Would you prefer your parish use incense more often?

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i LOVE incense, but i have allergies (though not to incense) and my husband is asthmatic (including to incense…sigh) so i can REALLY see both sides.

many churches have multiple services… why cant they simply designate one (maybe the last one so it has time to clear?) as an “incense” service.

we have services in different languages, services at different times… i dont see why they couldnt simply take a poll and ask

"would you OBJECT to incense for ANY reason at service? what time do you usually attend?

is there a service you think would be able to have incense without causing disruption to you and your family?

now i KNOW any kind of scent and smoke takes time to clear, so to me its obvious it should be the later service, but if most of the worst asthma or allergic folks go to that one, then maybe the FIRST one… with time to clear by the end
 
I really wish we used incense more. We barely used it during the Triduum because the Pastoral Associate didn’t want to, and he kept emptying the thurible during mass. Very annoying. I’m alright with not using it all the time, but when you use it, use it well.
 
I voted “no” because the more orthodox parish I attend uses it often enough. The other one, almost never.

I love the smell of frankincense but I do think one can become almost immune to it if used all the time. The amusing anecdote from my life is that long before I reverted, I used to burn it and listen to Gregorian chant…I had the trappings but not the faith…

:rolleyes:

And there are some priests who go overboard with the censer…just a few swings of the “smoking purse” will do, thanks Father!

🙂
 
YoungTradCath said:
Then, please help us. What term could we use to concisely express the concept of a church that exclusively celebrates the OF or the EF?

??
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You’re being divisive. The very concern voiced by bishops who used to not allow the EF Mass in their dioceses.* There is absolutely no need to make the distinction your’re trying to make.*

Try “Catholic parish.” If you want to be more precise try “Roman Catholic parish.”
 
sumusresnovarum said:
I really wish we used incense more. We barely used it during the Triduum because the Pastoral Associate didn’t want to, and he kept emptying the thurible during mass. Very annoying. I’m alright with not using it all the time, but when you use it, use it well.
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What do you mean exactly?
 
Jegudiel said:
What do you mean exactly?
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I MC’d, and so lit the coals ten minutes before Mass. After the entrance procession, he took the thruible outside and emptied the coals, only to relight a new one right before the gospel procession. After the gospel procession, he emptied the thurible again and put new coals in it for the preparation of the altar. It was unnecessary and quite annoying.
 
Chatter163 said:
Balderdash. The Holy Father provided the terms OF and EF precisely so that we COULD use them in discussing the Mass. Obviously in a forum such as this, where liturgical forms are discussed, terms to distinguish churches and chapels and their use of the two forms are going to be used. Nothing more to it than that.
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Poppycock. There is nothing at all wrong with the use of “OF/EF Mass.” But to try and label parishes/churches/chapels as OF parishes/churches/chapels or EF parishes/churches/chapels is terribly divisive and unhelpful.
 
sumusresnovarum said:
I MC’d, and so lit the coals ten minutes before Mass. After the entrance procession, he took the thruible outside and emptied the coals, only to relight a new one right before the gospel procession. After the gospel procession, he emptied the thurible again and put new coals in it for the preparation of the altar. It was unnecessary and quite annoying.
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Are you serious? That’s simply idiotic. In all sincerity, what sort of mindset makes someone do that? He might have well been making things worse by continually starting fresh charcoal. As the Mass’ MC you should have told him to stand down. The pastor needs to sit this person down in private.
 
Jegudiel said:
Poppycock. There is nothing at all wrong with the use of “OF/EF Mass.” But to try and label parishes/churches/chapels as OF parishes/churches/chapels or EF parishes/churches/chapels is terribly divisive and unhelpful.
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Folderol.

I have nothing to offer but I like those 3 words used together.

Balderdash - Poppycock - Folderol.

