You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Tuesday, May 25th, 2021. All week we are talking about and concluding our series as we take a tour of our churches.

And today, we are going to talk about something on the outside of the church,

something that you will notice from miles away oftentimes. And this is the steeple. And oftentimes in churches with a steeple, there is also something called a bell fry. So a steeple and a

bell fry. Now, I know each church is built differently.

Maybe your church doesn't have a steeple, but many do. And I guarantee you have seen one with a steeple.

Of course, steep, we know this word. It means high, right? Very to go up quickly, steep. And so a steeple is the highest point on a church.

Oftentimes, especially if you're in a small town, if you're driving along, you will see the steeple of a church when you're still miles away because it's much higher than the trees and it's higher than all of the buildings around it.

In my town, I live in a small town on the prairie where it's very flat, you can see the beautiful steeple of our church before you even know that there is a town there. It's beautiful. Also, oftentimes the highest point

of a steeple is the cross. Of course, we know that the cross is the symbol of Jesus Christ,

the symbol of his love and sacrifice for us. So it not only communicates to everyone, like this is

where we worship Christ, but it's also

proclaiming to the world that this symbol of torture and death used by the Romans, that we embrace

this, that this is a symbol of love for us, and we're proud to show the cross to the world.

We're not ashamed of it.

We're proud.

So the other part that's usually

contained within the steeple, within this very high point where we're so proud of our faith

that we put it way up in the air, is a bell fry. Now, as you can hear in that word,

bell, it's the place where the bells are. Most older churches have bells up there that can be rung.

In newer churches, maybe they have electronic bells that just have speakers that make bell sounds.

But historically, bells have been rung to not only tell people it's time to come to Mass, but bells are also rung at certain times to call people to prayer.

...