The Most Holy Trinity The Mystery of all mysteries.
Why Study this Mystery of mysteries? St. John of the Cross favorite votive Mass Mystics sought to enter the inner life of the Trinity Heaven entering the one Act of God s Love Making the Sign of the Cross to start and end prayers St. John Eudes St. Bernadette Why did God create? Was He lonely? Can God be selfish? Humble? What does it mean to say we are made God s IMAGE?
1 Divine Nature 2 Processions 3 Persons 4 Relations 5 Notions Trinitarian Theology As easy as 1-2-3-4-5 Keep in mind what is simple is often hardest to grasp! St. Augustine and the Angel. Apprehending vs. Comprehending.
ONE Divine Nature God is Being Itself. He said, I AM WHO AM He is pure BEING. He is Existence itself. We get our being and existence from HIM. His Divine Nature is numerically ONE. We humans all share the same nature but are multiple. We say In the NAME of the Father not NAMES. Thou are ONE God, ONE Lord ONE Substance UNITY in Essence Preface of Holy Trinity.
His nature is to Exist to BE. All that it means to be human: soul: intellect, will, memory, imagination, etc body: two legs, two arms, two eyes, etc To EXIST does not fall within our Nature or any created nature. If it did, then only that part of us would exist!!! Thus, we must get it from outside ourselves from ONE Whose Nature is to EXIST.
Argument for God s Existence! All that it means to be human is in the box If Being were there, how could the other things exist? All must receive being from outside! Being Intellect Will Memory Imagination Emotions Body
TWO Processions Generation and Spiration (breathing forth). Generation Knower and Known. Father and Son Lover and Beloved Spiration Love shared Bond between Father and Son, Lover and Beloved.
FATHER Filioque HOLY GHOST SON
FATHER FATHER SON SON HOLY GHOST HOLY GHOST
Order in God Hierarchy in God. Generation prior to Spiration. Order in the Creed Veritas (truth) precedes Caritas (love) Truth is conformity between knower and known. Love is built on Truth
Power of Processions Why we process may seem simply but is of God!!! Very powerful Jericho Solemn Salve Lourdes
FOUR Relations Processions give rise to Relations. The Source and Terminus of a Process are Related to each other. Two processions Four Relations. Analogy: human generation produces relations paternity and sonship.
FATHER Paternity Spiration Procession HOLY GHOST Filiation SON
THREE Persons Relations in God that are Unique and Unrepeatable are PERSONS in God. There are Three of these: Paternity: God the FATHER Filiation: God the SON Procession: God the Holy Ghost One of the relations is shared between the FATHER and the SON. Filioque!
FATHER FATHER SON SON HOLY GHOST HOLY GHOST Each of these configurations would produce FOUR Persons in God.
Perfect Community of Persons Why did God Create? He was not LONELY!! God is not selfish lives in a Perfect Community. Gregorian Chant in a Monastery: Choir A: The Father Choir B: The Son Chanting a certain spiration occurs leading to uplifted hearts bonding.
Personality Man is made the IMAGE of God. This includes man s personality. Each man is unique and unrepeatable! God s Personality is based on relations. God has infinite relating power!! (cf. Ps 138). Thus, for man, the more he is able to relate, the more his personality develops and vice versa.
FIVE Notions St. Thomas teaches us that these NOTIONs are the proper IDEAS whereby we KNOW a divine Person. These NOTIONS are derived from the ORIGIN of the three Persons.
Notions for God the Father God the Father has no one from Whom He came! Thus, the first NOTION is God the Father s INNASCIBILITY (not born/generated). Because of God the Father s INNASCIBILITY, He cannot be completely known without turning to Those that proceed from HIM. Thus, the Father is known by His PATERNITY. This is the second NOTION. He is also known by the Spiration shared between the Father and Son. This is the third NOTION.
Hierarchy The Innascibility of God the Father shows that there is hierarchy in God, even when all the Persons are equal in nature and dignity. Fatherhood is the highest. All AUTHORITY flows from HIM as AUTHOR! Why St. Teresa of Jesus would not do anything serious without taking consultation with her Father in confession Vocation problems at root usually Fatherhood problems.
Notions for God the Son The SON is known as eternally begotten by the God the Father. Thus FILIATION is the fourth NOTION. God the Holy Ghost is also from the Son and the Father, and so, like the Father, the Son is known by the NOTION of Spiration. Again, this is the third NOTION.
NOTIONS for God the Holy Ghost God the Holy Ghost can be known from His coming from God the Father and God the Son. Thus, He is known by PROCESSION. This is the fifth NOTION. Notice of the five NOTIONS four are RELATIONS, three PERSONS. Four are PROPERTIES or that which belongs only to ONE Person in God.
SPIRATION RELATIONS PATERNITY FILIATION PROCESSION PERS0NS INNASCIBILITY PROPERTIES NOTIONS
1 Divine Nature 2 Processions 3 Persons 4 Relations 5 Notions Trinitarian Theology As easy as 1-2-3-4-5 What is simple is often hardest to grasp! We can apprehend but not comprehend!
Recollection As the Perfect Community of Persons, God is perfectly RECOLLECTED. He never leaves Himself. He KNOWS Himself eternally He is eternally in LOVE. He is NEVER distracted! No evil of the man, the world and most of all the devil can ever distract HIM.
Recollection in us The saints strove to acquire this same recollection! It is the one thing necessary. The more recollected, the less things of this world and of the underworld of hell can harm us. Not thinking about self but God in the self. Do we seek ourselves in God or God in ourselves?
How to Recollect Place yourself in heaven before God! This can overcome any difficulty! In placing ourselves before God, COLLECT all that you are and give it all to God Intellect Will Memory Imagination Emotions Body Substance Total Consecration helps us make this possible.
