Holy Trinity 2026 - "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"

 

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

 We do that so instinctively, don’t we?  I’m speaking of course about the sign of the cross.  It’s almost as reflexive to us Catholics as breathing or blinking our eyes.  And it should be! For the sign of the cross is the first prayer most Catholics learn—invoking the three divine persons of the Holy Trinity while marking ourselves with the sign of our salvation—the Holy Cross of Christ.

 

Most of us were taught by our first catechists, our parents, how to sign ourselves. I always love to see parents picking up their little ones, dipping their little fingers in the holy water font and tracing the cross, forming a habit that they will take with them into eternity. We do well to begin each day invoking the trinity with the sign of the cross, signing ourselves before getting out of bed—hopefully, even before checking our iphones.  Most of our formal prayer, as Catholics, begins invoking the trinity with the sign of the cross. We are absolved, we are confirmed, we are anointed, and we will be buried with that sign of the cross. 

 

We invoke the Trinity in moments of danger and difficulty and penitence. Sometimes we even find baseball players making the sign of the cross as they come up to home plate. Whenever I go to restaurants I look around to see if people are making the sign of the cross before they eat.  At funerals and weddings you can often tell who the non-Catholics are by who makes the sign of the cross or not.  And this makes sense because the sign of the cross signifies an IDENTITY!  You know if someone is Catholic if they begin their prayer “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”.

 

The sign of the cross professes the two most important doctrines of our Faith.

 

The first doctrine is of course the Doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity, which we celebrate in a special way this Trinity Sunday. God is a Trinity of Divine Persons—the Divine Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are consubstantial, coeternal, coequal, distinct, yet united.

 

The catechism says, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life.  It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith’.”

 

This doctrine, our belief that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because he has revealed Himself to be so, is the line of demarcation. To deny it is to be outside the Christian fold. It’s what separates us from the Jews and Muslims and the rest of the religions of the world.

 

The second doctrine expressed in the sign of the cross flows from the first: by the cross we are saved.  Every time we sign ourselves with the cross, we confess our faith that by the cross, the incarnate Son, the second person of the Trinity, won for us eternal life.

 

Trinity and Cross. It’s no accident that these two ideas converge in the Church’s most fundamental prayer, the sign of the cross: for the cross is an image in time of the Trinity’s eternal love. The love poured out on the cross is the most powerful sign of the love of God in himself and his love for us. The Son is so full of love for us and the Father that he is willing to embrace unfathomable suffering and death for us.

 

So when we make the sign of the cross, we call to mind the love that conquers all sin—the love of God that is more powerful that evil and death, the love which is the cause of our salvation.

 

When we stand before the judgment seat of Almighty God, our passports won’t help us, any academic degrees aren’t going to any good, any stock portfolios, our check book, driver’s license, our proof of American citizenship or lack thereof aren’t going to do us a bit of good. 

 

What IS of vital importance in this life unto eternity is our Faith—claiming the mercy of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the cross of Christ.

 

Just as we make the sign of the Cross each time we pray, in order to direct our prayer to the one true God, may this Trinity Sunday, help direct our lives. The true God is not a creature of our own making, a product of our imaginations. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we bow our lives to his majesty, we surrender our wills to His Divine Will, to his commandments, and plead his mercy.

 

Everything we do is meant to be directed to the Holy Trinity, done to honor the Holy Trinity, out of love for the Holy Trinity.

 

So, we should invoke the Trinity many times every day: when we wake, when we take our breakfast, when we get in a vehicle, when we start our work, our chores, and our studies, when we exercise, when we are meeting friends, especially if we have a tendency to gossip. We should invoke the Trinity with the sign of the cross when we hear an ambulance, when we hear someone blaspheme. Parents before disciplining your children, take a breath, make the sign of the cross, invoke the Trinity who is the font of love, for all disobedient children.

