Trinity, June 15, 2025

What is the Spirit wisdom, the Spirit of Truth, trying to say to me today?

John 16:12–15

Jesus said, ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.’

Music Meditations

• Holy God, We Praise Thy Name attributed to Ignatz Franz (1774)
• All thing Bright and Beautiful by John Rutter
• Veni, Sancti Spiritus--Taize
• Hymn to the Holy Spirit

Preparation / Centering

If done in a group setting, the prompts are read aloud by the leader; otherwise a silent meditation.

Adapted from Sacred Space: The Prayer Book 2025

Presence of God:

God, you are present to me every day, through the love of your Son and the guidance of your Spirit. Help me to become more aware of your presence in my life, and more receptive to that presence. I desire to love you as you love me. May nothing ever separate me from you.

[1-2 minutes of silence]

Freedom:

Author of freedom, grant me the grace to have your freedom of spirit. Keep me from being bound by desires and actions that are not good for me or others. Cleanse my heart and soul that I may live joyously in your love.

[1-2 minutes of silence]

Consciousness:

Where am I with, you, God? With others in my life? What am I grateful for? Is there something I am sorry for, words or actions that have hurt others, and which I now regret? I take a moment to ask your forgiveness and forgiveness of those whom I have hurt. God, I give you thanks for your constant love and care for me. Keep me always aware of your presence in my life.

[2-3 minutes of silence]

Opening Prayer

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

— Thomas Merton

Companions for the Journey

From “First Impressions” 2022, a Service of the Southern Dominican Province:

The doctrine of the Trinity was first formulated against heresies in the fourth and fifth centuries. Today, at first blush, we seem to be celebrating a dogma of our faith. But we don’t come to church to celebrate dogmas. Today we celebrate the mystery of the Trinity and how the divine Persons have influenced and continue to influence our lives. God is Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier – named for us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and in our worship and prayer we are invited into the mystery of God. God is beyond our human capacity to know, but even before we reached out to God, God had already decided to redeem the world. God has taken the initiative, offered us grace in Jesus Christ and through the Spirit enables us to enter into relationship with God.

In Jesus, God has entered into human history; joined us in our pain and joy and has become one with us in all things, but sin. In him the fullness of divinity dwelt, yet he shared our death and reveals to us God’s victory over sin and death – God’s power to heal what is broken and unite what is fragmented. Jesus returned to the One he called “Father,” but did not leave us on our own; he gave us the presence and power of the divine in his Spirit of love and life. Through the Spirit we can know the living presence of the risen Christ. In the Spirit we have the new life Jesus promised us, made possible by his life, death and resurrection. The yearning and hunger that draw us to worship today has been planted in us by our God, who desires that we come to grow in our knowledge and love of God. Ours is a God of relationship.

Nothing, not even the divine, exists alone and separate. The relationship that exists among the divine Persons suggests to us that we can know God through our relationships – not only in our relationship with God, but to all the created world. The Trinity then, is the origin and foundation of all our personal relationships. One way we are in the image and likeness of God is that we too are created in relationship -- to God, to one another and to the created world in which we live.

Jesus promised the “Spirit of truth” would come to us. The Spirit of truth will help us put aside the untruths and false gods our world worships: the god of power and domination; the god of privilege and exclusion; the god of the rich and prosperous; the god of control; the god of technology, etc. In Jesus, God came among us and in words and actions, announced God’s saving presence to the world. We identify with Jesus’ life, attend to his words, are guided by his actions and attitudes, share in his death and experience new life in his resurrection. In him we come to trust that God is with us now and will remain with us until the end of time. The Spirit is God’s divine life present to us, enabling us to share in the intimate love that exists between the Father and the Son. The Spirit’s gift of that love enables us to be free from a mere religion of laws and regimentation and to respond to God’s life in us by a free and spontaneous creative exercise of our faith; put into practice by a love of self, neighbor and the created world around us. Thus, when we celebrate the feast of the Trinity, we are not celebrating just a private relationship that exists among the divine persons, are we? We are not merely onlookers at some supernatural heavenly mystery we profess belief in, but don’t really see its daily connection to our lives. If the doctrine of the Trinity were dropped, would it make much difference in our faith practices, religious education, homilies, etc.? Of course it would! The Trinity isn’t just a mystery we ascent to each Sunday when we profess our faith in the Creed. Instead, it expresses how God relates to us and how we, in response, are to relate to God, ourselves and the world around us.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you to all truth.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

