30 January 2007

A while back, we were discussing the trinitarian nature of the human person, and I recently came across this excerpt which pertained to that idea and got me thinking again. Thought I'd share:

"Trinity is simple unity; it is not merged together - it is three in one...
Just in the same way, man has mind, word, and spirit; and the mind cannot be without word, nor the word without the spirit, but the three are always in one another, yet exist in themselves. The mind speaks by means of words, and the
word is manifested through the spirit.
This example shows that man bears in himself a feeble image of the
ineffable prototype, the Trinity, thus demonstrating that he has been made in God's image.
Mind is the Father, word is the Son, spirit is the Holy Spirit, as the divine fathers teach in this example, expounding the dogmatic teaching of the consubstantial and pre-existing Trinity, of one God in three Persons, thus transmitting to us the true faith as an anchor of hope. "

(St. Gregory of Sinai in Writings from the Philokalia)

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, this is plumb beautiful!

Threes and Threes.. even my coming here to you, and our being joined by the Spirit, makes three.. Two coming together is love inviting Love. Love never resists the invitation. And Love weighs more than life itself.

And it's funny, but our regular parish had put up all kinds of anchors here and there, and I looked at my parochial-schooled husband, knowledgable in these things from the word Go, and asked him what they mean. He said, "I have no idea!" So we asked the priest. :-) Ah, live and learn.

Anchors of hope. Ahmen.

Monday, February 05, 2007 2:31:00 AM  
Blogger KathrynTherese said...

Yes, it is beautiful, isn't it?

I was thinking too how our words can be "sent" from us, but still remain with us. We share our ideas by sending them forth in words, but they do not cease to remain one with us, in our mind and heart and spirit.

So the Father sends forth His Word - His very IDEA of Himself - but that Word does not cease to be with Him in every moment, does not cease to be HIS. The Word remains with the Father, in the Spirit, even as it is sent forth for us...

And when the Word returns to the Father (and It does not return Him empty!), He is able to send the Spirit among us. Yet, of course, the Spirit remains with the Father and Son, the Spirit of their Love.
And as they are never separated from one another, we who have had the Spirit "poured into" us also have the Father and the Son. We are Tabernacles of the Trinity.

And so we, as part of the Mystical Body that is Christ, participate in the ineffable life of the Trinity - "simple unity...three in one." My head spins with this.

And it leads us right into more of the Eucharist, because the Eucharist IS our participation in the life of the Trintiy.

More in a minute (you'd think I'd have all the time in the world, as we are seriously snowed in here with 2 feet of snow and a blizzard, but I have had less time at this screen than normal this last week!).

Tuesday, February 06, 2007 8:33:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beautiful musing. :-) And yes, your snow.. I've prayed that you folks are ok.. it's very good to know you are.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007 12:34:00 PM  

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