does your parish use incense?

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sojo said:
Our parish never uses incense. Nor do we have kneelers - our seats are folding metal chairs and they are too close to safely get down onto the floor without knocking other chairs over and creating a real mess. No candles except for the fake oil type for the altar. No side altars, no shrines, no altar rails, no organ - just a cheesy electronic keyboard.

Oh, and no choir and no altar boys most days. Sometimes we have an 8 year old girl stumble through a few hymns on the keyboard, but she only knows a few of the standards.

Our one priest is spread over 4 locations in the summer and 3 in the winter, so we have no regular confession times - confession is by appointment at the rectory, face to face. No confessionals. One of the summer locations is outdoors. Wasp stings have been known to disrupt the Mass.

No crying rooms. No paved parking lot at two locations - you park in the mud in winter and trudge through to get to the door.

God is still present and we still have the Eucharist so all’s good. The other stuff would be nice, but we muddle along.
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Great outlook. Thanks for reminding us all what is really important.
 
My parish uses incense only when the pastor is not celebrating Mass and when I convince the other priests to use it! The pastor is allergic to incense and our church is just plain weird . The ceiling is not that high which causes the incense to linger around and the sanctuary is small. It is a good example of weird 1970’s church architecture . I’m the only server who has been trained as thurifer in the last few years .
 
My parish does use incense but only during the Easter vigil Mass. I think they might use incense for the Christmas Mass but I am not certain of that as I cannot remember. I do go to Mass for Christmas but I cannot recall whether or not our priest uses incense for this Mass.
 
We use it all the time. we had one parochial vicar who used to collect incense. Our deacons even “bless” the laity with it. the smell lingers for days - which I love. You walk into church on thursday and can smell the incense from Sunday. Its like Thanksgiving.
 
Generally my OF parish does Not use incense and when we do, we use frankincense.

The most serious accident that I have seen was an overly enthusiastic Server hitting a Friar between the eyes and nearly knocking him out! :eek:

And then there was the case of the fur coat that started to smolder during the Christmas Midnight Mass from an accidental Censor spill.

None of this was ever covered in my Sacristan training! 😃
 
How do RCs ever get in trouble with censers? They are so timid and poised swinging it. Eastern Deacons and Priest would do the 360 several times 😉
 
BVMFatima said:
My Church which is Roman Catholic does not use incense, I remember the Catholic Churches always using incense as a small child, did they stop this in the Roman churches?
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Some parishes I know use it a fair bit, as did the church of my childhood (even for Benediction). My present parish uses it once per year, during Easter I think. I suspect there are few altar servers in the parish who could set it up.
 
LegoGE1947 said:
I don’t know where I heard or read this but back in the early Church they used incense to hide some of the bad smells. People who had not taken baths, animals brought to the ministers as offerings, etc.:eek:
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Animals just plain there–Christians were too poor to risk leaving them unattended.

Both the Eastern Iconostasis and the Western Communion Rail trace to a low barrier to keep animals back from the Holy Place, which (like so many things) grew and took on it’s own meaning over time.

hawk
 
My parish uses it every week, at one Sunday mass and at Benediction on a Saturday.

All the best

Martin
 
We use incense every week at one Sunday Mass, 11 AM, advertised in the bulletin, so people with allergies can make plans accordingly. Incense is also used every Friday for Adoration (8 AM) and Benediction (Noon).
 
We have incense at our parish. Its use is up to the priest celebrant
 
We sadly only use incense at Christmas, funerals ,Maundy Thursday , Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. I would love to use incense every Sunday mass. I find incense is a good way of praising the lord during the sacrifice of the mass

In nomine Patris, + et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Introibo ad altare Dei. R: Ad deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.
 
There is incense and then there is incense. Western churches use different incense which is small grained and full of wood and bits of petals.

While Eastern churches use incense that is like tiny pebbles, that have been treated with aromatic oils smells wonderful, and won’t make you choke. I converted from an Evangelical sect which of course never used incense to initially the Episcopal church. They only used incense at Christmas eve and sometimes Easter. Many of them complanied of allergies to smoke, and after Mass they would fill the narthex with cigarette smoke. Sure they were allergic to smoke lol.

One Christmas I took my mom to midnight Mass with incense. After the end she was compaining about the “s*it they were shaking”. after she lit up too. Years passed and no Episcopalian will admit to smoking, and mom died of emphsema. Step dad died of lung cancer, but they hated church incense.
 
Every Sunday Mass! I love it. And it’s one of the few things I am actually** not **allergic to.
 
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