The Gloria (“Glory to God in the highest”) is one of the most familiar prayers to Catholics at the beginning of Mass. It disappears in Lent and Advent, which makes it a good time to think about it.
The Gloria is an ancient hymn, its antiquity evident by the terms it uses to speak about God and Jesus Christ. In the ancient Church, Christians wanted to compose hymn prayers that would evoke the Old Testament Psalms or the New Testament canticles. Only a few have survived, like the Gloria and the Te Deum. The earliest evidence we have of complete Latin text of the Gloria seems to come from just before 700.
The Gloria is a doxology—a prayer of praise. There are four types of prayer: praise, petition, intercession, and thanksgiving. Prayers of praise and adoration recognize that we stand before God our Creator, who also saves us from sin (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2628). The Gloria is often called the “Greater Doxology” to distinguish it from the “Little Doxology” (“Glory be to the Father and to the Son . . .”) more commonly prayed every day. Other examples of doxologies include the Te Deum and the “Great Amen” at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer.
Originally not part of the Mass, the Gloria was added to the Midnight Mass of Christmas in Rome and then extended to more festive occasions and Sundays, but only when a bishop celebrated.
The Gloria consists of three distinct parts: the opening prayer of the angels, the praise of God, and invocation of Christ. Let’s examine each.
The Prayer of the Angels
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will” comes from Luke 2:14. It is the song of the angels following the first angels’ announcement of the birth of Christ to the shepherds in Bethlehem.
Because of that opening, the Gloria has traditionally been associated with Christmas. The liturgical historian Josef Jungmann thinks that, in Rome, the pope sang the first line of the Gloria, which the ecclesial assembly then joined. He wonders whether the practice alludes to Luke 2, where the one angel’s announcement is then followed by the angelic choir.
Jungmann makes two observations about the angelic prayer. First, it may be a declaration, not a wish: the Incarnation of God as man is God’s glory and makes possible peace for men whose own will is good—i.e., who are open to God’s will. Second, it stresses the “already/not yet” about salvation: God has already made salvation possible, but the work of salvation won’t be finished until the Last Day. Every time Mass is celebrated, every time at Mass the Gloria is prayed, the achievement of salvation grows that much closer.
The Praise of God
From “We praise you” to “O God, almighty Father,” the Gloria praises God directly. We start with repetitive praise of God: “praise,” “bless,” “adore,” and “glorify.” In antiquity, multiplication of a theme emphasizes the praise and reverence of the one praying. We praise God not for what he has done for us, but purely because of who God is: “we give you thanks for your great glory.” The divine titles are all ancient ones: “Lord God,” “heavenly King,” “O God, almighty Father.” This last is essentially the beginning of the Apostles’ Creed.
The Invocation of Christ
The Gloria then transitions to specific invocation of Jesus Christ, starting with “Lord Jesus Christ, only begotten Son.” In reference to the Father, Jesus is “only begotten Son.” In reference to us, he is our Savior and Redeemer, and the titles reflect that: “Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.” We then have a threefold litany, focused on our redemption: “You take away the sins of the world” (twice) and “You are seated at the right hand of the Father” (which reflects Jesus’ position as savior and judge), each invocation accompanied by the traditional response, “have mercy on us.”
The Gloria then moves from invoking Christ into a full-throated doxology of the Trinity: he who is “the holy One,” “the Lord,” “the Most High” is praised “with the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father.”
In the ancient Church, God and Christ were the two shock points for heresy: the early Church was rocked by controversies over the relations of the persons in the Trinity and of Jesus’s divinity and humanity. That points to the age of this prayer: after the angelic salutation, the two main thrusts of the Gloria involve God and Christ. As Jungmann points out, the prayer unites God and Christ as the “pillars of the Christian order of the universe,” God as the beginning and end, the Alpha and Omega, to whom everything is directed in Christ.
There’s a principle in Catholic liturgy: lex orandi, lex credendi. Basically, it means that how we pray expresses what we believe. When we stop and listen to what we say in the Gloria almost every Sunday, we realize what a profound prayer of praise of God and invocation of the mercy of Christ it is. Take a careful look at it. You’ll better appreciate the Gloria’s return at Christmas Midnight Mass.