'God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.' Sunday Reflections, Trinity Sunday, Year A

The Trinity. El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

For Readings and Reflections for Trinity Sunday  click on the following: 

Trinity Sunday, Year A

Benedictus sit Deus, Mozart

Antiphona ad introitum 

Entrance Antiphon

Benedictus sit Deus Pater,

Blest be God the Father,

Unigenitusque Dei Filius,

and the Only Begotten Son of God,

Sanctus quoque Spiritus,

and also the Holy Spirit,

quia fecit nobiscum misericordian suam.

for he has shown us is merciful love.

'For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son . . .' Sunday Reflections, Trinity Sunday, Year A

The Trinity with the Dead Christ 
Lodovico Carracci, c.1590. Pinacoteca, Vatican [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)  

Gospel John 3:16-18  (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

The Two Trinities 
Murillo 1675-82. National Gallery, London [Web Gallery of Art]

A few years ago we in Worldwide Marriage Encounter here in Bacolod City held a family day. One of the last activities was for the pre-teens where the children were asked to share with everyone what they most loved about their parents. One boy of about ten said, 'What I most love about my parents is that they are always together'.

In my closing remarks I picked up on this and reminded the couples that this youngster had expressed the heart of marriage: that the primary vocation of a married couple is to be husband and wife, not father and mother. The latter is a consequence of the first. When children know that for their parents nobody is more important than each other they will be drawn into that relationship.

Marriage is a reflection of the Trinity, which we celebrate today. The perfect love that the Father and Son have for one another has generated the Holy Spirit from all eternity and will continue to do so for all eternity. The love of husband and wife have for each other constantly generates love, the source of which is the Most Holy Trinity, and in most cases that love results in new life.

In his Wednesday audience on 2 April this year Pope Francis said: Marriage is the icon of God’s love for us. Indeed, God is communion too: the three Persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit live eternally in perfect unity. And this is precisely the mystery of Matrimony: God makes of the two spouses one single life. The Bible uses a powerful expression and says 'one flesh', so intimate is the union between man and woman in marriage. And this is precisely the mystery of marriage: the love of God which is reflected in the couple that decides to live together. Therefore a man leaves his home, the home of his parents, and goes to live with his wife and unites himself so strongly to her that the two become — the Bible says — one flesh.

Murillo's painting, The Two Trinities, captures something of this. The unity between Mary and Joseph as wife and husband reflects the love of the Father and Son for each other. And while Joseph is not the Father of Jesus he is his legal father, according to Jewish law, as he named him: Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:19-21). The love that Joseph and Mary had for each other as husband and wife generated the love that Jesus experienced in his humanity while growing up in Nazareth, just like the youngster at our family day in Bacolod.

More than that, St Joseph was a real father to Jesus, his 'Dad', 'Papa', 'Tatay', as Spouse of Mary, the primary title the Church gives to this great saint on his major feast day, 19 March, and now in all the Eucharistic Prayers.

Moses 
Carlo Dolci, 1640-45. Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence [Web Gallery of Art]

And we find a wonderful example of a father-figure in Moses in the First Reading when he pleads with God: “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance” (Exodus 34:9).

We know that more than once Moses castigated his people and he acknowledges that they can be hard to deal with: This is a stiff-necked people. But in the same breath he acknowledges himself as one of them: Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance. He is a real father, pleading on behalf of his family for God's mercy while fully aware of their and his own shortcomings.

Carracci's The Trinity with the Dead Christ shows us the Trinity in the context of the death of Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, who became Man and died for us on the Cross. This is a common theme in many paintings, the Suffering Trinity. Not only Jesus suffered. So did his Father and the Holy Spirit.

Return of the Prodigal Son (detail) 
Rembrandt, c.1669. The Hermitage, St Petersburg [Web Gallery of Art]

I know of no greater expression of the suffering of the Father than the face of the father in Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son. This doesn't express the joy that we know was there but the suffering behind it. And in that parable Jesus was showing us the compassion, the 'suffering with', of the Father for each of us. 

