Kyrie is shorthand for the Greek, Kyrie eleison, which means, “Lord, have mercy.” This prayer is found throughout Scripture, for example, the blind beggar Bartimaeus who called to Jesus on the road, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47). We are all beggars before God, having nothing of ourselves to offer Him. It is most fitting then, that having entered into the presence of God and having begun the Service of the Word, the first words on our lips are the oldest prayer of the faithful, the cry of the beggar, “Lord, have mercy.”
The Kyrie does not have a penitential function nor is it a continuation of the confession of sins. It is a prayer for help in all times of need. The earliest forms of the Kyrie that appeared in the liturgy were similar to the Litany that we are using as the Prayer of the Church on Sunday mornings during Lent. We still use this form of the Kyrie in Divine Service I, which is sung responsively between the pastor and the congregation (LSB p. 152). In the sixth century, the Kyrie was simplified to the threefold, “Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy,” which is the form we use in Divine Service III (p. 186). In the Kyrie, we ask that the Lord would prepare our hearts rightly to receive Him as we also pray for His mercy to be shown to the whole world. It is a confident prayer grounded in Christ who intercedes for us that we might be shown mercy for His sake.
The Gloria in Excelsis—Latin for “Glory [to God] in the highest”—is the hymn of praise sung in answer to the Kyrie. The Gloria begins with the song of the angels that announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds (Luke 2:14). Just as the angels proclaimed that God has come to rescue His people by taking on human flesh, so also in the Divine Service the Gloria proclaims that God is coming to His people for our salvation, now in Word and Sacrament. The Gloria confesses that Christ is truly present among us with His mercy.
The Early Church expanded the Gloria into a creedal hymn of praise in response to this proclamation. We honor and glorify God along with the shepherds for sending the Savior. Then we call upon Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, to have mercy on us. We ascribe to Him the honor bestowed on Him by the Father—that He is the holy Lord of all who is seated at God’s right hand. Finally, we close with a confession of the Holy Trinity. This hymn of praise proclaims that the glory of God is manifest in the work of Christ to bring peace (absolution) on earth, for which we thank and praise Him.
The Gloria is omitted during Advent and Lent as we focus on repentance and preparation for the feasts of Christmas and Easter.
Join Pastor and Kantor for Bible class on Sundays at 9:00 AM in Parker Hall where we are studying the Divine Service. Summaries of the class are posted on this web page each week.