Glory Be
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
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Where Does This Prayer Come From?
No saint wrote the Glory Be.
No pope did either.
It grew out of the Church's worship.
And it starts with Jesus Himself.
Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
— Matthew 28:19
Father.
Son.
Holy Spirit.
Side by side.
The earliest Christian prayers of praise often gave glory to the Father through the Son.
Nothing wrong with that.
But in the 300s, the Arians leaned on that little word.
They taught that the Son was lesser than the Father.
Created.
Not eternal.
So Catholics everywhere settled on this form:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Every "and" in the Glory Be is a quiet answer: the Son and the Spirit are equal with the Father.
Then came the second half.
In 529, a church synod at Vaison, in Gaul, ordered "As it was in the beginning" to be said there, as it already was in Rome.
Why?
As a protest against Arianism.
Wait a second.
"In the beginning"?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
— John 1:1
Some scholars think the line first pointed to the Son.
He was there in the beginning.
He is now.
He ever shall be.
Today the Glory Be closes the psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours.
It closes every decade of the Rosary.
Many Lutherans, Anglicans and Methodists sing it too.
Short enough for a child.
Strong enough to answer a heresy.
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