Our Participation in Angelic Worship

"God... by the Incarnation brought together the heavenly and earthly realm" (Solemn Blessing of Christmas).

Fr Paul, O.P., the visiting priest at the Launceston Carmel and an old friend of mine, preached at the Dawn Mass on sacred music as our share in angelic worship. He noted that the Gospel of the Midnight Mass ended with a great throng of the heavenly host singing Gloria in excelsis (St Luke ii, 14), while the Dawn Gospel began by speaking of what the shepherds next did, the angels having gone back to heaven (ibid., verse 15): it thus appears that the celestial choirs were engaged in chanting hymns of adoration all the night long.  Indeed, ceaseless is their worship; many a Preface makes reference to this fact: how appropriate, therefore, to take us this liturgical hint and contemplate it in the new light of Christmas morn.

God the Word having taken on our mortal flesh, heaven is joined to earth; so, too, we men of earth may lift our voices in company with the angels, and join – here and now in foretaste, in all liturgical worship and, above all, at Mass; one day, please God, in endless fulfilment in the kingdom of heaven – in their unending praise of the Most High and Thrice-Holy.  They sing, fundamentally, in adoration of God as He Is, Triune, a Communion of infinite Love, Three Persons in One God evermore; they sing in praise of His mighty work of Creation; they sing, having beheld the Christmas Mystery and its completion at Easter, of God's still more prodigious work whereby the Almighty united heaven to earth for the salvation of mankind, that on earth there may be pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis.  In the words of the eschatocol of the first, the traditional Christmas Preface:

And so, with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominions, and with all the hosts and Powers of heaven, we sing the hymn of [God's] glory, as without end we acclaim...

Inter alia, I was amused that Fr Paul mentioned Pope Telesphorus as the Supreme Pontiff to whom is attributed the command to sing Gloria in excelsis at Christmas.  For I recall only one other priest who ever mentioned Telesphorus – it was my old parish priest Fr Jarrett, now a bishop, who, when years ago I, yes, too pedantically, queried why there had been no Gloria at Mass that Sunday, replied, firmly tongue in cheek (having been momentarily forgetful at Mass, and begun the Collect directly the choir finished the Kyrie that day), that I ought really recall that Pope Telesphorus had died on that day, and therefore Holy Mother Church sings no Gloria on his anniversary!

The Gloria in excelsis, the Angelic Hymn or Greater Doxology, begins of course by making our own the song of the angels recorded in Holy Writ, and then adds many phrases drawn from Sacred Scripture and Tradition.  At Mass at Carmel (as always when it is sung, and likewise the Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei) the Gloria had been chanted in the age-old Latin; Fr Paul reminded us that it is good and proper to value highly and rediscover the Church's patrimony of sacred music, especially in this Year of Faith, for Vatican II, fifty years ago, by no means called for a neglect of what it itself named and lauded as a great treasure; he reminded us that the Supreme Pontiff now gloriously reigning, no less than the Zeitgeist active among younger Catholics, seeks to cultivate and reconnect with these immemorial harmonies as a most fitting mode wherein to praise God, Who inspires all beauty.

Most of both Masses at Midnight and Dawn – certainly the Collect, the Preface, and so forth, but also the Gospel itself – were chanted by priest and people, thus singing to the Lord, in consonance with our morning homily.  Hearing the Nativity Gospels sung made one listen more carefully to each phrase; the texts' solemnity impressed on the mind by their ceremonial presentation as itself a ritual act, a principal part of Divine service. Worship is a lifting of the whole person to God by His grace, and this necessarily involves our minds, our hearts, our voices, our bodies and all that is ours, for we are both flesh and spirit in complex unity.

At the end of Mass, the Solemn Blessing reminded us that "God... by the Incarnation brought together the heavenly and earthly realm".  Last night, driving home after Midnight Mass, I spontaneously sang over the words of the recessional hymn, "O little town of Bethlehem", with its quiet assurance of salvation for those who receive the Christ Child in faith and truth:

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. 

For Christ is born of Mary, and gathered all above,

While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.

O morning stars together, proclaim the holy birth,

And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth! 

How silently, how silently, the wondrous Gift is giv’n;

So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His Heav’n.

No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in. 

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

Rubrical Notes

For mystical reasons, sevenfold are the gestures of the celebrant at Low Mass according to the Roman Missal when reciting the Gloria in excelsis:

1. at the opening exclamation, Gloria in excelsis Deo, the priest extends, raises and joins his hands, before devoutly bowing his head at Deo;
2. at Adoramus te, he likewise bows his head in worship of the Almighty;
3. at Gratias agimus tibi, he again bows his head in awefilled thanks;
4. at Jesu Christe, he bows his head in honour of the Holy Name of Jesus;
5. at suscipe deprecationem nostram, he humbly bows as a suppliant before Lord, that our prayer be accepted, our prayer for mercy;
6. when he repeats Jesu Christe, he again bows in adoration;
7. he makes the sign of the cross at the closing words in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

(Dominican priests, be it noted, do not cross themselves at the end; for mystical reasons, that their gestures be sevenfold, it may be noted that instead they begin the Gloria at the middle of the altar, then move back to the Epistle side to continue it.  Dormitionists do likewise.)