Carracci shows us the Father and the Holy Spirit to be as much involved in Calvary as Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, God who became Man, was. They suffered along with him, out of compassion for us.

This reality too is reflected in marriage as a couple gradually prepare their children to become independent while preparing themselves for the pain of letting their children go. To a lesser extent it is reflected in the lives of all who are responsible in some way for the education, formation and mentoring of others. A teacher may feel some sadness as the year ends and students move on but a few months later a new batch will be there. However, parents never cease to be parents and will always continue to share both the joys and sorrows of their adult children, who often enough are the cause of their parents' inner suffering.

Likewise, the Persons of the Blessed Trinity never cease to be a loving God, a God who calls each of us to share in the intense and eternal Love that they are for all eternity. Every human relationship is meant to reflect that to some extent, most of all the relationship between husband and wife.

—God is my Father! If you meditate on it, you will never let go of this consoling consideration.

—Jesus is my intimate Friend (another re-discovery) who loves me with all the divine madness of his Heart.

—The Holy Spirit is my Consoler, who guides my every step along the road.

Consider this often: you are God’s . . . and God is yours. (The Forge, No 2, St Josémaría Escrivá).

Firmly I believe and truly

Firmly I believe and truly
God is Three, and God is One;
and I next acknowledge duly
manhood taken by the Son.

And I trust and hope most fully
in that Manhood crucified;
and each thought and deed unruly
do to death, as he has died.

Simply to his grace and wholly
light and life and strength belong,
and I love supremely, solely,
him the holy, him the strong.

And I hold in veneration,
for the love of him alone,
holy Church as his creation,
and her teachings are his own.

And I take with joy whatever

Now besets me, pain or fear,

And with a strong will I sever

All the ties which bind me here.

Adoration aye be given,
with and through the angelic host,
to the God of earth and heaven,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Words by Blessed John Henry Newman. Tune: Shipston, arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The fourth and fifth stanzas above are not sung in the recording. You can read more about this hymn, which may be sung to a number of different tunes, here.

Antiphon ad introitum.  Entrance Antiphon

Benedictus sit Deus Pater,

Blest be God the Father,

Unigenitusque Dei Filius,

and the Only Begotten Son of God,

Sanctus quoque Spiritus,

and also the Holy Spirit,

quia fecit nobiscum misericordiam suam.

for he has shown us is merciful love.

'When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.' Sunday Reflections, Trinity Sunday

The Trinity with the Dead Christ, Lodovico Carracci, c.1590 [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 16:12-15 (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition)

Jesus said to his disciples: "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Adoration of the Holy Trinity (Landauer Altar)

Albrecht Dürer, 1511 [Web Gallery of Art]

The two paintings above, like many others, depict the Holy Trinity with the crucified, dead Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes St Caesarius of Arles: The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity.

Though it is a mystery that we can never fully understand, the Trinity shows God's total involvement in our lives. Without the Creator we wouldn't be. Without God becoming Man in the Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, we would not have the possibility of eternal life. Without the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost we would never understand who we are, the beloved sons and daughters of God the Father, the beloved brothers and sisters of Jesus and therefore of one another.

And none of this would be possible if Jesus had not lived among us and died for us. The paintings show us the price that God was willing to pay that we would know him and return his love.

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman expresses the central mysteries of our faith in Firmly I believe and truly, taken from his extended poem The Dream of Gerontius. Sir Edward Elgar later set this to music, though the setting below is by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

We Christians begin almost every prayer, liturgical or otherwise, with the words In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit or with Glory to the Father . . . The Catechism tells us: Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not in their names, for there is only one God, the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity.

Like the painters Carracci and Dürer, Newman draws us to the Incarnation, the reality of God becoming Man, and the Paschal Mystery, the death and resurrection of Jesus:

And I next acknowledge duly
Manhood taken by the Son.

And I trust and hope most fully
In that Manhood crucified.

The Second Person of the Trinity becoming one of us, living among us, dying for us in a most humiliating way, and being raised from the dead is the source of our hope. It is by following Jesus wholeheartedly that we too are bearers of this hope to others. As Pope Francis said in his homily last Wednesday, Jesus was 'promoted' to the Cross. He was 'promoted' to humiliation. That is true promotion, that which makes us seem more like Jesus.

