Temple is a special place. You can come there just like that, in order to pray in silence and loneliness. Escape from our noisy world with its endless rush and bustle. Pray before the icons, put candles. In general, at least for a few minutes to renounce vanity. And catch a familiar and some kind of aching smell. What does the old church smell like?
Incense accompanies the service
What is this? Incense for censing at worship. And one of the small answers to the question of what smells in the church. Frankincense is an aromatic tree resin.
Types of incense
There are several types of this incense:
- Arabian incense. It is also called real. It grows, respectively, in Arabia.
- Somali incense. It has two more names - Abyssinian and African. Roots lie in Ethiopia and Somalia.
- Indian incense. Grows, as the name implies, in India. And also in Persia.
What it looks like
This fragrant resin ishard drops. All of them vary in size, yellow and translucent.
Smell
The church smells of incense, and it's not surprising. For he takes part in all church services. Incense without incense is impossible. And what is his smell? The aroma of incense is sweet, with slight lemony "inserts".
Candle
One of the constant "companions" of worship are candles. And not only in the service they are assistants. People, coming to the temple, first of all get a candle to put it in front of the icon. Therefore, you can safely add the smell of candles to the smell of incense when thinking about what smells in the church comes to mind.
Types of candles
Church candles are of two types - wax and with an admixture of ceresin. Ceresin is not pure wax, but a waxy substance with various impurities. And what is the difference between these candles? And this is described in detail in the next subsection.
Wax candle
What smells in the church, what kind of 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 a person. Is it possible to sacrifice something bad to God? No, He is supposed to give the best. And not as in the well-known proverb to all of us: "On you, God, what is worthless to me." And such an attitude towards the Creator is fundamentally wrong. He does not forget to take care of us: he wakes us up in the morning, allowing us to see a new day, responds to ourrequests, helps and does not leave in grief. Why don't we try to give Him the best?
Okay, let's leave the lyrics. God is always all the purest - this is the truth established from antiquity. Clean incense for worship, clean candles, clean oil. In general, all the best. Other candles contain impurities, they cannot be called pure. In addition to religious motivation, there is also a purely domestic one. Wax does not pollute the air, it gives off a pleasant aroma, and most importantly, it does not smoke to such an extent as to spoil church frescoes and icons.
Candle is a symbol of the burning of human souls by faith. The symbol of the fire of the soul. A visible sacrifice to God from His sinful servants. Someone will say that a wax candle is not cheap. Can a sacrifice be cheap? It is made 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 consider costs. A candle is an order of magnitude cheaper than some decoration for a loved one.
Ceresin candles
Unlike wax, they consist of a waxy substance. And they are not clean. And due to the fact that ceresin candles are a storehouse of impurities, they are also not very useful for use.
What's wrong with these candles? First, they smell bad. And if now, answering the question "what does the church smell like?", only pleasant smells are remembered, then after communicating with "fake" candles, they will disappear. And that's just the bare minimum. The worst thing is that these candles smoke a lot. And thus spoil the beautiful temple painting,pollute icons.
Yes, they are cheap. But the quality leaves much to be desired. Why are they being sold, another person will ask. Alas, but the concept of benefit exists everywhere. And other parishes do not bypass this word. We will not develop this idea in order to avoid condemnation. Let's just keep in mind that nothing better than wax candles has yet been invented.
Anointing
Whoever participated in this sacrament at least once knows what smells in the church, except for incense and wax. It smells like peace. And thus, calm, serene, not tolerating 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 this oil is very pleasant and gentle. When can you meet him? At the moment of the anointing. This happens at the evening service, when the priest draws a cross in oil on the parishioner's forehead. This is a very rough explanation, but it is done in order to make it at least a little clear what chrismation is.
And the ceremony 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, stands facing this icon, also in the center of the temple. After the person has kissed the icon, he approaches the priest. And he performs the rite of Chrismation. This fragrant oil is then rubbed all over the face.