 

When you enter a hospital, a nursing home, a funeral home, or the home of someone who is suffering, invoke the Trinity. When you receive good news, invoke the Trinity in thanksgiving. When you receive bad news, invoke the Trinity for strength. When passing or entering a cemetery, pray for the dead in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

 

The point is this: the Christian life is not meant to be lived only with the occasional remembrance of the Trinity and the power of the cross. No, we have been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is not meant to be a distant doctrine, but the very atmosphere of our life

 

 

May our faith, hope, and love of the Triune God keep us from all sin, protect us from all evil, be the source for us of mercy, and may all of our actions, all of our choices, all our decisions, all of our sacrifices be done for the glory of the Triune God and salvation of souls. 

 

Begin each day, end each day, and every endeavor worth doing, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” 

Easter Octave Monday 2024 - This is the day that the Lord has made.

Throughout the octave of easter, we hear an echoed refrain from Psalm 118: “This is the day the LORD has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.” Psalm 118 was the responsorial psalm on easter Sunday, and we hear it echoed each day of the octave in the Gospel acclamation. We also find it in the responsory at morning prayer, for those who pray the liturgy of the hours.

“This is the day the LORD has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.” I remember singing this attending Easter Masses as a young boy, and it still fills me with joy.

These words capture the very essence of what we celebrate during this sacred time. Easter Sunday marked the culmination of God's plan of salvation, the day when Christ triumphed over sin and death, and opened for us the gates of eternal life. It was, indeed, the day the Lord had made, the day that changed the course of human history forever.

But the joy of Easter is not confined to a single day. The Church, in her wisdom, gives us an entire Octave to contemplate and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. Eight days of uninterrupted rejoicing, eight days to allow the reality of Christ's victory to sink into our hearts and transform our lives.

And so, each day of this Octave, we repeat this refrain, reminding ourselves that every day is a gift from God, a chance to participate in the new life that Christ has won for us. Every day, we are called to live as Easter people, to allow the light of the resurrection to dispel the darkness of our world.

Throughout this week, as we hear the accounts of the risen Christ appearing to his disciples, as we witness the transformation of doubt into faith, fear into courage, and sorrow into joy, we are reminded that the power of the resurrection is not meant to be a distant memory but a present reality. “This” is the day the Lord has made. Not just easter Sunday, but today. Because the newness of life begun at easter continues to unfold in our lives when we act as people of faith—when we allow our easter faith to animate our lives.

Each day, as we face our own challenges, struggles, and doubts, we are called to remember that Christ has overcome the world and that, in Him, we too can be victorious—when we allow our Christian identity—our union with the risen Christ to transform, animate, and guide.

So let us make this refrain our own, not just during this Easter Octave but every day of our lives. Let us wake up each morning with the conviction that "this is the day the LORD has made" and resolve to "be glad and rejoice in it." Let us allow the joy of the resurrection to permeate our thoughts, words, and actions, and let us share that joy with all those we encounter. Alleluia! He is Risen! For the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn to earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For the shepherds of our souls, that they may have the strength to govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ. 

For our own community, that it may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received. 

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

16th Week of Ordinary Time 2022 - Tuesday - "My brother, and sister, and mother"

 

During the course of his ministry, the Gospels relate how the Lord Jesus met some resistance from his family members. John’s Gospel tells us how the Lord’s close relatives, his brethren, did not believe in him, even after stories of his miracles began to circulate. 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that in the course of his public mission, the Lord’s relatives send word for him, presumably for him to return home. And when he doesn’t, they venture out to retrieve him, likely thinking he was mentally unsound. He seemed to them to be busily engaged in throwing his life away in a kind of insanity.

Like their Lord, It has often been the case that, when men and women embarked on the way of Christ, their nearest and dearest could not understand them, and were even hostile to them. The Lord even taught that his followers should expect such resistance: a household will be divided he said, “father against son and son against father, mother against daughter.” When he said, “you will be hated by all because of me” that certainly included the possibility of one’s family.

