A Song of Praise

Continuing our walk thorough the words and intent of The Holy Eucharist:

Following the Collect for Purity (Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open) comes a “song of praise.” The usual choices are the Gloria (Glory to God), the Kyrie (Lord, have mercy), or the Trisagion (Holy God, holy and mighty). Each of these is ancient and has held a place in Christian worship since the earliest days of the Church: The “Gloria” from the second or third century. The more penitential songs, often used in Lent or Advent, are less songs of praise and more. Many other songs may be used, but should properly be songs of praise or an appeal for God’s mercy and compassion. Thus we follow acknowledging God’s intimate knowledge of us (Almighty God, to who all hearts are open) with praise of the Holy One, and we do so using the Church’s most ancient hymns. As we stand in praise of God, we do so in concert with all those who have sung these words over the past two thousand years, and, as we poetically imagine, who now sing these hymns in the nearer presence of God in the life after death. This is the fulfilling of the words of another great “modern” hymn (1759) by Charles Wesley,

Let saints on earth in concert sing
With those whose work is done;
For all the servants of our king
In Heav’n and earth are one.