‘If you see charity, you see the Trinity’
St Augustine
‘The Trinity is the foundation of the entire Christian faith’
St Bonaventure
'You, eternal Trinity, are a deep sea. The more I enter you, the more I discover, and the more I discover, the more I seek you.'
St Catherine of Siena, Dialogue 167.
'You, eternal Trinity, are the craftsman; and I your handiwork have come to know that you are in love with the beauty of what you have made, since you made of me a new creation in the blood of your Son.'
St Catherine of Siena, Dialogue 167.
'We are invited into the Trinity, rejoicing in the Father’s limitless embrace’
St John of the Cross, Living Flame, 1, 15.
'The one who prays is profoundly drawn into the mutual dynamic relationships of Trinitarian life…he is drawn into the interflow of life and love, the communion, in the Trinity. He is ‘capable of breathing in God the same spiration of love that the Father breathes in the Son and the Son in the Father. This spiration of love is the Holy Spirit, who in the Father and the Son breathes out to her in this transformation in order to unite her to God’s self’.
St John of the Cross, Spiritual canticle, 39, 3.
‘God is love, St John tells us. But what is love? If God is love, then knowing love is the key to knowing God. Love is a mystery, a power greater than we can understand. But what we do know is that love is not a thing. It is not a feeling. Rather it is something that happens, something that we can see and experience in a way that draws us into its power and changes us. Think about it. For love to happen, there must be a Lover who loves first. There must be a Beloved (the one who is loved) and there is the love between them. Sound familiar? Here is the mystery of God’s love that is the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father in return. The Holy Spirit is the love between them. It is this love of the Son that was carried by him into the world and still remains with us through the Holy Spirit. Here is the work of God in the world as you read this, uniting, healing and forgiving. This changes our understanding of who God is. If God is love then God’s presence and power are present to us and his living Spirit sustains all creation. His Spirit is close to us and seeks always to unite us to Himself'.
Fr Billy Swan
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