Reflections on the Nature of the Trinity.

Last updated; 20 th January.

"Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen"

Introduction

This is a slightly theological article about the Nature of the Trinity. It is based on Catholic theology and is designed to deepen our knowledge about the nature of the Trinity and the Three Divine Persons. The theological Mystery of the Trinity is a Mystery we can never understand and that is why hopefully we will need all Eternity to look at them!

Christians believe in only "One God" and that He is also at the same time "Three Persons" that is, Father, Son and Holy Spirit (The Holy Trinity) and that each of these Three Persons is the "One only God"! We can say that where one member of the Trinity is present all three are in some way present! The reason for this is that even though they are "Three" distinct Persons they are united as ONE BEING. Impossible? No, not for God! Looking at Scripture we see that the prophet Isaiah (ch 9: v 5) says that the promised "Messiah" or "Christ" (which means "Anointed One" or Saviour) will be called "Wonder Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace". This tells us that the Messiah will be the "Mighty God" and implies also that the "Mighty God" can also be called "Wonder Counsellor, Eternal Father and Prince of Peace". These three names confirm for us that God is the Holy Trinity, and that He is first of all One " (Mighty) God" but He is also at the same time the "(Eternal) Father" , the "Prince of Peace" (the Son of God) and the "Wonder Counsellor" (the Holy Spirit).

THE TRINITY IN SCRIPTURE

Because the nature of the Holy Trinity is so difficult to understand God choose to reveal His Trinitarian nature to Man gradually. In the Old Testament the first hint to God as a Trinity is in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, the story of creation. Here the Father is referred to as "God", the Son is referred to in each phrase "God Said" because the Son is also known as the "Word of God" (see St John's gospel ( 1: 1-3) and it was by "speaking" that God created (see also Psalm 33: "He spoke: and it came to be")) and the Holy Spirit is referred to in the phrase "the Spirit hovered over the sombre waters". In Genesis (1: 26) God says "Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves " which seems to point to God's Trinitarian nature because otherwise God would have possibly said "I will make man in my image". Again God said after the fall God said "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever," (Gen 3; 22). In chapter 11 of the same book God says "Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech," (Gen 11; 7) The next hint to God's Trinitarian nature is in chapter 18 of Genesis, verses 1-2: "God appeared to Abraham -he (Abraham) looked up and saw three men standing nearby". Further on in the Old Testament there is the above already mentioned quote from Isaiah Chapter 9, which seems to name the Trinity as one "mighty" God and also as the three divine persons. Frank Duff (founder of the Legion of Mary) wrote that the first clear mention of the Trinity is in the New Testament and is appropriately to Mary when the Archangel Gabriel asked her to become the Mother of the Son of God (Luke 1: 35). He said to her "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High (the Father) will overshadow you: so the child to be born of you will be called holy, the Son of God". The next revelation of the Trinity in the New Testament is at the Baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan by John the Baptist (See Mark1: 10-11) where the "Heavens opened and the Spirit descending on Him (The Son) like a Dove: and a voice came from Heaven (The Father) saying, "You are My Beloved Son". This event is now remembered in the first Mystery of the New "Mysteries of Light" of the Rosary. In St John's Gospel, especially chapters 14, 15, 16 and 17 Jesus speaks a lot about the relationships between the Father, Himself (the Son) and the Holy Spirit. He tells Philip (John14: 9) "He who has seen Me has seen the Father", earlier in (John 10: 30) He said "The Father and I are one" In order to show us that all the Three Persons of the Trinity are equal to each other He said in (John16: 15) "All that the Father has is mine: therefore I said that He (the Holy Spirit) will take what is mine and declare it to you". The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and of the Son and He was equally sent by both the Father and the Son (See John (14: 16)) " I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counsellor (the Holy Spirit) to be with you for ever" and John15: 26) "when the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth." ) Jesus is showing that both the Father and the Son would send the Holy Spirit because He is the Spirit equally of both of them. Before Jesus ascended back to Heaven He clearly named the Trinity when He told His disciples (Mathew 28: 19) "Go make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". By Baptism we receive the Holy Spirit and are born again. We are made Sisters and Brothers of Jesus and therefore we are made Children of God.

