Chapter 5:

Jesus Helps Us to
Understand the Trinity,
Mary, and the Holy Spirit
©Ave Maria Press
Beyond Human Understanding

The mysteries of God far surpass

the ability of the human mind to
comprehend them.
 Even for the great theologian,
St. Augustine, God surpassed
his understanding.
According to one story, St.
Augustine saw a boy trying
to empty the ocean into a
hole with a shell. After the
saint pointed out the
futility of this endeavor,
the boy told him, that his
mind was, likewise, too
small to hold the immense
truths about God, and then
disappeared from his sight.
 And yet, God so wants us to have a
relationship with him that he reveals
himself to us in ways that we could
never discover for ourselves.

As we saw previously,
it is only by God’s
revelation that we
could come to
understand anything
about his nature.
 The Inner Life of God
God reveals to us
certain things about
his divine nature that
are essential to our
faith in him, foremost
being the reality of
the Blessed Trinity.
 When we pray the Sign of the Cross,
it reminds us how central belief in the
Trinity is to our Christian faith.

The gestures we use

to make the Sign of
the Cross—touching
In forehead,
our the nameourof
the Father,
chest, and
and then both
of the Son, and of
shoulders—convey
that
thewe are making
Holy Spirit.
this profession with
Amen.
our minds, hearts,
and entire being.
 The study of the existence and
attributes of God is called theology.
The great theologians of our Church
have explained for us that the One
God is three divine Persons by his
very nature—without regard to how
God relates to human beings.

This reality is called the Immanent

Trinity, and refers to the inner life of
God, or how “God exists in God.”
 When we reflect on the Salvific
Trinity, we are considering how God
interacts with us, his creation—how
God has gone outside himself to
communicate with us, and to save us.

The Immanent Trinity

and the Salvific Trinity
are intimately related.
When we reflect on God’s
actions in Salvation
History, we understand
better who God is.
 Church theologians have
developed vocabulary to
assist us in understanding the
mystery of the Trinity.

When the word substance is used theologically,

it refers to “nature” or “essence.”
Substance makes something what it is.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all of the same

substance—meaning that they all have the
same divine nature—they are consubstantial.
 Church theologians have
developed vocabulary to
assist us in understanding the
mystery of the Trinity.

Person refers to the distinctions between

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
 Church theologians have
developed vocabulary to
assist us in understanding the
mystery of the Trinity.

Relation indicates
that the three Persons
of the Trinity are
distinct because of
how they relate to
one another .
 Using this vocabulary, the
Church teaches several
truths about the mystery of
the Holy Trinity.

While there are

three distinct
Persons, there is
only ONE God—
one divine being.
 Using this vocabulary, the
Church teaches several
truths about the mystery of
the Holy Trinity.
We should not think of the Persons in the
Trinity as being the same as human persons,
or “people.” They are not three separate
beings, or three separate wills or intellects.
There is only one divine being. When
one Person of the Trinity acts, the other
Persons act in communion.
God is one, a “community- in-unity.”
 How do the Persons
of the Trinity relate to
one another?
 As the first person of the
Blessed Trinity, the Father is
absolutely without origin.

From all eternity, the

Father “begets” the Son,
the second Person of the
Trinity. This means that
the Father did not create
the Son, but rather, the
Son is the Father’s
perfect, divine
expression of himself.
The Son, too, is a divine
Person, and there was
never a time when the
Son did not proceed
from the Father.
“In the beginning, the
Word was with God and
the Word was God.”
 The Holy Spirit
proceeds from the
Father and the Son as
the perfect expression
of their divine love
for each other.
The Son and the Holy Spirit are
consubstantial with the Father.

This means that the

Son and the Holy
Spirit have the
exact divine nature
as the Father.
 St. Athanasius described the
different ways the Persons of the
Trinity relate to one another.

The Father is not made, not

created, not begotten by anyone.
The Son is from the Father
alone. Neither created nor made,
but begotten.
The Holy Spirit is from the
Father and the Son. Not created,
not made, not begotten, but
proceeding.
The Church has employed many
symbols to try to express the
mystery of the Triune God.
God’s Actions in Our Lives

When we experience God’s

saving activity in our lives and in
the world, we can reflect upon
the Salvific Trinity.
 We experience the work of God
the Father in the Salvific Trinity
through his creation.

The majesty of the world and every galaxy, as well as

God’s gifts that sustain our life on the earth are all
examples of the Father’s work in the Salvific Trinity.
Through our Redeemer, Jesus Christ,
we experience the work of the Son of
God in the Salvific Trinity.

