Sunday, June 4, 2023

Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity

Icon of the Old Testament Trinity, c. 1410, Andrei Rublev
Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Blessed Trinity. This, the ineffable mystery of God's intimate life, is the central truth of our faith and the source of all gifts and graces. The liturgy of the Mass invites us to loving union with each of the Three Divine Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This feast was established for the Latin Church by Pope John XXII, to be celebrated on the Sunday after the coming of the Holy Spirit, which is the last of the mysteries of our salvation. Today we can say many times, savoring it, the prayer: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit...

[St. Teresa] writes: Once when I was reciting the "Quicumque vult," I was shown so clearly how it was possible for there to be one God alone and three Persons that it caused me both amazement and much comfort. It was of the greatest help to me in teaching me to know more of the greatness of God and of his marvels. When I think of the most Holy Trinity, or hear it spoken of, I seem to understand how there can be such a mystery, and it is a great joy to me.

The whole of a Christian's supernatural life is directed towards this knowledge of and intimate conversation with the Trinity, who become eventually the fruit and the end of our whole life (St. Thomas). It is for this end that we have been created and raised to the supernatural order: to know, to talk to and to love God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, who dwell in the soul in grace.
In Conversation With God Vol 6
Special Feasts: January - June
I love this portion of Proverbs which is always read aloud during this Mass. It is one of my all time favorites as it conveys God's creativity, mastery, craftsmanship, delight, playfulness, and ... love.
Thus says the wisdom of God:
"The LORD possessed me, the beginning of his ways,
the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago;
from of old I was poured forth,
at the first, before the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no fountains or springs of water;
before the mountains were settled into place,
before the hills, I was brought forth;
while as yet the earth and fields were not made,
nor the first clods of the world.

"When the Lord established the heavens I was there,
when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;
when he made firm the skies above,
when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;
when he set for the sea its limit,
so that the waters should not transgress his command;
then was I beside him as his craftsman,
and I was his delight day by day,
playing before him all the while,
playing on the surface of his earth;
and I found delight in the human race."
PRV 8:22-31

2 comments:

  1. Thanks to your excerpts here, I purchased the In Conversation With God set, and am really enjoying the daily readings.

    The part that struck me, in these Holy Trinity readings, was the concept (new to me, in so many words) that~

    (39.2) "the essence of the Father consists in giving life to the Son. ...the essence of the Only-Begotten Son of God consists precisely in being Son.

    "Among men, paternity and filiation are circumstances that fall short of defining the subject completely; but in God, paternity filiation, and spiration constitute the entire being of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

    I'll be thinking about that for some time!

    Thanks for all you do here, Julie, and especially for bringing this resource to my attention.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Liz! I'm so pleased that you are enjoying the In Conversation with God devotions. It never fails that just when I think I've almost got them memorized, something new pops up and surprises me! :-)

      Something that struck me last week was a reading about the Holy Spirit for the Vigil entrance antiphon: "the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us." (Romans 5:5)

      I think of how the inner outlines of the figures above form a chalice shape ... using every bit of the space ... and how that love is poured among themselves and then into us. Truly it is all a mystery which we can never stop pondering (and delighting in).

      :-)

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