Does your parish use incense?

[bpbasilphx]

Very seldom, due to many people being allergic to it.
No and I really miss it! Maybe it is just the curmudgeon in me, but I have trouble believing that the human race got by for the last 2,000 years with incense (and many thousands of years before, counting the pagans), but suddenly has become so weakened that we fear it like the plague.

**I’ve noticed that the same people who complain about incense frequently suck tobacco smoke (called the devil’s incense on Mt. Athos) into their lungs.

I’ve heard stories about priests deliberately swinging an empty censer, and the SAME PEOPLE would cough, hack, and complain about it.

It’s clearly NOT the incense, but what the incense represents.

Of course, the delterious effects of incense on the respiratory systems of Protestants is well known. Dr. Thomas Green, deaon of Ely Cathedral, stopped its use in the mid 18th century, complaing it made his head ache.

Whether or not he used snuff, I don’t know.

As one wag said, according to the Bible there are only two odors in the hereafter: burning incense and burning sulphur. To which would you like to get accustomed?**

 

[T700]

Interesting you mentioned “pagans” and not our older brothers in faith, the Jews…

“Interesting” in what sense? I’m sure there were/are multitudes of groups that use incense. Should I have enumerated all of them?

Paul

 

[JMJ_coder]

I’ve noticed that the same people who complain about incense frequently suck tobacco smoke (called the devil’s incense on Mt. Athos) into their lungs.

I’ve heard stories about priests deliberately swinging an empty censer, and the SAME PEOPLE would cough, hack, and complain about it.

It’s clearly NOT the incense, but what the incense represents.

Of course, the delterious effects of incense on the respiratory systems of Protestants is well known. Dr. Thomas Green, deaon of Ely Cathedral, stopped its use in the mid 18th century, complaing it made his head ache.

Whether or not he used snuff, I don’t know.

As one wag said, according to the Bible there are only two odors in the hereafter: burning incense and burning sulphur. To which would you like to get accustomed?

I’ve often wondered how many of those who claim to be allergic to incense actually are. To be allergic, they would severely tear up, airways close, they get hives, etc. It would be quite noticeable that they are having an allergic reaction. You might say - well that is a severe allergic reaction - what about those with mild symptoms. To those I would say (as insensitive as this may sound) - just suck it up; offer it up as reparation and a spiritual sacrifice. How many just ‘don’t like’ the smell?

 

[malphono]

"bpbasilphx:

. I’ve noticed that the same people who complain about incense frequently suck tobacco smoke (called the devil’s incense on Mt. Athos) into their lungs.

Oh, I so agree with that! As an aside, I’ve also observed some people who claim “allergy” to incense to claim the same about cigarette smoke. It sometimes happens that those very people have no problem being in the same room with someone smoking a pipe or a good cohiba cigar. (And it’s not unheard of that they’re even the smokers themselves.) Interesting phenomenon.

As one wag said, according to the Bible there are only two odors in the hereafter: burning incense and burning sulphur. To which would you like to get accustomed?

Now that is a great comment!!! It will come in handy next time I run across an “incense-phobe.”

I’ve often wondered how many of those who claim to be allergic to incense actually are. To be allergic, they would severely tear up, airways close, they get hives, etc. It would be quite noticeable that they are having an allergic reaction. You might say - well that is a severe allergic reaction - what about those with mild symptoms. To those I would say (as insensitive as this may sound) - just suck it up; offer it up as reparation and a spiritual sacrifice. How many just ‘don’t like’ the smell?

Excellent point. The amount of incense traditionally used in the Roman Rite is relatively minimal, and it’s always been rater unusual to encounter heavy clouds of it. I venture that it’s doubtful those same people would run screaming if they were visiting (even if only touring) a Buddhist or Hindu temple where clouds of incense hang perpetually in the air.

The “allergy” business seems to be what we called a “cop out” in 1960s. Some people may not like incense for one or another reason, (smell? symbolism? whatever) but the vast majority are not truly “allergic” to it. They use the excuse simply to avoid what they find objectionable or just don’t like. In my experience, it seems that many “incense-phobes” are frequently those who are opposed to the “hermeneutic of continuity” (as PP Benedict XVI has called it) in the Roman Rite (the EF, the “reform of the reform” of the OF, etc.). Elimination of incense is one way to show a break with tradition.

As Nicholas82 and Aramis have already noted, Eastern Churches (whether Catholic or otherwise) habitually use incense, and more of it than ever was the custom in the Roman Rite. Lifelong Easterner here, and if the “allergy excuse” has been used in in the East, I’ve never heard it. I can recall only one time (just a few months ago, in fact) that there was any remark about the incense, and that was due to the incense blend: apparently the pastor bought incense “on sale” and the smoke was just plain acrid. In that instance, the priest complained as loudly (if not more so, since he was exposed to a lot more of the smoke) than anyone else. The result was that once that box of incense made its was to the dust bin, no more complaints.

 

[Lisa44]

If a person “allergic” to incense sat at the back of the church i doubt they would even smell it, especially in a big church.

thanks for the links to buy incense.

