Glória in excélsis Deo. Et in terra pax homínibus bonæ voluntátis. Laudámus te. Benedícimus te. Adorámus te. Glorificámus te. Grátias ágimus tibi propter magnam glóriam tuam. Dómine Deus, Rex cæléstis, Deus Pater omnípotens. Dómine Fili unigénite, Iesu Christe. Dómine Deus, Agnus Dei, Fílius Patris. Qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis. Qui tollis peccáta mundi, súscipe deprecatiónem nostram. Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris, miserére nobis. Quóniam tu solus Sanctus. Tu solus Dóminus. Tu solus Altíssimus, Iesu Christe. Cum Sancto Spíritu, in glória Dei Patris. Amen.
✦Glory be to God on high. And on earth peace to men of good will. We praise thee. We bless thee. We adore thee. We glorify thee. We give thee thanks for thy great glory. O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father almighty. O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father. Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Who sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For thou only art holy. Thou only art the Lord. Thou only, O Jesus Christ, art most high. With the Holy Ghost, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
The Gloria — the Greater Doxology, or the Angelic Hymn — opens with the very song the angels sang over Bethlehem on the first Christmas night: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will" (Luke 2:14). From that heavenly overture the hymn unfolds into a great outpouring of praise to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
It is one of the most ancient hymns of the Church, composed in Greek by perhaps the second or third century as a morning hymn of praise, and later received into the Latin Mass. In the traditional rite the priest intones it after the Kyrie on Sundays and feasts — but it falls silent in the penitential seasons of Advent, Septuagesima, Lent, and Passiontide, and in Masses for the Dead, so that its return rings out all the more joyfully at Christmas and Easter.
At the Gloria of the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday the church bells are rung in jubilation, and then fall silent until the Gloria of the Easter Vigil, when they peal again — a vivid sign of the Church's mourning through the sacred Triduum and her joy at the Resurrection.
Glory be to God on high.
And on earth peace to men of good will.
We praise thee. We bless thee.
We adore thee. We glorify thee.
We give thee thanks for thy great glory.
O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father almighty.
O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son.
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.
Who sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.
For thou only art holy. Thou only art the Lord.
Thou only, O Jesus Christ, art most high.
With the Holy Ghost, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Glória in excélsis Deo.
Et in terra pax homínibus bonæ voluntátis.
Laudámus te. Benedícimus te.
Adorámus te. Glorificámus te.
Grátias ágimus tibi propter magnam glóriam tuam.
Dómine Deus, Rex cæléstis, Deus Pater omnípotens.
Dómine Fili unigénite, Iesu Christe.
Dómine Deus, Agnus Dei, Fílius Patris.
Qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis.
Qui tollis peccáta mundi, súscipe deprecatiónem nostram.
Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris, miserére nobis.
Quóniam tu solus Sanctus. Tu solus Dóminus.
Tu solus Altíssimus, Iesu Christe.
Cum Sancto Spíritu, in glória Dei Patris. Amen.
Glory be to God on high.
And on earth peace to men of good will.
We praise thee. We bless thee.
We adore thee. We glorify thee.
We give thee thanks for thy great glory.
O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father almighty.
O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son.
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.
Who sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.
For thou only art holy. Thou only art the Lord.
Thou only, O Jesus Christ, art most high.
With the Holy Ghost, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.