Lover of the penitent
Show your mercy in our day.
This pure incense, Lord, accept,
that these priestly hands now raise,
as gifts by the faithful of your Church
to atone and praise.
And as you received the ram
sacrificed by Abraham,
And from Aaron's hands
Sweet perfume from distant lands.
Lord, receive this incense, which, we pray may win,
mercy and release from sin.
Maronite Incense Qolo
FWIW Psalm 141:2 "Let my prayer rise before you as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" is a fixed piece of Lutheran Evening Prayer (Vespers) 365 days a year with the use of incense during this Canticle strongly encouraged.
Thanks for posting this thread.
Boy, I sure do miss incense at church...nowadays it is a very rare sight indeed.
Regards,
Excellent. Thanks!
My wife was raised Roman Catholic and she told me she used to wonder why all Roman Catholic Churches smelled the same. For a while, she wondered if they all used the same wood cleaner for the pews or some such thing.
Then I got a small supply of pure frankincense from an Orthodox supply house and she realized that was what she had been smelling all along.
Go figure.
We only occasionally use incense at our Masses. Grew up in an old-fashioned Latin Mass RCC which was almost a cathedral! Loved the smell of incense, always have and always will.
I once did a word study of the word, "aroma". It was amazing how often it appeared in the Bible.
"They shall be as a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the LORD." Lev 23:18