaven on earth. It has to attract you. It has to grab you. There’s something other than this this around us. There’s something other. It’s called God’s kingdom on earth. And that’s why they’re built. That’s why they’re built joyfully. That’s why we use colors, gold dome or a blue dome with a gold cupola with stars, the heavens. That’s why we use different colors. It it may even be blue and green and and it’s it’s supposed to look like God’s house on earth.