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THEIR NATURE

God has a Divine Nature, which is beyond all human understanding, but Theologians try to explain the nature of the Trinity in this way. The Eternal Father who we call the first Person of the Trinity is the Freewill of the Trinity. He makes the decisions. He has perfect infinite Knowledge of Himself and all His Goodness and this knowledge is so profound that it is the second Divine Person of the Trinity who we call the Son of God. See ( Mt11: 27) where Jesus said, "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, ". The Son is the Father's Eternal Self Knowledge or to put it another way, He is the Father's only Divine " Fruit" and that fruit is the Knowledge He has of His own Goodness. The Father is the Source of that Knowledge and that Knowledge itself is His Son who is His only begotten "Fruit". Similarly we see that parents are the source of their children and that children are the fruit of their parents. The Son of God is the Father's Eternal Fruit and that Fruit is the Father 's Eternal Knowledge of His own Goodness. The Son of God is the Divine "Fruit of the knowledge of Good (and evil). Compare with Gen 2: 9). There is no evil in God of course but God still knows the nature of evil but He cannot do anything evil because His nature is Infinite Goodness. The evil that God knows is in His creatures, ( evil spirits or humans) that reject Him. The Son of God is God's Self Knowledge. The Son of God sees the infinite goodness, ( humility, generosity, gentleness, mercy , selflessness etc) in the Father and burns with infinite Love for Him and the Father seeing the perfect knowledge of His own goodness in the Son BURNS with the same infinite love for the Son and that infinite fire of "Love" between the Two is so profound that it is the Third Divine Person of the Trinity Who is called the Holy Spirit. Theologians say that the Holy Spirit is the atmosphere of Love eternally produced between the Father and the Son.

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Relation of the Three Persons

Let us see if we can get a better understanding of this theory. First let us try and see why the Father's "Self Knowledge" is the person of the Son. God has made man in the " Image of God" so by looking at human nature we can learn more about God. Imagine then if one person had perfect knowledge of another person. In order to have perfect knowledge of another person they would in a sense have had to try and be the other person, they would have to have been with the other person all of that persons life, and not only that , they would have to have been inside of them so as to know every thought they ever had, everything they ever felt and every decision they ever made. We see then that the more we know another person the more we can become a copy of that person. Psychiatrists and Counsellors get to know their patients as much as possible in order to try in a sense to be their patient, and then they are better able to see their patient's problems from their point of view. Knowledge of someone helps us to become like a copy of them. The Father has always "Known" Himself, He has always had perfect infinite Knowledge of Himself and that Knowledge of Himself is His Son Who is the perfect Copy or image of God.

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God's Love for us

One of the most amazing things Jesus ever said is (John15; 9) "As the Father has Loved me, so have I Loved you",.The reason is because we know the Father has INFINITE love for the Son which means that Jesus has INFINITE love for every Human Being that has ever existed. As well, because the Father and Jesus are "One" we know then that the Father too has this same INFINITE love for us and that this INFINITE love is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God's Spirit of Mercy. Unfortunately this Love between the Father and us is nearly all one way, mainly from Him to us! But the more we have Jesus in our heart then the more we with Jesus will return this Love to the Father. Jesus is "the WAY" to Love God and we follow that Way best by accepting the crosses we meet in our lives.

   It is worth remembering that because God has perfect "knowledge" of each one of us that He nearly "is" each one of us more than we "are" ourselves , He knows and perhaps endures all our sufferings and joys more than we do, (see Acts 9: 4-5 "Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me?" where Jesus complains to Saul about the persecution He Himself feels in His own followers at Saul 's hands). Perhaps He often preserves us from feeling the full weight of our sufferings. He gives us so many graces to help us carry our burdens in life. God knows us so well that He feels that we are parts of His own Body, the "Mystical Body of Christ". God is at the core of our "being" we are on the outside! He is the Vine, we are the branches, and He maintains our existence! If He were not in us we would not "Be". He is the Life support machine of all creatures! He even keeps the demons and the "lost " in existence because He loves them too much to destroy their existence, but unfortunately they can never again feel His Love and His Justice demands their punishment. Actually because they have rejected Him He should reject them, but that would mean that they would lose " life", "existence", "everything and everyone (including themselves )" for ever and that is the worst thing that can happen to any "intelligent being" .

