As bells go, this one is modest — more a dinner bell than a cathedral bell. But it is ours, and it will call the faithful to prayer at this little outpost of the Kingdom of Heaven on Robinson Road. It will peal birth, death, and, over all else, Resurrection. If the traditions of the Church are true — and I believe they are — it will do far more than that.

I first read the story a quarter century ago in a book whose title resides in neurons with few and faulty synaptic connections. The book was old even then, in the library archives and not in the stacks. It was a spiritual memoir and travelogue of a pilgrimage to Christian monasteries in the deserts of Egypt and in the Holy Land. At one monastery, the bedouins and Muslims from nearby villages were wont to bring their sick for prayers of healing and their demon possessed for exorcism: Muslims seeking out Christian prayer. As I recall the tale, a group of villagers had brought several of their demonized and gathered them outside the walls of the monastery awaiting the ministrations of the monks. It was near the time for prayer and the abbey bells began to ring. The sound terrorized the demon possessed; more to the point, the sound terrorized the demons. Those who were oppressed began to cover their ears and scream, “Not the bells! Not the bells! When you ring the bells, She comes!”

When you ring the bells, She comes. Lest there be any doubt, the “She” to whom the demons referred, the “She” who the demons feared, is “She” to whom the Archangel Gabriel announced the Incarnation, “She” who answered, “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” It is “She” to whom the Church gives the name Theotokos, the God-bearer, “She” who the Church hails as full of grace, the Blessed Virgin Mary. “When you ring the bells,” the demons wail, “She comes:” not gentle and meek and mild, but in terrifying power as the one who routs the fallen powers, a soldier of her Son, a warrior who makes even Joan of Arc seem like a conscientious objector.

The modest bell that we installed and blessed this Ash Wednesday will certainly call the faithful to prayer. But it will also terrify the demons and all the spiritual powers standing athwart the purpose of God. It will also call saints and angels to battle in the spiritual realms. And She just may come.