Now thanks be to God when the members of our biological family are also Christians, and understand us, they understand that God is put first. Not family, not country, not the material things of the world, but God. Thanks be to God when our families are places where the Gospel is cherished and practiced. But that’s not always the case.

And, to be Christian is to put God before all others allegiances: “Whoever loves father or mother or son or daughter more than me” is not worthy of me. Even family, that most precious relationship, is to be secondary to fulfilling one’s duties as a Christian.

One early martyr purportedly said, “A Christian’s only relatives are the saints.”

“For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Those who do the will of the heavenly Father, in imitation and in union with the Lord Jesus, become members of a new family, a family which transcends space and time and biology and nationality. “A mother may forsake her child” scripture says, but the members of this new family are never forsaken by God. Not even death will sever them from the life and love of God, in fact, death becomes for Christians, a new beginning of intimacy and joy that eye has not seen nor ear has heard in this earthly life.

Today, may we live out that first allegiance to God, by seeking and doing the Father’s will in all things, shown to us and manifested so perfectly in the life of the Son for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the families of our parish may cherish and practice the Gospel in all dimensions of their lives—practicing the forgiveness, generosity, patience, and faithfulness of Christ.

That our young people on summer vacation may be kept safe from the poisonous errors of our culture, and for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering. 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. 

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

31st Week of Ordinary Time - Wednesday - Discipleship: Everything to lose, everything to gain

Three times in the Gospel this morning Jesus lays down the conditions for discipleship.  Strikingly, Jesus says that we must hate our fathers and mothers, spouses and children, and hate even our very lives, that we must carry the cross, and that we must renounce all our possessions.

First, the one who will be a disciple of Jesus must “hate” father, mother, spouse, and children. The word ‘hate’ seems at odds with the Lord’s teaching elsewhere to love one another, not to mention the third commandment, to honor one’s father and mother. Without a doubt, the Lord uses hyperbole here, common for Jewish rabbis, to emphasize the radical commitment of discipleship. To be a disciple of Jesus, He must come first—before family, nation, ethnicity, race, politics, or any other earthly relationship. Christian Discipleship come first, before all else, or it’s not really Christian discipleship.

The second condition is that the Christian disciple must “carry his cross”.  Discipleship entails hardships: of proclaiming unwelcomed truths, of real personal sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom.  Following the Lord will often entail suffering, persecution for his sake, mockery from the world. Many people claim that anything worth doing is worth suffering for, but many are unwilling to suffer in order to follow Jesus’ teachings and the teachings of the Church. But discipleship requires the cross—change, effort, cost no matter how great that cost might be.

The third condition for discipleship is the renunciation of all possessions. This does not mean that we must become socialist and renounce private possessions, BUT, it does mean that everything we have is first at the disposal of God. In a sense, my possessions are not my own. They belong to God, and has put me in charge of using  my possessions at His discretion

Discipleship sounds costly.  And it is.  The cost of discipleship is everything. But through discipleship we gain eternal life and merit glory. If we are counted among his disciples on earth, we will be counted among the Blessed in heaven. Rejecting discipleship we have everything to lose, but embracing discipleship we have everything to gain.

The Saints who we celebrate this week show us why discipleship is so important. Through discipleship we cultivate love. And the degree of love we cultivate here on earth, corresponds to the degree of glory the disciple will experience in eternity, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For an increase in faith, hope, and love among all of Jesus’ disciples, and that following the Lord’s teaching, we may take up the missionary call to make disciples of all nations.

That all newly elected officials may head the Lord’s teachings in their civic duties, personal and private lives, and labor always for the good of all.

That we may be ever more attentive to the needs of the sick, the poor, the despairing in our midst: for their comfort, relief, strength, health, and peace.

