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Gloria in excelsis Deo (Part 2)Use of the GloriaThe present law about the use of the Gloria is given by the Rubricæ generales of the Missal, VIII 3. It is to be said in Mass whenever the Te Deum is said at Matins -- with two exceptions. It is therefore omitted on ferias (except in Eastertide), Ember days, vigils, during Advent, and from Septuagesima till Easter, when the Mass is de tempore. The feast of Holy Innocents, but not its octave, is kept with purple vestments and without the Te Deum or Gloria. We have seen this already in the Micrologus above). Nor is the Gloria said at Requiem or votive Masses, with three exceptions: votive Masses of the Blessed Virgin on Saturdays, of Angels, and those said pro re gravi or for a public cause of the Church, unless with purple vestments, have the Gloria. The two cases in which it occurs without the Te Deum in the Office are Maunday Thursday (when the whole Mass is an exception in Passiontide and has no correspondence with the canonical hours) and Holy Saturday in the first Easter Mass. The Gloria always involves "Ite missa est" at the end of Mass. When it is not said that versicle is changed to "Benedicamus Domino" or, in Requiems, to "Requiescant in pace."The manner of saying it is described in the Ritus celebrandi Missam, IV 7. In the Ordo Romanus I (above) the celebrant turns to the people to say the first words. That is no longer observed. At high Mass as soon as the Kyrie is finished the celebrant facing the altar in the middle, intones: "Gloria in excelsis Deo," raising, joining, and lowering his hands and bowing his head at the word Deo. Meanwhile the deacon and subdeacon stand behind him in line. They then come to his right and left and with him continue the Gloria in a low voice. All bow at the holy name (it occurs twice) and at the words: "Adoramus te," "Gratias agimus tibi," "Suscipe deprecationem nostram" and make the sign of the cross at the last clause. They then go per viam breviorem (genuflecting first, according to the usual rule) to the sedilia and sit. Meanwhile the choir immediately continues: "Et in terra pax," and sings the text straight through. In the former Missal four chants were printed for the celebrant's intonation (for Doubles, Masses of BVM, Sundays, and Simples). This intonation ought to be in every way part -- the beginning -- of the melody continued by the choir; so in the new ("Vatican") edition of the missal, eighteen alternative chants are given, one for each Gloria in the Gradual. Obviously, when a plainsong Mass is sung, the celebrant should intone the Gloria to the same chant (and at the same pitch) as its continuation by the choir. The ideal is for the choir to go on at once without any sort of prelude by the organ; "Et in terra pax" etc. is the second half of the same sentence as "Gloria in excelsis Deo." In a figured Mass so exact a correspondence is not possible. But in any case the choir may never repeat the celebrant's words. Every Gloria in a figured Mass must begin: "Et in terra pax." The custom -- once very common -- of ignoring the celebrant and beginning again "Gloria in excelsis" is an unpardonable abomination that should be put down without mercy, if it still exists anywhere. While the Gloria is sung, the celebrant, ministers, and servers bow (or uncover) at the holy name and the other clauses, as above. During the last clause the celebrant and ministers rise and go to the altar per viam longiorem (genuflecting at the foot, according to rule) and go to their places for the "Dominus vobiscum" before the Collect. At a sung Mass the same order is observed by the celebrant alone. At low Mass he recites the Gloria straight through clara voce, making the sign of the cross during the last clause (In gloria Dei Patris. Amen). Mystic and edifying reflections on the Gloria will be found in Durandus and Gihr (see below). Durandus sees much symbolism in the fact that the Church (that is, men) continues the angels' hymn. By the birth of Christ who restores all things in heaven and on earth (Eph 1:10), angels and men, separated by original sin, are now reconciled; men may now hope some day to join in the angels' hymns. Gihr gives a devotional commentary on the text, word for word. He sees a mystic reason for the order of the words: Laudamus, benedicimus, adoramus, glorificamus. One may be edified by such considerations without attributing so much sublety to the unknown subordinationist who apparently first arranged them. It will be noticed that the Gloria is a hymn of praise addressed to each Person of the Holy Trinity in turn, although the clause about the Holy Ghost is very short (cum sancto Spiritu) and is evidently an afterthought. It does not occur in the text of the Apostolic Constitutions. It will also be seen that the clauses are arranged in parallels with a certain loose rhythm. This rhythm is much more evident in the Greek original (measured of course by accent); for instance: Kyrie basileu epouranie,Lastly, it would be difficult to find in any Liturgy a more beautiful example of poetry than our hymnus angelicus. The Gloria and the Te Deum are the only remains we now have of the psalmi idiotici (psalms composed by private persons instead of being taken from the Biblical Psalter) that were so popular in the second and third centuries. These private psalms easily became organs for heretical ideas, and so fell into disfavour by the fourth century (Batiffol, Histoire du Bréviaire romain, Paris 1895 9-12). The extraodinary beauty of these two (to which one should add the phos hilaron) is a witness to the splendour of that outburst of lyric poetry among Christians during the time of persecution. For texts and variations of the Gloria see BUNSEN, Analecta ante-nicæna (London 1854), III; PROBST, Lehre u. Gebet p.289; WARREN, The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Oxford 1881); The Mass of Flacius Illyricus in PL CXXXVIII 1314; DURANDUS, Rationale divinorum officiorum IV 13; BONA, Rerum liturgicarum libri duo, II 2; BENEDICT XIV, De SS. sacrificio Missæ, II iv 9-17; DUCHESNE, Origines du culte chretien (2nd ed, Paris 1898), 158; GIHR, Das heilige Messopfer (6th ed, Freiburg im Br 1897), 361-374; CABROL Le livre de la priere antique (Paris 1900) IX 150-156; DE HERDT, Sacræ Liturgiæ praxis (9th ed, Louvain 1894). §§211, 314; THALHOFER, Handbuch der kath. Liturgik (Freiburg im Br 1890), I 361 sqq. ADRIAN FORTESCUE
See New Advent Catholic Website See also CNP's Booklet of Chant, Volume IV [Masses] |
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