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The Gloria is one of the most ancient hymns in Christian worship. It opens with the words the angels sang to the shepherds at Christ's birth: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will." The rest of the hymn was composed in the early Church — likely in the Greek-speaking East — as a doxology of praise to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
In the current Roman Missal, the Gloria is prescribed for Sundays (outside Advent and Lent), feasts and solemnities, and other special occasions. It is omitted during Advent and Lent precisely so its return at Christmas and Easter has its full force. To pray the Gloria is to join the Church's most exuberant act of praise, addressing each Person of the Trinity in turn — the Father whose glory fills heaven and earth, the Son who takes away the sins of the world, the Holy Spirit who unites us in the worship of the One God.
The text itself is theologically dense. It calls Christ "the only-begotten Son," "Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father" — phrases that reflect the Christological controversies of the early centuries and the Church's settled faith that emerged from them. To sing the Gloria is to recite a quiet creed.
Many parishes sing the Gloria; others recite it. Either is permitted in the Roman Rite. When it is sung well, the assembly's voices fill the church with the same praise the angels offered at Bethlehem and that the saints offer in heaven without ceasing.