We pray in a special way during this month of November for all the faithful departed, for all the souls in purgatory, for our parishioners and benefactors who died this last year, for those who fought and died for our freedom and for X. for whom this mass is offered.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

All Saints 2020 - Who we are, where we're going, how to get there

At the tail end of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI promulgated a document called Gaudium et Spes, the pastoral constitution on the Church in the Modern World. It’s purpose was to help the Church understand her position and role and mission in the changing modern world with all of its advancements and strengths and foolishness and errors. For it’s important for the Church to reflect upon the “signs of the times”—a phrase which came from this document—to understand better the concrete details in which we are to live out our Christian mission and identity.

While explaining the need for Christians to bring our faith and live our faith in the many different levels of society in which we find ourselves, Gaudium et Spes is also very realistic in speaking about monumental struggle against the powers of evil and darkness.  History is not just the story of human progress, right? We are opposed by satan, the father of lies, who seeks to corrupt souls and bring ruin to nations and families and the Church. 

Last week, when we celebrated Priesthood Sunday, I asked for and thanked you for your prayers for priests—because there is a real battle involved in working for the good of souls. And if the devil can bring ruin to priests, well, that’s going to have an impact on parishes and families, isn’t it? 

But it’s not just priests, Vatican II says, all Christians are involved in this struggle, this battle. Facing such hostility and wickedness and personal demons, we recognize we need God. We need the Sacraments. We need prayer. We need the guidance of good solid Catholic teaching from our Pope and Bishops. If we are going to survive the battle with our souls intact, we need to make sure that we are drawing as much strength and protection and light from our faith as possible. 

And, this weekend, on this solemn feast, we look to the holy souls, the saints, the men and women and children, from every age, and place, and profession, who “survived the time of great distress," as St John calls this life on earth in our First Reading. The survivors, the spiritual war heroes, those who are glorified by God in eternity because of their Christian faith, hope, and love.

Contemplating these brothers and sisters in Christ encourages us: for if they can do it, so can we. I propose three short lessons on how the saints can be our teachers and guides. 

The first lesson is that the saints live with the destination in mind—they know what is at stake—that there is more to life than this earthly life. In the first reading, we get a glimpse of those saintly victors standing, robed in white in the heavenly throne room. In the presence of God stand this great multitude—people of every nation, race, and tongue, who have put on the wedding garment of Christ, who have been baptized, and have kept their faith amidst all the temptations and persecutions in this life—again, knowing what was at stake: in the end they would stand victorious in the heavenly throne room, or be banished from it for all eternity.

Why do we resist those terrible onslaughts of temptation? Why do we pray to remain faithful in the midst of persecution? Because heaven is at stake. Not only does sin diminish us—weaking our will and clouding our mind—it puts our souls at risk of hell. 

This first lesson is so important—because if we aren’t living with the destination in mind, we are likely to veer off the path—perhaps even forget there is path. There are many souls living this way--as if this earthly life was all that is—eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we shall die, and that’s it. And their souls are in danger. Because if you don’t live as if heaven exists in this life—why would anything be different in eternity?

So the saints remind us to live with the destination always on our minds. 

Secondly, it’s not enough to know the destination—you have to know where you are starting from—where you are, right now, spiritually, and who you are. If you can’t pinpoint yourself on the map—how do you know the direction in which you are to walk? 

And this is the second lesson: the saints understand who they are: they understand that they are human beings, with fallen natures due to sin in need of salvation. They know they need Christ. They know they need the Sacraments. They know they need prayer. 

And, they know that through baptism they have become Children of God. We read in our second reading: "See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are." Children of God. Members of God's family. God’s love for us is so profound—we are gathered into his family through the blood of Christ. And the saints are animated by this profound self-knowledge. In whatever hostilities we face, whatever temptations: we do so as Children of God. 

The saints know that they were made for love, by the one who is love. Love animates us, love guides us, love fills us, love protects us. The saints recognize because they are loved they need to become love--loving God and neighbor in the concrete details of their life. 

