The Blessed Trinity

Today we celebrate the feast of the Trinity.

I will always remember in primary school being pleased with myself and sharing with the class that I could explain this teaching of “One God in Three Person” by saying it is like an actor that becomes three different characters. “Good effort but no,” said the teacher.

This central mystery of our faith tells us who God is from all eternity. But we must remember that the teaching about the mystery of the Trinity is not a maths problem that we have to try to solve. When we speak of the Trinity we are sharing how God has revealed himself as a community of love. There is the love between the Father and the Son and that love is the Spirit.

In a sermon on the Song of Songs, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a 12th century monk, says:

“If, as is properly understood, the Father is he who kisses, the Son he who is kissed, then it cannot be wrong to see in the kiss the Holy Spirit, for he is the imperturbable peace of the Father and the Son, their unshakable bond, their undivided love, their indivisible unity.”

We need to remember that the Father burns with desire to love us and continues that relationship in Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. As one writer has put it:

“The Trinity is about the father’s love and the sacrificial gift of Christ into which we are drawn by the labour of the Holy Spirit.”

I suggest that we can adore the Blessed Trinity in a breathing prayer.

Adore the Father in the air that surrounds you.
As you breathe in, form the name Jesus, welcoming the Beloved Son sent to us by the Father.
Breathe out, forming the name Spirit, in return of breath to the divine ambience