Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The Kyrie & Gloria in Excelsis

The celebrant stands at the midst of the altar, facing it, and sings (or speaks) the Kyrie with the congregation.

The Latin rite continued to sing the Kyrie in Greek. Historically, this is one of only two places where Greek has been retained in the Latin rite. The other is the use of Greek and Latin at the Tres Hagion in the Good Friday liturgy.

We are accustomed to singing the Kyrie in a three-fold manner. It may also be sung in a nine-fold manner. In this form, the "Lord, have mercy...," is sung three times; "Christ, have mercy..., three times; and "Lord, have mercy...," three times.

If sung or spoken in either the three-fold or nine-fold manner, the petitions may be sung in alternation with the celebrant.


The Gloria in Excelsis is also intoned by the celebrant at the midst of the altar.

The Gloria, the Creed and the Sanctus enjoy equal status in the liturgy. When Mass is celebrated with the assistance of a deacon and sub-deacon, the rubrics indicate that these ministers move to stand beside the celebrant at the altar when they are sung. At all other times these ministers remain in their appointed places.

The historic rite indicates that the Gloria in Excelsis is to be sung at all Masses, excluding only those which are celebrated in violet or black vestments.

1 comment:

Dcn. Muehlenbruch said...

On his Liturgy Seminar blog, Fr. Eckardt wrote: "According to Lamburn, the Gloria is not said on the ferias of Epiphanytide or of the Trinity season when the vestments are green. Since it is also not said when the vestments are purple, this would limit its weekday use to the times when the vestments are white or red."

In my post, I failed to consider historic rubric which states that, when the Mass of the Sunday is resumed during the week, the Gloria is omitted (as well as the Creed) at these Masses.