I will be representing our Daily Prayer community at First Presbyterian Church this Wednesday evening, January 31. As I begin my preparation for my first (of two presentations, the second on February 7), I've spent some time acquainting myself with the Book of Common Worship: Daily Prayer (Louisville, KY: Westminter John Knox Press, 1993) and am struck with the historic sensitivity and beauty of this prayer book. It will be an absolute delight to let our Presbyterian friends know that they have a real treasure in their hands. The book surprises me on a number of occasions: it's attractive, well designed, and easy to use. Let me tell you about one small delight: a rubric that announces the permissive use of incense. After the Service of Light (with the singing of the Phos Hilaron, and just before the first Evening Psalm), this prayerbook says, "While Psalm 141 is being sung, incense may be burned." What an appropriate action to accompany the opening words of Psalm 141: "Let my prayer rise before you as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Many years ago--long before my "desert wanderings"--while visiting St. Augustine's House, a Lutheran monastary in Oxford, Michigan, I often sang Vespers with incense, sometimes so thick I could barely see across the chapel. But, of course, it's been many years since incense has accompanied my Evening Prayers (even though I often and quietly sing the Psalm 141 at Vespers).

Liturgy & Music, sponsored by the Episcopal Church provides this information about the use of incense:

When burned or heated, usually over charcoal, certain woods and solidified resins give off a fragrant smoke. Both the materials and the smoke are called incense. Incense was widely used in Judaism and other cultures of the ancient world as a means of sacrifice, purification, and veneration. Frankincense or pure incense, the resin of certain trees, was among the gifts brought by the Magi to the young child Christ (Mt 2:11). Despite this scriptural precedent, early Christians avoided incense as a pagan practice connected with sacrifice and emperor worship, and churches did not begin to use it until the fourth century. Thereafter incense was burned at several points in the Daily Office and the Eucharist, and extensively in eastern churches. For Christians today, incense is associated mainly with prayer, as Rv 8:3-4 suggests. Many Anglicans feel free to use it as a sacred symbol and aid to worship. The first option in the BCP for an opening sentence at Evening Prayer is "Let my prayer be set forth in your sight as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (Ps 141:2) (BCP, pp. 61, 115). The BCP states that incense may be used during the singing of Phos hilaron in the "Order of Worship for the Evening" (p. 143), and during the covering of the altar in the "Consecration of a Church." There are congregations where incense is used at the Easter Vigil and other major feasts, and some parishes use it regularly on Sunday.

Perhaps when we meet sometime together soon, we might spend a little time talking about the ceremonials that have traditionally accompanied the Daily Offices. Just an idea for a topic.