{"id":20942,"date":"2021-02-23T16:18:44","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T21:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/we-need-to-have-more-moments-of-collective-grief\/"},"modified":"2021-02-23T16:18:44","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T21:18:44","slug":"we-need-to-have-more-moments-of-collective-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/we-need-to-have-more-moments-of-collective-grief\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need to Have More Moments of Collective Grief"},"content":{"rendered":"
I grew up near a friary, where church bells were part of the fabric of my childhood. The Westminster Quarters ringing through the yard marked when it was time to go inside for dinner, and on Sundays the carillon resounded throughout the morning with familiar hymns. For me, bells will always evoke memories of family, of home, of summer Sundays spent reading on the hammock.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yesterday\u2019s peals from National Cathedral were different. There was no tinkling hymn, no melody of the passage of time. Rather, just one enormous bell was struck 500 times to honor the 500,000 Americans taken by Covid\u2014a bell with a sound so awful and a resonance so deep that standing close to the belfry, you could feel it vibrating through your chest. It was a<\/span> haunting ring that called to mind not the chimes of redemption but the striking bongs<\/span> of the Dies Irae, the chant for the dead.<\/span><\/p>\n The bells of the National Cathedral on Washington DC toll 500 times in honor of the 500,000 Americans who have lost their lives to Covid pic.twitter.com\/bcRUB8DkJ4<\/a><\/p>\n\n