Patrick Comerford
Since the 50-day season of Easter came to an end last Sunday with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (8 June 2025), we are in Ordinary Time once again. Today is Trinity Sunday (15 June 2025) and also Father’s Day, and on Trinity Sunday the liturgical colour returns from the Green of Ordinary Time to the white or gold of a festival. In the Orthodox Church, the first Sunday after Pentecost is celebrated as All Saints’ Day, and is also known as the Sunday of All Saints or the Synaxis of All Saints.
Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 16: 12-15 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 12 ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.’
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading today (John 16: 12-15) is part of the ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper in Saint John’s Gospel (John 14: 1 to 17: 26), where Christ reminds his followers of his promise of his abiding word, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the creating and sustaining love of the Father.
This same Gospel reading was also provided as the weekday Gospel reading at the Eucharist two or three weeks ago (28 May 2025), as we were reading through the ‘Farewell Discourse’.
This year we are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in the year 325 and the agreement that became the Nicene Creed. One of the most popular hymn choices for organists and choirs on Trinity Sunday is Reginald Heber’s ‘Holy! Holy! Holy!’ We sang it to the tune ‘Nicaea’ by JB Dykes in the New English Hymnal (No 146) at Evensong in Pusey House in Oxford on Friday evening, and we are singing it in Stony Stratford this morning as the processional hymn – although we are also singing it to a setting by Tchaikovsky as the anthem.
At Evensong on Friday, I was reminded too how often we add the Trinitarian doxolgy at the end the Psalms and Canticles. The opening words at Benediction in Pusey House also serve as a reminder that all our worship and liturgy, no matter what form it takes, should always be truly Trinitarian:
O saving victim, opening wide
The gate of heaven to man below,
Our foes press hard on every side,
Thine aid supply, thy strength bestow.
All praise and thanks to thee ascend
Forevermore, blest one in thee;
O grant us life that shall not end,
In our true native land with thee. Amen.
But, how do we explain, or even introduce, the topic of the Trinity in a way that people can understand without being theologically boring or wrapped up in our own liturgical tastes and styles?
As I have thought about the Trinity and Trinity Sunday in the past, I have spent time in prayer and reading and I have found those reflections have been helped by an image in a fresco on the wall of the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral depicting the Holy Trinity.
This scene, showing the Trinity flanked by two censing angels, was painted sometime between the 14th and mid-15th century. It was damaged severely by the Puritans in the religious strife later in the mid-17th century. But it is still possible to look closely and to see how this fresco originally depicted the Holy Trinity.
As I look at it closely, I can just make out the representation of God the Father seated on a golden throne, clad in a red robe.
He is holding his crucified Son, God the Son, Jesus Christ, before him. Originally, this fresco would have shown a full depiction of the Crucifixion. However, all that can be seen today are the legs of Christ, with his feet nailed to the Cross.
God the Holy Spirit, traditionally depicted as a white dove, is now missing from this painting because of Puritan vandalism. But originally the Holy Spirit was placed in this painting between the heads of God the Father and God the Son.
What this fresco teaches me is that we can always catch glimpses of God. When we see the work of Christ, we see the work of God the Father, and so on. We may not always see how the Holy Spirit is working in us, or in others, but we still know that God is working in love in us and in others.
And the best way we experience that is being open to the love of God and in loving others.
The late Thomas Hopko (1939-2015), a renowned Orthodox theologian, has argued that if God were not Trinity, God could not have loved prior to creating other beings on whom to bestow God’s love … if God were not Trinity, God could not have loved prior to creating other beings on whom to bestow God’s love.
This love or communion of God as Trinity is extended to us in the communion of the Church. It is not just the Trinitarian faith into which we are baptised, but also the love or fellowship of the Trinity.
That message of love at the heart of what we believe and experience in the truth of the Holy Trinity was explained in a very non-dogmatic, non-doctrinal, non-philosophical way by three students at the Graduation Ceremony in Coláiste na Trócaire in Rathkeale some years ago when they read this:
I believe …
That our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.
That no matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.
That just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to doesn’t mean that they don’t love you with all they have.
That true friendship continues to grow even over the longest distance, same goes for true love.
That it’s taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.
That you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.
That you can keep going long after you think you can’t.
That we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
That either you control your attitude, or it controls you.
That heroes are the people who do what has to be done, when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.
That my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and still have the best time.
That sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you are down will be the ones to help you get back up.
That sometimes when I’m angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn’t give me the right to be cruel.
That it isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
That no matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief.
That you shouldn’t be so eager to find out a secret, it may change your life forever.
That two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
That your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don’t even know you.
That the people you care about in life are taken from you much too soon.
And I realised then that their teachers had taught them so much about the truth that lies behind everything we try to teach about why the doctrine of the Holy Trinity matters now more than ever in the Church.
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 15 June 2025, Trinity Sunday):
‘Crossing the Channel’ is the theme this week (15-21 June) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme is introduced today with reflections by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead:
‘My wife and I took the ferry across to the UK recently. We had no particular reason for our trip, but we noticed how we were able to make the crossing very easily. Once onboard, we spotted a much smaller boat just outside the window. I was happy to see that the people aboard were wearing life jackets as these are often confiscated by the police. Whether they would survive the crossing, however, is still not guaranteed.
‘2024 was the deadliest year on record for Channel crossings on the UK-France border since 1999. It's important to remember these people by name if we can. I'm thinking especially of seven-year-old Rula, seven-year-old Sarah, and 40-day-year-old Miriam. Remember that these are real people who lived and laughed and played and had dreams and hopes. All of this was sadly extinguished by current border policies.
‘Ahead of World Refugee Day, please join me in mourning the heartbreaking reality of the lives lost while seeking safety.
‘Over this week, I ask you to remember the families of those who have died. Please pray, mourn and, if you can, offer support. As people of faith, we must stand with families in their suffering.
The USPG prayer diary today (Sunday 15 June 2025, Trinity Sunday) invites us to pray in this way:
Read and meditate on John 16: 12-15.
Praise God for the beauty of the Trinity, reflecting on his nature as Father, Son and Spirit.
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you have given us your 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:
keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Almighty and eternal God,
you have revealed yourself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and live and reign in the perfect unity of love:
hold us firm in this faith,
that we may know you in all your ways
and evermore rejoice in your eternal glory,
who are three Persons yet one God,
now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
Holy God,
faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Updated: 15 June 2025 (to take account of the hymns sung in Stony Stratford)
No comments:
Post a Comment