Bells for the Church of Gesu

"...When the church bells became silent because the village was deemed unworthy, the village did penance and gave tithes; but the bells would not ring. The news spread in the entire realm, so that counts and princes, merchants and fair ladies made pilgrimage to the village, doing penance and, with much fanfare, donating their gold and jewels. But the bells remained still.

One midnight, a bedraggled urchin slipped into the church, out of everyone’s sight, and walking up to the altar, dropped his two-and-a-half pence into the alms box. It was all he earned from the day’s begging. At that instant, the church bells pealed so loudly and ceaselessly that they awakened the neighboring villages..."– from an Olde English Fairy Tale

Fr. Rene Javellana S.J. said it all in a one-sentence homily, "With the arrival of the bells, the Church of Gesu is now complete!"

The Ateneo campus never knew what it was missing, until it had one. Forty years after graduation, the Ruby Year Ateneo College Alumni Class ’64 (High School ’60) donated an 18-bell carillon for the Church of Gesu. It was a gift waiting for donors! The architectural plans for the Church of Gesu included a 40-foot high belfry. But the "extras" were put off for a latter day (which took a decade longer). So when the Ruby Year Class offered to donate the bells, the Ateneo only had to dust off the ready blueprints for the belfry.

The bells were blessed on St. Ignatius Day on July 31, 2005 with the president of the Ateneo de Manila University Fr. Ben Nebres S.J. celebrating the holy sacrifice of the mass. There was heavy downpour in the month of monsoons but, mirabile dictu!, on that blessed day there was not a teardrop from heaven! Because the mortar of the belfry had not yet cured, the entire ceremony was held inside the Church of Gesu. The bells were arranged in cone-shape formation, from the largest bell building up to the smallest, like a Christmas tree on a warm day inside the Church of Gesu. The larger angelus bell, stood its own beside the tree.

The Ateneo placed the order with the Dutch bell foundry Petit & Fritsen, and named the bells after favorite saints. The donors indicated their wish to name the bells after their mentors – like the Jesuit Fathers John Gordon, Lino Banayad, Roque Ferriols... and lay professors Onofre Pagsanjan, Gene Lachica, Tony Manuud, etc.

"But liturgical law says that church bells are named only after Saints," Fr. Rene interjected.

"I thought that Quasimodo did not name his after Saints, (‘Marie, Gabrielle, Eli, Thibauld, Pasquier, Guillaume...?)," one of the alumni challenged.

They found a compromise: the saints would "pray for" the donors’ icons. Vide, "St. Ignatius Loyola pray for Horatio dela Costa and James Donelan... St. Kostka pray for Ramon Mores, Rolando Tiño and Mayolo Torres..."

The bells were "baptized" when each name was read out in Gregorian chant by the Glee Club tenor Lester Tanquilut, and each bell responded in "Amen" by striking its note.

Fr. Tito Caluag quipped that since De La Salle has an 18-bell carillon, the Ateneo should have a 19th bell. In truth, this would prove necessary because the angelus tolls on a swinging bell, not on a fixed carillon. So the Ateneo ordered a 19th angelus bell with the inscription, "Hear O Israel the Lord is Our God The Lord is One."

Class ’60/’64 protested too late. They may eventually want to replace the angelus bell with their own, and with their own inscription, "St. Gabriel (after the first Ambassador Archangel) and John Paul II ora pro Eagles Class ’60/’64." But that can wait to when the High School Class ’60 celebrates its Golden Jubilee in 2010.

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