Gloria Patri A prayer of thanksgiving (pt 4)

In honor of Thanksgiving over the last few days we've been looking at prayers of thanksgiving and praise. You can read PART ONE, PART TWO, and PART THREE if you missed them.

Today, we're ending our series by examining another ancient prayer, one we're all familiar with from the Mass, the Gloria Patri. This is a short and simple prayer and can be said with or without accompanying it with the Signo Crucis, the Sign of the Cross.

Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto

Sicut in principo et nunc et semper 

Et in secula seculorum. Amen.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit

As it was in the beginning is now and will be forever

World without end. Amen.

This prayer dates back to the earliest days of the Church and has been said with the wording we use today since the seventh century. It is used both at extraordinary form of the Mass and in the liturgy of the hours and we use it to end each decade of the Holy Rosary, so it is a prayer most Catholics are familiar with. 

This short prayer addresses each member of the Trinity and is a great way to end prayers, to use at the end of the day before we fall asleep, to say first thing in the morning, or to offer up praise to the Lord for being good to you. It is a prayer every Catholic should be familiar with (in their vernacular and in Latin).

This prayer, along with the others we covered this week, will arm you with a wealth of prayers to offer our Lord each and every day. Remember, we are called to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:17). One way to fulfill this command, and to sanctify our days, is to use these short prayers.

God bless.