Incensing a Deacon at Solemn Vespers
Date: July 14, 2024
Author: Fr. Edward McNamara, LC
Question: This question has to do with when a deacon leads solemn vespers. During the time of the Magnificat, after he has incensed the altar, is the deacon also incensed or not? What about the people gathered at the prayer, are they also incensed? Some people say that the deacon is not a priest and thus should not be incensed, while others say that he is the presider and so should be incensed. Some say that if you don’t incense the deacon, then you shouldn’t incense the people either. Can you clarify this for me? -- J.N., Sunyani, Ghana
Answer: This question proved more difficult to answer than I originally thought. There is quite a variety of practices throughout the Church and the norms are not all that clear.
At first glance there would seem to be relatively clear norms in the General Introduction on the Liturgy of the Hours, To wit:
“Chapter V-I. The Various Roles
“253. In the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, as in all other liturgical actions, ‘the person, whether minister or member of the faithful, who exercises a role, should perform everything that belongs to him by the nature of his role and the rules governing the liturgy, and nothing else.’
“254. If a bishop presides, especially in the cathedral, he should be attended by his priests and by ministers, with full and active participation by the people. A priest or deacon should normally preside at every celebration with the people, and ministers should also be present.
“255. The priest or deacon who presides at a celebration may wear a stole over the alb or surplice; a priest may also wear a cope. On a greater solemnity there is nothing to prevent several priests from wearing copes or several deacons from wearing dalmatics.
“256. It is for the presiding priest or deacon, from the chair, to open the celebration with the introductory verse, to begin the Lord’s Prayer, to say the concluding prayer, to greet the people, bless them and dismiss them.
“257. Either the priest or a minister may give out the intercessions.
“258. In the absence of a priest or deacon, the one who presides at the Office is only one among equals; he does not enter the sanctuary, or greet and bless the people.
“261. During the Gospel Canticle at Morning and Evening Prayer the altar, then the priest and the people, may be incensed.”
According to the above norms the deacon should not wear the cope if he presides. No. 261 mentions only the priest and people being incensed but otherwise does not make restrictions as to when incense may be used or not. It is not clear if this excludes the presiding deacon being incensed or not.
While the above General Introduction would seem to exclude the deacon wearing the cope for the Liturgy of the Hours, the Ceremonial of Bishops (No. 192) foresees the possibility of deacons wearing either cope or dalmatic if they are assisting a bishop presiding vespers on major solemnities. On other simpler celebrations they should accompany the bishop “vested in alb and dalmatic” (No. 209). This latter would also be the vesture when accompanying a priest on solemn celebrations of the liturgy of the hours.
Since the publication of the revised Liturgy of the Hours in 1970, there have been many changes in the role of deacons and the above restrictive norms no longer seem to make much sense.
Some liturgists ask why the cope, which any ordained minister may wear when presiding at baptisms, weddings, funerals, Benediction, and solemn blessings, would be denied to deacons when presiding over lauds and vespers (but allowed when assisting the bishop)?
Because of this, there is no little confusion in different diocesan norms. Some follow the instruction and deny the cope to deacons presiding at the Divine Office; others make no restriction whatsoever and allow its use.
My opinion would be that the norm reflected liturgical practice prior to 1970 in which, while foreseeing the possibility of a deacon presiding at the Liturgy of the Hours, did not contemplate that a deacon would ever preside a solemn celebration of the Divine Office.
In the decades that have followed, the deacon’s role has been greatly enhanced in both law and practice, and it does occasionally occur that the deacon presides at a solemn celebration. This could well be an increasing phenomenon.
Hence, In the light of subsequent developments in practice and norms, I suggest that there is currently no good reason to exclude this vestment for the deacon in the Liturgy of the Hours.
With respect to the sacraments and sacramentals, a general rule of thumb found in the liturgical books is that whenever a deacon acts as presider in a liturgical celebration in the absence of a priest, he follows the same liturgical practices as the priest.
In other words, in celebrations that foresee the possibility of their being presided over by a priest or deacon, the deacon carries out the rites in the same way as the priest unless the rubrics themselves explicitly make a distinction.
As noted above, although No. 261 of the General Introduction only mentions the priest being incensed, it does not place any restrictions as to when incense may be used during the celebration of lauds or vespers.
Therefore, it does not seem to exclude the possibility that a deacon may bless the incense and perform the ritual incensation when he presides at solemn morning or evening prayer, just as the liturgical books foresee him doing at Benediction, a funeral service outside of Mass and other similar occasions.
If he can perform the ritual incense, then liturgical logic would allow for him to be incensed as the presider before the people.
Once more, there is little or no consensus with diocesan norms. Most seem to ignore the question and omit any reference to the deacon incensing during the Gospel canticles.
After all, we are dealing with a rite that is always optional at this moment. Rather than incensing, most pastoral instructions stress the importance of singing these canticles.
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