Singing with the Angels

Every Mass includes the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) as part of the Eucharistic prayer, but why? And where does it come from? 

We sing it because we’re in the presence of heaven; the entire Church is united in worship of God: the pilgrim Church on earth, the suffering Church in Purgatory, and the Church Triumphant in heaven. When we pray and sing we’re praying and singing along with all of these souls, and we can see the evidence in the Bible in both Revelation and Isaiah of the souls in heaven singing the Sanctus because they are in the presence of God. 

In Revelation, John writes about his vision of the angels in Rev 4:8

The four living creatures, each of them with six wings, were covered with eyes inside and out. Day and night they do not stop exclaiming:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty,
who was, and who is, and who is to come.”

The New Testament is concealed in the Old, and the Old Testament is Revealed in the New, and if we look in the Old Testament we see a similar vision given to the prophet Isaiah in 6:1-3:

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they hovered. One cried out to the other:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!

All the earth is filled with his glory!”

In the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of Christ there was the “holy place” where priests offered incense to God. This is where Zechariah encountered the angel Gabriel who told him that his wife Elizabeth was going to bear a son, John the Baptist. There was also the “Holy of Holies” where God dwelt, and where the Ark of the Covenant was in the First Temple.

When we recite or sing this during the Mass, we’re singing this in union with the Church in heaven:

 the whole congregation, joining with the heavenly powers, sings the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy). This acclamation, which constitutes part of the Eucharistic Prayer itself, is pronounced by all the people with the Priest (USCCB website).

The angels here are singing this because they are in the presence of God, and it’s said three times because the repetition of a word gives it a greater emphasis. In English, we change the endings on words: great, greater, greatest (singular, comparative, and superlative); but in the Hebrew emphasis or the importance of something is shown by repeating the word instead of changing the ending. The “Holy, Holy, Holy” is acknowledging that in worshiping God, we are worshiping Him because He is the holiest, or the perfection of holiness.