Yep. It’s a lot to breathe through and fortunately the last time I was involved (over a decade ago now) incense was no longer a regular, required, or even common part of the liturgy. …of course, this meant that sometimes the incense hadn’t been used in years and no one knew how potent it was, and it might take a while to get going, so someone (ahem) might load up the thurible in an attempt to get anything out of “oh this incense is old”, and end up filling the whole (smaller than usual) space with MUCH MUCH SMOKE.
Yep. You cannot stand still and wield a moving lump of hot metal. It will find you. But kudos to him for pulling that off without scattering hot coals everywhere!
I have wielded a thurible and it is an art. Nothing like a metal container full of hot coals and smoke that makes you slightly dizzy, moving continuously, on the end of a long chain, in close proximity to white robes, to get your reflexes really good!
Woohoo! Well done everyone for getting BCN to this point!