Gloria Patri


Gloria Patri, also known as the Glory Be to the Father or, colloquially, the Glory Be, is a doxology, a short hymn of praise to God in various Christian liturgies. It is also referred to as the Minor Doxology or Lesser Doxology, to distinguish it from the Greater Doxology, the Gloria in Excelsis Deo.
The earliest Christian doxologies are addressed to God the Father alone, or to him "through" the Son, or to the Father and the Holy Spirit with the Son, or to the Son with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The Trinitarian doxology addressed in parallel fashion to all three Divine Persons of the Trinity, joined by and, as in the form of baptism,, became universal in Nicaean Christianity, which became dominant with the Edict of Thessalonica of 380.

Greek version

The Greek wording is as follows:
Glory be to the Father
The second part is occasionally slightly modified and other verses are sometimes introduced between the two halves.

Syriac version

According to Worship Music: A Concise Dictionary, the lesser doxology is of Syrian origin.
There is an alternate version which the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church use in their Liturgies

Arabic

In Orthodoxy, Arabic is one of the official liturgical languages of the Church of Jerusalem and the Church of Antioch, both autocephalous Orthodox Churches and two of the four ancient Patriarchates of the Pentarchy.
The Arabic wording of this doxology is as follows:

Roman Rite Latin version

This differs from the Greek version because of the insertion of "Sicut erat in principio", which is now taken to mean "As it was in the beginning", but which seems originally to have meant "As he was in the beginning", and echo of the opening words of the Gospel according to John: "In the beginning was the Word".
In 529 the Second Synod of Vasio in Gaul said in its fifth canon that the second part of the doxology, with the words Sicut erat in principio, was used in Rome, the East, and Africa, and ordered it to be said likewise in Gaul. Writing in the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia, Adrian Fortescue, while remarking that what the synod said of the East was false, took the synod's decree to mean that the form originally used in the West was the same as the Greek form. From about the 7th century the present Roman Rite version became almost universal throughout the West.

Mozarabic Rite Latin version

The similarity between this version used in the then extreme west of the Church and the Syriac version used in the extreme east is noteworthy.

English versions

The following traditional form is the most common in Anglican usage and in older Lutheran liturgical books:
The translations of semper as "ever shall be", and in sæcula sæculorum as "world without end" date at least from Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer.
The Catholic Church uses the same English form, but today replaces "Holy Ghost" with "Holy Spirit", as in The Divine Office the edition of the Liturgy of the Hours used in most English-speaking countries outside the United States. Divine Worship: The Missal, published by the Holy See in 2015 for use under the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus allows "Holy Spirit" and "Holy Ghost" to be used interchangeably.
In 1971, the International Consultation on English Texts used since 1971:
This was adopted in the publication, Liturgy of the Hours, but has not come into popular use by lay Catholics. It is found also in some Anglican and Lutheran publications.
A variant found in Common Worship has "will" instead of "shall":
Especially in Anglican circles, there are various alternative forms of the Gloria designed to avoid masculine language. The form included in Celebrating Common Prayer is:
The doxology in the use of the English-speaking Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches, follows the Greek form, of which one English translation is:
The translation of the Greek form used by the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in the United States is:

Use

Eastern Churches

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Church of the East, and the Eastern Catholic Churches, the Lesser Doxology is frequently used at diverse points in services and private prayers. Among other instances, it is said three times by the reader during the usual beginning of every service, and as part of the dismissal at the end. When it is used in a series of hymns it is chanted either before the last hymn or before the penultimate hymn. In the latter case, it is divided in half, the "Glory..." being chanted before the penultimate hymn, and "Both now..." being chanted before the final hymn.

Western Churches

In the Roman Rite, the Gloria Patri is frequently chanted or recited in the Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office principally at the end of psalms and canticles and in the responsories. It also figures in the Introit of the pre-1970 form of Mass in the Roman Rite. It is restored to the Introit in the form of the Roman Rite published in Divine Worship: The Missal. The prayer also figures prominently in non-liturgical devotions, notably the rosary, where it is recited on the large beads that separate the five sets of ten smaller beads, called decades, upon each of which a Hail Mary is prayed.
Amongst Anglicans, the Gloria Patri is mainly used at the Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, to introduce and conclude the singing or recitation of psalms, and to conclude the canticles that lack their own concluding doxologies.
Lutherans have historically added the Gloria Patri both after the chanting of the Responsorial Psalm and following the Nunc Dimittis during their Divine Service, as well as during Matins and Vespers in the Canonical hours. In Methodism, the Gloria Patri is frequently sung to conclude the "responsive reading" that takes the place of the Office Psalmody. The prayer is also frequently used in evangelical Presbyterian churches.