BS: Do you need to be censered?

Subject: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 15 Apr 06 - 10:08 PM

No! Wait! Stop! It's not a copycat thread! It only looks like one! Honest! Read the damned thing before you push that DELETE key!

Since tomorrow is Easter Sunday, will you be attending services at the church of your choice? If so, does your church use incense as part of its ceremonies? Will you be censed? (Yeah, I know I said "censered" in the thread title, but it's not really a verb. It's a noun. "Cense" is the verb. I cheated. So shoot me, okay?)

I've only been to one service in any church that uses incense. It was the funeral of an aunt who had converted to Catholicism. The rest of my extended family consists of a handful of Baptists and a lot of heathens like me. None of us had ever been to anything Catholic before and we'd never seen priests swinging brass balls full of sweet smelling smoke before, much less all those people counting beads and mumbling in some foreign language. It was a trip.

Now, I knew incense from my hippy days, but I never knew before then that it was important in church ceremonies. I always thought it was just to cover up the smell of pot and/or people who hadn't bathed in a while. Then I read Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume and found out they'd been using incense in churches since God was a little bitty baby! Yeah, it was still used mainly to cover up the smell of people who hadn't bathed in a while (Like years, maybe?), but those people were praying, not getting zonked and listening to Pink Floyd.

So to return to the original question, are you going to church tomorrow? Will you get censed? Have you had a bath recently? Will the smell of the incense clash with your perfume or after-shave?

Okay, I'll go first. No! I'll stay home and sit in my gazebo at my pond and watch the irises, water lillies and pickerel weeds bloom while the koi swim around looking useless and pretty. If Jesus wants to come join me, he's welcome, but his place is a little too crowded for my taste and I gave up incense a long time ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Apr 06 - 10:24 PM

yeah beedub, we Catlicks are an exotic bunch, ain't we?

The incense was always one of my favorite parts of mass, as was the chanting and singing in Latin. But I only do weddings, funerals, graduations, and political protests in church nowadays.

But if you visit my Easter peeps thread, and go to the link in the first post, you will see a guaranteed kick ass papal peep diorama.

Consider it my Easter present to you.

Have a nice navel gazing, censureable day.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: Gurney
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 01:33 AM

Nope. But I swung the Censer as a youth.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 02:47 AM

I used to swing a mean censer in my days. We don't use incense a often in the Catholic Church as we used to, but we still usit it frequently during Holy week. Our new priest (Irish - County Cork) gets constricted in the throat from incense and lilies - so we held back a bit this week. Still, we had lots of smells and bells this week, and it was wonderful. We hired a new music director, and the music was terrific, too. First time in twenty years that I've been really proud to be part of a choir.

We gave special emphasis to fire safety training when we practiced with the altar servers this year. We had a couple of fires last year, and the one censer swinger (thurifer) kept brushing the hot censer against his clothing. He did much better this year.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 10:46 AM

I love to watch the censer team in I think Compostella - the church at the end of the pilgrim trail in Spain?

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 10:50 AM

I could probably stand some 'censering' at this point.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 10:51 AM

I do recall the story about the Liverpudlian who told the priest in the new Liverpool Cathedral that his handbag (purse) was on fire!
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: kendall
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 12:08 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: MaineDog
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 01:44 PM

Kendall, are you still with us?

Anyway, we used the smells of lunch to distract us this AM, and all was well, but I don't remember much of what was said, except "He is Risen!".
The ham was yummy.
MD.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: DMcG
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 01:56 PM

One Easter I went to a small chapel seating perhaps 50 people, and the first half dozen rows were all occupied by nuns. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but the censer was emitting great clouds and within about five minutes the entire church was full such a thick fog that it is no exaggeration to say the altar was not visible. The best guide for where the front of the church was came from the discreet coughing of the nuns [who were not sure that was strictly allowed] and everyone was in two minds whether things were sufficiently bad that the service should be completely abandoned or to carry on regardless. For those who are not familiar with it, church incense comes from something a little like small lumps of glowing charcoal; once it is lit it is not easy to put it out without water or a fire extinguisher neither of which was readily to hand. Or if they were, no-one could find them in the smog.

