Question about "Glory be to the Father ..."

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I’m just learning about Catholic liturgy, and there is one prayer from the Rosary I don’t understand.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

The first sentence is easy enough to understand, but the second sentence gives me a bit of trouble. It doesn’t even seem like a complete sentence. What does the “it” refer to? The world? Why is the world referred to as never ending? Are they actually referring to the Kingdom of Heaven? I just don’t get that sentence.

Maybe somebody can help me out here.

Thanks,
Russ
 
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russdirks:
I’m just learning about Catholic liturgy, and there is one prayer from the Rosary I don’t understand.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

The first sentence is easy enough to understand, but the second sentence gives me a bit of trouble. It doesn’t even seem like a complete sentence. What does the “it” refer to? The world? Why is the world referred to as never ending? Are they actually referring to the Kingdom of Heaven? I just don’t get that sentence.

Maybe somebody can help me out here.

Thanks,
Russ
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It, meaning the glory of God, which has been with God from the beginning of time, and beyond time.

“world without end” is a literary form, and a literal translation of “saecula secolorum” or “unto ages of ages”. The modern translation of “saecula saecolorum” is simply “forever and ever” or “forever” but “world without end” has stuck in the traditional devotions.
 
Indeed, for the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours, the translation of saecula secolorum during this doxology is, “forever and ever.”
 
Thank Henry VIII for inserting that awkward “world without end” translation for “in saecula saculorum”
 
Fidei Defensor:
Thank Henry VIII for inserting that awkward “world without end” translation for “in saecula saculorum”
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Judging from the name, he must have done that AFTER he got married to the widow next door…😃
 
Fidei

Is that why the Magnificat does not print the “world without end” part? that has always confused me
 
This prayer is basically an extended doxology, such as you will hear after the Our Father. “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory is yours, now and forever.”

There is also an interesting twist to your question that I hadn’t been aware of. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia
The explanation that sicut erat in principio was meant as a denial of Arianism leads to a question whose answer is less obvious than it seems. To what do the words refer? Everyone now understands gloria as the subject of erat: “As it [the glory] was in the beginning”, etc. It seems, however, that originally they were meant to refer to Filius, and that the meaning of the second part, in the West at any rate, was: “As He [the Son] was in the beginning, so is He now and so shall He be for ever.” The in principio, then, is a clear allusion to the first words of the Fourth Gospel “In the beginning was the Word”], and so the sentence is obviously directed against Arianism. There are medieval German versions in the form: “Als er war im Anfang”.
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Fidei Defensor:
Thank Henry VIII for inserting that awkward “world without end” translation for “in saecula saculorum”
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If you have a cite for this, I’d like to see it - it would be interesting to read more about the chronology of these translations. My guess would have been that this translation took place after Henry, who by the way is your namesake - named fidei defensor by the pope.
 
I have a friend who thinks the world will never end because of his misinterpretation of “world without end.”
 
Andreas Hofer:
Judging from the name, he must have done that AFTER he got married to the widow next door…😃
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having been married seven … times before. :whistle:

Alan
 
It is a very beautiful prayer and sooo much in only a few words.
 
Fidei Defensor:
Thank Henry VIII for inserting that awkward “world without end” translation for “in saecula saculorum”
Click to expand...
Thanks Henry for confusing me so much over the years with this “world without end” prayer that didn’t seem to fit into the teaching of any church I’ve been part of.

Give me a Willie or a Sam anyday. :dancing:
 
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