Tag: Holy Trinity

☘️ Happy St. Patrick’s Day ☘️

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☘️ Happy Feast of St. Patrick, Missionary and Bishop, 461 A.D. ☘️

Collect of the Day (from the Church of Ireland Book of Common Prayer, 2004): O Almighty God, who in thy providence didst choose thy servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, that he might bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of thee; Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through the merits of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.

St Patrick

St. Patrick is often credited for explaining the Holy Trinity using a shamrock as an analogy, but even his analogy has issues.

For those not familiar with the Holy Trinity, it is the theological concept where there is one God, but exist as three distinct persons comprised of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This concept is fundamental in mainstream Christian denominations.

Explaining the Holy Trinity is not easy and has caused many heretical analogies. One famous heresy of the Holy Trinity is Arianism, the idea that the Son and Holy Ghost created from the Father and thus not co-equal and co-eternal. St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (yup, Ol’ St. Nick from Christmas 🎅🏻) alleged slapped Arius in the face to the shock of the other attending bishops at the Council of Nicea in 325AD when Arius was explaining his heresy.

I choose to not try to understand the Holy Trinity, but accept it as something not understandable by us mere mortals. Any explanation on our plane of existence is and will always be flawed.

Usually, I post this video on Trinity Sunday, but since it references St. Patrick, I think it is also appropriate for today.

St. Patrick’s Shamrock Analogy

Solemn Morning Prayer for the Octave Day of Pentecost, commonly called Trinity Sunday, being also the Sixty-Fourth Sunday of COVIDtide (30 May 21) 🕯🎶

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Morning Prayer for Trinity Sunday

Trinity: God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God in him. 1 St John 4. 16.

Office Setting: The Great Service, William Byrd

Psalms: 92, 93 (sung by the choir of Wakefield Cathedral)

1st Lesson: Isaiah 6. 1-8

2nd Lesson: Mark 1. 11-13

The Apostle’s Creed is replaced by the Athanasian Creed (Quicumque Vult)

Hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! (Heber/Dykes (Nicaea)) https://youtu.be/ntdcY8q7a9E

Collect of the Day: Almighty and everlasting God, who hast it given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity: We beseech thee, that this holy faith may evermore be our defence against all adversities; who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.

🎅🏻🤴🏽👻 For me, the Trinity is a holy mystery that cannot be understood by mere mortals but accepted through faith; such that we worship one God in unity, comprised of three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but consubstantial (being of the same substance), co-equal in glory, and co-eternal in majesty.

On the Trinity

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I tread very carefully with this post since it I could end up in a great deal of trouble by accidentally spouting out some heresy. Maybe in another blog post, I will write about ancient church heresies (for those who want to read something written by a theologian, I recommend the Cruelty of Heresy: An Affirmation of Christian Orthodoxy by C. FitzSimons Allison).

The Holy Trinity is something that theologians have philosophized for centuries and I don’t believe there is an answer, at least not something that can be understood by man, especially a lay person. I consider it one of the mysteries of God, that there is only one God, but exists in three persons, co-eternal and consubstantial, distinct, but of the same substance.  It is just something to be accepted and part of faith.

How I think of this subject is that God exists on a different plane of existence wouldn’t be able to comprehend it, even if we tried. I believe someone tried used the analogy of a two dimensional person could never properly/fully comprehend what a cube (which exists in three dimensions).

There have been many people who use analogies to try to explain the Trinity and they tread on very dangerous ground as they may accidentally stray into heresy despite their good intentions (I.e. the three leaf clover analogy of the Trinity or the three states of water analogy). I always feed bad for one giving the sermon on Trinity Sunday, because there’s no easy way of explaining the Trinity without either straying into heresy or losing the congregation because the explanation has become too philosophical or abstract.