The second Person of the Trinity became

human and is truly Emmanuel—“God with us.”
 The Holy Spirit’s activity in the
Salvific Trinity happens because the
third Person of the Trinity lives in us.

As Christ promised, the

Holy Spirit is here to
guide and strengthen us
as individuals and as
the Church community
that we are.
We typically attribute certain actions
to the individual Persons of the
Trinity, but remember that all three
Persons act as one being.

In the divine missions of the Blessed Trinity,

we have distinctive works of God’s
saving intervention in the world:
creation, Salvation, and sanctification.
We typically attribute certain actions
to the individual Persons of the
Trinity, but remember that all three
Persons act as one being.

While the Father is associated with creation,

the Son with Salvation, and the Holy Spirit
with sanctification; all three Persons are fully
present in all the divine missions.
 Our contemplation of the Blessed
Trinity leads us to a fundamental truth
about the nature or essence of God:

God is love.
As a sign of our gratitude, God
asks us to love in imitation of him.

We were made to love, and can not be truly

happy apart from loving God and other people.
 The first place we learn to love is
also a reflection of the love of God:
our families

We allow the Trinity to live in us when we

reach out in love to our brothers and sisters.
As Pope John Paul II said,
“God in his deepest
mystery is not a
solitude but a family,
since he has in
himself Fatherhood,
Sonship, and the
essence of a family,
which is love.”
 The Role of Mary,
the Mother of God
The perfect
model of the
Christian faith
is Mary, the
Mother of
Jesus, our
Savior.
Mary is the greatest saint.

She is the very

definition of what
it means to be a
saint—a holy
person who lives
in union with God.
From the moment
of her conception,
Mary lived a life
free of sin.
Mary is the greatest saint.

At the
Annunciation, the
angel Gabriel told
the virgin Mary that
God wanted her to
become the mother
of his Son. Despite
the fear she must
have experienced,
she agreed to do as
God asked.
Mary is the greatest saint.

Mary could not have

fully understood all
of what God was
asking of her, but
her unselfish “yes”
should be an
example to all of us
about the
importance of
having faith in God.
Directly after learning of God’s plan
for her, Mary left home to see to the
needs of her cousin Elizabeth, who
was also pregnant.

Not thinking of
herself, but acting for
the good of others,
Mary offers us
another example of
what it means to
show Christian love.
 By dedicating her life to caring for
the Son of God, Mary became the
first disciple of Jesus, and continued
to be so to the end of her life.

From the moment of

her “yes” to God’s
plan, through the
ministry, suffering,
and death of her Son,
Mary was a devoted
follower of our Savior,
and her Savior.
 While he was dying on the cross,
Jesus gave his mother to us, the
Church. Mary stayed with the
disciples after Jesus’ Ascension to
support them as she had her own Son.

She was present with

the Apostles at
Pentecost, when the
Holy Spirit descended
upon them, bringing
strength and courage.
At the end of her sinless earthly life, Mary
was taken, body and soul, to be with her
Son and reign as Queen of Heaven.

This belief is called the

Assumption, and serves as
a promise to all the
faithful of the eternal life
God has in store for us.
The Church has held this
belief for many centuries,
and Pope Pius XII
declared the Assumption
as a dogmatic teaching of
the Church in 1950.
Because of the special role Mary plays in
Salvation History, the Church teaches
several other important truths about her .

The Immaculate Conception is the belief that from

the moment of Mary’s conception in the womb of
her mother, she was preserved from Original Sin.

Pope Pius IX declared the Immaculate Conception

an infallible teaching of the Church in 1854.

This means that, through the guidance of the

Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception proclaimed by the Magisterium of
the Church is totally free from error.
Because of the special role Mary plays in
Salvation History, the Church teaches
several other important truths about her .

Mary conceived and bore

Jesus our Savior as a virgin.
Jesus had no human father,
but was conceived by the
power of the Holy Spirit.

Mary remained a virgin,

even after the birth of the
Lord, for her entire life.
Because of the special role Mary plays in
Salvation History, the Church teaches
several other important truths about her .

