TRINITY SUNDAY

ATHANASIAN CREED

Trinity Sunday falls one week after Pentecost Sunday, and it is the day that the Catholic Church has set aside to

honor the most fundamental of Christian beliefs—the Holy Trinity.

Traditionally, the Athanasian Creed was recited in Masses on Trinity Sunday

We have thus far lived out the drama of Christ’s earthly life — His Nativity at Christmas, His revealing Himself as God at

the Epiphany, His time in the desert at Lent, His Passion and Resurrection at Good Friday and Easter. We recalled His

glorious Ascension, and at last week’s Pentecost, the Holy Ghost has descended upon the Church, sent by the Father and

the Son.

God’s Triune Nature has been fully revealed, and now we celebrate the Most Holy Trinity on this day, hearing in today’s

Gospel, “All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the

Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all the things whatsoever I have

commanded you; and behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world” (this is known as the “Great

Commission”). And with this Mass, the Time After Pentecost, the season that represents the Church Age, begins.

Vestments today will be white.

Symbols for the day are the natural symbols of the Trinity — the shamrock used by St. Patrick to explain the Trinity to the

ancient Irish, the pansy — viola tricolor — called the “Trinity Flower,” a candle with 3 flames, the triangle, the trefoil, 3

interlocking circles, etc.

The Athanasian Creed

This is the Athanasian Creed, as used in the Roman Catholic Church. It’s used in the liturgy only rarely (sometimes on

Trinity Sunday), but like all of the Church’s creeds, it is still valid and respected. Although no longer officially attributed

to St. Athanasius (died in 373 A.D.), it still bears his name. This beautiful creed contains a detailed meditation on the

nature of the Trinity. The Athanasian Creed is also called the Quicumque vult, after its first words in Latin. This creed can

also be found in the Handbook of Prayers, edited by James Socias.

Whoever wishes to be saved must, above all, keep the Catholic faith.

For unless a person keeps this faith whole and entire, he will undoubtedly be lost forever.

This is what the Catholic faith teaches: we worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity.

Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance.

For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit.

But the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have one divinity, equal glory, and coeternal majesty.

What the Father is, the Son is, and the Holy Spirit is.

The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, and the Holy Spirit is uncreated.

The Father is boundless, the Son is boundless, and the Holy Spirit is boundless.

The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, and the Holy Spirit is eternal.

Nevertheless, there are not three eternal beings, but one eternal being.

So there are not three uncreated beings, nor three boundless beings, but one uncreated being and one boundless being.

Likewise, the Father is omnipotent, the Son is omnipotent, the Holy Spirit is omnipotent.

Yet there are not three omnipotent beings, but one omnipotent being.

Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.

However, there are not three gods, but one God.

The Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is Lord.

However, there are not three lords, but one Lord.

For as we are obliged by Christian truth to acknowledge every Person singly to be God and Lord, so too are we forbidden by

the Catholic religion to say that there are three Gods or Lords.

The Father was not made, nor created, nor generated by anyone.

The Son is not made, nor created, but begotten by the Father alone.

The Holy Spirit is not made, nor created, nor generated, but proceeds from the Father and the Son.

There is, then, one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits.

In this Trinity, there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less. The entire three Persons are coeternal and coequal

with one another.

So that in all things, as is has been said above, the Unity is to be worshipped in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity.

He, therefore, who wishes to be saved, must believe thus about the Trinity.

It is also necessary for eternal salvation that he believes steadfastly in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and man.

As God, He was begotten of the substance of the Father before time; as man, He was born in time of the substance of His

He is perfect God; and He is perfect man, with a rational soul and human flesh.

He is equal to the Father in His Divinity, but inferior to the Father in His humanity.

Although He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ.

And He is one, not because His Divinity was changed into flesh, but because His humanity was assumed unto God.

He is one, not by a mingling of substances, but by unity of person.

As a rational soul and flesh are one man: so God and man are one Christ.

He died for our salvation, descended into hell, and rose from the dead on the third day.

He ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there He shall come to judge the living and

the dead.

At His coming, all men are to arise with their own bodies; and they are to give an account of their own deeds.

Those who have done good deeds will go into eternal life; those who have done evil will go into the everlasting fire.

This is the Catholic faith. Everyone must believe it, firmly and steadfastly; otherwise He cannot be saved.

Amen.

The Athanasian Creed is one of the treasures from the early Catholic Church. (Note that the Catechism refers to

the Athanasian Creed in item #192, among other sections.) Be sure to see the Apostles Creed and the Catholic Nicene

Creed, too. They’re the most common creeds used in the daily life of the Roman Catholic Church. But the Athanasian

Creed stands alone in its detailed and beautiful description of the Holy Trinity

Book of Heaven

Volume 1 – Other times, in this hiding of Jesus and my going around in search for Him, when He would make Himself felt inside of me and then come out from within me, I would find not Jesus alone, but all Three Divine Persons – now in the form of three children, gracious and immensely beautiful, now with one single body and three distinct heads, but resembling each other, all three of them attractive. Who can tell my contentment?  Especially when I would see the three children, whom I would hold, all three of them, in my arms.  I would kiss now one, now another, and receive their kisses; now one would lean on my shoulder, another on the other shoulder, and another would remain in front of me.  And while delighting in them, I would go about looking at them and, to my amazement, from three I would find one.  Another amazement for me when I would be with these three children, was that each one would weigh as much as the three of them together.  I would feel as much love for one of these children, as for all three of them together; each one of them attracted me in the same way.

February 28 A.D. 1899 – How she sees the Divinity of Jesus –   The sun is fire, but it is also light and heat.  Here is the Most Holy Trinity veiled in the sun:  the fire is the Father, the light is the Son, the heat is the Holy Spirit.  However, the sun is one, and just as one cannot separate fire from light and heat, so one is the power of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who in reality cannot be separated from one another.  And just as fire produces light and heat at the same time, in such a way that fire cannot be conceived without light and heat; in the same way, the Father cannot be conceived before the Son and the Holy Spirit, and vice versa, but all Three of the Them have the same eternal beginning.