We Glorify Thee (standing erect)
There are some little-known traditional rubrics pertaining to the bowing of the head during the Gloria in Excelsis that I have always followed, but I never found an explanation for them. I refer to these rubrics, the source of which, I think, is the Roman Missal:
During this Greater Gloria, it is fitting to bow the head at several junctures: at “we worship Thee,” at “we give thanks to Thee,” at the name of Jesus, and at “receive our prayer.” It is also fitting to bow from the waist at “Thou only,” and to make the sign of the cross at “art most high.”
What this means as one looks directly at the text of the Gloria (here below) is that the head should be bowed at the italicized portions, except that a bow from the waist is made at the last italicized portion, viz.,
Glory be to God on high,
and on earth peace, good will toward men.
We praise Thee, we bless Thee,
we worship Thee, we glorify Thee,
we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory:
O Lord God, heavenly King;
God the Father Almighty.
O Lord, the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ;
O Lord God, Lamb of God,
Son of the Father:
That takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy upon us.
Thou that takest away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.
Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon us.
For Thou only art holy;
Thou only art the Lord;
Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost,
+ art the most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
There has to be an explanation for these rubrics written somewhere, it’s just that I never ran across it. The closest I came was a reference from Adrian Fortescue to the commentaries of Guillaume Durandus (c. 1230–1296) and Nikolaus Gihr (1839–1918) which are doubtless worth exploring[1] (If anyone knows of a written explanation from these sources or elsewhere, feel free to enter it at the comments below; in fact if further investigation proves fruitful, I can easily revisit this topic). To some extent the explanations are self-explanatory, but not entirely. What I have come up with here is largely from deductive reasoning, and in fact I have found it a very helpful aid to worship. So, herewith, my explanation.
First, the most obvious: the bowing of the head at the name of Jesus is a standard rubric for any time the name of Jesus is said during the Divine Service, as a deferential gesture arising from the sentiments expressed in Philippians 2:10-11, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Second, also obvious, is the bow from the waist at the close which is deferential toward the Holy Trinity.
That leaves us with the less obvious, for which my rationale follows:
We praise Thee, we bless Thee,
we worship Thee, we glorify Thee,
we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory:
In particular, why, I have wondered, would we bow the head at “we worship Thee” and “we give thanks to Thee” but not at “we glorify Thee”? It certainly makes sense to bow, in this sentence, when we get to the phrase “we worship Thee,” since “worship” is a bodily enterprise, and also at “we give thanks to Thee,” since the giving of thanks ought to be done in humility as suggested by the bowing of the head. This would also be an explanation for bowing the head at “receive our prayer,” since we sinners have no implicit right to demand He receive our prayer, so again, the humility of a glad recipient of grace provides good rationale for bowing the head here too.
But what about “we glorify Thee”? Inasmuch as this is the intervening phrase between “we worship Thee” and “we give thanks to Thee,” but it is not said with the head bowed, while the phrases “we worship Thee” and “we give thanks to Thee” on both sides of it are said with the head bowed, there results, I think, a more conspicuous emphasis on standing erect at “we glorify Thee” sandwiched between the other two phrases.
And this, I suggest, might be quite intentional. How do we glorify God? Certainly by praising, blessing, worshiping, and giving thanks to Him, but I think more is implied at this particular juncture. The Apostle declares that man “is the image and glory of God” (I Cor. 11:7), and what seems to be suggested here in the Gloria is that in particular redeemed and sanctified man, as he praises his Creator, does well to remember that what Christ has restored in His incarnation, atonement, and resurrection is man recapitulated as the image of God, as he was meant to be in the beginning. That is to say, man stood erect, created in the image of God, to rule and govern all of God’s creation. Man alone, out of all God’s creatures, first stood erect, for man alone was made in God’s image. And anyone of mankind who knows this, and understands his worship of God to be a return to the beauty of Eden and a restoration of Paradise, will do well to stand erect in glorifying God who created him in His image. In this way, the simple gesture of standing erect is a bodily acknowledgment that in Christ all the original glory of God, first poured into His creation of man, is restored.
[1] https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/gloria-in-excelsis-deo