Daily Reflections

Sunday 4 June, 2023

Ephesians 1:17, 18; 1 Corinthians 2:12

May the glorious God and Father of Our LORD Jesus Christ
give to us a Spirit of Wisdom to penetrate His revelation,
and bring us to full knowledge of Him.
– May He enlighten the eyes of our minds
to see the great Hope of our calling,
the wealth of glory He has laid up for the saints.

We have not received the spirit of this world,
but the Spirit who comes from God.
– May He enlighten the eyes of our minds
to see the great Hope of our calling,
the wealth of glory He has laid up for the saints.

SEASON AFTER PENTECOST 

In the Liturgical Year there is a historical progression, beginning in Advent with the waiting for the coming of the Messias, followed by His birth at Christmas. During the Sundays after Epiphany, the Holy Childhood is commemorated, while, during Lent, we are reminded of the fasting in the desert, and the Passion of Our LORD. The sacred cycle is completed at Eastertide, when we celebrate the Resurrection and Ascension of Our LORD and the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles.

In this last part of the Ecclesiastical year, the Church, guided by the Holy Ghost, continues the work of the Redemption, realized during the preceding part of the Liturgical Year.

“The Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring all the things to your mind whatsoever I shall have sent to you.”

This last season of the Liturgical Year is filled with feasts of major importance: those of the Blessed Trinity, Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart, the Assumption and Nativity of our Lady, All Saints , and All Souls.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

The Catechism teaches that “by sending His Only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed His innermost secret: God Himself is an Eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange” (221). By worshipping the Trinity we realise the full Truth of ourselves. “The three persons are one truth” (Saint Augustine). This Truth is the saving Truth of God’s own life, which we begin to live on earth by the Gift of Faith. “The complete Trinity dwells in us” (Father Marie-Michel Philipon, o.p.). God reveals the fullness of His very Self to us that we “may not be lost but may have Eternal Life”, and that we might be received as His own. “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was, in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” As soon as we have celebrated the Advent of the Holy Ghost, we celebrate he Feast of the Holy Trinity in the Office of the following Sunday. The time is well chosen, for, immediately after the Descent of this Divine Spirit, began the preaching and belief and Baptism and Confession, in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost St. Rupert).

From the First Letter to Serapion by Saint Athanasius, Bishop (Ep. 1 ad Serapionem 28-30: PG 26, 594-95.599)

Light, Radiance and Grace are in the Trinity and from the Trinity

It will not be out of place to consider the ancient Tradition, Teaching and Faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the LORD, proclaimed by the Apostles and guarded by the Fathers. For upon This Faith the Church is built, and if anyone were to lapse from it, he would no longer be a Christian either in fact or in name.

We acknowledge the Trinity, Holy and Perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and created being. It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Ghost, and in this way the Unity of the Holy Trinity is preserved. Accordingly, in the Church, One God is preached, One God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as Father, for He is Principle and Source; He is through all things through the Word; and He is in all things in the Holy Ghost.
Writing to the Corinthians about spiritual matters, Paul traces all reality back to One God, the Father, saying: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and varieties of service, but the same LORD; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in everyone.

Even the Gifts that the Spirit dispenses to individuals are given by the Father through the Word. For all that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son, and so the Graces given by the Son in the Spirit are True gifts of the Father. Similarly, when the Spirit dwells in us, the Word who bestows the Spirit is in us too, and the Father is present in the Word. This is the meaning of the text: My Father and I will come to him and make Our home with him. For where the Light is, there also is the Radiance; and where the Radiance is, there too are its Power and its resplendent Grace.

This is also Paul’s teaching in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: The Grace of Our LORD Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all. For Grace and the Gift of the Trinity are given by the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost. Just as Grace is given from the Father through the Son, so there could be no communication of the gift to us except in the Holy Ghost. But when we share in the Spirit, we possess the Love of the Father, the Grace of the Son and the Fellowship of the Spirit Himself.

Intensely Aware of the Blessed Trinity

A really determined effort to try to be more conscious of the Presence of the Trinity in us can make a great difference in our Spiritual life. An instance of this is the Carmelite of Dijon, Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity. She became intensely aware of the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity, centred her whole life upon it, and became very holy in a short time. God seems to have chosen her to help to make this Mystery better known, for both during her brief lifetime and since her death in 1906, many have been drawn towards it by her example. If we make up our minds to try, we shall be helped by the Holy Ghost …. Let us take the Sign of the Cross as an illustration of this….
The Sign of the Cross is meant to express our Faith in the Mysteries of the Blessed Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost —and of the Crucifixion of the sweet Word Incarnate: it is the briefest act of adoration and faith in these two great mysteries and also in that of the indwelling Trinity. It reminds us of the connection between these mysteries, and that the Crucified Word Incarnate is the Way to the Blessed Trinity. We can become intimate with the Divine Persons as One and as Three only through Him and His Cross, and so it is important that we should be reminded of this fundamental truth by the Sign of the Cross. It is the sign of our adoption, our life….
The more we remember the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity, the more we shall learn to see all the Truths and all the gifts of our Faith in relation to it. There are so many things that can gradually become associated with it and serve as reminders. Those of us who say, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,” many times a day: we can say it to the Trinity dwelling within us. Above all, the Mass: we can offer the Mass in honour of the Trinity, the Three Persons who are in possession of us, so that a correspondence of thought is set up. Whenever we are at Mass we shall think of the indwelling Trinity, and whenever we think of them, we shall link it with the Mass, the Sacrifice of our Redemption and adoption.
The Blessed Sacrament is therefore included. Where is the link there? Our LORD remains with us as Emmanuel, “God with us”. He instituted the Blessed Sacrament as a continuation of the Incarnation, and He is there for the same reasons as when He was on earth: not only to be with us Himself but to deepen and foster our union with the Blessed Trinity in our souls. This is why He feeds us with Himself, just as it is the reason why He Taught and Suffered and Died. By shedding His Precious Blood, He established the indwelling of the Trinity in our souls, both on earth and in Heaven, for Heaven is a continuation of the life we have lived on earth since Baptism.

Father Bonaventure Perquin, o.p.
Father Perquin († 1970) was a Dominican priest, theologian, and spiritual writer. [From Abba, Father.

RESPONSORY

Let us Adore the Father, and the Son and the Holy Ghost;
– Let us praise and exalt God above all for ever.

Blessed be God in the firmament of Heaven;
all praise, all glory to Him for ever.
– Let us praise and exalt God above all for ever.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.”

– Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen