Transcript

I've always believed in the Holy Trinity.

I, I never doubted it in any way, but certainly Catholicism has given me a more fuller understanding of the Holy Trinity.

I was fortunate in that even before I was Catholic, I was taught to develop a relationship with, with each person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so I, I came into the Catholic Church with those relationships in place.

But my relationship with each person of the Trinity has certainly grown and become more intimate as I've been a Catholic.

As a Catholic, I've been exposed to things like the Athanasian Creed and, and the writings of the saints, which give us a, a more profound understanding of, of who the Trinity is.

Of particular help to me has been Saint Elizabeth of the Holy Trinity, uh, a Carmelite nun who died in 1906 in Dijon, France.

And, and even though she was only 26 when she died, she had such a, a profound grasp of the Holy Trinity.

She has this wonderful prayer called Oh Holy Trinity, Whom I Adore, which is, which is a terrific little spiritual treatise on the nature of the Trinity that, as I've prayed it over the years, has, has helped solidify my relationship with each person of the Trinity.

The Holy Spirit, um, I think I'd always had an awareness of, um, God's love at work in the world.

I think that's what brought me to chaplain service, uh, as a ministry, walking with people who are suffering.

So the experience, I would say, I had, um, intense experience of God's love in the world, i.e., the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

Um, and I certainly had, um, the concept of the, of the Trinity from my background and my training, uh, in the Methodist Church.

But the, um, the intensity or the, um, the complex, the complexity of Trinitarian theology in, in the Church, I think, was new.

So I could match, sorta match my experience of God's love in the world with a, a theology of depth, and that, that's brought, um, tremendous, um, richness to my faith.

From my youngest days as a Christian, I, I knew about the Holy Trinity.

I knew the word even though it wasn't in scripture.

I knew about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and had a kind of vague understanding, trying to understand what it would mean for, for God to be both three and one.

One of the most wonderful things that happened as I began approaching the Catholic faith through the study of historical theology, the, the history of theology, how the teachings of the church have developed.

One wonderful thing that began to happen was my understanding of the Trinity that I First of all, I began to see that just 'cause the word wasn't in scripture that it, it didn't mean it was not true, but that the whole meaning of what Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, uh, truly was and how they related was something that came to the church over a period of time, that it had to be developed, a doctrine like an acorn becoming an oak tree.

And through the understanding, reading how the church's debates, early church's debates and, and finally the Council of Nicaea had helped people to come to a clear, precise understanding of that part of the mystery that we can understand convinced me completely that we need the Catholic Church, we need the councils, we need the development of doctrine where we start from a seed understanding of a, a very important and essential truth and go to a more full, developed understanding.

And so today, my understanding of the Trinity is richer and more wonderful, broader, and in certain ways, more mysterious as well than ever before.