Tag: Trinity

Trinity

Unfathomed depths we cannot sound
where deep calls out to deep,
within you only am I found
if you are found in me.

As if my little could contain
the one who holds the world—
and yet, O welcome one, remain.
You promised it of old.

Then if I search my shallowness,
you meet me in my heart,
and if I venture to your depths
I find myself, O God.

My being: Savior, take and clasp,
and I would take you so,
not as a treasure I can grasp
or something I could know,

but as you are, a mystery
known only to yourself.
Known, knowing, knower: trinity
by which I know myself.

Then dwell in me, O triune one,
and I will dwell in you.
A pas de deux, the kingdom come,
as you make all things new.

Renaissance painting by Jerónimo Cosida depicting Jesus as a triple deity Inner text: The Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God By Creator:Jerónimo Cosida – Own work, photograph by Revolware, 2008, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4174824

One Father

As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called ‘Master’;
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.

Matthew 23:1-12
One Father, one who made us
and made us to be one,
one source and one creator,
and we are all his own.
We have no other Father;
we have no other god,
no other that we honor
with all our mind and heart.

One Son who came to lead us
when we were lost and gone,
to break the chains and free us,
and bring the captives home.
We have no other master;
we have no other king,
and we shall fear no shadows
who rest beneath his wings.

One Spirit, one who knows us
and one who makes us known,
who sighs and groans out for us
before the Father's throne.
We have no other teacher;
we have no other lord,
and we are all one people:
God's own forever more.

Rublev’s famous icon showing the three Angels being hosted by Abraham at Mamre. By Eloquence – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=158610

Words Must Fail

For Trinity Sunday:

O God, you are; O God, you were;
O God, you are to come,
and we, who are and are no more,
proclaim and yet are mum.
Beyond the meaning of our words,
you are and ever shall,
and oh! what grace, that we are heard
where all our words must fail.

Eternal God and triune God:
Our wonder multiplies
beyond the bounds of mind and heart,
the means of ears or eyes,
for you exist beyond our sense
or metaphor's bright pale.
Oh, draw us, step by faltering step,
where all our words must fail.

Into the everlasting dance
of knowing and of known
bring us, with fumbling feet and hands,
to join you, three-in-one.
In bodies here we singly stand,
but draw us through the veil
and even we may understand
where your word never fails.

Dreifaltigkeitskreuz in Bronze auf Stein By Karbohut – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120823805

For You Love Us As You Love Him

“Then the Creator of all gave me his command,

and my Creator chose the spot for my tent.

He said, ‘In Jacob make your dwelling,

in Israel your inheritance.’

Before all ages, from the beginning, he created me,

and through all ages I shall not cease to be.

In the holy tent I ministered before him,

and so I was established in Zion.

In the city he loves as he loves me, he gave me rest;

in Jerusalem, my domain.

I struck root among the glorious people,

in the portion of the Lord, his heritage.”

Sirach 24:8-12
Tell me, Father of creation,
why you sent your son to earth,
but to bless our ruination
with the wonder of his birth?
For you love us as you love him,
love your own begotten son,
and you draw us in to join him
in your living three-in-one.

Leave me, Christ; I am not worthy,
in the rancor of my sins,
not of heaven but too earthly
for your life to dwell within.
Yet you stoop down even lower,
like a harrow in my soil,
dig yourself into the marrow
of the darkness of my soul.

Draw me upward, Holy Spirit,
where my savior reigns above,
in the glory he inherits
in the kingdom built of love.
As he dwells within my body,
draw me deep into your life,
that with Jesus and the Father
I may live with you on high.
Depiction of Trinity from Saint Denis Basilica in Paris (12th century) By Rebecca Kennison – This file has been extracted from another file, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1565468

God’s Delight

Thus says the wisdom of God:

            “The LORD possessed me, the beginning of his ways,

                        the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago;

            from of old I was poured forth,

                        at the first, before the earth.

            When there were no depths I was brought forth,

                        when there were no fountains or springs of water;

            before the mountains were settled into place,

                        before the hills, I was brought forth;

            while as yet the earth and fields were not made,

                        nor the first clods of the world.
“When the Lord established the heavens I was there,

                        when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;

            when he made firm the skies above,

                        when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;

            when he set for the sea its limit,

                        so that the waters should not transgress his command;

            then was I beside him as his craftsman,

                        and I was his delight day by day,

            playing before him all the while,

                        playing on the surface of his earth;

                        and I found delight in the human race.”

Proverbs 8:22-31
Before the deeps were hollowed out
to hold the rivers running down,
before the mountains rose above,
the Lord's delight welled up in love.

To set the sky and light the stars
and fix the sea within its shores,
to spin the world through night and day:
The Lord's delight was then at play.

