From Fr. David’s Desk
Dear Friends in Christ,
Today the Church celebrates Trinity Sunday, as she always does the first Sunday after Pentecost. It may seem to some that this feast is somewhat abstract. Though we may conceptualize the Trinity in abstract notions, such as “3 in 1”, I assure you there is nothing abstract about the Trinity; for the Trinity is God Himself, and God is as real as real gets.
To aid us in understanding this feast a bit better, I share a few references from the Catechsim on the dogma of the Trinity.
The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the “mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God.” To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel’s faith before the Incarnation of God’s Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit. – Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), #237
From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the very root of the Church’s living faith, principally by means of Baptism. It finds its expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching, catechesis, and prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the apostolic writings, such as this salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” – CCC, #249
St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called “the Theologian,” entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of Constantinople: “Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts down…. the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God…. the three considered together…. I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendor. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me….” CCC, #256
Perhaps this little teaching can help us appreciate more the mystery of the Trinity that God has freely revealed to us, and the gift of the Trinity in which we have all been immersed, in Whom “we live and move and have our being.” Blessed Trinity Sunday!
As a final note, I would be remiss if I didn’t extend a special wish to all of our fathers (of all types) out there. This Father’s Day we once again honor and thank you for the good men that you are, for the countless sacrifices you make for your families, and for the faith you inspire in your children. God bless you fathers! Happy Father’s Day!
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. David
P.S. Our annual Rummage Sale is this week. Please pray and work for a successful event!
Here’s something to SMILE about! 🙂
St. Mary’s Church is now connected with AMAZON.SMILE! What is Amazon.Smile? Amazon is dedicated to giving back to charitable organizations like our parish. When you buy online at Amazon, you have the opportunity to have .05% of your purchases donated to St. Mary’s by Amazon. When you sign up for AmazonSmile, you’ll be asked to select from over a million of charities to support. But you can skip this step and click on our unique link. Then you’ll be taken to smile.amazon.com and then automatically asked if you want to support St Mary Church.
Our unique charity link: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/36-2182123
Don’t forget to sign up for St. Mary’s MyParish App today!
Just text App to phone number 88202 or visit myparishapp.com to download. St. Mary’s will not automatically beone of your choices because we are a national parish which means we have no boundaries. Just type in St. Mary 1407 and the site will be available for you to click on and join. Keep yourself up to date on parish events, daily readings, messages, Pope Francis messages, and programs to enhance your faith journey.
