Lost in Translation #122
After preparing and offering the gifts and himself, the priest blesses the incense. As he places three spoonfuls of incense onto a live coal, he says:
Per intercessiónem beáti Michaélis Archángeli, stantis a dextris altáris incénsi, et ómnium electórum suórum, incénsum istud dignétur Dóminus benedícere, et in odórem suavitátis accípere. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum. Amen.Which I translate as:
Through the intercession of blessed Michael the Archangel, who is standing at the right side of the altar of incense, and [through the intercession] of all His Elect, may the Lord deign to bless this incense of His and receive it as an odor of sweetness. Through Christ our Lord. AmenWhen the priest incenses the bread and wine, he says:
Incensum istud, a te benedictum, ascendat ad te, Dómine, et descendat super nos misericordia tua.Which I translate as:
May this incense of Thine, which has been blessed by Thee, O Lord, ascend to Thee, and may Thy mercy descend upon us.
Who You’re Going to Call
The Per intercessionem requests the intercession of all the Saints and an archangel. In the original prayer from the eleventh century, the role went to St. Gabriel, who stood “on the right side of the altar of incense” when he visited Zechariah. (Luke 1,11) But in the thirteenth century, Michael’s name slowly began appearing as a substitute and became obligatory in the 1570 Roman Missal. Even so, as late as 1705 the Congregation of Rites had to remind holdouts to stop using Gabriel’s name. [1]
Saint Michael on Mount Gargano, Cesare Nebbia
Michael may be associated with incense because according to some accounts he appeared on Mount Gargano bearing a censer in A.D. 490, and this apparition may have inspired later generations to identify him as the anonymous angel who stands in front of the altar with a golden censer in Revelation 8,3. But the 1570 version of the prayer only exchanges the names; it does not update the angel’s location. Michael, the angel who ostensibly carries his own censer, is thus portrayed standing at the right side of the altar of incense. In a Catholic sanctuary, incidentally, that would be the Gospel-side, for right and left are determined by God’s view of us from the sanctuary rather than vice versa.
Despite his not having an explicit biblical association with incense, Michael is arguably the better archangel to invoke at this point of the Mass. In the New Testament, Gabriel is the angel who delivers messages of great importance; Michael is the angel who casts out the dragon Satan. (see Rev. 12, 7-9) Invoking Michael is thus an implicit petition for spiritual fumigation in order to expel evil from the sanctuary before the Consecration. “In the liturgy,” writes Fr. Pius Parsch, “incensing has a positive and a negative purpose: to cleanse (to lustrate), and to sanctify. Here it is to free the gifts offered from every unholy influence and envelop them in an atmosphere of holiness.” [2]
And let us be honest: Gabriel’s relationship to incense is literally tangential at best. He was there to speak to Zechariah, not to be close to the altar of the incense because it was the altar of incense.
Angel of the Censer, by Lawrence or AnNita Klimecki
Preferred Pronouns
The choice of pronouns in the Per intercessionem and Incensum istud is significant. Whereas English has two demonstrative pronouns, Latin has three. In English, “this” is used to point to things that are near the first person (I, me) while “that” is used to point to things that are near either the second person (you) or the third (he, him). In Latin, on the other hand, there are two different words to distinguish things near the second person and things near the third:
- Hic, haec, hoc is for things near the first person (“this”);
- Iste, iste, istud is for things near the second person (“this or that thing of yours”);
- Ille, ille, illud is for things near the third person (“that”).
One way to visualize this distinction spatially is that hic is for when the object is closer to me, iste is for when the object is closer to you, and ille is for when the object is equidistant from us.
By using iste to designate the incense at hand, the priest is indicating that the incense already belongs to God even before it is blessed. It is easy to concede that all natural objects belong to the Maker of nature, but incense, although it is biotic material, is a human artifact. Frankincense, for example, is made from the resin of the olibanum tree by workers tapping the tree, letting the resin ooze out, and allowing the resin to dry on the tree for several months. The hardened sap is then cut into grains to become incense.
It may seem odd to designate a man-made object as God’s, but it serves two purposes. First, on a more general level, it aligns with a Catholic way of viewing manufactured goods. The production of wine, for example, requires far more human invention and intervention than making incense, and the end-result (wine) is an entirely different substance from the natural materials out of which it was made. And yet in the blessing of wine for the sick, wine is called a “creature” that God gives as a refreshment to His servants. The blessing of wine on the feast of St. John the Evangelist goes even further with its opening line: “O God, who in creating the world brought forth for mankind bread as food and wine as drink…” In Genesis, it is Noah who first brings forth wine without any explicit encouragement or help from God, but the Catholic imagination nonetheless credits God with the win, and sees it as one of His gifts for which we are to give thanks. Instead of construing wine as the “work of human hands,” this pious hermeneutic omits the secondary causes of human agency and focuses on the Primary Cause in an act of gratitude. [3]
Second and more specifically, ascribing incense to God ties into the central paradox of the entire Offertory, namely, that we are offering to God what already belongs to Him, or as the Byzantine Divine Liturgy puts it, “We offer to Thee Thine own of Thine own, in all and for all.” [4] The priest first asks God to bless this incense of His and then asks God to make this blessed incense of His ascend to Heaven in order for mercy to descend to earth. The priest wants God to receive the burning smoke curling its way upwards as an odor of sweetness, but it is God who made incense have these properties in the first place.
Crosses and Crowns
Finally, we note the fulsome manner in which the gifts are incensed, three times cross-wise and three times in a circle. Joseph Jungmann interprets these actions as a performative extension or reinforcement of the Veni sanctificator [5], while Nicholar Gihr sees them as a visual fulfilment of the two prayers. “While the odor of ascending incense denotes devout sacrifice and prayer penetrating to heaven, the clouds of incense floating round about signify the effects of prayer and sacrifice, namely, the sweet odor of grace descending from Heaven or issuing from Christ on the altar.” [6] As for the detailed gestures, the interpretation of William Durandus is especially beautiful. The three crosses betoken the three times that Mary Magdalen brought fragrant spices or ointment to anoint the body of Our Lord Jesus Christ, while the three circles are crowns that symbolize the Trinity, the Three Persons to whom the Cross leads us. [7]Notes
[1] Joseph Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, vol. 2, 72, n. 11.
[2] Pius Parsch, The Liturgy of the Mass, 179.
[3] This shorthand method is similar to the biblical custom of describing God’s care for His creatures, e.g., Matt 6,26: “Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them.” God the Father does indeed feed the birds of air but through trillions of intermediary causes and not like an old man on a park bench.
[4] Tα σὰ ἐκ τῶν σῶν σoὶ προσφέροµεν, κατὰ πάντα, καὶ διὰ πάντα.
[5] Jungmann, vol. 2, 74.
[6] Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, 373.
[7] William Durandus, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum IV.31.3.
