TRINITY SUNDAY

June 4, 2023

TRINITY SUNDAY

1. An Inexhaustibly Great God
2. Love Is God's Name

Greeting

I greet you with the greeting of the second reading:
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

1. An Inexhaustibly Great God

With joy and gratitude we celebrate today the solemnity of the Blessed Trinity. When we think of the mystery we honor today, the question is not so much: who is God, but, as Scripture itself puts it: who is God for us? And the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, answers, in a variety of ways: God is a mystery of love. God loves us. With Psalm 8 we say: what are human beings that you spare a thought for them? Thank you, Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All praise to you through Jesus!

2. Love Is God’s Name

On today’s feast of the Blessed Trinity what can we really say about God? If we try to define God, to say who God really is, we can do no more than stammer and use images. We begin to understand God much more easily if we reflect on what he has done for us and for all God’s people. And then we discover that, above all, God has loved us and keeps loving us as a forgiving, merciful God, a Father who cares and is tender as a mother, as the Son who became one of us and made us free at the cost of his life, as a Spirit of love and unity and strength who keeps guiding and inspiring us and who prays with us and in us here in this Eucharist.

Penitential Act

Let us ask the God of tenderness and of love
to forgive us that we have not responded to his love.
                  (pause)
Lord Jesus, face of the Father,
in you we see God’s love reflected:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Jesus Christ, peace from the Father to us,
you bring reconciliation to the whole world:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, our life and unity
through the Spirit poured out on us:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Have mercy on us, Lord,
in your compassion take all sins away from us
and lead us to the joys of everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer

Let us pray to our loving God
and ask that his Spirit may inspire us
to respond to his love
                  (pause)
Lord our God,
we are too small to understand you,
but we know that you care for us
and have linked our destiny to yours.
Thank you for loving us
and standing by our side in our sorrows and joys.
Thank you for giving us Jesus
to take away our sins and to bring us
life and happiness and trust.
Thank you for letting your Spirit lead us.
Warm our hearts and unite us,
dispose us to accept all your love
and to respond to it by entrusting ourselves to you
with all that you have made us and given us.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading (Ex 34:4b-6,8-9): A God of Tenderness and Compassion

God makes himself known to Moses as a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger and rich in love and faithfulness. He walks with his people.

Second Reading (2 Cor 13:11-13): Blessing from God, A Trinity of Love

The God of love and peace is with us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We often use this greeting of St. Paul at the beginning of the Eucharist.

Gospel (Jn 3:16-18): The Father Sent Us His Son

God is in love with people. The proof is: he sent his own Son into the world, among people, not to condemn us but to save us. What greater proof of God’s love can we have? 

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Introduction to the Creed

Together with Christians all over the world, we profess our faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is the faith in which we were baptized.

Intercessions

God is our creator and Father, made himself visible to us in his Son. Through his Spirit he loves us and wants to make Jesus known and loved. Let us pray: R/ Lord our God, hear our prayer.

–   Father, creator of heaven and earth, help us to respect your creation, to develop this world and to make this earth fruitful for the benefit of all people, we pray: R/ Lord our God, hear our prayer.

–   Father, you have made your love of people visible in your beloved Son Jesus Christ, one of us, human like us, and our Savior. Help us to grow more like him and to continue on earth his task of bringing salvation and freedom to all, we pray: R/ Lord our God, hear our prayer.

–   Father, you pour out your life and love through your Holy Spirit in the hearts of people. Help us through him to heal what is wounded, to soften what is hard and to warm what is cold, we pray: R/ Lord our God, hear our prayer.

–   Father, Son and Holy Spirit, let this community and your whole Church become a living sign to this world of your own community of love, we pray: R/ Lord our God, hear our prayer.

Lord our God, be the foundation and the meaning of our Christian lives and lead your pilgrim people to the fullness of your life and love in the unity of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts

Our God and Father,
we bring this bread and wine before you
as the fruits of your kindness
and of our toil.
Let your Holy Spirit fill them with his power,
to make your Son Jesus Christ present here among us,
that we may share in Jesus’ offering
and that through Christ and with him and in him
we may give you all honor and praise
now and for ever. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

We now reach the core of the Eucharistic celebration. We praise and thank the Father; we offer and pray to him with and through Jesus Christ; we ask the Holy Spirit to change bread and wine into Christ and to make us more the living body of Jesus Christ.

Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer

United in the Holy Spirit,
let us pray to God our Father
the prayer of Jesus our Lord. R/ Our Father...

Prayer of Peace and Unity

(The sign of peace is stressed on account of the invitation to the kiss of peace in the second reading.)

Father, you promised us your peace
through your Son Jesus Christ.
Let there be peace in your Church
and peace in the world.
Give peace to us, your community here.
Let the sign of peace
which we are about to give to one another
be expressive of unity and friendship
and commit us more deeply to live in your love
as brothers and sisters in Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

R/ And also with you.

      (Then follows the sign of peace)

Invitation to Communion

This is Jesus our Lord
whom the Father sent into the world
to bring us eternal life
and to unite us by his Holy Spirit.
Happy are we to believe in him
and to receive him as our bread of life. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...

Prayer to the Blessed Trinity

The following prayer is read slowly by the leader, or by all the people if they have the text. The celebrant concludes with the Prayer after Communion.

Lord God, our Father
you are my God.
Let your wisdom direct me,
your grace keep me,
your love rejoice me,
your truth protect me,
your power guard me.

Jesus Christ, God’s Son,
my brother and my Savior.
That you became man
is my joy.
I want to go your way;
your suffering be my victory,
your disgrace my honor,
your death my life,
your resurrection my comfort.

Holy Spirit, God,
you are my comfort,
convert me,
for I am sinful person.
Bring me back to life,
for I am dead.
Awaken me,
for I am sleeping.
Make me ready
for eternal life.

Give light to my mind,
sanctify my will,
give strength to my weak powers.
Be with me,
live in me,
stay with me,
Trinity worthy of all praise.

                  (Caspar Neumann, about 1700)

Prayer after Communion

God our Father,
we praise and thank you
through Jesus Christ your Son
whom you have given us in this Eucharist
as our food and drink.
Keep us united in your Holy Spirit
and let the life of each of us
and of the whole Christian community
be a response of love and adoration
to the love you have shown us.
Help each and all of us
to be the reflection and sign to all people
of your tender and faithful love,
that all may praise you for ever and ever. R/ Amen.

Blessing

In this Eucharist we have reflected and prayed
and especially given adoration and thanks to God
for what he is: great, holy, mighty,
so high above our comprehension,
and yet so near to us and tender in his love.
We ask him now to bless us,
that all of our lives may become
an act of thanksgiving and praise.
May almighty God bless you all:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.

Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord. R/ Thanks be to God.

Reflection:

4 June 2023

John 3: 16-18

A vocation to reflect the Trinity on earth

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, which inspires us to contemplate and worship the divine life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Today's passage has only three verses to introduce the Holy Trinity - but they are very dense verses. They are sufficient to correct the false image of God, still present in people's minds. Religious leaders instilled in them a wrong image depicting God as a judge who punished people for their sins and rewarded them for their good works. 

But the Gospel of John rectifies the mistake and reveals a Father who loves his children, despite them being unfaithful and abandoning Him. The passage speaks of communion between God the Father who sends his only Son to the world and from them comes God the Holy Spirit in a communion of love. And God wants his children also to be united in this love. 

Jesus calls his disciples to love one another as the Father loves Jesus. And love demonstrates our faith in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Love is the badge or ID card of a Christian: “By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). It’s a contradiction to think of Christians who hate.

Pope Francis says that "True love is boundless to interact with others, to respect the freedom of others. Every Sunday, we celebrate the Eucharist together. The Eucharist is like the “burning bush” radiating warmth and light to all those who gather around. Despite their betrayal and denials, Jesus forgave his disciples and loved them to the end and prayed for them to God the Father. Jesus reveals a God who is in deep communion: "I and the Father are one"; "whoever sees me, sees the Father." And he calls his disciples to be united in love just as he and the Father are united. The Church is called to be the visible expression of the Holy Trinity on earth. 

A person becomes a Christian when he chooses to witness and proclaim that “God is love”. God is not indifferent and insensitive to human affairs. He is close to us, always beside us, walking with us to share our joys and sorrows, hopes and struggles. The reason Jesus came into the world was not to condemn it but to save it (cf. Jn 3:16-17). Through the love of Jesus, humans came to know the love of God.

A person who loves others for the very joy of love is a reflection of the Trinity. A family in which each person loves and helps one another is a reflection of the Trinity. We as Christians, a community of believers have the vocation to reflect the Trinity on earth.

A vocation to reflect the Trinity on earth - Youtube