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Year B
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
See our music recommendations for the liturgy.
We share in the Communion of the Holy Trinity
Today, we celebrate a very central mystery of our Faith which has to do with the very nature of God (Cf. CCC 234). We confess our Faith in One God existing in three coequal, coeternal and consubstantial divine persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God the Father has revealed His glory as the glory also of His Son and of the Holy Spirit (Cf. Preface). These three divine persons who are all equally God and worthy to be praised, live in a communion of love.
· We are privileged to share in the communion of the Holy Trinity thanks to our baptism which was done in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit as commanded by Jesus (Cf. Gospel).
· Because we share in the communion of the Holy Trinity, we are filled with many blessings.
· One of such blessings is that God continues to draw us closer to himself as His people and He speaks His Word to our hearts and protects us with His mighty hand (Cf First Reading).
· Our Trinitarian God has chosen us and made us members of the heavenly kingdom, so that we may experience true happiness (Cf. Psalm)
· Because we share in the communion of the Holy Trinity, we are filled with the spirit of Sons, not slaves. This spirit enables us to confidently call God father. As God’s children, we are indeed coheirs with Christ by sharing in his suffering and resurrection (Cf. Second Reading).
· Each time we pray and make the sign of the cross, we immerse ourselves in the communion of the Holy Trinity.
· Each time we are blessed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we sanctification from the Holy Trinity.
· Our Triune God protects us and seeks that we listen to and obey His commandments (Cf First Reading).
· We are called to deepen our participation in the communion of the Holy Trinity through prayer, through participation in the Sacraments and through works of loving service.
· We are also encouraged to reflect the communion of the Holy Trinity in the way we love each other, for we are sons and daughters of one Father, coheirs with Christ and the same Holy Spirit dwells in each one of us.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
CCC 202, 232-260, 684, 732: the mystery of the Trinity
CCC 249, 813, 950, 1077-1109, 2845: the Trinity in the Church and her liturgy
CCC 2655, 2664-2672: the Trinity and prayer
CCC 2205: the family as an image of the Trinity
The mystery of the Holy Trinity can too easily be presented as some insoluble theological conundrum, a mind-teasing and mind-twisting puzzle. Perhaps this is why we have a liturgical feast of the Trinity; liturgy can provide the right way into theology. As the saw says, the rule of prayer is the rule of belief.
In every Mass, indeed, Christ shows us the Holy Trinity revealed in his own Person. He appears to us in his priest, in his Word, in his sacramental action. And we encounter him as the image of the invisible God. As he himself said to the apostle Philip: He who has seen me has seen the Father. (Jn.14:9) If we believe this, we will grow in our understanding of the first two divine Persons.
And again, in every Mass, Christ is present, not as the passive object of our regard, but as the active subject of our salvation. Christ is the anointed one, drenched with that oil of gladness which is the Holy Spirit. Rejoicing as a strong man, freeing his people from the power of the enemy, he cries out: If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. (Mt.12:28) If we believe this, we will know something of the third divine Person.
In every Mass, in the Person of Christ, we are summoned to faith in the Holy Trinity. Here is the seed-bed of Trinitarian theology, the soil in which the seed of faith can grow, securely and fruitfully, until it becomes vision.
These hymns have been chosen from various sources:
God whose almighty Word (L887)
We have a gospel to proclaim (CFE778, L852)
I bind unto myself today (CFE274, L312, TCH97)
Firmly I believe and truly (CFE173, L962, LHON258, TCH217)
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty (CFE259, L468, LHON337, TCH96)
Thou whose almighty Word (CFE738, L887, LHON689, TCH269)
Key
CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone
L – Laudate
LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)
TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