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The Trinity's plan for the Salvation of Mankind

We know that the first man "Adam" (the son of God) caused the fall and death of all Mankind when he received and ate the "fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" and then that fruit became part of his human body or nature. But even before Adam sinned the Holy Trinity had already planned a similar but opposite pattern to save mankind and reverse the fall. That plan was to send the NEW ADAM Jesus the ETERNAL SON OF GOD down to Earth to save us. He took a human body into His own Divine NATURE so that He who is the Divine "Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" would be nailed to DIE on the DEAD TREE of the CROSS. By doing that He gave ETERNAL LIFE to ALL Mankind. To put that another way, the first man received the "fruit" and caused the "fall" then later the (Divine) Fruit" received a "Man" and caused the "Redemption". The Second person of the Trinity is also called "The Eternal Wisdom" of God because the word "Wisdom" means "knowledge of goodness". He is the Eternal Knowledge of God's goodness. After the Son of God redeemed mankind the Holy Trinity sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday to dwell in the heart of men so that mankind could become the Children of God.

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THE THREE PERSONS

The fact that God is three persons but only One God, and that each of these three persons is the One God is impossible for humans to understand, and there is no example in Nature that could ever exactly show this situation because nothing in Nature is three things and one thing at the same time. Human beings though resemble God more than any other creature because scripture says that God created man "in His own image" (Gen 1:3) so in order to understand the nature of God the Creator better we will sometimes compare Him with "man " the creature. In the Old Testament Moses asked God to tell him His Name and God replied, "I AM WHO I AM" or simply "I AM" (see Exodus 3: 14) which the Jews then shortened to "YAHWEH" out of fear and respect for God:s Holy Name. Each Person of the Trinity bears this name of God as Jesus showed (see John 8: 28 and perhaps also at 18: 5,6 when He said "I AM HE"). Jesus applied the Divine name to Himself. The Holy Trinity is the only being who has a right to say "I AM" or "I". We can only say, "I am" or "I" because He invented us as unique individuals. God is the great "I" and each of us is just a tiny little "I". It is only because of God's stupendous Goodness and Mercy that we can each say, "I am". Mercy is when you give something good that is not deserved and Justice is when it is something good or bad which is deserved fair and square, but when we think about God's goodness to us in this life and then hopefully eternal bliss in the next, we realize that God's nature is MERCY. We exist only because God exists and He gave us the STUPENDOUS GIFT of EXISTENCE whereas God Himself is the source of all Existence. We deserve nothing in this life and nothing in the next life from God. He is the Eternal "I AM" or the Eternal "Present". All time , Past, Present and Future exists in Him. When one of the Three persons of the Trinity says "I" that "I" they say in some way also refers to the One Trinity because the Trinity is the ONE undivided BEING. Wherever one Person of the Trinity is all Three Persons are in some sense too. In general a human being's face reveals their identity, so also God's Identity will be fully revealed to us in Heaven in the "Beatific (blessed) "Vision" when we will see the glorious "Face" of the Trinity but here on earth we should try to see the Face of the Son of God in our neighbours and in the Scriptures.

