The Solemnity of the Holy Trinity In the Words of the Saints

For this Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, we may look at the saints, who certainly have made their own contribution to make to this feast which, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, rightly describes as the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life (no. 261).

It was God alone who made himself known to the saints by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (no.261). With their simple and their hearts burning of God’s love the saints gave us some very profound insights in our venture to contemplate this greatest mystery of the Christian faith.

For St Augustine, the Holy Trinity is the source of our innermost joy: For to have the fruition of God the Trinity, after whose image we are made, is indeed the fullness of our joy, than which there is no greater. Moreover, the Holy Trinity is made up of three distinct Persons and of one substance who are one God.

The three Persons are distinct from one another; a sublime knowledge is infused into the soul, imbuing it with a certainty of the truth that the Three are of one substance, power, and knowledge and are one God.

Here one could sense what the Catechism of the Catholic Church would say about the Blessed Trinity, namely that: Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son’s is another, the Holy Spirit’s another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal (Athanasian Creed: DS 75; ND 16) (no. 266).

The Holy Trinity is light which casts out evil from the soul and fills it with grace. St Seraphim of Sarov reflects on this point when he says: In spite of our sinfulness, in spite of the darkness surrounding our souls, the grace of the Holy Spirit, conferred by baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, still shines in our hearts with the inextinguishable light of Christ … and when the sinner turns to the way of repentance the light smooths away every trace of the sins committed, clothing the former sinner in the garments of incorruption, spun of the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is this acquisition of the Holy Spirit about which I have been speaking.

Adding to this idea, the Holy Trinity is our shield against evil. The prayer from St Patrick’s Breastplate explains it all when it confesses: Today I put on a terrible strength invoking the Trinity, confessing the Three with faith in the One as I face my Maker. The Holy Trinity is an abyss of fire and love. St Catherine of Siena reminds us: O Trinity, eternal Trinity! Fire, abyss of love … Was it necessary that you should give even the Holy Trinity as food for souls? You gave us not only your Word through the Redemption and in the Eucharist, but you also gave yourself in the fullness of love for your creature.

In the Holy Trinity the Holy Spirit is the principle of love. St Thomas Aquinas tells us: The Father loves not only the Son but also himself and us, by the Holy Ghost. And this love, which is found at the heart of the Three Divine Persons, is always there to welcome us in the Church. That is why St Ambrose encourages us with these powerful words: Rise, you who were lying fast asleep … Rise and hurry to the Church: Here is the Father, here is the Son, here is the Holy Spirit.

Before the mystery of the Holy Trinity we simply remain silent in all wonder and adoration. We all were given the golden opportunity to participate in its eternal life. Pope St John Paul II reminds us of this lofty calling when he says:

A great mystery, a mystery of love, an ineffable mystery, before which words must give way to the silence of wonder and worship. A divine mystery that challenges and involves us, because a share in the Trinitarian life was given to us through grace, through the redemptive Incarnation of the Word and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Trinity is the dispenser of its eternal happiness and joy not only to the person who is one with it but it is overflowed on all creation. Thus, the Holy Trinity is the eternal spring of life. St Faustina shares with us this thought: When One of the Three Persons communicates with a soul, by the power of that one will, it finds itself united with the Three Persons and is inundated in the happiness flowing from the Most Holy Trinity, the same happiness that nourishes the saints. This same happiness that streams from the Most Holy Trinity makes all creation happy; from it springs that life which vivifies and bestows all life which takes its beginning from him.

St Francis de Sales encourages us to consecrate ourselves to the Holy Trinity. While quoting a consecration prayer to the Trinity he makes his own these particular words from this act of consecration: I vow and consecrate to God all that is in me: My memory and my actions to God the Father; My understanding and my words to God the Son; My will and my thoughts to God the Holy Spirit.

Let us now conclude these reflections on the Holy Trinity by rightly and justly praise the Trinity with St Francis of Assisi and feel with him the eternal healing which only the Triune God can give us:

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty,

Who is and who was and who is to come.