But it must be asked, why is it that, at the twice-prayed words miserere nobis, the celebrant does not strike his breast?  Certainly at these same words during the Agnus Dei he does so.

It will please, therefore, those souls anxious for orthopraxy (an alas! uncommon yearning in these unrubrical days, when to say Mass aright is looked on as affectation or worse), who wonder at such seeming omissions, to know – as was not mentioned earlier, owing to an oversight – that when the grave Dormitionist fathers offer the Holy Sacrifice, observing their own proper rite, they do in fact strike their breast at each repetition of miserere nobis during this, the Major Doxology.

Furthermore, is not this Dormitionist peculiarity most fitting?  For is not this canticle the Angelic Hymn, its opening quoting the glad cry of the heavenly hosts above Bethlehem that happy morn long ago, and the words following, devoutly composed, making various references to Scripture, by some Greek of the Primitive Church, fortunately put into better Latin by none other than St Hilary, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor?  Yes, in veneration of the nine choirs of the Holy Angels, the Dormitionist at the altar performs nine significant gestures during this, their hymn.

It is a wonder that more mediæval Mass-plans for sundry dioceses and Orders did not command the same, given the predilection of the Middle Ages for such numerical symbolism.

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It may also be noted that the Dormitionists observe to perform certain like gestures during the Lord's Prayer at Mass.  As is the custom at Milan, their priests bow their head at Sanctificetur nomen tuum, that even by their comportment they hallow God's ineffable name.  Likewise, following the practice at Hippo of old (as St Augustine reports), these Mass-saying penitential religious strike their breasts at Et dimitte nobis debita nostra.

(As they do not do so at all during their proper Agnus Dei, neither do they at the outset of Mass – having no Confiteor at that point – these men fulfil the expectations of God and nature by such a tunsio pectis, that speechless avowal of contrition, at two different points, not to mention during the Canon's Nobis quoque of course.)

As the rubrics direct, they say the Pater noster gazing in love and fear upon the Host, for Jesus Christ, truly present within the sacramental veil that conceals and yet reveals His Real Presence by its sacramental sign, is the visible consubstantial Image of the unseen God; and it is a devout custom of many to pause momentarily after the words Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, that the words Jesum Christum may be added mentally, as an aspiration of the heart's longing.

However, as their closely-related religious brethren the Friars Preachers do not cross themselves at the end of the Gloria in excelsis, neither do the Canons Sleepers make the signum crucis at the end of the Pater noster (a practice attested in England, at least amongst some schismatics).

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It would, of course, be ridiculous and unseemly to strike one's breast nine times at the Kyrie eleison.  Such an affected display of piety would seem hypocritical, and quite unworthy the sober austerity of the Roman liturgy.

"Mass should be frigid in its solemnity," as an old choir master of mine averred in outraged tones.

A Singable Gloria at Last

I surprised myself in the shower this morning by spontaneously singing Paul Taylor's setting of the Gloria in excelsis  (the new translation of course) from his Mass of St Francis – unlike all the unmemorable settings of the old ICEL paraphrase thereof (I recall my old parish priest saying that he'd never found an appealing one), this one is singable and tuneful.  I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, however, as in my parish we began singing Taylor's setting each Sunday back in January 2011, and the congregation sings it out with gusto.  The days seem so long ago when dreadful responsorial settings of the Gloria in excelsis were what passed for Catholic music at Mass.

Laus Angelorum Magna

The Ambrosian Rite Divine Office, prior to its reform under St Charles Borromeo, contained a version of the Gloria in excelsis included in its morning Office of Matins and Lauds; for better or worse, it was removed in 1582; but here it is, as found in an 11th C. manuscript:

Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. Laudamus te, hymnum dicimus tibi. Benedicimus te. Glorificamus te: adoramus te. Gratias tibi agimus propter magnam gloriam tuam, Domine Deus, rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens, Jesu Christe, sancte Spiritus. Domine Deus, Filius Patris: Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis: miserere nobis, subveni nobis, dirige nos, conserva nos, munda nos, pacifica nos. Libera nos ab inimicis, a tentationibus, ab haereticis, ab arrianis, a schismaticis, a barbaris: quia tu solus sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe, in gloria Dei Patris cum sancto Spiritu in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

(Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace to men of good will. We praise Thee, a hymn we say to Thee. We bless Thee. We glorify Thee: we adore Thee. Thanks to Thee we give for Thy great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father almighty, Jesu Christ, [and] Holy Ghost. Lord God, Son of the Father: Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Who sittest at the right of the Father, have mercy on us: have mercy on us, come to help us, direct us, preserve us, cleanse us, pacify us. Deliver us from enemies, from temptations, from heretics, from Arians, from schismatics, from barbarians: for Thou only art holy, Thou only art the Lord, Thou only art the Most High, Jesu Christ, in the glory of God the Father with the Holy Spirit unto the ages of the ages. Amen.)

