Uncovering the mystery

Readings for the feast of the Holy Trinity May 26 2013 can include Proverbs 8:1-4,22-31, Psalm 8, Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

I could sing you more than a couple of hymns or songs, some ancient some modern, that praise the Trinity.

The reasons why songs, hymns and poems might be a launching point, is because we are trying to come to grips with something that is essentially unfathomable.

And the depths of intellects, our hearts and our spirits

are more readily tapped

by poetry than by scientific analysis, or even logical deduction.

God is without bounds (infinite)

God is outside our understanding (unknowable)

God is deep within (the ground of our being)

And yet the Christian experience is

that God limited himself to bodily form in Jesus

that we can know God by relationship as Father, friend and brother,

and that the Spirit of God dwells deep within us.

The words themselves begin to blow our minds

we can’t always get our heads around this

The writer of Proverbs is telling us what is often repeated in the Bible

that God was there before anything

 

St Paul is telling us that we are in relationship with God, through Jesus.

That this is unlocked through the way we live our life, in suffering and in joy

Building character through endurance and filling us with hope.

A hope that builds up in us through the outpouring of God’s Spirit .

The Love of God poured into us through the Holy Spirit of God.

It sounds good doesn’t it!
Give thanks for the great glory of God who is our Creator!

Pray for the growth that comes through allowing God to use my suffering .

Ask for a new sense of hope and renewal from the Spirit of God

Practically

Yet it’s a bit difficult to take in

So let’s just focus on three key elements to pray to God for

1. That we ask God to give us a sense of awe and wonder about what it means to approach God closely (Holy, holy, holy)

2. That we ask Jesus to show us how to live as he lived. In the midst of a real life, with real suffering.    This, I suggest simply means using our prayer-imagination to talk about what is happening in our life today.   What is this character, this endurance, that God might be building in me. Am I cooperating  or do I simply not care?

3. To pray to the Spirit of God to be filled with the great sense of hope that flows from all this. That we might love unconditionally and well

These three things are not unrelated.

To do less is not to do quite enough.

Praise of the God of majesty

Closeness to the God of life

Love at the very depth of our being

For thought and prayer and action

Give thanks for the great glory of God who is our Creator! 

Pray for the growth that comes through allowing God to use my suffering .  

Ask for a new sense of hope and renewal from the Spirit of God