The saintly cure, Andre-Hubert, who was founder of the Daughters of the Cross and who was canonized in 1935, had a very special love for that classic doxology, the Gloria Patri. It is said that he recited it three hundred times a day, which means that the invocation crossed his lips about six million times during his life.
The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity were the favorite subject of his contemplation; in fact, he could scarcely imagine anyone's deigning to consider another subject.
One day someone gave him a newspaper. "What a beautiful discovery newspapers are!" he exclaimed. "What power and what rapidity of publicity! But I should wish that they served a better purpose. At the head of each issue I should inscribe the words:
Immensus Pater, Immensus Filius, Immensus Spiritus Sanctus with the words, God is everywhere, God sees all, God hears all.'"
Was it not a similar desire which urged St. Jerome, writing to Pope Damasus, to place at the head of his letter the invocation since become a classic, Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost? The Pope found this prayer so beautiful that he decided to insert it into the breviary at the end of each psalm. Later it was also introduced at the end of each decade of the Rosary.
Do I always give the full significance to this prayer so weighted with meaning?
Is my invocation of the Holy Trinity truly adoration?
Am I animated by an earnest desire to glorify the Three Divine Persons?
I will pay particular attention to this prayer for some time. I will offer to the Holy Trinity only such Glorias as are actually worth the saying.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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