In the fourth stanza, not sung here, Newman brings us to the central fact that the Holy Spirit, who will guide you into all the truth, does so above all through the Church:

And I hold in veneration,
For the love of Him alone,
Holy Church as His creation,
And her teachings are His own.

Last Sunday, Pentecost, Pope Francis in ending his homily referred to 'the harmony of the Church'. As Christians we cannot go it alone. God, the Holy Trinity, is a Community, the Perfect Community, Three Persons but One God. We are made in God's image, which means we are made to be part of a community. Here are the closing words of the Pope's homily:

Today’s liturgy is a great prayer which the Church, in union with Jesus, raises up to the Father, asking him to renew the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. May each of us, and every group and movement, in the harmony of the Church, cry out to the Father and implore this gift. Today too, as at her origins, the Church, in union with Mary, cries out: 'Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love!' Amen.

Firmly I believe and truly

Words: Blessed John Henry Newman, from  The Dream of Gerontius

Music: Shipston, traditional English melody arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams

Firmly I believe and truly

God is Three, and God is One;
And I next acknowledge duly
Manhood taken by the Son.

And I trust and hope most fully
In that Manhood crucified;
And each thought and deed unruly
Do to death, as He has died.

Simply to His grace and wholly
Light and life and strength belong,
And I love supremely, solely,
Him the holy, Him the strong.

[And I hold in veneration,
For the love of Him alone,
Holy Church as His creation,
And her teachings are His own.

And I take with joy whatever
Now besets me, pain or fear,
And with a strong will I sever
All the ties which bind me here.]

Adoration aye be given,

With and through the angelic host,
To the God of earth and Heaven,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, John Everett Millais, 1891

'We will come to him and make our home with him.' Sunday Reflections, Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C

The Holy Trinity, Unknown Russian Icon Painter, 1690-17-10 [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 14:23-29 (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition)

Jesus said to his disciples, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.

"These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe. 

The late Bishop Bienvenido S. Tudtud of Marawi, Philippines, (above) visited my Dad (below) in Dublin some time in the early 1980s. As it happened, Dad was about to leave for the wedding of a cousin of mine but he was able to entertain his unexpected guest for a while. Later on he told my brother, 'The bishop made me feel at home'. My brother laughed and said to him, 'You were the one supposed to make him feel at home!' But my Dad was always himself no matter whose company he was in and so was Bishop Tudtud, whose Christian name is the Spanish for 'Welcome'. They were both to die suddenly in 1987, Bishop Tudtod in a plane crash in the Philippines on 26 June and Dad at home on 11 August, from a heart attack. He had been at Mass that morning, as he had been every day of his adult life. The photo below was taken the week before his death.

My father hadn't expected Bishop Tudtud. But he made him feel welcome. The bishop felt free to just turn up because I had worked with him and had asked him to drop by my Dad if he had time. I have found over the years that there are friends' homes to which I need no invitation. These are friends with whom I truly feel at home and who feel at home with me.

Sometimes we feel fully at home with someone whom we have just met. Sometimes that being at ease with each other comes after being together many times, maybe through working together.

In the gospel of this Sunday's Mass Jesus makes the extraordinary statement, If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

The Father and Jesus are not only coming for a visit but to make their home with us. And the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Counselor/Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will come and will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 

Fr Anselm Moynihan OP, an Irish Dominican friar who died in 1998, wrote a short book in 1948 about the Blessed Trinity living in our hearts, The Presence of God. Here is an extract: Awareness of God, whether it come to us thus by a dazzling rending of the heavens or through the gentle whisper of his voice in our conscience, is at the beginning and end of our spiritual life, at the beginning and end of all religion.  It is the root of what is truly the most radical division of mankind, one to which Holy Scripture constantly reverts, that between the 'wise' who keep God before their eyes and the 'fools' who ignore him.  The first awakening of the soul to God's reality brings with it that fear of the Lord which is the 'beginning of wisdom'; the end of life should bring with it the 'wisdom of the perfect,' the fruit of charity, whereby a man will experience God's living presence within himself and be filled with longing for that full awareness of God which is the vision of his face in heaven.