 

[SMHW]

Few parishes around me seem to use incense with any regularity, or even during feasts. Does your parish use incense?

We use extremely generous amounts of incense (visible clouds of it) for major feasts (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, etc… and also for funerals, confirmations, dedication anniversaries, and other special events.

I love the smell. But my minor asthma makes my choir participation a bit difficult if I should forget to take a Claritin-D and Robitussin before Mass. I often have to stop singing and just mouth the words when the thurifer passes by our choir area. (We have a round church with an inner ring of seats and an outer ring with an aisle ibetween so the thurifer walks past everyone at some time or another.)

My pastor is also has asthma/allergies so he prefers not to use incense except for extra special occasions.

 

[tobinatorstark]

Yes. but only on special occasions.

same here. Usually 1 or 2 times a year. In fact one time the incense made my mom sick. LOL

 

[Chuy]

At my Byzantine-Ruthenian parish there are boxes of Kleenex in every pew to assist the runny noses/eyes. As my Eastern priest says “it’s part of the rite and I cannot delete it.” Few seem to mind – certainly none miss liturgy because of the copious use of incense.

My Latin parish is different. Our pastor is a good guy and we use it at major feasts and at benediction, but rarely otherwise. Our cantress likes to manipulate and she dislikes incense…

By far the most copious use of incense I have ever seen is in Los Angeles at the Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral. The censer is HUGE and it DUMPS a plume of smoke in the sanctuary that wafts up and through the pews. It’s nice to see.

 

[rosarygirl7]

Yes! Different times. Some Sundays and sometimes weekday Mass too.

 

[LRThunder]

We don’t use incense that much. We’ve used it at the Easter Vigil, Christmas Midnight Mass, and the Red Mass we host every year at the start of the legislative session.

 

[marleelynn]

my parish does. It did for adoration last night and for special occasions such as the parish’s feast day (Exalation of the Holy Cross - my parish is Church of the Crucifixion).

I’m partially glad incense isn’t used that often because it tends to make my eyes water. During adoration last night, I had to go into the chapel in the back of the church (and I didn’t want people to think I was crying). luckily my assoc pastor was very understanding about it.

 

[KathleenElsie]

I’ve often wondered how many of those who claim to be allergic to incense actually are. To be allergic, they would severely tear up, airways close, they get hives, etc. It would be quite noticeable that they are having an allergic reaction. You might say - well that is a severe allergic reaction - what about those with mild symptoms. To those I would say (as insensitive as this may sound) - just suck it up; offer it up as reparation and a spiritual sacrifice. How many just ‘don’t like’ the smell?

I have asthma. So I make sure I have used my medication daily as prescribed. Then no problem. My OF parish only uses incense on special occasions. The Byzantine parish we go to uses lots of it . As a natural product it does not tend to make me wheeze.

Tobacco smoke with all its chemical additives can send me to the hospital as well as many other chemical compounds.

Now if you want to talk about the hundreds of flowers and pine trees in the churches at Christmas and Lent that is another story. I know many people that can even come into the building at this time and will use small chapels at these times.

 

[marleelynn]

I’ve often wondered how many of those who claim to be allergic to incense actually are. To be allergic, they would severely tear up, airways close, they get hives, etc. It would be quite noticeable that they are having an allergic reaction.

at adoration last night (or any time I was at adoration), my airways never closed up or got hives. Maybe I have a slight allergic reaction to incense.

 

[pnewton]

As one wag said, according to the Bible there are only two odors in the hereafter: burning incense and burning sulphur. To which would you like to get accustomed?

Hopefully cigars will be incuded in the heavenly aromas.

Yes, we use incense a dozen or so times a year.

 

[BSHoop96]

Interesting you mentioned “pagans” and not our older brothers in faith, the Jews…

Oh good heavens…let’s not look for insult when none is meant.

YES…our parish uses it every week!

 

[kage_ar]

No and I really miss it! Maybe it is just the curmudgeon in me, but I have trouble believing that the human race got by for the last 2,000 years with incense (and many thousands of years before, counting the pagans), but suddenly has become so weakened that we fear it like the plague.

Paul

AMEN!!!

 

[Tadghe]

Typically ever week, but since they are renovating the church and we’re in the crypt (aka the basement) it isn’t typically used (not sure why ).

 

[Macd144]

I’ve been a parishoner at my church for 10 years now and I don’t ever recall seeing incense used, but then again, the tabernacle is hidden out of sight, so it does not surprise me that incense is not used.

 

[KathleenElsie]

Typically ever week, but since they are renovating the church and we’re in the crypt (aka the basement) it isn’t typically used (not sure why ).

LOL we were watching a friends children (non-catholic) when we went to Mass in the crypt at Saint Vincents University in Latrobe, PA. The oldest child complained that she could “smell” dead people. All it was of course was an old musty basement built many many years ago.

 

[George_C]

Very seldom, due to many people being allergic to it.

Here’s an issue I am somewhat familiar with. I don’t know if it qualifies as an allergy, but I do react badly to some perfumes and colognes, hair spray, and incense.

I never smelled frankincense, so I don’t know.