Devotion to the Holy Trinity: little known but very effective

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 were not doing his will!

S. BEDA said: "God praises more than works with words". However, he was excellent in praising him with words and deeds and died on the day of Ascension (731) singing the Glory in chorus and went on to sing it in heaven with the blessed for all eternity.

St. Francis of Assisi could not be satisfied with repeating the Gloria and recommended this practice to his disciples: especially he recommended it to a lay friar discontented with his state: "Learn this verse, dear brother, and you will have all the Holy Scripture" .

S. MADDALENA DE 'PAZZI bowed to Gloria, imagining that he offered the head to the executioner and God assured her of the prize of martyrdom.

S. ANDREA FOURNET recited it at least 300 times a day.

3) Novena made with any prayer and in any time.

4) The party. Every Sunday was destined to celebrate, in addition to the Resurrection of Christ, also the mystery of the Trinity, which Jesus had revealed to us and whose Redemption had deserved us to one day be able to contemplate and enjoy. From the sec. V or VI on Pentecost Sunday had as its preface what is now the feast of the Trinity and which only in 1759 became proper on all Sundays outside Lent. And so the Sunday of Pentecost was chosen by John XXII (1334) to remember this mystery in a particular way.

The other feasts celebrate God's work towards men, to excite us to gratitude and love. This raises us to contemplation of the intimate life of God and excites us to humble adoration.

DUTIES TOWARDS THE TRINITA. a) We owe you the homage of intelligence

1) studying deeply that mystery which gives us such a high concept of the inscrutable greatness of God and helps us understand the mystery of the Incarnation, which is a kind of real revelation of the Trinity;

2) firmly believing it though superior (not contrary) to reason. God cannot be understood by our limited intelligence. If we understood it, it would no longer be infinite. Faced with so much mystery we believe and adore.

b) The homage of the heart by loving it as our principle and ultimate end. The Father as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, the Holy Spirit as Sanctifier. We love the Trinity: 1) in whose name we were born to grace in baptism and reborn many times in Confession; 2) whose image we carry carved in the soul;

3) that will have to form our eternal happiness.

c) The homage of the will; observing his law. Jesus promises that the SS. Trinity will come to dwell in us.

d) The homage of our imitation. The three people have one intelligence and one will. What a person thinks, wants and does; they think it, they want it and the other two do it too. Oh, what a perfect and admirable model of concord and love.

Novena 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".

From the Missal. Almighty and everlasting God, grant us an increase in faith, hope and charity; and, so that we deserve to achieve what you promise, let us love what you command. For Christ our Lord. So be it.

I believe in you; I hope in you, I love you, I adore you, O blessed Trinity, that you are one God: have mercy on me now and at the hour of my death and save me.

O SS. Trinity, who, with your grace, dwell in my soul, I adore you.

O SS. Trinity, etc., make me love you more and more.

O SS. Trinity etc., sanctify me more and more.

Stay with me, Lord, and be my true joy.

We wholeheartedly confess, praise and bless you, God the Father, the only begotten Son, you Spirit S. Paraclete, holy and individual Trinity.

SS. Trinity, we adore you and through Mary we ask you to give all of us unity in faith and the purpose of confessing it faithfully.

Glory be to the Father who created me, to the Son who redeemed me, to the Holy Spirit who sanctified me.