Posted on 06/16/2014 6:47:57 AM PDT by BlatherNaut
In some parishes Trinity Sunday was the time to give a financial report, anything rather than preach on the Most Holy Trinity. The problem is of course that too many Catholics think of the Trinity in terms of algebra or geometry rather than in terms of relationships.
Muslims love to debate with Christians God in terms of the 1+1+1=1 approach, they are less comfortable with the idea of the God who loves to point of emptying himself of His Divinity to embrace His creation, indeed to dwell within it and suffer with it.
The high point of our prayer is always the doxology, when we address the Father, through the Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Indeed when we look at a crucifix we are supposed to, in a sense look through it to the Father, the high point of the Eucharistic prayer is the priest taking up the Sacred Host and addressing the Father saying, "Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever. Amen."
Although popular devotion might address individual persons of the Trinity, the Church's liturgy, with a few notable exceptions is addressed to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.
The Son is perfect icon of the Father, in His humanity we see revelation of the Father. Perhaps the worst sermon I ever heard on the Trinity was basically, "The Trinity is a mystery we can't comprehend, so let us get on with the Mass!". It was the worst but yet it was also the best, because the Triune God is always mysterious and unknowable, and yet He is revealed totally in the Mass, through the Son, in the Spirit.
True worship always leads us to contemplate the God who is always beyond us, the God who in the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets fall on their faces and worship. Practically at every Mass I have celebrated over the thirty years I have been ordained I have felt the need 'to break the bread of the word', to preach, except at the Traditional Mass, where all I want to do is adore the Father through the Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. I am beginning to believe that if the Word of God does not lead us to worship there is something wrong in its presentation, and if the Mass does not lead us to fall on our knees to be fed by God there is something wrong here too.
Contemplating the Mystery of the Trinity should lead us to be lost in the immensity and beauty of God, realising his greatness and our nothingness, desiring only to abandon ourselves to Him and crying out with Christ, "Father into your hands I commend Spirit". If this realisation is not the result of worship, perhaps we are not worshipping at all!
Per ipsum, et cum ipso, et in ipso, est tibi Deo Patri omnipotenti, in unitate Spiritus Sancti, omnis honor et gloria per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen
I skimmed Fr. Robert Barron’s book on Catholicism. I was unable to find any mention of the Trinity. Weird.
Fr. Yamid Blanco, (who speaks heavily accented English) spoke on the Trinity yesterday. He compared the Trinity to a marriage and a family. Father, mother, child = 3 persons in one family. Father, mother, child = love. Father, Son, Holy Ghost (3 in 1)= Love.
I told him it was the best analogy I’d heard in all my years as a Catholic.
Unfortunately, yesterday was his last sermon for us. He’s been transferred to 3 parishes who need a Spanish speaking priest. He came here right out of Seminary, barely speaking English, and now we all laugh at his jokes right on cue. We shall really miss him.
Good words IMO.
Yes, when I read the article I thought the same thing. Although I have gone to church 97% of my life, I did not join a Bible Study group until 3 years ago. It has had a profound impact on my life and wanting to know more each day! My husband and I also went to Israel which is yet another amazing impact as you walk where Jesus did and the saying is true, “You’ll never be the same”...God Bless Christians the world over......
In some parishes Trinity Sunday was the time to give a financial report, anything rather than preach on the Most Holy Trinity
I read the American English which is what my bible is wrote in but the words they use I do not see in my bible, and even worse, many times I do not even see the subject in my Bible.
Does any one still preach what Jesus taught?
Are there any preachers who preach do unto others as you would have them do unto you? or does any one preach the most important verses in the gospels which is the parable of the sheep and goats? which is not really a parable at all but by his own words Jesus told us this is what we are going to be judged by.
Matthew 25:31-46
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Verse 33 to 46 explains who the sheep and goats are.
I am, well maybe not any more, surprised that this is not the main sermon on the preaching of salvation.
Although I believe in the trinity I do not believe my salvation depends on that belief, I believe it depends on my faith in Jesus being the son of God and he died to set me free so that I might live and then he was resurrected and now sits at the right hand of God.
