Morning Prayer: About the "Glory Be"
The Glory Be (“Glory to the Father…”) is one of the oldest Christian doxologies, dating to the 2nd–3rd century; it appears constantly in Morning Prayer because it “seals” every psalm with a Trinitarian lens; and the sign of the cross is used with it because it is the most compact, bodily confession of the Trinity. 1. Where the Glory Be came from The prayer is ancient—older than the Nicene Creed, older than most formal liturgical texts, and probably rooted in the earliest Christian house‑church worship. Its origins The earliest form appears in the Apostolic Constitutions (late 200s). It was used as a doxology—a short burst of praise—whenever Scripture was proclaimed. The original form was simply: “Glory to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.” By the 4th century, during the Arian controversies, Christians expanded it to emphasize the eternity of the Son and Spirit: “…as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.” This was a theological line in the sand: Chr...