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A. "Unity" means being one, and "trinity" means three-fold or three in one.
A. We cannot find an example to fully illustrate the mystery of the Blessed
Trinity, because the mysteries of our holy religion are beyond comparison.
A. Yes; there is but one God.
A. There can be but one God because God, being supreme and infinite, cannot
have an equal.
A. "Supreme" means the highest in authority; also the most excellent or
greatest possible in anything. Thus in all things God is supreme, and in the
Church the Pope is supreme.
A. Two persons are said to be equal when one is in no way greater than or
inferior to the other.
A. In God there are three Divine persons, really distinct, and equal in all
things --the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
A. "Divine" means pertaining to God, and "distinct" means separate; that is,
not confounded or mixed with any other thing.
A. The Father is God and the first Person of the Blessed Trinity.
A. The Son is God and the second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
A. The Holy Ghost is God and the third Person of the Blessed Trinity.
A. "First," "second," and "third" with regard to the persons of the Blessed
Trinity do not mean that one person was before the other or that one is greater
than the other; for all the persons of the Trinity are eternal and equal in
every respect. These numbers are used to mark the distinction between the
persons, and they show the order in which the one proceeded from the other.
A. By the Blessed Trinity I mean one God in three Divine Persons.
A. The three Divine Persons are equal in all things.
A. The three Divine Persons are one and the same God, having one and the same
Divine nature and substance.
A. By the "nature" of a thing we mean the combination of all the qualities that
make the thing what it is. By the "substance" of a thing we mean the part that
never changes, and which cannot be changed without destroying the nature of the
thing.
A. We cannot fully understand how the three Divine Persons are one and the same
God, because this is a mystery.
A. A mystery is a truth which we cannot fully understand.
A. Every truth which we cannot understand is not a mystery; but every revealed
truth which no one can understand is a mystery.
A. We should and often do believe truths which we cannot understand when we
have proof of their existence.
A. All believe that the earth is round and moving, though many do not
understand it. All believe that a seed planted in the ground will produce a
flower or tree often with more than a thousand other seeds equal to itself,
though many cannot understand how this is done.
A. A divine religion must have mysteries because it must have supernatural
truths and God Himself must teach them. A religion that has only natural
truths, such as man can know by reason alone, fully understand and teach, is
only a human religion.
A. God requires us to believe mysteries that we may submit our understanding to
Him.
A. We praise the Holy Trinity by a form of prayer called the Doxology, which
has come down to us almost from the time of the Apostles.
A. The Doxology is: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without
end. Amen."
A. There is another form of the Doxology, which is said in the celebration of
the Mass. It is called the "Gloria in excelsis" or "Glory be to God on high,"
etc., the words sung by the Angels at the birth of Our Lord.
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