How do our relationships influence the person we grow to be?Our Relationships are Central to the ‘Person’ we Become

•God has created us to live in loving relationship with the Holy Trinity and with one another.•Our relationships are shaped by who we are and how we live.•Acceptance, trust and respect in our relationships give us confidence in our personhood.•Through our relationships with othersand with God we become the personwe are.

The Trinity shapes our Christian life

Agape

•The doctrine of the Trinity teaches that agape love is the very nature of God. •In 1 John 4:8, 16 we read: ‘God is love.’ •The Greek word used here for ‘love’ was agapē. •The word ‘agape’ describes God’s total ‘self-gift’ of unconditional and infinite love, both among the Persons of the Blessed Trinity and for each and every one of us.

The emergence of the dogma of the Trinity

Abba

•‘Abba’ is an Aramaic term of endearment. •Jesus used this term during his agony in the garden (see Mark 14:36) to address God the Father. •The term ‘Abba’ expresses the great intimacy between Jesus, the Son of God, and God the Father. •St. Paul teaches that God the Father invites us to address him as ‘Abba’, as Jesus did.

The emergence of the dogma of the Trinity

•Council of Nicaea I in 325: Jesus is ‘consubstantial with God’.•Council of Constantinople I in 381: Expressed apostolic faith in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s relationship to the Father and the Son.•Council of Chalcedon in 451: Jesus is ‘consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity’.

The Early Church and the Dogma of the Trinity

The emergence of the dogma of the Trinity

The Early Church and the Dogma of the Trinity

•Council of Toledo in 675: The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, is God, one and equal with the Father and the Son.•Councils of Lyons in 1274 and Florence in 1442: The Church confessed and reaffirmed her faith in the Trinity: there is one God in three divine Persons.

The emergence of the dogma of the Trinity

The Early Church and the Dogma of the Trinity

The dogma of the Trinity is professed when we:•bless ourselves and pray the Sign of the Cross;•pray the Glory Prayer;•pray the Creed;•baptize new members into the Church;•celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.

The emergence of the dogma of the Trinity

•Heresy: A religious teaching that denies of contradicts truths revealed by God. (USCCA , 514)

•In response to these heresies, the Church clarified her teaching about the Trinity: ArianismGnosticism DocetismNestorianismMonophysitism

The Trinitarian image of God

The Search for Language to Describe the Trinity

•Substance: All three Persons of the Trinity are of the same divine ‘substance’, essence and nature.

•Person: All three divine Persons of the Trinity are distinct but not separate from each other. The mystery of God is such that God is both One and Three.

•Relationship: The Church teaches  that the substance, the nature or the essence of our Triune God is that the three distinct Persons of the Trinity live in loving relationship within the Godhead'.

The Trinitarian image of God

The Trinity and the Demand for Justice and Peace

A Trinitarian spirituality invites us to:•broaden our awareness of the presence and action of God in us and in the world around us;•bind ourselves in shared relationships

with others;•work for justice and peace;•strive to build communities founded on dignity and respect, friendship and love;•grow in our relationship with God and others

and all of creation.

Catherine Mowry LaCugna

• Professor of Theology at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana.

• Born in 1952; died in 1996.

• Best known book: God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life.

• Taught that we come to know God best by looking at the work of the Trinity—the work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

• Trinitarian theology must be practical and have real meaning for life.

Rublev’s Icon on the Trinity

How does Rublev’s icon communicate the substance, nature and essence of the Trinity?