Natually, we carried on and eventually left the service vaguely resembling kippers.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 02:07 PM

Then there's the Holy Fire, with the bonfire outside the church on Holy Saturday. The passing motorists probably think we're burning heretics.
............................

Ny father-in-law was telling me how one time when he was a boy, back in the 1920s, he and his brother, who were altar servers were messing around with the thurible in the sacristy, while the priest was absent, swinging it round to get the charcoal good and hot, and the chain came undone, scattering charcoal all over the plade. So they cleared it up as best they could, and did an emergency mending job with a bootlace before the priest returned.

Unfortunately while the priest was censing the altar, the bootlace burnt through, sending red hot embers and incense all over the place... The church didn't actually go up in smoke, but Father Theophilus was not too pleased.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 02:11 PM

Giok, I heard Peter Sellers tell a version of that on Parkinson in the 70s.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 02:45 PM

I thought I stole it years earlier than that actually!
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 02:51 PM

It seems to be a very widespread spiritual practice. Native Americans burn sage, sweetgrass, and various other herbs in order to "smoke" things at their ceremonies (a purification procedure). Hindus follow a similar practice, and many other groups use incense in ceremonials.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 02:57 PM

I used to swing the censer too. We had contests to see who could get the best and biggest clouds of smoke to come out. Place used to look like a politician's caucus room. We censed caskets during funerals, altars, books, and other people. Our goal was to make the people in back pews cough but we never achieved it -- it was a pretty big church.

The other thing we used to do was carry torches during solemn high masses. These were actually poles with a red glass cylinder that was fixed in a U-shaped yoke so that the cylinder could swing by its top -- hold a soup can at the top with two fingers and you get the idea. Anyway, the procession looked grand and at least some of the torchbearers burned their fingers on the hot glass when trying to lift the glass and blow out the candle (hint: lift it BELOW the level of the candle flame!).

We got incensed at church last night, but nobody uses torches anymore.

(I understand that at the Good Friday service the young priest said things like "Jesus died in the Garden". This ranks right up there with his earlier statement that the US celebrates Memorial Day on May 1. People are starting to think that he wasn't exactly at the head of his seminary class.)

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: MaineDog
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 03:43 PM

It actually was in the Garden, that Jesus prayed 3 times for "this cup"
(ie crucifiction) "to be removed from me, yet not my will but Thy will be done" So in some sense He finally agreed to die there.
MD

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 10:30 PM

Not too long ago, in one of the larger Dutch cities, the local air pollution agency discovered that most of the larger churches failed to meet minimum clean air standards. Especially up near the altars. The culprit was incense. Remember to sit well back.

To answer the question - no.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 11:45 PM

I got to Catholic church, and it uses the absolute minimum of incense. Anything more, and the people with asthma will raise the roof.

I don't believe a word of that stuff about incense being used to cover up the smell of people. When you mix sweet smells and bad smells, the result is worse than either one alone.

Keep in mind that for centuries, many people lived lives of drudgery, misery and boredom. Church was one of the most interesting places to be, and incense was just another way to make church special.

Joe: I'm glad to hear that you are happy with the new music director. Maybe now there will be two Catholic churches in the country with good music, not just one.



Just kidding!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: Teribus
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 02:16 AM

Think I'd agree with Foolestroupe the Botafumeiro in the Cathedral in Santaigo De Campostela has to be seen to be believed, even more impressive if seen in motion.

Photograph here www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Paradise/3421/sant11.htm

Subject: RE: BS: Do you need to be censered?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 02:20 AM

B-d-e, for the trivalists, I looked up the word in the OED. There is a quotation from 1625- "The priest went round about the altar three times. The first time he censored." Cense is the verb most used now, but your usage also has appeared in the past, and -or and -er both occur.