What is the purpose of the smoking ball that the priest carries in the Catholic Church?

Answer 1

It is surposed to be a pleasant fragrance travelling upwards to god in the same manner as their prayer..!!

Answer 2

Hi,

To Chris - Since Christ received gifty of incense and Myrrh he must have been a pagan. Maybe that Son of Horace theory makes sense.

Ok, the ball is used to spread out the smoke and smell of incense around the altar. Its use was explained adequately above.

Mike

Answer 3

It is incense.

The Catholic Church still uses incense, of course, in accordance with prophecy of Malachias, the fragrant smoke symbolizing our prayers rising to Heaven and purifying what it touches. The incense is kept in a covered, often boat-shaped liturgical vessel called, unsurprisingly, a "boat," which symbolizes the barque of Peter. The boat, made of bronze or brass and often silver or gold-plated, comes with a spoon for scattering the incense in the bowl-shaped matching burner, called a "thurible" or "censer." The thurible holds burning charcoal (or wood) to ignite the incense and hangs on chains so that it may be swung by the priest when censing things (or people) and so it may be easily carried by the thurifer -- the "Altar server" who assists the priest by carrying the incense.

http://www.fisheaters.com/incense.html

Obviously, it is Biblical, even though so many fundamentalists claim it isn't. Everything the Church does is Biblical...it's just that so many only read a few New Testament verses and never understand the true biblical nature of the Catholic Church.

Answer 4

Incense has been used to accompany and symbolize prayer in Judaism and Christianity for thousands of years.

In the Old Testament, God mandates the use of incense in Jewish worship:

"For burning incense you shall make an altar of acacia wood, ... "On it Aaron shall burn fragrant incense. Morning after morning, when he prepares the lamps, and again in the evening twilight, when he lights the lamps, he shall burn incense. Throughout your generations this shall be the established incense offering before the LORD. (Exodus 30:1-9)

Aaron makes an offering of incense:

"Thus shall Aaron offer up the bullock, his sin offering, to atone for himself and for his family. When he has slaughtered it, he shall take a censer full of glowing embers from the altar before the LORD, as well as a double handful of finely ground fragrant incense, and bringing them inside the veil, 3 there before the LORD he shall put incense on the fire, so that a cloud of incense may cover the propitiatory over the commandments; else he will die. (Leviticus 16:12-13)

See also Numbers 7:13-17.

And in the New Testament, the Magi bring frankincense, a type of incense, as an offering to Christ himself:

Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)

John the Baptist's father, Zechariah makes an offering of incense in the Temple sanctuary:

Once when he was serving as priest in his division's turn before God, according to the practice of the priestly service, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense. Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense offering, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense. (Luke 1:8-12)

John describes an angel with a golden censer offering large amounts of incense before the throne of God:

Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne. The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel. (Revelation 8:3-4)

In modern use, incensing is a symbol of purification and sanctification.

Incense may be used during the Mass during:
+ The entrance procession
+ The beginning of Mass, to incense the altar
+ The procession and proclamation of the Gospel
+ The offertory, to incense the offerings, altar, priest and people
+ The elevation of the Sacred Host and chalice of Precious Blood after the consecration

During funeral Masses, the priest may incense the coffin as a sign
+ Of honor to the body of the deceased which became the temple of the Holy Spirit at Baptism
+ Of the faithful’s prayers for the deceased rising to God

"Let my prayer come like incense before you." (Psalm 141)

For more information, see: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07716a.htm and http://landru.i-link-2.net/shnyves/incense_offering.htm
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/INCENSE.htm
http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/current/revmissalisromanien.shtml

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

It's called a "thurible" and it contains hot charcoals upon which incense is placed and incense smoke comes out of the top.

Incense is symbolic of our prayers rising before heaven...and the prayers of all the Saints.

It's very Scriptural: The Bible text about the altar of Incense is Exodus 30:1-10. The preparation of incense is described in Ex. 30: 34-36.

Answer 6

Its incense, its used to mark that something is sacred. Its a symbol an extremely old symbol marking all the way back to the early Jewish faith.

Answer 7

In the early days, it was because so few people wore deodorant, and the smoke smelled good. Now it's said to drive out evil spirits.

Answer 8

The incense rising towards heaven is supposed to represent the prayers of the faithful rising to God.

Answer 9

Misty:
Thanks for that website, it was very interesting and I enjoyed seeing the bible quotes. I knew they were in there and that's why Catholics did it, but I didn't know where the references were.

Answer 10

You ask what is the purpose?
In Gods eyes none!!