Supper at Emmaus, Hendrick Terbrugghen, c.1621 [Web Gallery of Art]

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus invited Jesus to join them and they pressed him to have supper with them at the inn, as it was getting dark. It was through their welcoming him that they discovered who their unknown companion was, the Risen Lord. And in the intimacy of the breaking of the bread when they recognised him and he disappeared from their sight, they felt his presence even more strongly, even more intimately. He was now dwelling in their hearts, just as he dwells in ours, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . .' Trinity Sunday

HolyTrinity, Jusepe de Ribera, painted 1635-36 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) 

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) 

Gospel Matthew 28:16-20 (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition)

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." 

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From the evening of 23 May until the morning of 1 June I was giving a retreat to a group of Canossian Sisters, also known as Daughters of Charity, Servants of the Poor. They included four novices and seven professed Sisters, including one from Malaysia.Their foundress, St Magdalene of Canossa bequeathed to the Sisters the mission of 'making Jesus known and loved above all'. This comes from a stance of standing at the foot of the Cross with Mary.

During my talks each morning I shared many stories of individuals who had made Jesus known to me, usually with no awareness that they were doing so. Some were persons I knew. Some are now dead. Some I met only once in passing, never learning their names. Most were poor. I know that my stories triggered off similar memories among the Sisters of people who had made Jesus known to them as the Sisters in turn had made him known to those they were serving.

I saw all of this in the context of the Communion of Saints, the angels and saints in heaven, the members of the Church on earth, the souls in purgatory. The story of creation tells us that we are made in the image of God. But what the author of that first account of creation didn't know is that God is a Community of Three Persons. Made in God's image, we are made to be in community with others.

Jusepe de Ribera's painting of the Holy Trinity above, like a number of other paintings, shows the dead Christ. The expression on the face of the Father shows suffering. It is very similar to the face of the father in Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son, painted about thirty years later. I don't know if Rembrandt was familiar with de Ribera's painting.

The Blessed Trinity call us into the circle of their life through suffering. We know the suffering of Jesus. Some of the great artists show to us something of the suffering of the Father.

One of the stories I told involved two persons I met only once, a mother and her daughter aged about 13. When they approached me first outside a retreat house in Cebu City on the morning of Holy Thursday 1990. I made an excuse that I was only visiting. When I went inside I later saw the two of them sitting on the steps. The daughter had her head on her mother's shoulder. Clearly, they were tired and hungry. When I was leaving I gave them emough to buy breakfast. The young girl looked at me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen and said to me, Salamat sa Ginoo! 'Thanks to the Lord!' She wasn't thanking me but inviting me to thank the Lord with her and her mother for his goodness. Through her hunger and tiredness she had come to know something of God's bountiful love.

That young girl has been calling me into the life of the Holy Trinity for more than 22 years now. I've no idea what became of her. I came to the Philippines in 1971 to do my part in making disciples of all nations and have baptised many in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But that young girl, and many others like her, have been constantly teaching me to observe all that I have commanded you and assuring me in the name of Jesus, I am with you always, to the close of the age.

Introit (Entrance Antiphon of Mass)

Benedíctus sit Deus Pater,

unigenitúsque Dei Fílius,

Sanctus quoque Spíritus,

quia fecit nobíscum misericórdiam suam.

Blest be God the Father, 

and the Only Begotten Son of God, 

and also the Holy Spirit,

for he has shown us his merciful love.

Mozart’s setting of the Latin text at the age of 12 sung by the  Meninos Cantores de Campinas, many of them around the same age as Mozart when he wrote the music. Campinas is in São Paolo State, Brazil.

Benedictus sit Deus

High Altar of the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Campinas, Brazil

'God loved the world so much.' Sunday Reflections, Trinity Sunday, 19 June 2011

The Trinity, El Greco, painted 1577, Museo del Prado, Madrid

Readings (New American Bible, used in the Philippines and USA).

