Clerestory Notes

Commentary -

The words of Gloria Patri have been prayed, spoken and sung in the church since ancient times. Sometimes referred to as the “Lesser Doxology,” to distinguish it from the “Greater Doxology” of Gloria in Excelsis Deo, Gloria Patri draws the essence of its text from Scripture – from Christ’s instructions that His disciples are to be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), from the many epistolary doxologies proclaiming glory to God forever and ever (for example, Romans 11:36, 1 Timothy 1:17, Hebrews 13:21), and from the doxology of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:13). Early church Fathers such as Hippolytus and Origen employed similar expressions of praise. This form of the doxology became increasingly common in liturgies during the fourth century, when the theological controversy over the divine nature of Christ sparked by the Arian heresy was at its height.

In this brief, rich song of praise and prayer, we declare not only our belief in the Trinity. We proclaim the whole story of God – Creation, Incarnation, and Re-Creation of all things – and His sovereign majesty from the beginning, now in the present, and ages unto ages hence.

In many traditions, the Gloria Patri is spoken or sung after the reading, singing, or chanting of psalms and canticles. In the Daily Office, it is sung as versicle and response (including the text from Psalm 51:15) with the lyric form used in this musical setting, early in the service after Confession, as well as following the recitation of the psalms. This Gloria Patri setting can be used as a sung prayer of Invocation. It can also be sung without the optional Cantor’s introduction, as a response or closing to times of corporate prayer and ministry one to another.

Key: E

Gloria Patri is available as a lead sheet and as vocal line with piano accompaniment.