From Sins and Mercy to Glory

Following the confession of our sins, the absolution by the Priest, and the invocation of God’s mercy, we arrive at the angelic hymn, “Glory to God in the Highest,” sung or said on Sundays (except during Advent and Lent), and also on Solemnities and Feasts. 
 
Pope Francis spoke of this journey: “we have seen that the Penitential Act helps us to strip ourselves of our presumptions and to present ourselves to God as we truly are, conscious of being sinners, in the hope of being forgiven. It is in the very encounter between human misery and divine mercy that the gratitude expressed in the ‘Gloria’ comes alive; ‘a very ancient and venerable hymn in which the Church, gathered together in the Holy Spirit, glorifies and entreats God the Father and the Lamb’ (GIRM 53). The beginning of this hymn — ‘Glory to God in the Highest’ — recalls the song of the Angels at Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem: a joyful heralding of the embrace between heaven and earth. This song also engages us, gathered in prayer: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will’” (January 10, 2018).
 
Edward Sri, in his book A Biblical Walk Through the Mass, noted that “there is a sense in which every Mass makes present the mystery of Christmas once again. As God was made manifest to the world in the baby Jesus some two thousand years ago, so he is made present sacramentally upon our altars at the consecration in every Mass.  We thus prepare ourselves to welcome Jesus by repeating the same words of praise that the angels used to herald Christ’s coming in Bethlehem” (pp. 42-43).
 
This prayer and hymn of praise, blessing and adoration of the Holy Trinity, only about twenty lines, is worth an occasional slow, thoughtful reading, and perhaps memorization.  It has been sung at the Mass for centuries, and there are hundreds of musical settings, from chant to polyphony to beloved classical musical settings by Fr. Antonio Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, and Francis Poulenc. A YouTube search of “Gloria in excelsis Deo” will return a great number of beautiful recordings.