When I think of God, do I think of the Trinity or one of the “persona” in the Trinity? What is my mental image of God? When I pray to God, to which member of the Trinity do I pray? Why? Do we get the message of Jesus given to us all at once, so we are never in doubt, or do we “learn by going where we have to go”? (quote from Theodore Roethke, “The Waking”) Is it hard to me to assimilate all of Jesus’ message all at once? Do I think Jesus speaks to me when He knows I am ready to hear what He has to say, and not before? Is that the ongoing role of the Spirit? Trinity Sunday teaches us that we need a center; we need to get in touch with that God who anchors our lives and gives it meaning. What anchors exist to give my life meaning? Is the message of love that the Trinity embodies one of my anchors? Why or why not? When I know something scary is coming, I need to hold onto my source of security and wisdom. What is mine? Has there ever been a time in my life when I felt guided by a power greater than myself? Are there any decisions I am wrestling with right now which might need the guidance of the Spirit? Is there any truth in my life that I am in denial about because I cannot bear to face it? What might Jesus be saying to me now that might be ”too much for me to bear”? What might Jesus be saying to be right now that I need to hear? What might Jesus be saying to us as a Church that we might need to hear? What might the Spirt have in store for me? What good things might the spirit have in store for our Church? How do I know whether what I want and what the Spirit wants for me are the same thing? What if they are not? Can I listen? What the Trinity teaches us is that it is in a loving relationship that God's identity is revealed. We, too, are happiest and more complete when we are in relationship with others. With what persons am I in relationship of any kind? What does reflecting on the relationship among the member of the Trinity tell me about my relationships? We are less happy out of relationship. From whom am I estranged? What relationships do I need to work on to mend them or make them even better? Has St Augustine said: “If you see charity, you see the Trinity”. What are the implications of that statement for me and my relationships? Someone said that relationship is about “ sharing”. How is this true or untrue? What can I learn about my own self- knowledge and my own knowledge of God by contemplating a “mystery” like the Trinity? Do I ever pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance in my life and in the life of the church? Do I think of the Holy Spirit as your advocate? How do I discern whether something is from the Holy Spirit? From Daniel Harrington, S.J.: What developments in Church life over the years have most surprised you? Do you regard them as from the Holy Spirit? Why? How do you discern if something is really from the Spirit? What are some of the ways in which the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Jesus which he left us) is at work in the world and in my individual life? Do I really believe and live as though the Spirit of God is among us?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Let's look at the first great commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." Love for the things of God, for the people of God, for God Three in One--love is not an abstraction. Love is what God the Father did in shaping your every limb, lending you a mind to know and a heart to love. Love is what God the Son did in nailing your sins to a cross in his own bruised and battered flesh. Love is what the Holy Spirit does in transforming you into a loving image of the risen Christ. And so love must be what you do: living all ten of the commandments, not five or even nine; embracing the whole Christian Gospel, not only the peace it brings, but the struggles as well; following not only the appealing Christ of Bethlehem but the offensive Christ of Calvary (from Walter Burghardt, S.J in Dare to be Christ) Questions for each of us include: Do I think of God as my Father/Mother? As my brother in flesh? As my sustainer who guides and inspires me to follow God more nearly? What do I need to do in order to love others around me with the same kind of forgiveness and tolerance God has extended to me? Are there crosses in my life, large or small, that I am called to bear? Can I call on the Spirit of truth to help me see realities about myself, about life or about our culture of "me first" that I would prefer to ignore? Finally, compose your own prayer, asking for a loving heart, a spirit of forgiveness, and a willingness to go where God is calling you, even getting your hands dirty with the messiness of life…..

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Read Psalm 12. Then write your own answer to this psalm, imagining that God is responding directly to you about the times when you have risked being honest and have been hurt.

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking questions:

But when he comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will guide you to all truth. (John 16:13)

Reflect on all the ways that honesty is perverted in our society. Think of specific times someone has been hurt or exploited by another playing fast and loose with the truth. When am I inclined to be less than truthful? What form does my untruthfulness take? Do I embellish the truth to make myself seem successful or important in the eyes of others? Do I let others take the blame for things that go wrong because I am insecure in my work or relationships? Do I say different things to different people, to curry favor with each? Do I live a lie? I share with the Spirit of Truth my weaknesses in this area, and make a resolution to take a small step in the direction of honesty.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, give me the patience to wait for what you have in store for me. Give me the grace to accept what comes my way, knowing that you are with me always. Give all of us in the church the wisdom to believe that your Spirit will lead us where she will. Help us to keep our sticky fingers off your plans and learn to trust you implicitly and completely. Your will be done. Amen