And that’s the third Lesson. it is not enough just to know who we are and where we are supposed to be going, but we also need to know how to get there. In order to cross a lake, you need a boat. In order to cross a mountain, you need mountain gear. In order to get to heaven, the home of the saints, you need to practice saintliness, blessedness.

This is what today's Gospel passage reminds us of: the Beatitudes are the practices and attitudes that you and I must cultivate if we wish to join the saints. 

We must practice poverty of spirit—recognizing our fundamental need for God in all things. We must mourn for our sins—those lost opportunities to live for God. We must be meek—treating each other with gentleness. We must hunger and thirst for righteousness—seeking to justly give God what belongs to God and to treat our neighbor and the poor with the respect and fairness due to every living human person. We must not just be just but merciful—going beyond what is merely fair and just—but practicing true mercy to become a blessing for others. We must be clean of heart—turning away from anything impure, corrupt, perverted, vile, or selfish, in order to seek God through prayer and worship and divine contemplation. And we must keep the faith amidst persecution—in fact, if we are not living our faith in such away that the world hates us, we might not be really living the faith.

Live with the destination in mind, live with the humble knowledge that you are a sinner, reborn in baptism as a child of God, now called to strive to live the beatitudes in this life, that we may join the ranks of the blessed in eternity.

May the saints help us and preserve us for this our destiny, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

19th Week in OT 2019 - Monday - Sons of the King

Prior to ascending the Mount of Transfiguration, Our Lord announced to the apostles his forthcoming Passion. We know how the apostles reacted; Peter, especially was aghast, and tried to talk the Lord out of it. To which the Lord responded, “get behind me Satan, You aren’t thinking like God but like men.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus has come down from the mount of transfiguration, and returning to Galilee, he makes his second Passion prediction. And again, his disciples are overwhelmed with grief. The truth has sunk in, a little deeper. He’s going to the cross. Peter doesn’t try to talk Jesus out of it this time; after all, he’s witnessed the Lord speaking about his Passion with Moses and Elijah while in Transfigured Glory.

Our Lord and the twelve then travel back to the base of operations, Capernaum, where the Lord’s public ministry began, and we hear this strange tale about fish and taxes. And perhaps, this incident is meant to lift the apostles spirits a bit. Because in the course of this story, the Lord once again equates himself with a King, and his disciples with his subjects. And really, our translation of the Greek isn’t great here. The Greek word really doesn’t mean subjects, but sons. Disciples of Jesus are not just members of the kingdom who live outside the king’s own house, they are sons of the king, members of the royal family, who eat at the king’s table, who receive the special blessings and special intimacy with the king. We have the king’s ear, always. We participate in the life of the King and the work of the King.

This important for the Christian to remember when we face our own crosses, when we are overwhelmed with grief and exhaustion. Just as a king showers blessings on his children, Jesus blesses us as members of his family.

St. Leo the Great said, “Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.”

It is important for us to recollect many times a day, our Christian identity and our Christian mission. That amidst the trials and crosses, we are Christians, we members of the royal family, and we have mission for which we are blessed with abundant graces, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all members of the Body of Christ may preserve and live-up to their Christian identity always and everywhere.

For the Holy Father’s prayer intention for the month of August that that families, through their life of prayer and love, become ever more clearly "schools of true human growth."

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests, deacons and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

June 16, 2019 - Trinity Sunday - In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

We do that so naturally, so instinctively, don’t we?  I’m speaking of course about the sign of the cross.  It’s almost as reflexive to us Catholics as breathing or blinking our eyes.  And it should be! For the sign of the cross is the first prayer most Catholics learn—invoking the three divine persons of the Holy Trinity while marking ourselves with the sign of our salvation—the Holy Cross of Christ.