He will gather all nations before him on the last day and separate the sheep from the goats.
That is a good analogy. I have also thought that, in as much as we are created in His image, we also have a (small “t”) trinitarian nature...we each have our physical person (body), our intellectual person, and our spiritual person. Each is unique unto itself, but all part of the, “us”. Not a perfect analogy to be sure, but it has its uses.
I thought it was as good an attempt to explain the Trinity as I have ever heard. The priest who gave me my convert lessons used to just say “It’s a mystery. Just accept it as a mystery.” And I haven’t heard anything better in all these years.
The amazing thing is that I understood every word Fr. Blanco uttered. He came to our parish right out of Seminary 2 years ago, and most of us couldn’t understand a word he uttered. But, he is a lovely man, and he tried very hard. You could tell how far he has come with his English is that the entire church laughs on cue to his jokes now.
We are really going to miss him. But, they really need him in 3 parishes in Burlington — no Spanish speaking priest until now. God speed, Fr. Yamid!
bkmk
What is also interesting is that He made us in His image--so I think it is natural for us to have a trinitarian nature.
Our physical body corresponds to Jesus, who appeared on earth as a physical begin. Our Intellectual aspect corresponds to God the Father, who rules over all, and our spiritual aspect corresponds to the Holy Spirit.
Same here. Picked it up with the idea that it might be useful for home catechesis, but after taking a closer look, couldn't in good conscience even donate it to the public library, so into the trash it went.
Three, the trinity, the number of perfection. Through the trinity is the perfection of love
God, is “abba”, daddy, who created us from love, the love of the Creator for his children.
Jesus, is his gift to us, who exemplifies compassion and forgiveness, and the God who loved us so much he sacrificed himself for us.
And the Holy Spirit, is the medium in which God communicates with us and from which we can be inspired by Him, and live as his Holy people.
This is what I believe. When I cross myself, I feel the blessing of God, and God is love.
I like your explanation too. God wants us the see him infinity. He wants us to know we are loved.
“...St. Augustine commenting upon this testimony writes: “The words of the Apostle, of Him, and by Him, and in Him are not to be taken indiscriminately; of Him refers to the Father, by Him to the Son, in Him to the Holy Ghost” (De Trin. 1. vi., c. 10; 1. i., c. 6). The Church is accustomed most fittingly to attribute to the Father those works of the Divinity in which power excels, to the Son those in which wisdom excels, and those in which love excels to the Holy Ghost. Not that all perfections and external operations are not common to the Divine Persons; for “the operations of the Trinity are indivisible, even as the essence of the Trinity is indivisible” (St. Aug., De Trin., I. 1, cc. 4-5); because as the three Divine Persons “are inseparable, so do they act inseparably” (St. Aug., i6.). But by a certain comparison, and a kind of affinity between the operations and the properties of the Persons, these operations are attributed or, as it is said, “appropriated” to One Person rather than to the others. “Just as we make use of the traces of similarity or likeness which we find in creatures for the manifestation of the Divine Persons, so do we use Their essential attributes; and this manifestation of the Persons by Their essential attributes is called appropriation” (St. Th. la., q. 39, xxxix., a. 7). In this manner the Father, who is “the principle of the whole God-head” (St. Aug. De Trin. 1 iv., c. 20) is also the efficient cause of all things, of the Incarnation of the Word, and the sanctification of souls; “of Him are all things”: of Him, referring to the Father. But the Son, the Word, the Image of God is also the exemplar cause, whence all creatures borrow their form and beauty, their order and harmony. He is for us the Way, the Truth, and the Life; the Reconciles of man with God. “By Him are all things”: by Him, referring to the Son. The Holy Ghost is the ultimate cause of all things, since, as the will and all other things finally rest in their end, so He, who is the Divine Goodness and the Mutual Love of the Father and Son, completes and perfects, by His strong yet gentle power, the secret work of man’s eternal salvation. “In Him are all things”: in Him, referring to the Holy Ghost.
From DIVINUM ILLUD MUNUS, ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII ON THE HOLY SPIRIT
It seemed to me it was about everything but the kitchen sink, but not much about Catholicism.
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