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THE FATHER

As the "Our Father" prayer that Jesus taught His disciples tells us the Eternal Father dwells "in Heaven" and He is the "Freewill" (Decision maker) of the Trinity. This is clear to us because in that prayer we pray, "Thy Will be done". Jesus showed us in His Life on earth that He came to do the "Will" of the Father who sent Him. God gave us the gift of our "freewill" which makes us capable of making choices and decisions in honour of our Heavenly Father because He has so much respect for us. That gift gives us a greater sense of our own individuality but it is a terrifying gift because it gives us eternal power over the destiny of our immortal souls. The Decisions we make in life decide our Eternal destiny. The Father is the "Freewill" of the Trinity so He makes the decisions. This may seem unfair to us until we reflect on how we ourselves make decisions. We use three things when we make decisions. We use what we know (our knowledge in our mind) , we also use what we want (desire or love in our heart), and we use our "Freewill" to make the decision. It is the same with God, the Holy Trinity makes all their "Decisions" using their Infinite Knowledge (the Son), their infinite Love (the Holy Spirit) and their Infinite Freewill the Eternal Father). So every Decision is really a Trinitarian joint effort. We can say, They know, They love and They decide. In the "Our Father" prayer we ask the Father to make the decision to " Forgive us our trespasses". God forgives us through the merits of His Son's passion and death. The Father's "Will" for us is always motivated by His infinite Love for us, so we please Him greatly when we use our "freewill" to do and accept His "WILL". He is the Father of Mercy. He agreed to give us everything we have and none of which we deserve. Our obedience to the Father should be based on TRUST in His Goodness and His burning Love for us.

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THE SON OF GOD

The Son of God is the Second Person of the Trinity and He is called the "Eternal Wisdom of God" and the "Word of God". The most incredible event in the history of the Human race happened about 2000 years ago when He took on a human nature and became the man "JESUS of Nazareth". This event is called the "Incarnation". The name "Jesus " means "God saves". He became a man on earth with flesh, blood and bones like ours in order to atone for our sins and to show us how to be HUMAN!. We could never atone for our sins ourselves because even the smallest sins offend the infinite Majesty of God. The Son of God is the "Wisdom of God" and that word "Wisdom" comes from a Latin word "video" which means, "to see". A "wise" person is one who in his mind can "see" or "knows" goodness. When making a decision they can see or know the good choice. The Son of God is God's Eternal "Knowledge" of Himself and since God is the infinite "Goodness" then the Son is called the "Eternal Wisdom of God". St John called Him the "Word of God" and "Word" here has much greater meaning than our human understanding of "word" but it is still connected with it. " Word" here comes from the Greek word "LOGUS" which can be translated as the "Mind" of God. Our human words come from our store of knowledge in our Mind and they express our thoughts, we "think" in "words". Our words allow us to communicate our "thoughts" and God's "Word" allows Him to communicate His "Thoughts". His " Thoughts" give life and existence to creatures! A persons thoughts and words comes from their store of knowledge and God's thoughts and words come from His Eternal "Knowledge " in His "Mind". The "Word of God" is called the "Mind" of God. Our mind is where we "think", "imagine" or "know" something. The "Mind" of God is where God "Thinks", "Imagines" or "Knows". God's "Word" expresses God's "Thoughts", "Imagination" and "Knowledge". If God wanted to invent and create a new object or creature, He could in one instant think or imagine or know or name the object into existence. These words, to "Think", "Imagine" and to "Know" nearly have the same meaning. To "Think" may mean to "look at in your Mind", to " Imagine" could mean to "make a visible image in your Mind" and to "Know" something might mean that you can "see it in detail in your Mind". It is perhaps more accurate to say that God "KNOWS" an object into existence. God's Eternal Word can "Imagine" a name for some invention and that "name" can then become a reality! All of Creation and all creatures that exist live and exist in the "Imagination" of God! All of creation is a FIGMENT of God's IMAGINATION! Only when God has "knowledge" of a new invention can it then exist. Perhaps God mentally "names," objects into existence. Man can only name unknown objects that exist. Perhaps if God wanted to create a certain planet He could imagine the planet into existence even by simply thinking or "speaking" its name. He would have perfect knowledge of every atom He would put in it, He would love it and then He would consent with His Freewill to its existence, and so it would! But God is able to "know" an infinite multitude of Universes or creatures (Angels, Humans or any sort!) into existence in a split second!. Psalm (33 ;6 says "By the word of the Lord the Heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all the Stars" and later line;9) says "He spoke and it came to be". The "Word of God is alive and active" as the letter to the Hebrews, (4:12) says and He makes creatures live.

