The thurible is a metal bowl on chains in which incense is burned over charcoal and swung during worship, and its use turns a fragrance into an enacted prayer.
What the censing means
Incense is burned and the thurible swung to cense the altar, the book of the gospels, the clergy and the people, and the offerings, and the act carries a scriptural sense drawn from the psalm that likens prayer rising to God to the rising of incense. The censing therefore honours what is censed and figures the ascent of prayer at once, so the same gesture directed at the altar, at a person, or at the congregation both reverences it and lifts up the prayer of the assembly. The rising smoke makes an invisible offering visible.
East and West
The thurible is used in the Catholic, Orthodox and some Anglican and Lutheran traditions, and its handling differs: the Eastern censer commonly carries small bells on its chains that sound as it is swung, while the Western form is silent. The number of swings and the objects censed are governed by rule and vary with the solemnity of the occasion. The object is ancient, the offering of incense being older than Christianity and shared with many traditions, and the church took it up as a sign at once of honour, of purification, and of prayer ascending.