Sacristan's Corner-- The Crotalus

Over at our little country parish, where I reign gloriously as sacristan, I've been making some small, incremental liturgical changes à la "reform of the reform." While I haven't encountered resistance, exactly, folks generally like things the way they're used to them, and so it's been suggested to me that  I write brief weekly bulletin blurbs to explain things. So here's my first little blurb--about the crotalus. Enjoy!

Clack, clack, clack. Maybe you noticed the strange sound that has replaced the bells. That's the crotalus, which shares its name with a genus of snakes who make a clacking, or rattling, with their tails when frightened. The scientific name of the rattlesnake is crotalus cerastes! 

The use of the crotalus at Lenten Masses dates back more than a thousand years. Some old churches in Spain and Latin America actually have a giant crotalus in the bell tower, since even the church bells can't be rung during the Triduum. 

So, why use the crotalus during Lent? Similarly, why deprive ourselves of good things, like desserts and meat, during Lent? Perhaps the answer is found in the song “Again We Keep This Solemn Fast” where one verse reads, “Our speech, our laughter, every sense,/ learn peace through holy penitence.” 

We yearn for the beauty of the bells just as we yearn for the things we've given up. The bells will ring again briefly on Holy Thursday during the Gloria, and then, after the sacred silence of the Triduum, they'll return to their place of honor at the Easter Vigil. 

Until then, their absence is a reminder, together the sanctuary bereft of flowers and the omnipresent, somber color of violet, that we're preparing for something far more beautiful than bells or any other worldly thing: the joy of the Lord's Resurrection.