Burning incense in your home

I'd recommend you buy one. Check out http://www.easternchristiansupply.biz/products.cgi/c48/c68. They have some inexpensive censers to choose from.

For good incense go to http://thehtm.org/catalog/index.php or http://www.holycross-hermitage.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?listcategories. Both have great selections of incense.

Some charcoals burn too hot. Also, if you leave the incense on very long, it will always degenerate to stinking. Also, not all types of incense smell great. Try putting the incense on a light bulb, that'll give you a good idea of what it should smell like.

One thing that I learned from Yiayia is that you can use a small strainer like this:



It helps by bringing oxygen under the charcoal so that you can light it easily, and the handle makes it easy to carry around. Try to use the little charcoals that are meant for incense, and wait for a few minutes before placing the incencse on it so that incense doesn't burn.

There are different traditions about censing within the home. You move the censer in the shape of the cross as you go. My grandmother first starts outside to cense God, and then censes the doorway, then whoever happens to be home, then every room in the house and any icons that happen to be in each room, until she gets to the bedroom where she places it in front of her icon stand. I think it's nice.

If you have bigger charcoals you can break them in half or even thirds. Sometimes when the incense is gone and the charcoal is still burning there is a bad smell. Making the charcoal smaller means that less of it is burning.

M.

It'll do that if you don't continue to put incense on it periodically. After you're done, or when it starts getting a bit too cloudy in your room, just put a glass jar or something over it to zap the oxygen and it'll put it all out. I recommend breaking the bigger pieces of charcoal into halves or thirds as mentioned above so that it doesn't get to be too overpowering, if you aren't trying to cense an entire house or church there's no need for that much charcoal.

my one buddy would take one of those lamps with the flexible necks, turn it so that the light faced up, and then used that to burn his incense. it worked fairly well from what I remember, but yeah, I'd buy one if you need it.

i'm slightly jealous. i can't burn anything! unless if i dismantle my smoke detector...

isnt all that smoke cause cancer or asthma or somethin and what about little kids smoke cant be good for infants lungs?

GBTWC said:

isnt all that smoke cause cancer or asthma or somethin and what about little kids smoke cant be good for infants lungs?

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We burn incense because it has been used in worship since the book of Exodus. Revelation 8:3-5 tells us how incense is/will be used in heaven.

If you have a lung disease and it bothers you, don't use it at home.

My sister is severly asthmatic, and has never been bothered by the incense at church. While some people are affected by certain types of incense (rose incense doesn't bode with my aunt very well) I have never heard of any studies stating that incense is harmful/causes cancer. (If that were true, than thousands upon thousands of clergymen and acolates would be dying every year!)

Also, if incense was harmful, why would God encourage His people to use it in the Temple?

Exodus 25:5-7
Exodus 30:1-3
Exodus 30:7
Deutoronomy 39:9-11
Malachi 1:10-12
Revelation 5:7-9

Lord, I call upon Thee, hear me. Hear me, O Lord.
Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense.
And let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.
Hear me, O Lord.
Psalm 141:1-2 (Psalm sung during the offering of the evening incense during Vespers.)

HandmaidenOfGod said:

We burn incense because it has been used in worship since the book of Exodus. Revelation 8:3-5 tells us how incense is/will be used in heaven.

If you have a lung disease and it bothers you, don't use it at home.

My sister is severly asthmatic, and has never been bothered by the incense at church. While some people are affected by certain types of incense (rose incense doesn't bode with my aunt very well) I have never heard of any studies stating that incense is harmful/causes cancer. (If that were true, than thousands upon thousands of clergymen and acolates would be dying every year!)

Also, if incense was harmful, why would God encourage His people to use it in the Temple?

Exodus 25:5-7
Exodus 30:1-3
Exodus 30:7
Deutoronomy 39:9-11
Malachi 1:10-12
Revelation 5:7-9

Lord, I call upon Thee, hear me. Hear me, O Lord.
Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense.
And let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.
Hear me, O Lord.
Psalm 141:1-2 (Psalm sung during the offering of the evening incense during Vespers.)

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what about for infants ?

The Church encourages families to bring their children to Church, even infants as young as 40 days old. (Usually a "churching" ceremony is held after 40 days to bring the mother back into the church, as she usually takes a much needed rest from church for a few weeks after giving birth.)

I was baptised as an infant (as many Orthodox Christians were) and incense was used during the baptism, so I see no reason not to use it at home.

In fact, I think using incense and having icons at home helps familiarize the child with these things so they do not seem "foreign" to them when they go to Church. For then our homes become a "mini-Church" when we pray before the icons and use incense.

I think it's quite lovely actually.

this is probably a stupid question, but is there a such thing as non-burning incense? or anything like that?

Julina said:

this is probably a stupid question, but is there a such thing as non-burning incense? or anything like that?

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of course there are the nonburning ones are the ones you dont light you just stare at them and imagine what they'd smell like if you lit them

GBTWC said:

of course there are the nonburning ones are the ones you dont light you just stare at them and imagine what they'd smell like if you lit them

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to you too

Julina said:

i'm slightly jealous. i can't burn anything! unless if i dismantle my smoke detector...

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Incense should not set them off. I asked my priest about this since right near my icon corner is a smoke detector. I haven't got a censer yet but my priest said while he was at seminary, the seminarians had incense burning all the time and it never set off any detectors.

My GodPapa has a little oil lamp he uses in the house, and over the top , but not actually sitting on it [ if that makes sense ] is a small brass tray on wee legs to hold it securely.

He puts a small piece of aluminium foil on the tray and then once the lamp is burning well and the tray is warmed up , he adds a piece of incense to the tray. As it heats ,it slowly melts and the smell of the incense is obvious - but there's no smoke .

Something like this is obviously the answer were there are smoke alarms

Some exposure to smoke in life is unavoidable and probably harmless. The amount of incense smoke you are exposed to is usually small enough to be, almost undoubtedly, innocuous unless you're doing it wrong. I suppose you don't want your infants huffing the incense, but some incidental exposure is almost certainly not going to cause lasting damage. If you're getting great big clouds of smoke with your incense, you're doing it wrong.