Devotion to the Holy Trinity: the Triduum begins today to obtain graces

EXCELLENCE. a) is the devotion of devotions; all the others must converge on it. All acts of worship, all practices of piety are addressed directly or indirectly to the Trinity because it is the source from which all natural and supernatural goods come to us, it is the cause and purpose of every being.

b) it is the devotion of the Church that does everything in the Name of the Trinity!

c) it was the devotion of Jesus himself and Mary, during their life and it is and will be forever the devotion of all paradise, which will never tire of repeating: Holy, Holy, Holy!

d) St. Vincent de Paul had a very special love for this mystery. Recommended that

1) if they made frequent acts of faith;

2) it was taught to all those who ignored it, this knowledge being necessary for eternal health;

3) if the celebration was solemnly celebrated.

Mary and the Trinity. St. Gregory the Wonderworker having prayed to God to illuminate him on this mystery, Mary SS. Appeared to him. who commissioned St. John Ev. say explain it to him; and he wrote down the teachings he had.

PRACTICES. 1) The sign of the Cross. By dying on the cross and teaching the formula of Baptism, Jesus provided the two elements that make it up; there was nothing to join them together. At first, however, we limited ourselves to a cross on the forehead. Prudentius (XNUMXth century) speaks of a small cross on his lips, as is now done in the Gospel. The current cross sign is found in use in the East in the century. VIII. For the West we have no testimony prior to the century. XII. At first it was done with three fingers, in memory of the Trinity: by the Benedictines the use of doing it with all fingers was introduced.

2) The Gloria Patri. It is the best known prayer after the Pater and the Ave. it is the Church's memory, which for 15 centuries it has not ceased to repeat in its liturgy. It is called Dossology (praise) minor, to distinguish it from the major one, namely the Gloria in excelsis.

At first it was accompanied by a genuflection. Even now the priest in the liturgical prayers and the faithful in the private recitation of the Angelus and the Rosary to Glory bow their heads. It would be to be hoped that such a beautiful prayer was not only considered as an appendix of the Pater and of the Hail or of the Psalms, but formed a prayer of praise and adoration of the Trinity in itself. For the recitation of 3 Gloria to thank God for the privileges granted to Maria SS.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL TREATY we can do to the Trinity is to be pleased that its uncreated, infinite, eternal, essential glory, that which God has in himself, for himself, for himself, that the 3 divine people give each other, that glory that è God himself, never fail, never be diminished by all the efforts of hell. Here is the meaning of Glory. But with it we still intend to hope that the intrinsic is added to this intrinsic glory. We would like all reasonable beings to know him, love him and obey him now and always. But what a contradiction if, while reciting this prayer, we were not in the grace of God and we were not doing his will.

Triduum to the SS. Trinity. In the Name of the Father etc.

ETERNAL FATHER, I thank you that you created me with your love; please save me with your infinite mercy for the merits of Jesus Christ. Glory.

ETERNAL SON, I thank you that you have redeemed me with your most precious Blood; please sanctify me with your infinite merits. Glory.

ETERNAL HOLY SPIRIT, I thank you that you have adopted me with your divine grace; please perfect me with your infinite charity. Glory.

PRAYER. Almighty everlasting God, whom you granted to your servants to know, through true faith, the glory of the eternal Trinity and to adore its Unity in the power of his Majesty, grant us, we ask you, to be, from the firmness of the faith itself, protected against all adversity. For Christ our Lord. So be it.

Consecration. I offer and consecrate to God all that is in me: my memory and my actions to God the FATHER; my intellect and my words to God the SON; my will and my thoughts to God HOLY SPIRIT; my heart, my body, my tongue, my senses and all my pains to the most sacred HUMANITY of Jesus Christ "who did not hesitate to give himself in the hand of the wicked and to suffer the torment of the cross".