THE LENT AS A GAINT CENSER.....

A LENTEN PILGRIMAGE

Rev. Fr. K M George  

 The Incense

"Botafumeiro" is the giant 80 kilogram censer (dhoopakutty) in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. 

It hangs from the roof of the huge cathedral and is swung by a team of special operators who, to me, look like Spanish "matadores",or bullfighters.

 Some 40 kilograms of incense and charcoal are fed into it for every performance that attracts big crowds. It sends out huge columns of smoke in striking configurations in the air. The sight of this was a stunning experience for a priest used to small, handy censers in the Indian Orthodox parish churches.

The use of incense in liturgical worship was common to both the western and the eastern Christian traditions. However it has become almost a nominal practice in the west today while eastern Christianity still generously makes use of incense in worship. There is a rich biblical symbolism associated with the smoke of incense and its fragrance. When we burn certain spices like frankincense in public worship the sweet-smelling smoke that rises into air is considered, according to biblical symbolism, to be the rising prayer of the community.

"And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand."

(Revelation 8:4)

The fragrance of our offerings is well pleasing to God according to the Old Testament scripture. We are also called the "aroma of Christ" by St Paul (2 Corinthians 2:15). In one of the Lenten prayers Jesus Christ is called:

“the pure smoke of incense that pleases the One who sent Him by His self-offering, delights the creation with His fragrance, gladdens His handiwork with His sweetness"

(Palm Sunday Night, Ethro)

Our prayers are to transcend the world of daily living while their fragrance gladdens and heals the surroundings. It is like music. Prayer at its core is music. That is why we chant musically even prayers written in prose. We know that music has this celebrated quality of rising above the divisions, harmonising disparate and dislocated elements in our surroundings.

Typologically we may consider the Lent as a giant censer.

 Our virtuous thoughts and actions, our prayers and intercessions, pain and suffering, sighs and tears - we offer these like frankincense to the glowing embers of the Lenten censer. They are then mixed with the prayers of the saints of all ages and all places, and rise to God's throne of mercy.

We sing the psalm in every evening prayer:

"May my prayer be counted as incense before You; the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice."

(Psalm 141:2)