🙂
 
I recently began attending Byzantine liturgy where it is used every day. Always loved it. I imagine it going up to God’s altar of incense in heaven. During Lent or the Great Fast vespers, the priest sings “let my prayer ascend to you like incense…” 🙂
 
Jegudiel said:
Poppycock. There is nothing at all wrong with the use of “OF/EF Mass.” But to try and label parishes/churches/chapels as OF parishes/churches/chapels or EF parishes/churches/chapels is terribly divisive and unhelpful.
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My parish is a full parish, staffed by priests of the FSSP. Only the EF is offered there.** Is it not an EF parish???** :confused:

When speaking regularly of various venues offering the EF, some are FSSP or ICRSS, while others are offered by other groups, such as the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, and still others offered by secular clergy, as part of a larger schedule that includes OF Masses, it is shorthand to simply refer to them as such. Nothing “divisive” is intended, but to say that it is is simply a huge and unwarranted assumption.
 
Jegudiel said:
There has never been a reported case where anyone developed cancer based on exposure to incense smoke in a Christian worship environment. Not ever.
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Ah. The same argument the tobacco industry used in the eighties and nineties to deny the correlation between smoking and lung cancer. :rolleyes:

Just because there haven’t been any individual cases of cancer irrefutably linked to incense smoke exposure doesn’t mean the stuff is perfectly safe. Known carcinogens are found in incense so people do have a genuine concern with its overuse.
 
fabricdragon said:
i LOVE incense, but i have allergies (though not to incense) and my husband is asthmatic (including to incense…sigh) so i can REALLY see both sides.

many churches have multiple services… why cant they simply designate one (maybe the last one so it has time to clear?) as an “incense” service.
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We only have incense on major celebrations, but we do not incense on any of the vigil Masses (except Easter) so that is always clear for someone with extreme sensitivity.
 
Jegudiel said:
Did you consider something as simple as taking a generic Benedryl tablet (Diphenhydramine) prior to Mass?
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Bendryl generic is a sleeping aid. it is used to make people sleep. as such it is not really a good idea for Mass.
there ARE non drowsy (for most people) anti histamines, but they are not all equally effective.
in addition, they are for ALLERGIES… and ASTHMA can be a reactive trigger caused by particulates that has no histamine reaction at all…

so basically anti histamines only help ALLERGIES
some asthma is allergy related, but not all.
my husband has asthma that is triggered by any and all smoke… especially sage and other incense. he is NOT allergic to it, so an anti histamine does not help. the only hep is an asthma inhaler and to LEAVE.

and for the record… some allergies and some asthmas CAN KILL YOU.
i have a life threatening allergy to cigarette smoke. i carry an epi pen. if i am exposed i have to stab myself in the leg with it and go to a hospital and HOPE they can save my life.
i take a prescription anti histamine every single day to try to buy myself time to stay alive.

if i were that allergic to incense (which i am not) then to go into a church with incense would be suicide.
 
our parish doesnt use it at all, if the priest can get away without out putting anything extra into the mass he will. it might make mass go over 50 minutes!

also i have asthma but id deal with it.
 
Ah… incense. I love it but our parish has never used it as far as I know. We have no kneelers, either - just folding metal chairs. No shrines, no holy water sprinkling (just one little font), no candles, no side altars, no choir, no organ, no … pretty much a tiny room with a bunch of folding metal chairs, statues of Mary and Joseph, a crucifix and one little holy water font. No crying room, no parish hall, no confessionals, no place to conduct religious education - you name we don’t got it.

But we have one priest (who travels between two churches and one outdoors parish in the summer), and we have the real presence and Mass, so we have all we need. I guess. I miss the other stuff, have to admit.
 
xixxvmcm85 said:
Ah. The same argument the tobacco industry used in the eighties and nineties to deny the correlation between smoking and lung cancer. :rolleyes:

Just because there haven’t been any individual cases of cancer irrefutably linked to incense smoke exposure doesn’t mean the stuff is perfectly safe. Known carcinogens are found in incense so people do have a genuine concern with its overuse.
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:rolleyes:, indeed. Good grief.

I’ve not been in a parish where overuse of incense could remotely be described as “a genuine concern.” The priest and deacon doing the incensing have to get 10-50 times the exposure to carcinigens that anyone else in the building gets, and I would still wager that if confounding variables were corrected for, there is zero point zero zero percent difference in cancer rates between clergy who use “a lot” of incense and clergy who never use it at all.

The tobacco industry, in contrast, was trying to deny very large differences in cancer rates.
 
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