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When and why do we burn incense at Mass?

SPRING 2022

THE VENERATION OF GOD AND SACRED THINGS in the context of the liturgy is an ancient practice. “Take sweet spices … and make an incense blended as by the perfumer,” God instructed Moses in Exodus (30:34-38). “Put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you; it shall be for you most holy.”

In the Catholic Church today, the use of incense adds to the solemnity of the Mass. The sweet-smelling plumes ascending from the thurible (the vessel in which incense is burned) point to the transcendent nature of the liturgy.

Church practice permits the use of incense at several points during Sunday Masses, as well as on solemnities and sanctoral feast days. Before the start of the Mass, if incense is to be used, the priest who is celebrating the Mass – referred to as the celebrant – “imposes” incense into the thurible and blesses it. A server known as the thurifer may then carry the thurible at the head of the entrance procession. Upon arriving at the altar, the priest may proceed to “incense” the altar, swinging the thurible first toward the altar cross, then around the altar itself. 

Subsequently, during the Liturgy of the Word, there may be a Gospel procession. When the Alleluia is sung, the thurifer presents the thurible to the celebrant, who may impose and bless more incense. Then the thurifer, flanked by acolytes holding candles, leads the deacon to the ambo, or pulpit. Before proclaiming the Gospel’s text, the deacon swings the thurible toward the Evangelarium (the Book of the Gospels).

There are two more times in the Mass when incense is commonly used. The first comes at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, following the presentation of the gifts, when the celebrant may incense the offerings, the cross, and the altar, after which the deacon incenses the celebrant and the congregation. Finally, during the Sanctus (or Holy, Holy, Holy), there may be a procession of the acolytes and thurifer to the step of the sanctuary, where they will kneel for the Eucharistic Prayer. At the elevations, when the celebrant raises the consecrated host and chalice, the thurifer may swing the thurible toward the Eucharist as the bells are rung.

At funeral Masses, incense is employed one additional time. During the final commendation, as the cantor chants the In paradisum, the celebrant takes the thurible and incenses the casket in which the remains of the deceased lie.

When we attend Mass, we escape the mundane, if but for a brief time, and enter into the divine, worshipping Almighty God with the choirs of angels and saints. With the clouds of incense, we send up prayers of praise, thanksgiving, and supplication for ourselves and the souls of the faithful departed. As the Psalmist cries out (Psalms 141:2), “Let my prayer be counted as incense before thee, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice!”
 

Fr. Michael Connolly, Parochial Vicar
St. Martin de Porres, Poughkeepsie