If you work, live, or worship near St. Boniface Church, you’re used to our bells. They’re a prominent part of the landscape on Washington Boulevard. We hear them ringing the quarter hours for the best portion of each day. Lately, you might have noticed a difference. Too many peals, you may have thought, for the normal time-telling task. Perhaps something’s gone wrong with those familiar bells.

But, no! We’ve reintroduced—and it’s largely our seminarian’s persistent follow-through that made this happen—the Angelus. Three sets of three rings (each matching to a scripture verse and a Hail Mary), followed by a random peal (matched to a collect).

Why bother with the Angelus? Why complicate the regular—and useful—marking of the day’s passing? Well, frankly, precisely to interrupt our sense of time with the good news that the timeless God has broken into our world in Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin, crucified and risen. Let that pause for prayer invite us to reflect on the love God has for this world. Let those bells invite us again to participate in our final destiny, eternal life with that loving God.