Malankara World

Faith of the Church: Trinity

The Holy Trinity is the foundational belief, held by Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and most Protestant Christians, stating that
Three Persons, co-equal in dignity, share one single divine life or nature within the single, One God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Trinity- pictorial representation Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Trinity 101
Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology defines the Trinity as follows: "God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God."

Trinity 102: Trinity Explained
The Trinity is the term employed to signify the central doctrine of the Christian religion: that in the unity of the Godhead there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

A Brief Catechism for Adults: God and the Holy Trinity
A few questions such as, Who is God?, Why can you not see God?, Can God see all things? What is the Holy Trinity? answered.

Concept of Trinity - Syrian Orthodox Church
From the Pentecost Liturgy of Syrian Orthodox Church

Athanasian (Athanasian-Constantinopolitan) Creed
One of the best explanation of the Holy Trinity comes from the Athanasian Creed presented against the Arians.

A Brief Definition of the Trinity
I know that one of the most oft-repeated questions I have dealt with is, "How does one explain, or even understand, the doctrine of the Trinity?" Indeed, few topics are made such a football by various groups that, normally, claim to be the "only" real religion, and who prey upon Christians as "convert fodder." Be that as it may, when the Christian is faced with a question regarding the Trinity, how might it best be explained?

Holy Trinity
God is far beyond the ability of human intelligence and comprehension. What we know about God are through the knowledge He revealed to us. God the Father is the invisible origin of Christ.

St. Ephrem and Eastern Orthodox Concepts on Trinity
St. Ephrem, Deacon and Doctor of the Church, "Harp of the Holy Spirit," uses the image of the sun to help us understand the Trinity as Three-In-One: the bright sphere we see in the sky is the origin of what we know as the sun; it is like the Father, origin of all there is.

God in Trinity by Bishop Kallistos Ware
Orthodox theology explained. Those brought up in other traditions have sometimes found it difficult to accept the Orthodox emphasis on apophatic theology and the distinction between essence and energies; but apart from these two matters, Orthodox agree in their doctrine of God with the overwhelming majority of all who call themselves Christians.

One God, Three Equal Persons by St. Gregory of Nazianzus
This, then, is my position with regard to these things, and I hope it may be always my position, and that of whosoever is dear to me; to worship God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, Three Persons, One Godhead, undivided in honour and glory and substance and kingdom.

Trinity: Three Persons, One Creative, Energizing Reality
by St. Athanasius - Early Church Father
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.

God in Three Persons: A Doctrine We Barely Understand by Ray Pritchard
My problem this morning is simple: to explain a doctrine that all Christians believe but no one really understands. And I have to do it in 30 minutes!

I Love The Trinity
On the basis of Scripture itself, Christians throughout the centuries have professed belief in the Holy Trinity, affirming the fact that our one God is eternally existent in three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are co-equal, co-existent and co-eternal.

The Divine Romance: The Blessed Trinity by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Part 1
I can divine something of the existence of God, something of His Infinite Power, Life, and Beauty, by contemplating His universe; but I could never learn anything of His secret Thought and Love. His creation gives but dim hints of these.

The Divine Romance: The Blessed Trinity by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Part 2
Birth of Son: God thinks. He thinks a thought. That Thought of God does not come from the outside world; it is generated in His Spirit in a much more perfect way than the thought of Justice is generated by my spirit. The giving of life or the power of birth, I repeat, is not limited to us...How Son was born in the divine order of things; how word became flesh.

The Divine Romance: The Blessed Trinity by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Part 3
Holy Spirit: Love at such a stage does not speak; does not cry; does not express itself by words, nor by canticles; it expresses itself as we do in some ineffable moments, by that which indicates the very exhaustion of our giving — namely, a sigh, or a breath. And that is why the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity is called the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost.

We Live to Love and Be Loved by Pope Benedict XVI
'The ‘name’ of the Holy Trinity is impressed on everything that exists, because everything comes from love, reaches out for love and is moved by the spirit of love.