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Our Redemption by the SON OF GOD

When we sin we are actually rejecting God, so if we by our "freewill" or decisions reject God it would be fair for God to reject us, but when two persons totally reject each other it would be fair for them to reclaim any gifts they had given each other, so as we gave God nothing we have nothing to reclaim from Him but as He has given us everything He could reclaim and destroy our very Existence for all Eternity, and that is worse than Hell. In Hell we will be justly deprived of God's presence if we have rejected Him. A Hero was needed who could suffer being rejected by God on our behalf but still survive and "RISE " from the dead. JESUS the SON of GOD is that Hero. See the "Book of Wisdom ( 18: 14-24) which is a prophecy about the sending of JESUS the "Word of God" to Earth to Save Mankind, "When peaceful silence lay over all and the night had run the half of her swift course, down from the Heavens from the Royal Throne leapt your all powerful Word, like a ---- and your Majesty engraved on the Diadem on His Head.". The " sufferings" of Jesus have atoned to God for the sins of All Mankind but WE should offer our sufferings and good deeds with His "Sufferings" to the Father in atonement for OUR sins and the SINS of the World. The best way and time to do this is at the Catholic Mass. At the Mass from the time of the "Consecration" of the bread and wine into the BODY and BLOOD of Jesus at Calvary (By the Holy Spirit through the words of the ordained priest) until the "Lamb of God" prayers we can unite our sufferings, and good deeds, through Jesus, with Jesus and in Jesus "in atonement for OUR sins and the sins of the World" (quote from the prayers of the "Divine Mercy" Chaplet which our Lord taught St Faustina, They are very appropriate at this part of the Mass but can be said anytime). The Holy Spirit makes our "Redemption" two thousand years ago invisibly present on the altar under the appearance of Bread and Wine. Jesus the Son of God loves us so much that He makes Himself present "Risen from the dead" in His "Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity" in Holy Communion so that we can receive Him into our heart. We can also visit Him and spend time with Him in any Catholic church where He is present in the Tabernacle.

MERCY and JUSTICE

Justice is something deserved and Mercy is something good that is undeserved. Divine Justice is what we "Deserve" but Jesus the Son of God accepted Divine Justice on our behalf and so He became our "Divine Mercy". He has obtained for us Eternal Life and every gift and grace that we of ourselves could never "Deserve" no matter what we do. Two thousand years ago Pontius Pilate gave two people what they did not deserve. To the notorious criminal " Bar-abbas" whose name ironically means "son of- the father" Pilate gave a complete Pardon, a great act of mercy, but to Jesus the real "Son of the Father" Pilate gave the greatest injustice in the history of mankind when he condemned Him to suffering and death. Jesus took the place of Barabbas so that Barabbas and every one of us could really become an eternal son or daughter of God. Barabbas symbolised each one of us and Jesus took our place and so it is He who will Judge us at the End of Time. In the parable of the Prodigal son which Jesus told (see Luke15: 11-32) the calf which the father has killed for the feast after the return of the wayward son could be an image of Jesus who the Eternal Father allows to be sacrificed on Calvary and who is present in the Bread of Life at the Feast of the Mass for us the wayward children of God.

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THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit is the "Bond of Love "between the Father and the Son. God has perfect love for Himself because He Himself is "Infinite Goodness" and He loves Himself in an infinitely unselfish way. Through all Eternity God was burning with this infinite " Love" for Himself but He wanted to share His overflowing Love and Happiness with others so He decided to invent "creatures" (mainly Angels and humans) who would be able to receive and share that love also. When doing so He decided to make them in His own image, that is, in the image of the Trinity, each of them with the abilities to know, decide and to love.

