The “Glory to the Father”, which marks the doxology and closes each decade of the rosary, is a powerful prayer allowing us to give glory to the Holy Trinity.
One of the shortest but most powerful prayers we can pray is the traditional “ Glory to the Father ”:
“Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, now and always, forever and ever. Amen. »
What are we doing when we say this prayer? The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The glory of God is that this manifestation and this communication of his goodness is realized for which the world was created.” ( CCC 294 ). When we pray Glory to God , we celebrate our experience of God’s goodness so generously shared. Cardinal Raneiro Cantalamessa recalls that the glory of God is nothing other than that of loving people freely. At the same time, he reminds us that “the fundamental sin is the refusal to glorify God. By refusing to glorify God, human beings are deprived of the glory of God.”
1GLORY TO THE FATHER
By saying “Glory to the Father ,” we glorify God because of His love for us. We glorify the Father when we recognize that the Father knows the worst about us, but uses that knowledge to love us even more, because we need him to love us more as his children. To glorify the Father is to praise the Father’s refusal to become fatalistic about our failures. To glorify the Father is to proclaim that we are loved simply because we belong to him. Praying Glory to the Father is asking for the grace to give oneself, like Jesus , to the Father in total obedience to his will.
2GLORY TO THE SON
By saying “Glory to the Son”, we mean, as the Byzantine liturgy sings, “Glory to the active presence of your providence in our lives, O Christ our King: through it, you have brought about salvation for all”. Archbishop Massimo Camisasca notes that “we glorify God by allowing ourselves to be drawn into the act of love that was accomplished on the cross.” As St. Ambrose declares: “I will not boast because I have been redeemed. I will not boast because I am free from sins, but because sins have been forgiven me. I will not boast because I am useful or because anyone is useful to me, but because Christ is my Advocate with the Father, because the blood of Christ was shed for me. » We glorify the friendship of the Son of God with us! We glorify the unfailing Real Presence of the Son!
By saying “Glory to the Holy Spirit,” we implore the Third Person of the Holy Trinity to come into our heart and take possession of our being. For we are aware of the fact that we can be inclined to be unspiritual – instead we are often carnal, worldly, venal, materialistic…self-centered instead of other-oriented. He who glorifies God goes to him with his weakness, his unworthiness, his helplessness, his sin. It is when we give ourselves to God in these moments that we glorify Him the most. Because then we depend on Him for everything, without any illusions about our own “goodness”. We glorify God through our awareness of our dependence on God and we crave continued transformation.
Amen 🙏🏻