E sign and instrument of the Father’s brings Christ’s salvation to the ...

The mystery of the Holy Trinity (we call it a mystery because it is beyond human comprehension) is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. God reveals himself to his people as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a truth we could never have arrived at on our own unless God had revealed it. God tells us who he is out of love, because to know him is to know love.

The doctrine of the Trinity includes three principal truths of faith.

First, the Trinity is One. We do not speak of three gods but of one God. Each of the Persons is fully God. They are a unity of Persons in one Being and in one divine nature.

Second, the Divine Persons are distinct from each other. Father, Son, and Spirit are not three appearances of God, but three identifiable persons, each fully God in a way distinct from the others.

Third, it is the nature of the Divine Persons to be in relation to each other. The distinction of each is understood only in reference to the others. The Father cannot be the Father without the Son, nor can the Son be the Son without the Father. The Holy Spirit is related to the Father and the Son who both send him forth.

All Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and thereby given a share in the Trinitarian life of God.

The Trinity illumines all the other mysteries of faith. The Church, for instance, is a holy mystery because of her origin in the Holy Trinity and her mission to be the sign and instrument of the Father's plan to unite the entire human race under Christ in one Spirit.

The Holy Trinity brings the Church into being. The Father calls the Church into existence. The Son establishes the Church as his body. The Holy Spirit fills the Church with power and wisdom of God's own life.

The Holy Trinity abides with the Church always, creatively and providentially. The Church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, brings Christ's salvation to the world. She is the instrument of God's universal call to holiness. Despite the personal sinfulness of her members, the Church remains holy by the abiding presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit within her.

A classic statement of the Church's belief in the Holy Trinity, the One God, is the Athanasian Creed from the sixth century.

Now the catholic faith is that we worship One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is One, the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal.

Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit; the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated; the Father infinite, the Son infinite, and the Holy Spirit infinite; the Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet not three eternals but one eternal, as also not three infinites, nor three uncreateds, but one uncreated, and one infinite. So, likewise, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty; and yet not three almighties but one almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God; and yet not three Gods but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; and yet not three Lords but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by Christian truth to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be both God and Lord; so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say, there are three Gods or three Lords.

The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son, not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding. So there is one Father not three Fathers, one Son not three Sons, and one Holy Spirit not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less, but the whole three Persons are coeternal together and coequal.

So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity is to be worshipped. He therefore who wills to be in a state of salvation, let him think thus of the Trinity.

Yours in Christ,

Father Walter

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