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The Holy Spirit and Mary

The Holy Spirit formed Jesus Who is the Head of His Church through Mary at the Annunciation and He continues to form the rest of the members of the Mystical Body of Jesus (the Church ) through Mary. We should give ourselves to Jesus through Mary and she will prepare us to better receive the graces of the Holy Spirit so that Jesus will be formed much easier and more fully in our hearts. Mary is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit and so she has a greater Union with Him than any other creature has. When God joins human spouses they "become one flesh" and so Mary and the Holy Spirit have to a great extent become One Spirit. Mary is a symbol of what the Church will one day be in Heaven. Like her it will be sinless and Virgin. Sinless and virgin because it will be totally purified from all sin and unfaithfulness. Mary is the human "New Eve" because she is the new "Sinless Virgin" (like Jesus) who believed and obeyed God through the "angel". Adam and Eve were sinless virgins too until they believed the serpent angel Satan and disobeyed God. Mary became the "Mediatrix of all Graces" for mankind when she obeyed God's will. Eve helped to bring sin into the human race through Adam; Mary helps to bring the Graces of the Holy Spirit into the human race through her continual prayer to her Son Jesus. He is the NEW ADAM and the source of all the Graces which we receive from the Holy Spirit. The devil used Eve to obtain his victory of sin and so God wants us to use Mary (the New Eve) to obtain our victories by the Graces of the Holy Spirit over every sin. There is a sort of poetic justice in the pattern of Salvation. Mary is the spiritual "Mother of all the Living" and so she is the Mother of our souls and she wants to help form Jesus in our hearts according to the Will of God and by using the gifts of the Holy Spirit her Divine Spouse.

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The HOLY SPIRIT and the Church

The Church is the "Assembly" of all the true followers of Jesus. It is also the NEW Mystical EVE because she is the "BRIDE" of Jesus the NEW ADAM and she is the "Mother of all the Living" because she has the Graces we need for salvation. Through the Church the Holy Spirit washes away "Original sin (and all sin present)" in the Sacrament of Baptism and then if we allow Him in the other Sacraments of the Church He will give us so many gifts and graces during our lives to help us become more like Jesus so that Jesus will increase and we decrease" so that it is no longer "we who live but Christ who lives in us". Jesus commanded us to "Love God and Love our neighbour" and to "Love one another as I have loved you" but we realise we can only do this if the Holy Spirit forms Jesus in our hearts. We should continually ask the Holy Spirit to form Jesus in our hearts. The Holy Spirit can continually purify and sanctify us if we allow Him. The more Jesus is formed in our hearts then the more the Burning Love of the Holy Spirit for the Father and all His creatures will be present there also. This idea of Jesus being formed in our hearts means that our hearts are purified and formed more into copies of the Heart of Jesus so that we become more and more united to Him and like Him. During His life on earth as a Man Jesus received the Fullness of the Holy Spirit at His Baptism (Immersion) in the River Jordan. His baptism in the water symbolised His immersion (baptism) in suffering on the Cross where He obtained for us the forgiveness of our sins and merited for us the graces of the Holy Spirit which we need every day to overcome sin. The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes St Gregory Nazianzus who said that the Old Testament was the time of revelation of the "Father" and the New Testament is the time of Revelation of the "Son" and of the "Holy Spirit". The great miracle of the Prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel when he invoked fire from God and God sent a consuming fire down from Heaven which devoured the sacrifice on the altar is thought to be a prophecy about God's sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (see Acts 2: 1-11) on the early Church. It is also a symbol of the "Consecration" of the Catholic Mass where the Holy Spirit changes the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus at Calvary. God's Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love. If we reject God He will respect our decision and put us in a place where we are cut off from Him and so we then cannot feel His Infinite Love. That place is called Hell because God's loving presence is not felt there. The Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles and Our Lady at Pentecost Sunday and that day is regarded as the birthday of the "Church" because it's the day when the Church the "Mystical Body of Christ" received the "Breath of Life". The Sacred Heart of Jesus is on Fire with the Love of the Holy Spirit for the Father and for ALL of us His creatures. We should ask Mary to pray to Jesus on our behalf so that He will ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit into our hearts to form Jesus in our heart more and more.

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Brief Summary

So to summarise the above we can say that the Father is the "I DECIDE" (Freewill ) of the Trinity, the Son is the "I KNOW" (Self Knowledge) of the Trinity and the Holy Spirit is the "I LOVE" of the Trinity. The "I" stands for each member of the Trinity Who is the ONE GOD. Each of the Three Persons of the Trinity has a Divine Will, a Divine Knowledge and Divine Love. Perhaps the Divine Will in each of Them is the Presence of the Father and the Divine Knowledge is the Presence of the Son and the Divine Love is the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said (see John10: 38) , the Father is in Me and I am in the Father".