Gospel John 3:16-18 (Jerusalem Bible, used in Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, Scotland) 

Jesus said to Nicodemus, 

God loved the world so much
that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him
may not be lost but may have eternal life.
For God sent his Son into the world
not to condemn the world,
but so that through him the world might be saved.
No one who believes in him will be condemned;
but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already,
because he has refused to believe
in the name of God's only Son.


An Soiscéal Eoin 3:16-18 (Gaeilge, Irish)

San am sin dúirt Íosa lena dheisceabail:
Óir ghráigh Dia an domhan chomh mór sin
gur thug sé a Aonghin Mic uaidh
i dtreo, gach duine a chreideann ann,
nach gcaillfí é ach go mbeadh an bheatha shioraí aige.
Óir ní chun daorbhreith a thabhairt ar an saol
a chuir Dia a Mhac uaidh ar an saol
ach chun go slánófaí an saol tríd.
An té a chreideann ann ní thabharfar daorbhreith air,
ach an té nach gcreideann ann,
tá daorbhreith tugtha air cheana féin,
mar nár chreid sé in ainm Mhac Dé, a Aonghin.

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In 1976, during my first visit home to Ireland from the Philippines, I was celebrating Sunday Mass in my home parish church in Dublin. I mentioned in my homily that 'a temple of the Holy Spirit' hade been murdered that week in Northern Ireland. A member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary had been shot dead. A middle-aged man in the congregation didn't like what I said and stood up and asked 'Are we here to listen to the Gospel or to a political speech?' He then sat down. I was initially stunned but continued and mentioned the policeman specifically during the prayers of the faithful.
 
I don't know whether the murdered man was a Catholic or Protestant but was certain that he was baptised and therefore a Temple of the Holy Spirit. Part of the tragedy is that the person who killed him was also such. But it isn't only the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. The Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, do so.
 

The Venerable Edel Quinn (14 September 1907 - 12 May 1944)

 
The Handbook of the Legion of Mary, Chapter 7, The Legionary and the Holy Trinity, has these words: The saints are insistent on the necessity for thus distinguishing between the Three Divine Persons and for rendering to each one of them an appropriate attention. The Athanasian Creed is mandatory and strangely menacing in regard to this requirement, which proceeds from the fact that the final purpose of Creation and of the Incarnation is the glorification of the Trinity. The late Fr Anselm Moynihan quotes these words in an article on the Venerable Edel Quinn, Edel Quinn: A Life in the Trinity.
 
The concluding part of the article, Adoring the Trinity, is especially appropriate for today's feast. The references to 'S' are to the life of Edel by Cardinal Suenens. Those to 'N' are to Edel's notes.
 
Adoring the Trinity

We are sharers in the very life of the Blessed Trinity, with the Incarnate Word as our Brother, His Father as our Father, His Spirit as the Soul of our souls. Yet we can never forget the transcendent holiness of God. And as a consequence, underlying, though not weakening the sublime intimacy we enjoy with the Divine Persons, will be an attitude of profound reverence and adoration. Edel certainly had that. It was manifest in her whole bearing at prayer, her behaviour towards all who represented God in any way and also in the expressions she uses in her private notes. She knew her soul to be the living sanctuary of the Triune God. She snatched at every opportunity of quiet and silence to recollect herself and be alone with God and offer Him the incense of her adoration.

Let us ask the grace to live in realization of our life in Christ, through Mary, adoring the Trinity (S, p. 246).

In Christ Jesus we have all. Realise this.

Often offer Him to the Trinity, present in our soul, giving all honour, reparation and glory throughout the day (S, p. 246).

Realise that I am the temple of God, the dwelling-place of the Trinity (S, p. 246).

In Christ we adore the Trinity, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus. Try and adore the Trinity in our souls, even in the midst of trouble or external duties (S, p. 248).

Our Lady, dwelling place of the Trinity. With Christ and helped by Mary, let us adore the Trinity. Cut out useless worrying thoughts ... to adore with and in union with Jesus ... Trinity in soul ... per Mariam (N).

At Mass I united myself to the victim Christ, through Mary's hands, for the glory of the Trinity, in thanksgiving for everything, and on behalf of souls (S, p. 250).

For Edel Quinn, then, the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity was not just an abstraction, to be accepted indeed on faith but with little bearing on the practical working out of our lives. For her it was supremely practical, vital and energizing. Her manner of applying it to her life, her prayer, her work, her relations with others offers an example we can all imitate - to the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

'The Blessed Trinity - there is our dwelling-place, our home, the Father's house which we must never leave' (Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity [photo below]).

Trinity was not just an abstraction, to be accepted indeed on faith but with little bearing on the practical working out of our lives. For her it was supremely practical, vital and energising. Her manner of applying it to her life, her prayer, her work, her relations with others offers an example we can all imitate - to the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

'The Blessed Trinity - there is our dwelling-place, our home, the Father's house which we must never leave' (Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity).

This article first appeared in Doctrine and Life, July 1963.( Ed.)

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity (18 July 1880 – 9 November 1906)

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Introit (Entrance Antiphon) from Missal of Blessed John XXIII (1962):
 

 

Benedicta sit sancta Trinitas atque indivisa unitas: confitebimur ei, quia fecit nobiscum misericordiam suam. Ps. Domine Dominus noster, quam admirabile est nomen tuum in universa terra! V. Gloria Patri.

English translation

Blessed be the Holy Trinity and undivided Unity: we will give glory to Him, because He hath shown His mercy to us. Vs. (Ps. 8: 2) O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Thy name in all the earth! Glory be to the Father.

El Greco often did a number of paintings of the same scene. Here is one very similar to that at the top, painted the same year but over the high altar in the Church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo, Toledo, Spain.



Trinity Sunday

Lord, who has form'd me out of mud,
And hast redeem'd me through thy blood,
And sanctifi'd me to do good;

Purge all my sins done heretofore:
For I confess my heavy score,
And I will strive to sin no more.

Enrich my heart, mouth, hands in me,
With faith, with hope, with charity;
That I may run, rise, rest with thee.

George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633)

George Herbert, born in Wales, was an Anglican priest noted for his great love for the poor in his parish in Wiltshire, England. This poem is found in the edition of The Divine Office approved by the hierarchies of Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, Scotland and published in 1974.



Preamble to the Constitution of Ireland

In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,

We, the people of Éire,

Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial,

Gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain the rightful independence of our Nation,

And seeking to promote the common good, with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured, true social order attained, the unity of our country restored, and concord established with other nations,

Do hereby adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution.



 Brollach do Bhunreacht na hÉireann

In Ainm na Tríonóide Ró-Naofa is tobar don uile údarás agus gur chuici, ós í is críoch dheireanach dúinn, is dírithe ní amháin gníomhartha daoine ach gníomhartha Stát,

Ar mbeith dúinne, muintir na hÉireann, ag admháil go huiríseal a mhéid atáimid faoi chomaoin ag Íosa Críost, ár dTiarna Dia, a thug comhfhurtacht dár sinsir i ngach cruatan ina rabhadar ar feadh na gcéadta bliain,

Agus ar mbeith dúinn ag cuimhneamh go buíoch ar a chalmacht a rinneadarsan troid gan staonadh chun an neamhspleáchas is dual dár Náisiún a bhaint amach,

Agus ar mbeith dúinn á chur romhainn an mhaitheas phoiblí a chur ar aghaidh maille le Críonnacht agus le hIonracas agus le Carthanacht de réir mar is cuí, ionas go dtiocfaidh linn a uaisleacht agus a shaoirse a chur in áirithe do gach aon duine, saol ceart comhdhaonnach a bhunú, aiseag a haontachta a thabhairt dár dtír, agus comhcharadra a dhéanamh le náisiúin eile,

Atáimid leis seo ag gabháil an Bhunreachta seo chugainn, agus á achtú agus á thíolacadh dúinn féin.