It's so easy to commit sins
Remember how Krug sings: "The old church smells of wax, I can't keep silent. It's so easy to commit sins…"
What's next, who will remember? "But don't just atone."Very accurately noticed a long-dead singer. Sin enters us in tons, and leaves with great difficulty, barely. And how do we atone for our sins? First of all, repentance. And not only in words. We came to confession, listed our sins, the priest read a permissive prayer over us and …? And go on sinning. Do the same things you repented of. What is the point of such a confession, the question is brewing.
The meaning of confession is true repentance. And it means renunciation of sin. Rethinking one's own life, when a person comes to the realization that everything! I don't want to live like this anymore and do this and that. This is the meaning of repentance, the avoidance of sin and the voluntary rejection of it.
When we sincerely repent, ask for forgiveness, then we want to bring at least a small contribution to God. And we think about what we can give to the One Who gives us everything? Light a candle, pray from the heart, thank from the heart. Everyone can do it.
Superstition
Sometimes a person wonders: although I'm not in church, it smells of incense. Indeed, this rarely happens. You don't have to be afraid of it. In fact, the body sometimes tends to wishful thinking. The so-called "glitch in the program". Suppose someone has not eaten sausage for a long time, and really wants to eat it. And it seems to him 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 the game of the body, do not pay attention.
Same here. people startpanic, attribute supernatural explanations to this. Until the warning of his own death. All this is nonsense, the real one. Do not look for mystical meaning where there is none.
In general, there is no need to link the church and mysticism. God will never give a man what he cannot bear. As one nun said, when they began to broadcast 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. He catches a strange smell and thinks: "Why does my husband smell like a church? Oh, be in trouble. Something will happen. He will probably die."
Or maybe the spouse went to the nearest church after work to light a candle. Haven't been for a long time, he was drawn there. Is your husband an unbeliever? I went to 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. Here and the husband slightly impregnated. So, dear ladies, do not bury your spouse ahead of time and start winding yourself up. There is always an explanation for everything. And it's better to approach the other half with a question about his last places to visit than to rack his brains over it.
And briefly about what not to do. This is to believe grandmother's tales. Sometimes you go into the temple, and there, by the candlesticks, sharp-eyed grannies. They all see, they all notice. And they begin to hiss after him: “I took the candle with my left hand, that’s cursed. You can’t put candles with your left hand, it’s a sin. And you can’t approach an icon in trousers, God will punish. Familiar, right? So, the policy of these grandmothers has nothing to do with Orthodoxy. What are they doing at the temple then, being absolutely illiterate in this matter? They notice the shortcomings of others and teach life. It is worth treating this with humor, but in no case be afraid and not take nonsense into your head.
Another scent
It's intangible, you can't feel it with your nose. Only soul. What else smells in the church? Tranquility and serenity. As in the parental home, where we are expected and loved. Where you can completely relax, feel safe and trust your loved ones. It is the same in the temple, only there we trust the Lord God himself.
Summarizing
So we found out that the old church smells of wax, incense and myrrh. Let's remember what it is again.
Wax is an environmentally friendly material obtained as a result of the labor of bees. Wax is used to make real, scented candles for worship.
Frankincense is an aromatic tree resin. It is used as the main attribute when every, and therefore in the service. For censing is carried out during worship. There are three types of frankincense: Arabian, Somali and Indian. It smells sweet, with gentle touches of lemon.
Miro - oil with incense. Used in the service to perform the rite of Chrismation.
Conclusion
From the article we learned what it smells like in the church. We received brief information about what kind of incense and candles are, what myrrh is, what all this is used for. They also took into account that superstition and faith are thingsabsolutely different. Learned for themselves the knowledge of the evil church grandmothers.
Therefore, summing up, I would like to say that you should not pay attention to all sorts of rumors that are sometimes found in the church environment. God sees everything: both our wax, pure candles, and our souls open to Him.
