Why do we cense? What does the incense symbolize? What is the censer? What does incense symbolize? How is the incense made? How and when do we cense the church? Can we cense our home and when? What is the best time to cense? When the priest cense us with the censer, what do we do at that time? What prayer does the priest say while censing the area? Since when has incense been in the Orthodox Church?
Incense is a commandment of God in the Old Testament and even showed us the way it should be made. It made up of four ingredients, one of which is the resin that the cedars of Lebanon produce. From this resin comes the so-called frankincense, which is mixed with other ingredients mentioned by God in the Bible, and all that produce the frankincense we offer to God.
God Himself asks us to incense Him, and asks us to offer incense. In fact, in the Ark of the Covenant there was the golden censer that was made by order of God.
In the church, we use a specific censer that the priest uses in the parish and the monasteries. This particular censer has a theological interpretation. It symbolizes the Holy Trinity, the Twelve Apostles or the Four Evangelists, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, the faithful’s prayers, the roof of God and how they are interpreted in the censer, and what the faithful must do when the priest censes them.
We wholeheartedly offer to God and the church the best we have. We make the best we have for God and we do not offer what we have to throw away.
This is evident from the biblical account of Cain and Abel. God asked them to offer a sacrifice and let it burn and whatever smoke rises up, his prayer will be heard by God. However, the smoke that will be diffused by the wind means that he did not offer his sacrifice to God with his heart and that his prayer was not heard. This is true of Abel and Cain. Abel’s sacrifice was heard by God because he offered the best he could and did it with his heart, while Cain’s sacrifice was not good and he did not do it with his heart. That is why we chant in the church “May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice”.