The Gloria Patri has been prayed from the beginnings of Christianity. In this one-sentence prayer, time and eternity are combined in a compressed expression of doxology, praise of God. In this brief but comprehensive book, Father Ayo examines the riches in this prayer: the philological, historical, and theological origins of Christian prayer itself, and the profound spiritual implications of the Gloria Patri.At the heart of Christian prayer and at the heart of Christian liturgy we always find worship, honor, and praise of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. In Gloria Patri, Father Ayo examines the lesser doxology word by word, in both its various translations and the history of their combination and controversies. He adds to that an exploration of the boundless meanings of praise of the Triune God it encompasses. After reading Gloria Patri, no one can again take for granted this humble sentence."As always, Nicholas Ayo nourishes the heart and the imagination-not merely the mind. Bookstores are flooded today with works on 'spirituality,' but few of them offer the theological and historical depth that Ayo brings to his work. As I read, I kept encountering passages that made me want to stop and ponder, to find out more, to reread, to linger over an image or phrase." -Nathan D. Mitchell, University of Notre Dame (author of Meeting Mystery: Liturgy, Worship, Sacraments�"Christians across many traditions pray and si