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Gloria Patri

The History and Theology of the Lesser Doxology

Nicholas Ayo, C.S.C.

• Table of Contents
• Excerpt

“As always, Nicholas Ayo nourishes the heart and the imagination—not merely the mind. Bookstores are flooded today with works on ‘spirituality,’ but few of them offer the theological and historical depth that Ayo brings to his work. As I read, I kept encountering passages that made me want to stop and ponder, to find out more, to reread, to linger over an image or phrase.” —Nathan D. Mitchell, University of Notre Dame

“Nicholas Ayo’s latest book on prayer reflects both his command of the literature and his profound personal commitment to the patrimony of Catholic spirituality. This work is an exemplary successor to his earlier works on the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the Apostle’s Creed. Gloria Patri is a work not just to be read but to be savored.” —Lawrence S. Cunningham, John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology, The University of Notre Dame

The Gloria Patri has been prayed from the beginnings of Christianity. In this one-sentence prayer, time and eternity are combined in a compressed expression of doxology, praise of God. In this brief but comprehensive book, Father Ayo examines the riches in this prayer: the philological, historical, and theological origins of Christian prayer itself, and the profound spiritual implications of the Gloria Patri.

At the heart of Christian prayer and at the heart of Christian liturgy we always find worship, honor, and praise of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. In Gloria Patri, Father Ayo examines the lesser doxology word by word, in both its various translations and the history of their combination and controversies. He adds to that an exploration of the boundless meanings of praise of the Triune God it encompasses. After reading Gloria Patri, no one can again take for granted this humble sentence.

Nicholas Ayo is professor emeritus of theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of a number of books, including The Hail Mary: A Verbal Icon of Mary and The Lord’s Prayer: A Survey Theological and Literary, both also published by the University of Notre Dame Press.

“In this brief book about a short but pivotal Christian prayer, I hope to show how theological examination can enrich praying, and how the Gloria Patri, inviting spiritual reflection, can ground and deepen a theology of glory.” —from the preface

Reviews

“Anyone who seriously reads this exposition of the Gloria Patri will never again be able to recite this doxology in worship without giving thought to its meaning. The first part of the book is an economically written account of the historical development of the doxology. The second part is an extended meditation on the nature of the triune God, creation, Providence, human existence, and time and eternity.” — Christian Century