Q: I am seeking your opinion. A friend sent me the following Zenit article
<https://zenit.org/2024/07/17/questions-about-liturgy-incensing-a-deacon-at-solemn-vespers>
that seems to suggest that it would be OK for a deacon who is presiding solemn vespers or lauds to be incensed.
(It also seems to suggest that a deacon may wear a cope when presiding vespers or lauds.)
Thank you, and God bless.
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A: GILH 261 does not say who incenses when a priest presides, but he obviously does not incense himself, so logically a deacon or acolyte would incense him and the people after he incensed the altar, as happens at Mass.
The use of incense is permitted when a deacon presides for solemn vespers or lauds. But GILH 261 does not explicitly include him as an object of incensation. This is also coherent with the practice at Mass, when deacons are not incensed apart from the people. Furthermore, the Liturgy of the Hours is in a second edition since 1970, and its general instruction, republished in 2000, has not changed no. 261. Consequently, I maintain that a deacon who presides at solemn vespers or lauds incenses the altar and the people, and no one incenses him.
For similar reasons, I would argue that the deacon does not wear the cope for these prayers. Although the article you cite states that a deacon wears the cope for other ceremonies including weddings outside Mass, the second edition of the Order of Celebrating Matrimony still assigns a cope for that ceremony to the priest, whereas a deacon wears a dalmatic (OCM 80).
Again GILH 255 has not changed with the second edition, so I think it means what it says when it restricts the cope to a priest, not to a deacon.
It is true that in other ceremonies, a deacon may wear a cope, but that apparently does not apply in every instance of his presiding. I’m not sure why.