Today at Mass we had the celebration of the Epiphany. In other words, a Holy Day where a lot of incense is used during church services. Now, incense has never been one of my favorite smells. It makes me sneeze. Today I viewed the use of incense from a whole new perspective. My boys were alter servers this morning. They (all 3 servers) took turns bringing Father Richard (who loves to use it liberally) the incense burner and the canister of incense all through mass as the services called for it. First I saw Peter holding it, waiting for Father to use, trying to turn his face away from the fumes. When he returned to his spot he tried to wave away the fumes (so much for the solemnity of the Mass) The girl they were serving with - sorry, I don't know her name, because my boys don't bother to find out because she is (and I shudder to say this) A GIRL. Steven even tells me she is in his Sunday School class and he doesn't know it. But I digress. The girl they were serving with had to leave the alter a few times because the smell of the incese was making her sick. Steven was trying to tough it out. I found out as we walked out to the car that the holder for the incense burner sits just out of sight by the alter servers, so even though the congrigation had a break in between Father's usages, they did not have any reprieve. We are home from Church now and Pete is rushing to change his clothes, because he tells me he can still smell the incense on his clothes.