Q: You’ve said that a thurifer should use three single swings, not three double swings of the censer. Here is an interesting article I found which also has a very informative follow up section at the bottom of the page. Here is the link to it:
A: Thanks for this. I have seen this article, and I’ve read Peter Elliott’s book. It’s helpful in many ways, but he adds quite a bit of material that no longer appears in the liturgical books. GIRM 277 is a case in point. In both Latin and in English it calls for “three swings” – not “three double swings.” The Latin distinguishes between the three and two swings made toward most people and objects, ductus, from the series of single swings made for the altar, ictus. The first refers to an outward swing, the second to an upward one. Otherwise, the English translation is very faithful to the Latin.
As you can tell, I prefer to stick close to the rubrics as they appear in the liturgical books.