
Morning
25. Capturing December – Morning
My Dad and I were discussing this song during our family Christmas Eve dinner after we sang it at church. I needed to refresh my memory on what “Gloria in excelsis Deo” meant specifically. It is a Christian hymn, also known as the Greater Doxology and the Angelic Hymn/Hymn of the Angels. Gloria in Excelsis Deo is defined as “Glory in the highest to God,” and in the English version, “Glory be to God on high.”
As I was driving over to my sister’s Christmas morning, this song was the first one to play in my vehicle. It put a smile on my face!
The song “Angels We Have Heard on High” is a Christmas carol with the lyrics written by James Chadwick, Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, to the music from a French song called Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes. The music is the same as the original song, though Chadwick’s lyrics albeit unique and original are clearly derived and inspired, and in parts a loose translation. The song’s subject is the birth of Jesus Christ narrated in the Gospel of Luke, specifically the scene in which shepherds outside Bethlehem encounter a multitude of angels singing and praising the newborn child.
Lyrics
English
Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o’er the plains
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be?
Which inspire your heavenly songs?
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Come to Bethlehem and see
Him whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
See Him in a manger laid,
Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
With us sing our Saviour’s birth.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!