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Conclusion

To conclude, we can never understand fully the Mystery of the Trinity. Before the beginning of our time and the creation of anything God was alone and He was overflowing with Infinite Love for Himself when He decided to Share His Love with creatures that He would " Invent" into Existence. Perhaps God has known us from all Eternity so we just say " Invent" to help us understand better. Hopefully we will spend all of Eternity gazing at this God of ours, He is not somewhere in Creation, Creation is somewhere in Him. He created Creation so large and so long ago to help us to understand just how LARGE and how OLD He is. No creature, not even the greatest saint or angel, before they existed could have merited or deserved to have been invented and created. Nor can we in our short lives ever deserve ETERNAL LIFE, indeed what can we ever do in our short lives of even a hundred years to deserve to live in Heaven for never ending Millions upon Millions of years? Before He created us we did not exist and so we could not deserve to be invented or created. MERCY, which means undeserved is God's nature, and like an incredible Santa Claus our Heavenly Father is the real Father Christmas and He wants to give us the stupendous gift of Eternal Life and we can receive that gift through the Son of God because He is our Eternal Life. This gift of Eternal Life was put on the Real Christmas Tree which is His Son's Cross on Good Friday and is available for the entire Human race but we must be very good and always repent and confess our sins in order to receive it. Our Heavenly "Father Christmas" wants to give us Presents every day of our lives in the tremendous gifts of the many "Graces" available in the Sacraments of the Catholic Church especially His Son in Holy Communion. God gives us 24 hours a day every day of our short lives and we usually hate spending time with Him. When we realise how much our Heavenly Father "Loves" us then every day is Christmas Day! And as Santa Claus picked Rudolf the "Red Nosed Reindeer" who was an outcast to lead his Sleigh so does our Heavenly Father "cast the mighty from their thrones and raise the Lowly"(See Luke 1 : 52). We call this Goodness of God His "DIVINE MERCY". His Sacred Heart burns with Love for us but when we sin we pierce His Heart like a crown of Thorns but we also pierce His Heart if we do not Believe that He Loves us no matter how good or bad we are. If you Love someone and that person does not believe that you love them then you feel pain in your heart , well it is the same with God. If we reject Him by our sins we will have to live without Him for all Eternity, but if we are good we will be able to Live with Him forever. In order to get to know the Holy Trinity better we should ask MARY the Mother of JESUS to help us, she is the unique Mother of the Son, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit and the perfect Daughter of the Eternal Father. She looked at her Son and knew that He was the Son of God, and by listening to Him and Contemplating Him she got to know the whole Trinity better than any other human could. The Servant of God Frank Duff explains her relation to the Trinity very well in the "Legion of Mary" handbook. Also we should reflect often about the "Incarnation" and " Passion" of Jesus, that is God became Man in order to suffer and die for our sins. God knew that when He gave "Man" Freewill that He was giving him a very self destructible power but God has so much Love and Respect for "Man" that He wanted him to be Free to choose to return Love to Him or not. If "Man" rejects God he deserves to lose everything that God gave him including the incredible "gift" of "existence". To lose our "being" or to exist no more is the most terrifying prospect ever. In hell a person still owns himself or herself. But God gave us Freewill hoping we will choose to Love "Him" and then one-day share in His overflowing Bliss. As St Paul says in First Corinthians 2:9 "No eye has seen, no ear has heard nor has it entered into the Heart of man what God has prepared for those who Love Him".

If you are not a Catholic please learn more about the Catholic Church by reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

PRAYER OF REPARARATION
St Michael the Archangel taught the children at Fatima


"Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit
I adore You profoundly
and I offer You the Most Precious Body
Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ
present in all the Tabernacles of the world in reparation
for the Outrages, Sacrileges and Indifferences
by which He is offended and by the
infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary
I ask You for the conversion of poor sinners."

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