What is the mystery of the Holy Trinity?
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church “the mystery of the Holy Trinity is … the source of all other mysteries of faith, it is the light that illuminates them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the ‘hierarchy of truths of faith’. ‘The whole history of salvation is but the history of the way and means by which the true and one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, reveals himself, reconciles himself and unites himself with men who turn away from sin.’ “(234).

Santíssima Trindade/ franciscanos.org

But what is the Trinity?
The Trinity is One, we believe in one God in three distinct persons. God is One, a divine nature, in three distinct divine persons, not separated: “He who is the Father is not the Son, and he who is the Son is not the Father, nor the Holy Spirit is he who is the Father or the Son (XI Concord of Toledo in 665: Denzinger, 530). They are distinct from one another by their relations of origin “(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 254).

Why do we say the mystery of the Trinity?
We say the mystery of the Trinity because it is a mystery of faith. Faith is a mystery revealed in itself, but we are learning its various points and aspects gradually and over time. So it is with the Trinity. There was no time when there was no Trinity, the Trinity always existed. There was indeed a time when the signs of this presence were not perceived by men, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “It is true that God left traces of his Trinitarian Being in the work of creation and its revelation throughout the Old Testament. But the intimacy of his Being as the Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone and even to the faith of Israel before the Incarnation of the Son of God and the mission of the Holy Spirit “(237).

What does Sacred Scripture say?
In the Holy Scriptures we find verses which, in general, mention the Trinitarian mystery. Let’s look at some:
“Go therefore and teach all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit “(Mt 28:19);
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor 13:14);
“But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

May the Trinity that dwells in us transform our choices and transform our lives. With her we learn the realities of communion and love.

God bless,

Fr. Edison de Oliveira
Community Canção Nova