Weekly messages from our Pastor

This weekend the priests will be explaining to you the new changes in one of our oldest prayers, the Gloria. Recently I came across an article about the Gloria, written by a Catholic Priest from England, Fr. Dylan James. His brief words helped me to appreciate the Gloria in a new way, I hope it does the same for you.

The Gloria has its origin in the hymn of praise sung by the angels at Jesus’ birth when they appeared to the shepherds in the field at night. The angels sang, “Glory to God on the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will” (Lk 2:14). 

The angels’ hymn was elaborated by early Christians and its present Latin form, is first recorded in the 4th Century though most of it can be traced to the 3rd, 2nd, or even 1st Century. As such, this is one of the oldest prayers of the Mass and by saying it we are uniting ourselves with almost the entire history of Christianity. It is therefore hardly surprising that the new translation should seek to have us return to the rhythm and structure of this ancient prayer. 

Fr. James goes on to remind us that although the changes in the new text are slight, they are nonetheless continual through almost the entire text. He goes on to say that the overall change is in the structure and rhythm of the text, which enable us to re-connect with the format that has been used by the Church for almost our entire history.

As we honor our Blessed Mother this month, and as we prepare to remember all the souls and saints who have gone before us next month, the Gloria reminds us of the need to praise, bless, adore, glorify and give thanks to God. We do these things first of all, because God is God, but also, if it were not for the gift of his only begotten son, all of would be lost. All this said in the Gloria!

Yours in Christ,

Fr. John Francis Murray