The temple is a special place. You can come there just for the sake of praying in silence and solitude. Escape from our noisy world with its endless rush and bustle. Pray in front of the icons, put candles. In general, at least for a few minutes to renounce vanity. And catch a familiar and some kind of nagging smell. What smells like in an old church?
Incense accompanies the service
What it is? Incense for incense at worship. And one of the little answers to the question, what smells in the church. Frankincense is an aromatic wood resin.
Types of incense
There are several types of this incense:
Arabian Incense It is also called the present. It grows, respectively, in Arabia.
Somali incense. It has two more names - Abyssinian and African. The roots are in Ethiopia and Somalia.
Indian incense Grows, as the name implies, in India. And also in Persia.
What does he look like
This aromatic resin is a solid drop. All of them vary in size, yellow and translucent.
Smell
The church smells of incense, and this is not surprising. For he takes part in all church services. Censing without incense is impossible. And what is his smell? The aroma of incense is sweet, with a little lemon “inlays”.
Candle
One of the constant "satellites" of worship is candles. And not only in the service are they helpers. People who come to the temple, first of all, get a candle to put it in front of the icon. Therefore, the smell of candles can be safely added to the smell of incense when thoughts come to mind about what it smells in the church.
Types of candles
Church candles are of two types - wax and mixed with ceresin. Ceresin is not a pure wax, but a waxy substance with various impurities. And how are these candles different? And this is described in detail in the next subsection.
Wax candle
What smells in the church, what candles emit a delicate and pleasant aroma that you want to inhale again and again? Of course, wax. Wax is considered the purest substance. A candle is a small sacrifice to God from man. But is it possible to sacrifice something bad to God? No, He is supposed to give the best. And not as in a well-known proverb: "God, that I am worthless to you." And such an attitude towards the Creator is fundamentally wrong. But he does not forget to take care of us: he wakes up in the mornings, allowing him to see a new day, responds to our requests, helps and does not leave him in sorrow. Why aren't we trying to give Him the best?
Okay, let's leave the lyrics. God is always the purest - this is a truth established from antiquity. Pure incense for worship, clean candles, clean oil. In general, all the best. Other candles contain impurities, they can not be called pure. In addition to religious motivation, there is also a purely domestic one. Wax does not pollute the air, a pleasant aroma emanates from it, and most importantly, it does not smoke to such an extent that it spoils the temple murals and icons.
A candle is a symbol of the burning of human souls by faith. The symbol of the fire of the soul. Visible sacrifice to God from His sinful slaves. Someone will say that a wax candle is not cheap. Can a victim be cheap? It is done from the heart. When a person does something from the heart, wants to give a wonderful gift to a loved one, for example, he does not take into account costs. A candle is much cheaper than any decoration for a loved one.
Ceresin candles
Unlike wax, they consist of a waxy substance. And are not clean. And due to the fact that ceresin candles are a storehouse of impurities, they are also not very useful for use.
Why are candles so bad? Firstly, they smell bad. And if now, answering the question “what smells in the church?”, Only pleasant smells are recalled, then after talking with “fakes” -candles they will disappear. And this is only a minimum of trouble. The worst thing is that these candles are very smoked. And thereby spoil the beautiful temple paintings, pollute the icons.
Yes, they are cheap. But the quality is poor. Why they are being sold, another person wonders. Alas, the concept of benefit exists everywhere. And other parishes this word does not bypass. We will not develop this idea in order to avoid condemnation. We’ll just keep in mind that nothing better has been invented than wax candles.
Anointing
Anyone who has participated in this sacrament at least once knows what the church smells like, except for incense and wax. It smells of peace. And thus, calm, serene, not enduring the fuss, which is so lacking outside the gates of the temple. And the world - oil with the addition of various incense.
As a rule, the smell of such an oil is very pleasant and gentle. When can I run into him? At the time of anointing. This happens in the evening service when the priest paints a cross with oil on the forehead of a parishioner. This is a very crude explanation, but it was made in order to at least a little understand what anointing is.
And the rite is as follows: the believer is applied to the festive icon, standing in the center of the temple, closer to the pulpit. The priest, in turn, faces this icon, also in the center of the temple. After the person kissed the icon, he approaches the priest. And he performs the rank of anointing. Then this aromatic oil is rubbed all over the face.
