Church Incense

  • Thread starter Thread starter sami1066
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

sami1066

Guest
Hi, does anyone know what type of incense is used during mass, you know that distinct church smell. Can we use it in the home or is it church only?
 
The two main ingredients are frankincense and myrrh. There can be other things like balsam. Every church or incense distributor has their own blend.

I believe incense is usually blessed on Epiphany. If you buy some incense, you might be able to get the priest to bless it.
 
You can look at the websites of some church supply stores, and order it online if you want to, or your diocese might have a brick and mortar supply store. I’m not sure if you can light it off like incense sticks, it’s really designed to be put into a thurible which has a small charcoal fire in it.
 
As others have said, you should be able to buy it at Church supplies stores. They usually sell 1 lb. boxes and for my parish I used to purchase 3 Kings incense.

You can get different scents, some very traditional like I remember from all the churches when I was a kid, and others very flowery which I find cloying and more ‘hippie commune’ than ‘church’. If I remember correctly, I purchased ‘Cathedral’ blend, the mildest that my supply store sold. It still smelled very churchy, and if we used it one day you could still smell it the next day.

There are also some companies that sell ‘non-allergenic’ incense. They used that at the seminary where I used to take courses. It may have been non-allergenic but I hated the cloying, flowery scent – it reminded me of the scent of peonies and not really of church but that was just the blend that the person had opted to buy, another blend would have probably smelled more ‘traditional’.

You can purchase very small brass incense burners and those would usually accommodate about 1/4 of a charcoal disk. The 3 Kings charcoal disks are easy to light, just set a match to them and watch the ‘sparkler’ effect. You would only burn a few grains at a time otherwise, in a house, you might set off the smoke detector. 😃
 
very easy to light…😃

I only comment on that because couple of month ago as a server it somehow fell to me to light the charcoal one sunday morning. We begin at 9 and foolishly I said at 8.55 are we having incense. Well everything went wrong :mad: I kept dropping the charcoal onto the candleflame which meant that kept blowing out. Finanlly just gone 9 one of them I thought had caught fire 😊 and in a stunned way said so. I was soon put to right that is what is meant to be and quickly dumped it into the thrurible and stood in my place behind the acolyte candle feeling sheepishly relieved not even looking at the priest 😊 :eek: I kept away from that task since then though made my mistake about a month ago and similar occurance only a few of us and I silly-ly asked about it and the priest discretely walked away 😉 as someone said yes again at 8.55. This time it all went smooth. Smooth enough to earn praise from the priest that he didn’t think I’d do it in time and he had 30 seconds to spare to praise me for being on time. 🙂 Sometime charcoal behaves and sometiems it does not!

(and kind of worth making a mess of it that first time to earn the praise second time which heals the wound of the mess the first time 🙂 Praise where praise is due)
 
sami1066 said:
Hi, does anyone know what type of incense is used during mass, you know that distinct church smell. Can we use it in the home or is it church only?
Click to expand...
Before ordering any incense : if you want to replicate what you smell in your own church, suggest you ask your sacristan what brand your church uses. In my experience there can be some significant variability in the different brands of incense from different liturgical supply companies.
 
I usually try to light the charcoal at least 15 minutes before the incense is required. While it lights easily, it takes several minutes before it’s ready. It works better if it has already turned grey, just like with a charcoal bbq.
 
Phemie said:
I usually try to light the charcoal at least 15 minutes before the incense is required. While it lights easily, it takes several minutes before it’s ready. It works better if it has already turned grey, just like with a charcoal bbq.
Click to expand...
I don’t normally light it as head server (by chance as it don’t matter in our church which server does it so long as its done 🙂 ) does that. but he wasn’t there and nothing was being done about it so asked. * I just happen to be the one who notices the time and notice things aren’t getting done 🤷
 
orthodoxincense.com/

This is where we buy all our incense. These are pure gum and resin incenses from the USA and Greece with no wood chips like many popular incenses have, so it is less irritating to allergy sufferers.
 
Please, please, do not ever use Monastery Icons for anything - they are not Christians and their products are considered spiritually dangerous.

orthodoxinfo.com/general/monasteryicons.aspx
The following comments concern a business called Monastery Icons (monasteryicons.com). This company offers “icons” and other religious content that has a veneer of Orthdooxy, but which in fact is associated with Hinduism. Their products are spirituallly dangerous, and so Fr. Anthony Nelson, a Priest in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, sent me these remarks.
Click to expand...
The “Light of Christ Monastery” and the Convent of the Virgin Mary in Borrego Springs, CA., formerly the “Gnostic Orthodox” in Geneva, Nebraska (Holy Protection Gnostic Orthodox Monastery and the St. John of Kronstadt Gnostic Orthodox Convent) are “monastic communities” of self-styled monks and nuns. They began in Oklahoma City in the 70’s, when their current “Patriarch”—Abbot Bishop George Burke—showed up in town (newly run away in the dead of night from the Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Monastery in Boston, where he had attached himself) calling himself “Swami” something-or-other (I can’t begin to spell it).
Click to expand...
He had been raised Church of God-Anderson, near Bloomington, Illinois, gravitated to Chicago and loosely affiliated himself with Roman Catholicism. After a while he began attending the Levitt Street OCA Cathedral, and later the Synod Cathedral, where he got himself baptized by Bishop Seraphim. He then migrated to California, where he joined with Yogananda, and worked P.R. for him. Then he went to Boston to Holy Transfiguration Monastery “to learn Orthodox monasticism”—according to him. In Oklahoma City he started a Hindu community that grew to about nine monks and three nuns. One day, in the late 70’s, he announced to the brethren that they had “outgrown” the spiritual possibilities of Hinduism, and were going to become Christian. They then constituted themselves as the “Holy Protection Old Catholic Benedictine Monastery of the Primitive Observance.” The Swami got himself consecrated a bishop by the self-styled “Old Catholic” bishop at St. Hilarion’s Center in Austin, Texas (although he—the former “Swami”—stated categorically that it was unnecessary, because he had been a Roman Catholic bishop during the Middle Ages in a previous life!).
Click to expand...
 
Wow, I never knew that. Thanks for the heads up 👍

There incense is nice, though. That isn’t spiritually dangerous 😃 I wouldn’t buy any of their literature.
 
Phemie said:
I usually try to light the charcoal at least 15 minutes before the incense is required. While it lights easily, it takes several minutes before it’s ready. It works better if it has already turned grey, just like with a charcoal bbq.
Click to expand...
We have those self-light hockeypucks and I light them less than 5 minutes before the start of Divine Liturgy. If I light them too soon, I’d run out of coal before the end. I know well enough where to drop the incense anyway so I can get it smoking before I hand the censer to Father or Bishop.
 
Cavaille-Coll said:
orthodoxincense.com/

This is where we buy all our incense. These are pure gum and resin incenses from the USA and Greece with no wood chips like many popular incenses have, so it is less irritating to allergy sufferers.
Click to expand...
This is where I purchase all my incense. The prices are good, the owners are wonderful, and the products are second-to-none.
 
Rather than frankincense and myrrh which can be harsh and irritating you might try White or Gold Copal incense that comes from Mexico. It produced lush, sweet smoke that is typically kind to allergy sufferers and it is far less expensive than blended incenses.

There is a website www.smellsbells.com that has a lot of information on incense.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top