Shortest and Most Powerful Christian Prayer
One of the shortest yet most powerful Christian prayers on earth is the traditional “Glory be” prayer:
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
About the Glory Be Prayer
The Catechism tells us that the glory of Almighty God consists in the realization of the manifestation and communication of God’s goodness (see CCC 294). When we pray the Glory be, we are in essence acclaiming our experience of God’s goodness that is so richly and generously shared with us.
Acknowledging and honoring God’s glory means to love God with our whole mind, heart, and soul. It also means by extension, to love other people (His children) freely and gratuitously. Cardinal Raneiro Cantalamessa states that “Basic sin is the refusal to glorify God. By refusing to glorify God, the human being becomes deprived of the glory of God.” Because we never want to be deprived of the glory of God, let us pray always and continually the Glory be!
The Glory be in detail
In praying “Glory be to the Father” … we glorify God for loving us into existence. We acknowledge that He knows the worst about us but, in His unfailing love for us, He uses that knowledge of all things to love and guide us further. When we glorify the Father, we praise Him for not focusing on our failures and shortcomings; we proclaim that we are loved simply because we are His. Glory is “the love that is expressed when Jesus Christ gives Himself in total obedience to the Father’s will” (Fr. Francis Martin). To pray Glory be to the Father is to ask to be granted the grace to give ourselves to the Father in total obedience to His will like Jesus did. While this prayer takes courage and sacrifice, it comes with eternal blessings.
In praying “Glory be to the Son” … we mean, as the Byzantine liturgy sings: “Glory be to the active presence off Your providence in our lives, O Christ our King: through it, You have wrought salvation for all.” Bishop Massimo Camisasca has said that “we glorify God by allowing ourselves to be drawn into the act of love that was accomplished on the Cross.” As St. Ambrose exclaimed, “I will not glory because I have been redeemed. I will not glory because I am free of sins, but because sins have been forgiven me. I will not glory because I am profitable or because anyone is profitable to me, but because Christ is an advocate on my behalf with the Father; because the blood of Christ has been poured out on my behalf.” We glorify the Son of God’s friendship with us. We glorify the Son’s never-failing Real Presence with us today!
In praying “Glory be to the Holy Spirit” … we are begging the Third Person of the Holy Trinity to come into our heart and take possession of our very being. For we are aware how inclined we are to not be spiritual but much more often fleshly, worldly, materialistic, and self-absorbed. What glorifies God is to go to Him in the full knowledge of our inability, unworthiness, powerlessness, and sin. When we humbly give ourselves to God in those moments we glorify Him the most because we let Him know we understand that we depend on Him for everything, and without any delusion about our own goodness or strength. That is faith! Glorifying God through our realization of our need for a Savior and dependence on God for everything. Through this prayer, we beg our Father in Heaven for continual transformation of mind, heart, and soul.
So then, let us pray unreservedly:
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
‘O Lord, may the wonder at Your glory captivate us always!’
(8th-century monk John the Elder).
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