Defend the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity!
Every time we make the sign of the Cross we make an invocation of the Holy Trinity: 'In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' Those who grew up as Catholics or Orthodox, or in other religious communities with an orthodox understanding of this Triune nature of God, may take this doctrine for granted and not comprehend the extent to which it has historically been assaulted and still is attacked today.

Frank Sheed on the Trinity
The Three Persons--the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost--each possess the one Divine nature: they do not share it: they each possess it in its totality. It is important to grasp exactly what this means.

The Holy Spirit, Gift of God's Love by St. Augustine
There is no gift of God more excellent than this. It alone distinguishes the sons of the eternal kingdom and the sons of eternal perdition. Other gifts, too, are given by the Holy Spirit; but without love they profit nothing.

The Place of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity
I have stressed that the Son of God is the mirroring-forth of God himself in his own self-consciousness. God has a perfectly clear and full idea of all his own perfections. This image of God is so complete and perfect that it is in fact the standing forth of God the Son, a person in his own right.

What We Believe About the Trinity

Imitating the Trinity by Fr. Jerome Magat
The Trinity reveals to us the master plan of how we are to live and love one another: each person pouring themselves out for the other as gift. As we are created in the image and likeness of God, the Trinitarian model invites us to examine how we relate to one another — if we are in fact living in imitation of the Trinity’s inner life — a community of persons.

Deathbed Request: 'Tell me About the Trinity'
After the completion of the Viaticum Service, during a tender and profound moment of silence, Jerry turned to me, focused his piercing, peaceful, and intensely inquisitive eyes upon my own, and asked a question that was so unusual - and so profound- that I have dwelt upon it since. "Tell me about the Trinity", my friend asked me, "are they really happy?"

Mystery of the Trinity
The Trinity has always been a difficult doctrine to swallow. First of all, there is this statement from Sunday’s first reading: 'The Lord is God in the heavens above and on the earth below, and there is no other.' This was tough for anyone to accept in the days of the Old Testament.

St. Augustine's Theology of the Holy Trinity
This excerpt from Yves Congar's book, 'I Believe in the Holy Spirit' (vol. 3, Part B - chapter 1: Augustine) outlines Saint Augustine's understanding of the person and role of the Holy Spirit in relation to the other two persons of the Most Holy Trinity.

The Three Fountains of the Church: The Mystery of the Trinity
by St. Jerome, Early Church Father and Doctor of the Church
This sermon on psalm 41 (CCL 78, 542-544) was originally addressed to the newly baptized by St. Jerome in the early 5th century. The living waters for which the deer longs is seen as a symbol of the Mystery of the Trinity.

Light, radiance and grace are in the Trinity and from the Trinity - A letter by St Athanasius
The Trinity, holy and perfect, consists 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 Spirit, and in this way the unity of the holy Trinity is preserved.

The Rhythm Of Dance: What Trinity Teaches Us How to Live in Joy and Harmony
In the early church, one of the most powerful images used for the Trinity was the image of a dance of mutual indwelling. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in an eternal, joyful, vibrant dance of love and honor, rhythm and harmony, grace and beauty, giving and receiving.

God, The Father
The supreme Being is not just “King of the Universe” or “Master” but “Father,” that he desires us to have a close, familiar relationship with Him–these ideas you don’t find anywhere outside the teaching of Jesus.
The Trinity: Fountain of Love and Light by Pope John Paul II
 In the depths of our being, where not even our gaze can penetrate, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons, are present through grace. Far from being a dry intellectual truth, the mystery of the Trinity is the life that dwells in us and sustains us.

Trinity Is Mysteriously Present in Creation by Pope John Paul II
For the believer, to contemplate creation is also to hear a message, to listen to a paradoxical and silent voice, as the "Psalm of the sun" suggests: "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.
.."

