Divine Liturgy
What is the Raising of Incense?
The Raising of Incense is a Coptic prayer service in which the priest offers incense before God while the Church prays thanksgiving, litanies, hymns, doxologies, Gospel prayers, and absolutions. It is served in the evening as Vespers and in the morning as Matins, especially before the Divine Liturgy and on feast days.
Scripture connects incense with prayer, and the Coptic rite gives that image a liturgical form. The incense rises before the altar while the Church gives thanks, asks for mercy, intercedes for the Church and the world, and remembers the saints.
Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
The Shape Of The Service
The service commonly includes the opening of the sanctuary curtain, the Lord's Prayer, the Thanksgiving Prayer, the offering of incense, the litanies, doxologies, the Creed
The priest censes the altar, sanctuary, icons, clergy, deacons, and people because the Church's prayer is gathered and offered before God. The people answer throughout the service, so the rite is the Church praying together.
Why It Comes Before The Liturgy
The Raising of Incense prepares the Church for the Eucharistic service. It places thanksgiving and repentance before offering, and it teaches the faithful to intercede before approaching the holy mysteries. The same language of incense continues during the readings and other parts of the Liturgy because the whole service is prayer rising to God.
This preparation is already worship. The Church stands before God, gives thanks, prays for mercy, hears the Gospel, and receives the priestly absolution before the Eucharistic offering continues.
- Coptic Rites (1): Raising of Incense, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Teaching slides on incense, prayer, liturgical order, and reverent participation.
- Coptic Rites (3): Liturgy of the Word, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Teaching slides on the Pauline, Catholic Epistle, Praxis, Synaxarium, Gospel litany, Creed, and related rites.
- Coptic Rites (4): Liturgy of the Believers, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Teaching slides on the Anaphora, institution narrative, invocation of the Holy Spirit, consecration, litanies, and Communion.
- Coptic Liturgies, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Overview of the Divine Liturgy, the three Coptic liturgies, and the principal parts of the Eucharistic service.
Raising of Incense: A Coptic service of psalms, doxologies, litanies, absolutions, and incense, commonly prayed in Vespers and Matins.
Incense: Fragrant offering used in worship as a biblical sign of prayer rising before God, especially around the altar, Gospel, icons, clergy, and faithful.
Vespers: The evening prayer service, often joined to the Raising of Incense, preparing the Church to enter the coming liturgical day in prayer.
Matins: The morning prayer service, often joined to the Raising of Incense before the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning.
Divine Liturgy: The Church's central Eucharistic worship, where Scripture, Creed, offering, thanksgiving, consecration, and Communion are gathered into one prayer before God.
Altar: The holy table in the sanctuary where the Eucharistic gifts are offered and consecrated, treated with reverence as the center of liturgical worship.
Sanctuary: The set-apart altar area of the church, entered by appointed clergy and altar servers according to the rite because it is ordered around the holy mysteries.
Creed: The Church's shared confession of faith, proclaimed in the Liturgy before the Eucharistic prayer as the faithful stand together in apostolic belief.