The Gloria: peace to people of good will

The Gloria and the Sanctus are the two great sung texts of the Ordinary of the Mass. The Gloria is the best vocative lesson in Latin: one line addresses Christ four times in three patterns. The Sanctus keeps two Hebrew words untranslated and reuses the ablative of the Ave Maria's gratia plena.

The Gloria

Gloria in excelsis Deo,

et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te,

gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam,

Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.

Domine Fili unigenite, Iesu Christe,

Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris,

qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis;

qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram.

Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis.

Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus,

Iesu Christe, cum Sancto Spiritu: in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

The first line is the angels' song at Bethlehem, Luke 2:14, where the Vulgate has in altissimis; the hymn says in excelsis, both in the highest. The rest is an early Christian hymn translated from Greek, sung in the Roman mass by the early sixth century.

Peace to people of good will

Gloria has no verb: Latin leaves out sit, be. Glory be to God in the highest.

Bonae voluntatis describes hominibus: people of good will, people marked by good will. So the Latin gives peace to a group.

The older English, on earth peace, good will toward men, follows Greek manuscripts where good will is nominative, a second gift to everyone. The oldest Greek manuscripts and the Latin have the genitive, and modern Catholic English follows them: peace to people of good will. The difference is one Greek letter.

We praise you: four verbs and an idiom

Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te: four verbs, we, each with the same accusative te. It is a list, and meant to sound like one.

Then an idiom worth learning whole:

Latin normally does not give thanks, it does them: gratias agere. Propter magnam gloriam tuam is propter with the accusative: because of your great glory. The same noun gratia means grace in the singular (gratia plena) and thanks in the plural.