Psychological Image of the Most Holy Trinity in Man St. Thomas used St. Augustine s analogy of the Trinity as found inside of Man in the faculties of his soul The highest faculties of Man s soul are three: Active Intellect (knower), Passive Intellect (known) and the Rational Appetite (the Will home of man s Rational Desire LOVE). These compose, as it were, man s head and heart. St. Teresa of Jesus people in the Soul! Argument of the immortality of the SOUL.
Active Intellect FATHER Man s Mind: Veritas Faith Passive Intellect SON HOLY GHOST Man s Will/Heart: Caritas
Essence of the Spiritual Life: RESPONDING TO GRACE God the Holy Ghost is the Relation that, as it were, returns back to God the Father and God the Son from Whom He was breathed forth. The essence of the Spiritual Life is in many ways mirrored by this Relation. It is responding to Grace Tandem Bicycle. Radio Tower receives and transmits. Longest distance in the UNIVERSE: that which lies between head and heart. Keep saying YES to God go from grace to grace!
Why we do not Respond Man often avoids responding because it leads back to the Father AND THE SON. Filioque. Saying Yes to the SON leads up the MOUNTAIN to the CROSS! Pain, Penance, Mortification! Some have tried to take a short cut. By pass the Filioque this is what the charismatics tend to do, willy nilly. Protestants too we can go straight to the FATHER!
FATHER SON HOLY GHOST
God the Father is not known without the Son! Recall the NOTIONS. Father is known not by Spiration alone but also by Paternity. Truth in God is between God the Father and God the Son (the Word)! Without going to the Son, we will not be grounded on TRUTH. St. John: Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath NOT the Father (1Jn. 2:23). Whosoever revolteth and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God (2Jn. 9). St. Thomas Aquinas says must profess the Most Holy Trinity to be saved. Creed of St. Athanasius.
The Church The Church, as the Mystical Body of Christ, is a mystical Person. Thus, She too mirrors the Holy Trinity. If Truth is neglected in Her chaos ensues for the Church Hierarchical nature comes under attack. Is often replaced by charismatic model more egalitarian that uses feelings, sensitivity human love to unite and reach out. She loses Her recollection! Religious life! St. Paul knew what he was about in speaking of the Cross and all was focused on Christ and Him Crucified! No wonder we always start our prayers with the sign of the Cross
No true Caritas without Veritas! Without Veritas, love becomes sentimentality romanticism luv. Typified especially in Christian Marriages The indissolubility of Christian Marriage mirrors the unbreakable bond between Christ the HEAD and His BRIDE the Body of Christ. This bond is the Holy Ghost! He is the SOUL of the Church. Just as He is the bond between the Divine and Human natures in Christ so too the Church s bond between Head and Body. If bypass the HEAD, no true love no true bonding Marriages based on romanticism fail sooner or later no bond. Marriage must be before one who is of the FATHER: i.e., has authority/delegation from the Church!
Monotheism enough? Just having God the Father alone enough? As we have seen, God the Father is not known without the other persons of the Holy Trinity, especially since this has been PUBLICLY REVEALED in the Gospel! Muslims and the Jews believe in one God but deny the HOLY TRINITY. Can they have true charity? True unity? True peace? Can they have interior harmony when not acting according to image! Wars wars wars inside and out!
Relating & Personality The inner life of God is ONE ACT of Truth and Love. Heaven is entering into this ONE ACT for all eternity. Hell is being separated from it for all eternity. This ACT is between the PERSONS in God. It has to do with RELATING. The more we can relate, the closer we get to being in HEAVEN! And vice versa.
Abba Dorotheus GOD
Relating Power Since God s Persons are infinite, He has infinite relating power. Not even the damned in hell can escape HIM! King David captured this in Ps. 138: Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy face? (v7). No matter where he fled, God was there. This is why even the most hardened sinner can still convert while still in this life. The Church s Mystical Person has infinite relating power!!! She does not need ANYTHING OUTSIDE OF HER TO HELP SINNERS CONVERT!!!!
The HEAD & HEART need to RELATE When fail to relate on the inside, we fail to relate on the outside. Again, truth in the mind and the heart responding with the help of grace leads to true love. Peace of soul. Eternal life. Otherwise, hell starts to take root. We turn in on ourselves, failing to relate inside leads to failures on the outside. Lies, deceit, suspicions, duplicity follow. NO LOVE POSSIBLE. NO PEACE POSSIBLE. Most, if not all, addictions have some failure to relate behind them. Broken Relationships. Depressing. Makes abortion and IVF stressful...difficult to repair.
True Love Why did God give us liberty? Free choice of the Will? So that we can do what He did! The Son returns all the Father leads to SPIRATION! The Holy Ghost gives all back to the Father and the Son. BOND of LOVE in God. Caritas is know most especially by Sacrifice. Charity is giving everything back to God (recall our exercise of recollection).
Exitus-Reditus The Universe can be modeled under a certain Exitus-Reditus theme. A going out from God and a returning to God. This is seen perfectly in Christ a going out from God and His return. I came from the Father and I go back to the Father. This is a model for our WILLS. We are given, and we give it ALL back to show LOVE.
Perichoresis Each of the Three Persons of God mutually inhere in the others without losing their Personhood. This is called Perichoresis or Circumincessio. 3 Kyrie 3 Christe 3 Kyrie at Mass shows this.
Humility in God Perichoresis allows SELF-EFFACEMENT & Hiddenness in God. This allows humility in God. Father hides behind the Son The Son hides behind the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost hides behind the Church! St. Cyprian no one can call God Father without having the Church as Mother. The humble self-efface and seek God in the Church and end by finding Him face to face in heaven!
Who are we seeking? Are we seeking ourselves in God or are we seeking God in ourselves? Let us always be about seeking God and finding Him and all things will be given unto us!