Committing sins is so easy
Recall how the Circle sings: “In the old church it smells of wax, I can’t keep silent. To commit sins is so simple ...”
What's next, who will remember? "But don't just bathe." The singer, who had long passed away, very accurately noticed. Sin enters into us in tons, and leaves with great difficulty, barely. And how do we atone for our sins? First of all, by repentance. And not just in words. We came to confession, listed our sins, the priest read a permissive prayer over us and ...? And they went on to sin further. Do the same things that they repented of. What is the point of such a confession, the question is brewing.
The meaning of confession is true repentance. And it implies a denial of sin. Rethinking your own life when a person comes to the realization that everything! I don’t want to live this way and do this and that. This is the meaning of repentance, in the avoidance of sin and the voluntary abandonment of it.
When we sincerely repent, we apologize, then we want to at least bring a small contribution to God. And we think, what can we give to the One who gives us everything? Light a candle, pray from the heart, thank from the heart. This is completely within the power of everyone.
Superstition
Sometimes a person is perplexed: although I am not in church, it smells of incense. Indeed, this happens occasionally. No need to be scared. In fact, the body tends to sometimes wishful thinking. The so-called "crash in the program." Suppose someone has not eaten sausage for a long time, and really wants to eat it. And he thinks that the apartment smells of sausage, although there is no trace of it in the refrigerator, and no one can cut it at the moment. This is a game of the body, do not pay attention.
So it is here. People begin to panic, ascribing supernatural explanations to this. Until the warning of his own demise. All this is nonsense, the real one. Do not look for the mystical meaning in the place where it is not.
In general, there is no need to bind church and mysticism. God will never give man what he will not bear. As one nun used to say, when they started broadcasting in front of her that they were afraid to see or hear something otherworldly: "Well, keep your pocket wider."
Senseless and merciless
The husband comes home, the wife meets. It picks up a strange smell and thinks: “Why does it smell like a church from my husband? Oh, to be in trouble. Something will happen. He will probably die.”
Or maybe the husband after work went to the nearest church, put a candle. Not long ago, pulled him there. Is the husband an unbeliever? I went into the store, ran into some guy. And this guy turned out to be an altar boy. And the smell of the church is already saturated. So my husband was slightly saturated. So, dear ladies, do not bury your spouse ahead of time and begin to wind yourself up. There is always an explanation for everything. And it is better to approach the second half with a question about his last places of visit than to rack his brains over it.
And briefly about what you do not need to do. This is to believe grandmother's tales. Sometimes you go to the temple, and there, at the candlesticks, are the sharp-eyed grannies. They all see, they all notice. And they begin to hiss after: “I took the candle with my left hand, now I’ve cursed. You can’t put candles with your left hand, this is a sin. And you can’t approach the icon in trousers, God will punish. And heels like rattling like unclean hooves.” It’s familiar, yes? So, the policy of these grandmothers has nothing to do with Orthodoxy. What do they do at the temple then, being completely illiterate in this matter? They notice the shortcomings of others and teach life. It is worthwhile to treat this with humor, but in no case be scared and not take nonsense in your head.
Another smell
It is intangible, it is impossible to feel it with your nose. Only the soul. What smells in the church yet? Calmness and serenity. Like in a parental home, where they are waiting and love. Where you can completely relax, feel safe and trust loved ones. So it is in the temple, only there we trust in the Lord God Himself.
Summarize
So, we found out that the old church smells of wax, incense and peace. Recall again what it is.
Wax is an environmentally friendly material obtained as a result of the work of bees. From wax make real, fragrant candles for worship.
Frankincense is an aromatic wood resin. It is used as the main attribute for each, and, therefore, in the service. For censing is carried out during worship. Incense is of three types: Arabian, Somali and Indian. Its smell is sweet, with delicate impurities of lemon.
Miro - incense oil. It is used in the service to perform the rank of Anointing.
Conclusion
We learned from the article what it smells like in the church. We received brief information about what incense and candles are, what is the world, what is all this used for. We took into account the fact that superstition and faith are absolutely different things. Learned about the evil church grandmothers.
Therefore, summing up, I want to say that you should not pay attention to all kinds of rumors, sometimes found in the church environment. God sees everything: both our wax, clean candles, and our souls open to Him.