And when the Lord a garden laid
and man and woman there wre made,
God filled them with the gift of grace,
delighting in the human race.

God's image sculpted out of dust;
God's spirit breathed in each of us,
our frail and fragile lives it fills—
oh, God's delight is in us still!

Then let us love each image here
with love that casts away our fear.
In every heart the Lord still plays:
Let us delight in all God makes!

To God the Father sing your praise
and God the Son in whom we're made
and God the Spirit whose delight
fills every hour of day and night!
Close-up of a triquetra on one of the Funbo Runestones. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=168066

O Christ, You Send Your Servants Out

This would work for Ascension, or for the Gospel we had this Sunday for Trinity:

O Christ, you send your servants out
to baptize all the world,
to speak with holy grace and pow'r
the wonders they have heard.,
but send as well your mercy down
into my inner world
to speak into my pain and doubt
yourself, O living Word.

You send us as a living sign
of mercy and of love,
as branches spreading from the vine
they bear the ripeness of.
As in the wide world, so in mine,
O Lord, pour out your love
that I may see your face divine
and tell the world thereof.

You send your servants out to teach,
to turn the world to you
with works of wonder, pow'rs of speech,
and eyes for all that's true.
O Christ, into my heart your reach
to turn myself to you,
and at your feet I hear your preach
as you make me anew.
Drogo Sacramentary c. 850 By Unknown author – Sacramentaire de Drogon, Metz. BNF lat 9428 page 71v., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1985948

The Lord Is God (Trinity)

This is why you must now know,

and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God

in the heavens above and on earth below,

and that there is no other.

Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40

To the tune FINLANDIA, for Trinity Sunday:

The Lord is God, and there is not another
on earth below or heaven high above.
None but the Lord has done such signs and wonders;
none but our God such power ever proved.
We are God's own, and we shall have no other
than God alone, who made us for his love.

His word is law, who speaks us into being;
his law is love, who died on Calvary.
For this he came, from heaven once all-seeing
as God-with-us, one with ourselves to be,
to teach the way, our fallen world redeeming,
to break the chains, and set the captives free.

No other God, no other law shall save us;
no Spirit breathes, save that which breathed us first.
Then cast them down, the idols that deprave us,
that make us less and drive us to our worst.
And turn again, to worship God who made us,
to love again, God's images on earth.
Depiction of Trinity from Saint Denis Basilica in Paris (12th century) By Rebecca Kennison – Own work by user:RRKennison, croppedThis file has been extracted from another file: France Paris St-Denis Trinity.jpg, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1565468

For Families

 O Father, who give families their name,
 whose gifts are more than we could ever claim,
 who gives and who withholds, we know not why,
 now bless what you have sent us from on high:
 
 The children you have given in your grace
 and those no longer here in our embrace
 and those who've yet to come. For these we pray:
 Bless all of them, O Father, every day.

O Son, begotten ere the world began,
 the Son of God and Son of fallen Man,
 who spans the chasm earth and heav'n between,
 now bless our loved ones seen and still unseen:
  
 The parents of our parents long ago
 and far-flung kin we do not even know
 and those we know and hold ever more dear:
 Bless them, O Christ, and all those gathered here.
  
 O Spirit, from the Father's goodness sent
 to light upon the Son in dove's descent,
 who touches us with mercy's gentle ray,
 now bless us all and lead us in the way:
  
 With all our kind on earth, in every land,
 in all our forms, in peace united stand
 and see in all the children of God's love:
 Bless all of us and come to us, O Dove.
 Amen.
Father, The Holy Spirit, and Christ Crucified, depicted in a Welsh manuscript. c. 1390–1400 By Unknown author – This digital image can be seen in its original context hereThis image is available from the National Library of WalesYou can view this image in its original context on the NLW Catalogue, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41548453oll0 013

Unity

For Trinity Sunday, to the tune CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM (“Creator of the Stars of Night“).

Creator of humanity,
oh, manifold in unity,
you showed to all your pow'r and fame,
but called yourself your people's name.

Of Jacob, Isaac, Abraham,
you named yourself, oh great I AM,
and bid us call ourselves for you,
the people of your promise true.

You came with us through dusty waste—
your presence heaven's sweet foretaste.
And then in flesh and blood you came
to seal in flesh and blood your claim.

Your flame divided, came to rest,
united those the Christ had blessed.
Oh, Godhead, make us all to be
as you are: blessed in unity.

We bear your image, triune God,
ourselves imprinted with this law:
that as you hold in love your three,
so none of us can outcast be.

Oh, Father, Son, and Holy flame,
your image bearers call your name.
As you are ours and yours are we,
let us each other's ever be.
Amen.
Traditional icon of Our Lady of the Burning Bush (Neopalimaya Kupina). By anonymous – http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Images/ii2914&263.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3639213