The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity - Orthodox Church

The Holy Trinity - A Mystery
The Holy Trinity is one of the great mysteries of the Orthodox Faith. With our finite and limited minds, we are unable to comprehend the Holy Trinity at all, and yet with our hearts, we can believe in the truth of the this mystery.

The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity - Orthodox Church

The Holy Trinity Revealed

Wrong Doctrines of the Trinity

How does the Church defend its doctrine that God is both One and yet Three?

The Holy Trinity in Creation

The Holy Trinity in Salvation

The Holy Trinity in the Church

The Holy Trinity in the Sacraments

The Holy Trinity in Christian Life

The Holy Trinity in Eternal Life

eBook: The Holy Trinity by Saint Thomas Aquinas

Table of Contents

Part - 1: Introduction

36 Philosophical character of this doctrine

37 The Word in God

38 The word as conception

39 Relation of the Word to the Father

Part - 2: Son (Word)

40 Generation in God

41 The Son is equal to the Father in existence and essence

42 This teaching in the Catholic Faith

43 The Word is not distinct from the Father in arm, species, or nature

44 Conclusion from the foregoing

Part - 3: Holy Spirit

45 God in Himself as beloved in lover

46 Love in God as Spirit

47 Holiness of the Spirit in God

48 Love in God is not accidental

49 Procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father

Part - 4 : Trinity

50 The Trinity of divine persons and the unity of the divine essence

51 A seeming contradiction in the Trinity

52 Solution of the difficulty: distinction in God according to relations

53 Nature of the relations whereby the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinguished

54 Relations in God are not accidental

55 Personal distinction in God through the relations

Part - 5: Persons in Trinity

56 Impossibility of more than three persons in God

57 Properties of the Father

58 Properties of the Son and the Holy Spirit

59 Why these properties are called notions

Part - 6: Properties

60 The number of relations and the number of persons

61 Dependence of the hypostases on the personal properties

62 Effect of intellectual removal of personal properties

63 Personal acts and personal properties

Part - 7: More on Holy Trinity

64 Generation with respect to the Father and with respect to the Son

65 Nature of the distinction between notional acts and notional properties

66 Identity between the relative properties and the divine essence

67 The divine properties are not externally affixed

References/Notes

Prayers, Hymns

Hymn on Faith No. 40: On the Trinity
by St. Ephrem

Hymn in Praise of Trinity: Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

Prayer: The Trinity as Mystery
by Saint Catherine of Siena

Meditation: Inspiration of the Holy Spirit - From the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Hymn for Trinity Sunday

Prayer: The Greatness of God, the Dignity of Man
Based on Psalm 8

Hymn: Te Deum

Meditation: The Holy Trinity

We All Believe in One True God
by Martin Luther

Troparia to The Holy Trinity
Orthodox Morning Prayer to the Holy Trinity

Sermons

On the Trinity by John Wesley
There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: And these three are one.

One, Yet Three
Absolutely beautiful. Describes the concept of Trinity and then goes about describing the three persons in Trinity and their roles/nature.

Rivers of Living Water
When it comes to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, it is possible to go to extremes. However, despite our fear of one extreme, we must not go to the other extreme and be devoid of the person and power of the Holy Spirit. Herein lies the power for life and ministry. The Holy Spirit is our power source.

Trinity Sunday Homily: He's Nearer Than You Think
There is in each of us a deep and hungry longing for the One who alone can fill our inner emptiness. Restlessly, day after day, we continue our search for that one we call God, who alone can fill us full. Where is He to be found?

 

More Information

Malankara World Pentecost Supplement

Sermons and Commentaries for Pentecost

Malankara World Journal Specials on Pentecost

Issue No: 287 - May 22, 2015

Issue No: 222 - June 5, 2014

Issue No: 143 May 16, 2013

Issue No: 78 May 24, 2012

Issue No: 9 June 10, 2011

 

 

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