Trinity Sunday

The Sunday after Pentecost is the feast of the Holy Trinity on which the Church gives for our meditation the most sublime mystery of our Faith. In the words of the Carmelite Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen: "In the presence of the unspeakable mystery of the Trinity, the highest praise is silence, the silence of the soul that adores, knowing that it is incapable of praising or glorifying the divine Majesty worthily." (from Divine Intimacy, p.587) The Trinity is one God in three Persons, as the Athanasian Creed states: "The Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is one: the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal....In like manner, the Father is Almighty, the Son is Almighty and the Holy Spirit is Almighty, and yet there are not three Almighties, but One Almighty." The threeness of God was revealed by Our Lord Jesus Christ during His public ministry, specifically at His baptism (Matthew 3:16-17), at His Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5) and before His Ascension (Matthew 28:19). Yet the mystery of the Trinity is alluded to in the Old Testament, even in the first chapter of Genesis, when God speaks in the plural: "Let us make man to Our image and likeness" (Gen. 1:28), and later when the prophet Isaias beholds the seraphim chanting their "trisagion" of praise: "Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God of Hosts!" (Isaias 6:3)

At Fatima, the angel taught the children the following invocation: "O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, my God, my God, I adore you in the Blessed Sacrament." We can encounter the Trinity in the Blessed Eucharist, in the depths of our souls, and through devotion to the Heart of Mary who is daughter of God the Father, Mother of God the Son, and spouse of God the Holy Spirit.