Celebrating 100 years
- Clustered Worship Sites:
Christ the King
St. Salome
St. Thomas the Apostle - Individual Worship Sites:
St. Cecilia
St. Margaret Mary - Irondequoit Catholic Communities:
Regional Mass Schedule
Regional Calendars
Irondequoit Senior Ministries
The use of incense at worship is of great antiquity. In pre-Christian times it had numerous meanings: a symbol of sacrifice, a festive accompaniment for processions, a sign of honor, a means of purification and of expelling evil spirits. Christians first rejected the use of incense because it was closely associated with pagan worship. But after the time of Constantine (280-337), when the danger of corruption by pagan practices was over, various dignities accorded to major Roman officials were transferred to the Pope and bishops. Thus it became customary to carry incense before them as they entered the church in procession - a vestige of the Roman-Byzantine ceremonial of carrying incense before the emperor.
A formal incensation of the altar in the Roman Mass is attested to in the 11th century where it is viewed as a purification and a continuance of the Old Testament injunction that the service of the high priest was to begin with incense (cf. Leviticus 16:12). This incensation was interpreted as a sign of the altar's being wrapped in an atmosphere of prayer and sacrifice ascending to God.
The original Roman practice was to burn incense in a brazier which was carried in procession at the beginning and end of the celebration as well as at the gospel. In the 7th century certain northern countries introduced an incensation of the gifts on the altar. By the 14th century the rite was fully developed even at Rome with a blessing of the incense, an incensation of the gifts and altar with special prayers and complex gestures, and finally the incensation of the clergy and the people.
In the renewed liturgy, this incensation has been simplified. Bread and wine, altar, cross, priest and people are incensed in silence.
In addition to the altar, gospel book and gifts, tradition has reserved the use of inscense for the adoration of the Eucharist at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Here it is seen as homage paid to the divinity of Christ, just as incense was offered to God in Old Testament temple ritual (Lev. 16:12) as a symbol of homage, adoration and prayer.
Incense is a traditional symbol of prayer arising to God (Psalm 141:2); Rev. 8:3-4). Thus the gifts and altar are incensed as a sign of the Church's offering and prayer going up to God. Priest and people are also incensed since they are to unite themselves and their prayers with the gifts that will be offered in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
