The Bells of St. John’s

Angela Alaimo O’Donnell participated in the 2014 summer writing workshop, Apart, and yet A Part. She shared the following reflection about her experience:

It’s 7 a.m., and I miss the bells.

I’ve just returned from a week’s writing residency at the Collegeville Institute, located on the campus of St. John’s University in rural Minnesota. The apartment I lived and wrote in, set on a lake beneath a canopy of trees, is just down the hill from St. John’s Abbey Church, one of the most strangely beautiful churches I have ever seen. Each morning during my residency, the bells on the monumental abbey bell banner would begin ringing at 6:50 calling the monks—and all in earshot—to prayer.

Read the rest of the article in America magazine »

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