Glory Be to the Father
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Glory Be to the Father, also known as Gloria Patri, is a doxology, a short hymn of praise to God in various Christian liturgies. It is also referred to as the Minor Doxology (Doxologia Minor) or Lesser Doxology, to distinguish it from the Greater Doxology, the Gloria in Excelsis Deo.
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[edit] The Greek original
The original Greek wording is as follows:
- Δόξα Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ καὶ Ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι,
- καὶ νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.
- Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
- Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen
This is the form used in the early Church, both East and West, and which continues to be used by the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Eastern Catholic Churches.
[edit] The later Latin version
- Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,
- Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum,
Amen.
- Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
- As it was in the beginning, is now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
In 529 the Second Synod of Vasio (Vaison in the province of Avignon) said that the additional words Sicut erat in principio are used in Rome, the East, and Africa as a protest against Arianism, and orders them to be said likewise in Gaul (can. v.). As far as the East was concerned, the synod was mistaken. These words have never been used in any Eastern rite and the Greeks complained of their use in the West [Walafrid Strabo (9th century), De rebus eccl., xxv].
The doxology in its current form has been used in the West since about the seventh century.[citation needed]
[edit] Usage
In the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Eastern Catholic Churches, it is frequently used at diverse points in services and private prayers.
In Catholicism, it is frequently chanted or recited in the Liturgy of Hours, or Divine Office, used by the clergy, principally at the end of psalms and canticles and in the responsories. It also figures in the introit and other prayers of the liturgy of Tridentine Mass. The prayer figures prominently in non-liturgical devotions, notably the rosary. The Glory Be prayer is prayed during the Rosary on the large beads which separate the five sets of ten smaller beads, called decades, upon each of which a Hail Mary is prayed.
Also, Lutherans have historically added the Gloria Patri after the recitation or chanting of the Psalm during the Service of the Word.
In Methodism, including the United Methodist Church, the Gloria Patri is found in #70 of the United Methodist Hymnal.
- Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost;
- as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
- world without end. Amen. Amen.
Similar wording is found in many other Protestant Hymnals.
[edit] In various languages
[edit] In Church Slavonic
The original version in Church Slavonic:
- Слава Отцѹ и Сынѹ и Свѧтомѹ Дѹхѹ,
- И нынѣ и приснω и во вѣки вѣкωмъ. Аминь.
This is the original phrasing, still used by the Old Believers, but with the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow, вѣкωмъ was replaced with вѣкωвъ, giving и во вѣки вѣкωвъ. This change initially only affected the Russian Orthodox state church, but the influence of liturgical books printed in the Russian Empire, eventually lead to the adoption of и во вѣки вѣкωвъin most Slavic lands, displacing the older вѣкωмъ. Still, вѣкωмъ never died out entirely, and among those who were unaware of the older usage, any who used it were considered uneducated.
The Latin version, with the additional clause, reads in Slavonic thus:
- Слава Отцѹ и Сынѹ и Свѧтомѹ Дѹхѹ,
- Якоже бѣ искони, и нынѣ и приснω и во вѣки вѣкωмъ. Аминь.
[edit] In Maltese language
Glorja lil Missier u lil Iben u lil Ispirtu Santu.
Kif kien mill-bidu, issa u għal dejjem ta' dejjem, Amen.
[edit] External links
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