Most of us were taught by our first catechists, our parents, how to sign ourselves. I always love to see parents picking up their little ones, dipping their little fingers in the holy water font and tracing the cross, forming a habit that they will take with them into eternity. We do well to begin each day invoking the trinity with the sign of the cross, signing ourselves before getting out of bed—hopefully, even before checking our iphones.  Most of our formal prayer, as Catholics, begins invoking the trinity with the sign of the cross. We are absolved, we are confirmed, we are anointed, and we will be buried with that sign of the cross. 

We invoke the Trinity in moments of danger and difficulty and penitence. Sometimes we even find baseball players making the sign of the cross as they come up to home plate. Whenever I go to restaurants I look around to see if people are making the sign of the cross before they eat.  At funerals and weddings you can often tell who the non-Catholics are by who makes the sign of the cross or not.  And this makes sense because the sign of the cross signifies an IDENTITY!  You know if someone is Catholic if they begin their prayer “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”.

The sign of the cross professes the two most important doctrines of our Faith.

The first doctrine is of course the Doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity, which we celebrate in a special way this Trinity Sunday. God is a Trinity of Divine Persons—the Divine Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are consubstantial, coeternal, coequal, distinct, yet united.

The catechism says, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life.  It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith’. The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men “and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin.”

I had a class in seminary one semester simply called “Trinity” in which we studied the theological history of the Church’s understanding of this great mystery. It was one of the most difficult classes in seminary—as we attempted to grasp infinite mystery revealed in the primary Christian doctrine.

The second doctrine expressed in the sign of the cross flows from the first: by the cross we are saved.  Every time we sign ourselves with the cross, we confess our faith that by the cross, the incarnate Son, the second person of the Trinity, won for us eternal life.

Trinity and Cross. It’s no accident that these two themes converge in the Church’s most fundamental prayer, the sign of the cross: for the cross is an image in time of the Trinity’s life and love in eternity. The love poured out on the cross is the most powerful sign of the love of God in himself and his love for us. So when we make the sign of the cross, we call to mind the love that conquers all sin and death and evil, the love which is the cause of our salvation.

St. Francis Xavier, perhaps the greatest missionary in Church history after St. Paul, baptized thousands of people. As a missionary in the far east, he wrote about the difficulty he had in catechizing all these people—preparing them for baptism. Thousands of people would be in the villages, clamoring for baptism, yearning for membership in the Church.  Francis Xavier wrote that he considered it enough if he could properly teach them that in making that sign of the cross they were professing their faith in the one true God—God the Father who creates us and loves us, God the Son who took flesh and died for our salvation, and God the Holy Spirit who strengthens us with his gifts—if he could teach them that, and that Jesus, God the Son offered them salvation through the cross that he would trace over them—he felt that that was enough for baptism.

When we stand before the judgment seat of Almighty God, our passports won’t help us, any academic degrees aren’t going to do much good, any stock portfolios, our check book, our driver’s license, our proof of American citizenship or lack thereof aren’t going to do us a bit of good.  But by the sign of the cross, we are claimed for Christ, we are identified as those children of God redeemed by the Cross of Christ, members of God’s Holy Church, who profess, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be our Loving and Almighty God.

Just as we make the sign of the Cross each time we pray, in order to direct our prayer to the one true God, may this Trinity Sunday, help direct our lives. The true God is not a creature of our own making, a product of our imaginations. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we bow our lives to his majesty, we surrender our wills to His Divine Will, his commandments, and plead his mercy.

Everything we do is meant to be directed to the Holy Trinity, done to honor the Holy Trinity, out of love for the Holy Trinity. May we invoke the Trinity many times every day, that God’s very being, His Life, may infuse us, change us, propel and animate us, that our choices may lead us to his presence, that he may possess us, in the words of our first reading, and that we may possess the mind and heart of Our Lord and Redeemer.

May our faith in the Triune God keep us from all sin, protect us from all evil, and may all of our actions, all of our choices, all our decisions, all of our sacrifices be done for the glory of the Triune God and salvation of souls. 

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”