Notice how this version of the Gloria in excelsis omits two phrases (Domine Fili Unigenite and the first Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis), while reordering certain phrases, and adding others... leaving aside the obviously added petitions ("have mercy on us, come to help us... deliver us... from barbarians"), it is closer in form to the original Greek form of this great doxology, which in the East in general is only used in the Divine Office, not in the Divine Liturgy. In particular, this Ambrosian Gloria mentions the Holy Ghost twice: once in the middle, with the Other Two Divine Persons, as the Byzantine recension does; and at the very end, with an added doxological conclusion, as if it took a cue from the Roman form of the Gloria.

The modern Ambrosian Rite Office now contains a revised version of this, slightly reordering words, omitting certain phrases (the rather un-politically correct "from heretics, from Arians, from schismatics, from barbarians" - a pity, since these are the four groups Christians do need to be delivered from!) and adding further versicles from the psalms (analogous to the last part of the Te Deum); this may be recited, pro opportunitate, on days when the Te Deum is not used, in its place (the Te Deum itself being a late interloper, only introduced at Milan in 1440):

Gloria in excelsis Deo, * et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
Laudamus te, hymnum dicimus tibi, * benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te.
Gratias tibi agimus propter magnam gloriam tuam, * Domine Deus, rex caelestis.
Deus Pater omnipotens, * Iesu Christe et sancte Spiritus.
Domine Deus, * Filius Patris
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, * suscipe deprecationem nostram;
Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, * miserere nobis.
Miserere nobis, subveni nobis, dirige nos: * conserva nos, munda nos, pacifica nos.
Libera nos ab inimicis, * a tentationibus.
Quia tu solus sanctus, * tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus,
Jesu Christe, * in gloria Dei Patris cum sancto Spiritu.

Per singulos dies benedicimus te, * et laudamus nomen tuum in æternum, et in sæculum sæculi. [Ps 144:2]
Dignare, Domine, die isto, * sine peccato nos custodire. [ex Te Deum]
Benedictus es, Domine, * doce me iustitias tuas. [Ps 118:12]
Vide humilitatem meam et laborem meum * et dimitte omnia peccata mea. [Ps 24:18]
Eructabunt labia mea hymnum, * hymnum Deo nostro. [Ps 118:171a; cf. 39:4]
Vivet anima mea et laudabit te, * et iudicia tua adiuvabunt me. [Ps 118:175]
Erravi sicut ovis, quae perierat: * require servum tuum, quia mandata tua non sum oblitus. [Ps 118:176]

Cito anticipent nos misericordia tua, Domine,+ quia pauperes facti sumus nimis, * adiuva nos, Deus salutaris noster. [Ps 78:8b-9a]
Benedictus es, Domine, Deus patrum nostrorum, * et laudabilis et gloriosus in sæcula sæculorum. Amen. [Dan 3:52a]

(Glory in the highest to God, * and on earth peace to men of good will.
We praise Thee, a hymn we say to Thee, * we bless Thee, we adore Thee, we glorify Thee.
Thanks to Thee we give for Thy great glory, * Lord God, heavenly King.
God the Father almighty, * Jesu Christ, and Holy Ghost.
Lord God, * Son of the Father,
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, * receive our prayer;
Who sittest at the right of the Father, * have mercy on us.
Have mercy on us, come to help us, direct us: * preserve us, cleanse us, pacify us.
Deliver us from enemies, * from temptations.
For Thou only art holy, * Thou only art the Lord, Thou only art the Most High,
Jesu Christ, * in the glory of God the Father with the Holy Spirit.

(Every day we will bless Thee: and we will praise Thy name for ever; yea, for ever and ever.
Vouchsafe, Lord, this day, * to keep us without sin.
Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me Thy justifications.
See my abjection and my labour, * and forgive me all my sins.
My lips shall utter a hymn, * a hymn to our God.
My soul shall live and shall praise Thee, * and Thy judgments shall help me.
I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost: * seek Thy servant, because I have not forgotten Thy commandments.
Let Thy mercies speedily prevent us, Lord, + for we are become exceeding poor, * help us, O God, our saviour.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord the God of our fathers, * and worthy to be praised, and glorified unto the ages of the ages. Amen.)