My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
"Lord, I cried to You; hear me;
Give heed to the voice of my supplication
when I cry to You" [Psalm 141:2].
Psalms 140 and 141 are the psalms of the evening incense. These two psalms are both sung at Vespers. Psalm 141:2 was sung in Israel, and now in the Orthodox Church, during the offering of incense to God. As Revelation 5:8 teaches, INCENSE IS THE VISIBLE SIGN OF THE PRAYERS OF ALL GOD’S PEOPLE. The Holy Prophet Malachi foretold its continued use in every place, including in the offering of worship by the Gentiles [Malachi 1:11]. Incense was brought to Christ AS A GIFT AT HIS BIRTH, and it has been used in the worship of the Orthodox Church from her very beginning. "Let my prayer be set forth before You as incense" [Psalm 141:2].
"Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, WHICH ARE THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS… [Revelation 5:8]. By elevated prayer ("golden bowls full of incense") they present God "the prayers of the saints" still on earth, manifested and in the incense. In the ancient world, incense was used in both secular and liturgical life. God, people, and objects were censed as a sign of honor and dedication. And in the divine services of the Orthodox Church, incense is also symbolizes prayer as it becomes evident from the blessing verse of the celebrant of the censer before incensing begins: "We offer to Thee, Christ our God, this incense as a spiritual fragrance; receive it, we pray, to Thy heavenly Altar and send down to us, in return, the grace of Thy Holy Spirit" and elsewhere: "Let my prayer be directed to Thee as incense before They presence…"
Incense was used in sub-Apostolic Christian worship. There is no clear evidence of its Christian use until about the year 500 A.D. Censers may at first have been fixed, the introduction of portable censers originating later. The incensing of the altar, church, and congregation, is first recorded in the 9th century. The actual censer denotes a metal or clay vessel for the ceremonial burning of incense. In the ancient Church there were stationary censers erected on specific spots in the church as well as portable ones. This actually was a pagan practice in ancient times. The portable censers hang from chains, usually three in number, converging and held together at the top. Originally the chains were used merely to suspend the censer. Later on, the practice by clergymen of swinging the censer by the chains toward the altar, icons, or persons began, andi is known today as ‘censing." As the censer and the burning of incense began to be given symbolic and mystical interpretations, censers were made of silver and gold and were highly ornamented with symbols and even engraved with sacred depictions.
After the 10th century, when every liturgical implement or act were given allegorical meaning, the Orthodox censer became the symbolic means of meanings it did not originally have. The THREE CHAINS from which it is suspended came to denote the Holy Trinity, and the FOUR OR TWELVE ROUND BELLS attached on them signified the FOUR EVANGELISTS OR THE TWELVE APOSTLES. The SOUND OF THE BELLS stood for the CLARITY OF THE EVANGELICAL AND APOSTOLIC WORDS.
The incense that is burnt in the censer is a gum secreted by a tree which apart from other names was known by the Greek name ‘LIVANOS’ from which the current Greek name for incense ‘LIVANI’ derives. The tree is native to Arabia, India, and Somalia. Incense was known and used at the time of the Old Testament. During the first centuries of Christianity, the Church did not allow its use in ceremonies, as incense was used in pagan rites. Actually, during the persecutions Christians were compelled to offer incense to pagan idols as a sign of their denying Christ. But as persecutions ceased and the association of incense with pagan rites became less and less frequent, incense was introduced in Christian worship. And though Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian shied away from the use of incense in Christian worship, only about one hundred years later Saint Ephraim Syros requested to be buried accompanied by the fragrance of incense.
The 3rd Apostolic Canon mentions incense and oil as the only allowed offerings in the Christian temple. Originally only the altar was incensed, but later on censing at other moments of the Eucharist and other services became prevalent. And besides the altar and icons, persons were censed, such as the bishop, the king, and later the entire congregation, according to their status in the Church and in society.
By the current practice within the Orthodox Church, after censing the altar the celebrant comes out on the upper step of the Royal Door and begins densing as follows: first the holy icons on the iconostasis (right and left), then the holy icon of Christ on the bishop’s throne, and then beginning with the cantors he senses the right wing of the nave and then the left; then again the iconostasis, the icon of Christ on the bishop’s throne and finally he enters the sanctuary. When sensing of the congregation in the nave is prescribed, the censing of the iconostasis is done from the middle of the soleas (the raised platform which stands between the nave and the sanctuary) and the cantors together with other people on the soleas are censed before the celebrant begins to go down the aisle sensing the people.
As expected, incense has been interpreted in many ways. It seems that the most prevalent interpretation is that IT REPRESENTS THE PRAYER OF MIND AND HEART AND IS DIRECTED TO HEAVEN IN THE WORDS OF THE PSALMIST "LET MY PRAYER BE COUNTED AS INCENSE BEFORE THEE…" [Psalm 141[140]2). [Resources: A Dictionary of Greek Orthodoxy by Rev. Nicon D. Patrinacos]
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 