At the Council of Ephesus

in AD 431, the Church
declared that Mary should
be called Theotokos—
which means “God-Bearer”
or “Mother of God.”
This title for Mary makes it
clear that Jesus is one Person
with two inseparable
natures—human and divine.
 Catholics have always had a special
devotion to Mary. Because she is the Mother
of God and the Mother of the Church, we
ask her to intercede for us to God. Our
prayers to Mary help us to imitate her total
love and commitment to her Son.
Our devotion to Mary should
not be confused with worship,
which is proper only for God.
Mary never seeks glory for
herself, but always points us
toward her Son. As she told
the waiters at Cana, she says to
us: “Do whatever he tells you.”
 Of the many devotions to Mary, the most
popular is the Rosary, which includes a
repeating of the Hail Mary and a meditation
on the mysteries of the life of Christ.
 Some other popular Marian devotions
include the feast of the Solemnity of Mary
the Mother of God on January 1st, the
Miraculous Medal, the Scapular, various
Marian prayers such as the Angelus, and the
devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.
 The Holy Spirit Gives
and Renews Life
Jesus promised to
send the Holy Spirit,
and it is that Spirit—
the third Person of
the Blessed Trinity—
who gives life to
the Church.
 Jesus called the Holy Spirit the
Paraclete, indicating that the Holy
Spirit would be our advocate,
defender, and consoler.

The Holy Spirit is God’s

gift—or grace—to us, that
enables us to share his
life and love.
 We first receive the Holy Spirit at
our baptism, when we become
temples of the Holy Spirit and are
justified before God.
Justification means that
our sins are forgiven, and
we are able to enter into a
right relationship with
God through our faith in
Jesus Christ.
While Jesus had no sin,
the Holy Spirit
descended upon him at
his baptism as well.
 The Holy Spirit also gives life to
and builds up the Church.

The Holy Spirit uses the

Church to draw us to
Christ, to reveal good
things the Lord has done
for us, and to make
present today the Paschal
Mystery of Christ’s love.
This is done especially in
the Eucharist, in which
we share God’s own life.
 The Holy Spirit showers gifts
upon us that strengthen and
build up the Church.

Wisdom
The seven gifts of Understanding
the Holy Spirit are
bestowed on us Counsel
especially at Baptism Fortitude
and Confirmation, Knowledge
and they make it Piety
easier for us to live a
Christian life. Fear of the Lord
 St. Paul also tells us about other
gifts of the Spirit called charisms.

Charisms are given to

individuals to benefit the
person and strengthen
the whole community.

Among the charisms are

wisdom, knowledge, faith,
healing, miracle working,
prophecy, discernment,
speaking in tongues, and
interpreting tongues.
Further, St. Paul describes the
fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The fruits of the Holy

Spirit are spiritual
perfections that result from
the Holy Spirit living in us.

These fruits are charity,

joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness,
generosity, gentleness,
faithfulness, modesty, self-
control, and chastity.
The Holy Spirit brought the Church
into existence at Pentecost.

The Catechism of the Catholic

Church teaches us that we find
the Holy Spirit still actively
working in the Church.

The Holy Spirit works through the

Scriptures which he inspired.
The Holy Spirit brought the Church
into existence at Pentecost.

The Catechism of the Catholic

Church teaches us that we find
the Holy Spirit still actively
working in the Church.

Through Sacred Tradition,

witnessed throughout the
ages by the Church Fathers.
The Holy Spirit brought the Church
into existence at Pentecost.

The Catechism of the Catholic

Church teaches us that we find
the Holy Spirit still actively
working in the Church.

Through the Magisterium or teaching

authority of the Church, as a guide to
the servants of God’s people: the pope
and bishops of the Church.
The Holy Spirit brought the Church
into existence at Pentecost.

The Catechism of the Catholic

Church teaches us that we find
the Holy Spirit still actively
working in the Church.

In the Sacraments which put us

in touch with the Risen Lord.
The Holy Spirit brought the Church
into existence at Pentecost.

The Catechism of the Catholic

Church teaches us that we find
the Holy Spirit still actively
working in the Church.

Through prayer, where he

continually intercedes for us.
The Holy Spirit brought the Church
into existence at Pentecost.

The Catechism of the Catholic

Church teaches us that we find
the Holy Spirit still actively
working in the Church.

Through the many gifts and

ministries that build up the
Church as the Body of Christ.
The Holy Spirit brought the Church
into existence at Pentecost.

The Catechism of the Catholic

Church teaches us that we find
the Holy Spirit still actively
working in the Church.

Through the apostolic and

missionary life and outreach.
The Holy Spirit brought the Church
into existence at Pentecost.

The Catechism of the Catholic

Church teaches us that we find
the Holy Spirit still actively
working in the Church.

Through the saints, whose

lives witness to the presence
of the Holy Spirit and his
continuing work of Salvation.
Since the third Person of the Blessed
Trinity is purely Spirit, we use many
different symbols to communicate his
presence, nature, and activity.

Becoming familiar with these

symbols can help us to understand
the Holy Spirit more deeply.