Holy Trinity
Quotes of the Day for June 24, 2024 – Thoughts on life, love, and the Holy Trinity
“…the ultimate governing principle of reality—distinct from the created universe—is personal….analogies to the Trinity are always going to be inadequate. To understand the Trinity more accurately requires a much more technical answer, but in my experience that is not what most people are interested in. What most people want to know is something very simple: Why does any of this matter? The answer is also very simple and very pertinent: If God weren’t a Trinity, there would be no such thing as love.” (Dr. Zachary Porcu)
“Father is the arche or “source” of the Godhead. God, the Father, however, is never alone Godself…To echo Greek Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas, it also is perfectly appropriate to say, “God is Love signifies that God subsists as Trinity.” There was never a time when the Trinity was not…Love that is not shared is not love at all. A god who is a simple monad is neither person nor love.” (Vigen Guroian)
“Love helps to multiply knowledge. It makes you so attentive to your loved one, it helps you notice the smallest detail of their life, the smallest features of their character, and intimately links you with the very spirit of your loved one. Does not love for God help us to know Him more than much studying of theology? It makes you akin to God, and then like easily comes to know like. This is why it was given to a pure-hearted apostle, full of love, to become a “Theologian,” and to extract the “depth of wisdom” from the bosom of Jesus, along with the blessed love for Christ that burned within him. His teaching about God the Word is the beginning of the theology that was revealed at the Ecumenical Councils by the most learned pastors and teachers of the Church, who spoke about the Trinity, Its essence and Hypostases, of the two natures in Christ, united unconfused, undivided, unchanged, unseparated, and so on.” (Hieromartyr Thaddeus Uspensky)
“…eternal life is found only in God, the Holy Trinity. God shares eternal life with us as a free gift. But separated from the loving relationship mutually shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we do not have eternal life. We participate in God’s eternal life when we abide in the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“I want to say a few words about evil and non-being. Non-being is not evil. It is not anything. We cannot say it is good nor can we say it is neutral. It is nothing. The Fathers recognized a trinity of existence: Being, Well-Being, Eternal Being. They also recognized another trinity: Beauty, Goodness, Truth. It is the teaching of the Fathers that being, existence, is inherently good. It is the gift of the good God, who alone has true Being (“Being Beyond All Being”). But we are created with a direction or movement (kinesis). That movement is from being towards well-being and eternal being. Eternal Being is true union with Christ (theosis). Our call into existence is brought forth as we behold the Beauty of God. Drawn towards Him, we see that He is not only Beautiful, but that He is loving, self-emptying for the sake of all – that is – we see that He is Good. As we pursue His Goodness we move ever towards our End in Christ who is the Truth.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“The Son of God has become Son of Man in order to make us, men, sons of God, raising our race by grace to what He is Himself by nature, granting us birth from above through the grace of the Holy Spirit and leading us straightway to the kingdom of heaven, or rather, granting us this kingdom of heaven within us (Luke 17:21), in order that we should not merely be fed by the hope of entering it, but entering into full possession thereof should cry: our ‘life is hid with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:3).” (St. Simeon the New Theologian)
“Only through union with the Christ Jesus, who is both God and man, can deity penetrate our humanity, cleansing and restoring it to that “pristine beauty” that was ours from creation. The purifying mystery that begins at baptism is now accomplished in us by the Holy Spirit…Unity, of course, must go beyond mere words…True unity arises from hearts led by the Holy Spirit.” (Dynamis 6/5/2019, 7/22/2018)
“Christ Himself is present in each believer and in the Church always, both personally and in the Holy Spirit, for neither can be separated from the other.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Matthew 28:20)
“Both, then, are true: God is utterly distinct from His creation; God has joined intimately in the creation through the incarnation [of Christ], and will never leave it again. The Holy Spirit abides.” (Edith M. Humphrey)“
The Holy Spirit anoints both the preacher and the hearers who open their hearts. The Spirit enters where there is faith and the conviction to live for Christ. All this happens within the hearts of the hearers, who thus become believers and doers of the word…Each of us is accountable to Christ and to God the Father, as the Holy Spirit reveals the Lord’s will to us.” (Dynamis 11/1/2018, 9/12/2018)
"God is three persons and yet one in essence...God is one, yet in three persons at the same time. This is one of God’s incomprehensible mysteries...the Baptism of Jesus reveals the great mystery of the Trinity: the Father speaks; the Holy Spirit descends; the Incarnate Son is baptized.” (Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 3:16-17, Orthodox Study Bible, Matthew 3:17)
“...all three [Persons of the Holy Trinity] participate in the work of salvation. Based upon the redemptive work of his Son, the Father forgives us and sends the Holy Spirit to wash away our sins and continually renew us." (Life Application Study Bible, Titus 3:7-8)
“Had the Fall never happened, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Logos (Word), would still have become incarnate and taken on our nature. For it is through this condescension by our Creator God of taking on the nature of what He created that we are given the opportunity of being deified…Becoming deified does not mean we become God; rather our human nature takes on more and more of the divine nature as we grow in Christ.” (Abbot Tryphon, Sacramental Living)
“Christianity is a revelation of eternity and life…God has revealed Himself mystically to His creature, man. Our human nature has become part of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and that is a great gift which we do not even appreciate; instead, we have cleaved to the things of this world.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)
“Why would God create humanity if He had perfect love and community already in the Trinity? Only answer: To spread that love out to others.” (Pastor Timothy Keller)