(this is a part of a blog series called "what's that song about?" Growing up, I never really knew where Christmas carols came from or what they were about.  They often used strange vocabulary I never came across in any other context.  This set of blogs is for those of us that never had the carols explained. Each week from now until Christmas, I will unpack a different popular Christmas carol.  Feel free to comment with any further questions you have on each song.)

When you are singing along to a song, nothing makes it more difficult than when the song is in another language!  Ok, one thing: when it’s the chorus that’s in another language.  One of the most popular Christmas carols, “Angels We Have Heard on High” has a Latin refrain that leaves people like you and me guessing.  Are they singing about a girl named “Gloria?”
    Let me clear it up for you.  That refrain, Gloria in excelsis Deo, means “Glory to God in the highest.”  It’s a phrase that actually goes way back to the beginnings of Christianity and was a part of the liturgy of the Church during the Byzantine Era.  Even before that, the Church got the phrase from the song that the angels sang about Jesus’ birth in Luke 2:14.  That’s why the song’s title refers to the angels: there was a great song sung by a massive group of angels at Jesus’ birth.
    See, Jesus’ parents had traveled to Bethlehem when Mary was pregnant because they were doing a census to try to get a handle on the great numbers in the Roman Empire.  Since everyone was there for the census, there wasn’t room for the family at the inn.  Instead, they stayed in a manger that would have been used by the shepherds that were keeping their flocks in the nearby fields.  When Jesus was born, there was a great jubilee, or celebration, because of the good tidings, or good news, that was brought with the birth of the Jesus.
    So why sing Glory to God in the Highest?  Because it is only in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, that we can see the Glory of God as He gives mercy to all who call on him.  In the birth of Jesus, we see a glimpse of the glorious grace of God, which comes to broken, needy people like me to offer healing, forgiveness and restoration.  At the sight of it, our souls must sing “glory to God in the highest!”


Angels we have heard on high,
Singing sweetly through the night,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their brave delight.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why these songs of happy cheer?
What great brightness did you see?
What glad tiding did you hear?  Refrain

Come to Bethlehem and see
Him whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee
Christ, the Lord, the new-born King.  Refrain

See him in a manger laid
Whom the angels praise above;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
While we raise our hearts in love.