THE HOLY TRINITY (PART 2) - THEOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING

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Notes summarised from

  1. The Study: "Foundations of Faith : A Journey Through the Catechism of the Catholic Church" (Workbook pages 35-37)
  2. Notes from "Overview of Catholic Theology", Rev Fr Michael Chan






THE ESSENCE OF GOD IS LOVE

If God were one person
all alone
whom would he have loved
before he created the world?

Jesus reveals to us
that God is a community 
of Three Eternal Persons
who never cease to give themselves 
to one another in love

The Father lovingly generates the Son
without beginning or end

And through the Son
the Father breathes the Holy Spirit
as a sigh of love

The foundation of all reality
is the dynamic love
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity
is the central mystery 
of Christian faith and life
The mystery of the Holy Trinity
 is therefore 
the source of all the other mysteries of faith
the light that enlightens them.
CCC 234



THREE DISTINCT PERSONS, ONE DIVINE NATURE

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit
are three distinct persons
who possess one and the same divine nature.

The divine persons do not share 
the one divinity among themselves
but each of them is God
whole and entire
CCC 253




THE PROCESSION OF THE SON

The Son proceeds from the Father
The Father generates the Son
by way of self-knowledge
resulting in the Word of God




THE PROCESSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son
as their fruit of mutual love

When a person loves, we sometimes speak of his breathing forth
or "sighs" or "breaths of love"

In the case of the Trinity
this "breath" is the divine person of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is "spirated" or "breathed forth"
by the Father and the Son
as a result of their mutual love



- END -




————
A short note about the concept of persons and nature
PERSON - Who it is - the subject eg Peter, Christina
NATURE - What a thing is- the essence, the being, what it is mean to be, eg cat, dog, table
Think in terms of DNA – we all have DNA of a human, yet we are different in nature.

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