Holy Smoke - Bingo 23

Oh, my goodness I actually shuddered a bit at that incense.   When I was a little girl I felt faint whenever incense was burned in church and that remains true today.  I normally end up with a tissue planted firmly across my nose and mouth, not to inhale it until it disperses and there are stories of my Mom at my graduations anxiously peering across the church at me to make sure I was ok.  ?  Your information is fascinating, I had no idea.   Your photo is beautiful and I like yoru title and the background you chose - mimicing smoke.  

11 minutes ago, MariJ said:

Oh, my goodness I actually shuddered a bit at that incense.   When I was a little girl I felt faint whenever incense was burned in church and that remains true today.  I normally end up with a tissue planted firmly across my nose and mouth, not to inhale it until it disperses and there are stories of my Mom at my graduations anxiously peering across the church at me to make sure I was ok.  ?  Your information is fascinating, I had no idea.   Your photo is beautiful and I like yoru title and the background you chose - mimicing smoke.  

Your comments made me laugh a little, Marilyn! I admit to having a tickly nose and sneezing when incense is burning, too. But never fainting! Goodness! The use of the incense was meaningful to my daughter because she and her brother were both altar servers, and our church has a strong tradition of keeping servers until they graduate from high school. Only the oldest servers would get certain privileges when helping at High Masses, such as swinging the incense. It isn't unusual to have 12-20 servers for certain times, like Holy Thursday. It is so uncommon these days. The two gentlemen flanking the priest are actually the ones in charge of the church's altar server program, with the one on the right being a second (or maybe third?) generation director.

Oh that’s so cool about the generations and now that you say it, I DO remember certain times with lines of altar servers, I think now not enough kids sign up and sometimes there’s none.  In the Diocese around here girls were not allowed (imagine).   I think they have come around, though - again, because of shortages.
And oooohhhhh..  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone but the Priest or Bishop swing the incense.   As soon as I'd hear the dreaded “click, click” of the chain swinging I cringed.

LOL, I had to stop to read the comments- ROFL!!

Great layout. Love the journaling!!

1 hour ago, KarenDiamond said:

LOL, I had to stop to read the comments- ROFL!!

Great layout. Love the journaling!!

Glad you got a kick out of it Karen. Marilyn always has the most personal (and sometimes funny) things to say about a layout!