Priscillian and Santiago de Compostela

[tz620q]

I would love to visit that basillica myself because of the awesome thurible. Santiago de Compostela has the largest thurible in the world. As someone who loves incense as part of the traditional Christian liturgy, and particularly exciting displays of it (I love the way that some Coptic Orthodox priests fling their thurible 360 degrees, vertically, while censing the altar), it excites me a great deal.

My choir went there in 2012; but I was unable to make the trip. I think I would be ducking as it swung overhead, which is really not good form during a solemn liturgy.
I always try to understand the symbolism that is trying to be conveyed in any liturgical action. For me this amazing swinging of the incense over the crowd symbolizes that we all are called to offer our prayers up to God, not just the celebrant. And that God in his great love, is showering us with his own prayers for us. What are your thoughts?

 

[Root of Jesse]

I would love to visit that basillica myself because of the awesome thurible. Santiago de Compostela has the largest thurible in the world. As someone who loves incense as part of the traditional Christian liturgy, and particularly exciting displays of it (I love the way that some Coptic Orthodox priests fling their thurible 360 degrees, vertically, while censing the altar), it excites me a great deal.

You need to go on Friday to the Mass of the Pilgrims.

 

[The Liturgist]

You need to go on Friday to the Mass of the Pilgrims.

That’s the mass where they use the giant thurible, right?

If I remember correctly, there is one other Roman Catholic church in Southern Europe, Italy, I think, that has an epic thurible, not as large as the one in Santiago de Compostela but still epic.

And the Duomo in Milan, home to the beautiful and distinctive Ambrosian liturgy, which is related to the ancient Gallican and Mozarabic liturgies*, there is a Baroque elevator, lifted by a manual hoist I believe, that is used to access a particularly large relic of the true Cross on the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross (September 14).

*Unlike the Gallican Rite, which is basically extinct, and the Mozarabic Rite, which is now celebrated almost exclusively in one chapel in the vast, beautiful cathedral in Toledo, the Ambrosian Rite is the standard liturgy in the city of Milan and surrounding environs. It also has a beautiful form of chant that sounds like a blend of Byzantine and Gregorian chant.

 

[The Liturgist]

My choir went there in 2012; but I was unable to make the trip. I think I would be ducking as it swung overhead, which is really not good form during a solemn liturgy.

You can see videos of it on YouTube, and no one stands directly under the path of the thurible; there is a massive amount of room on either side where the congregation can safely view it.

I always try to understand the symbolism that is trying to be conveyed in any liturgical action. For me this amazing swinging of the incense over the crowd symbolizes that we all are called to offer our prayers up to God, not just the celebrant. And that God in his great love, is showering us with his own prayers for us. What are your thoughts?

I think you basically have it right, except instead of God only showering us with prayers, I think more generally it would be God showering us with His divine grace in all forms that divine grace can take.