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     The feast of the Most Holy Trinity brings us face to face with God.  St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that we really cannot know God the way we know other things.  In fact, we really can only know what God is NOT.  The nature of God as Three in One and One in Three is a matter of faith.  St. Thomas describes this as a series of love relationships - what are called the "processions" of the Trinity.  All of this and more can cause us to just shake our head and move on to more understandable truths.  Yet we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  When we go into a Catholic church we first go the holy water font and bless ourselves with the water and make the sign of the cross: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  When we pray as a Catholic group or at Mass, we begin with those words.  To understand their meaning may be difficult, but they are very much a part of our Catholic heritage.

     St. Augustine is quoted as saying of the truth of the Trinity that "it is not a lie but a mystery."  Perhaps we can best relate to this truth simply through its familiarity.  How God is trinity is beyond us.  That God is triune and still one is something we express over and over again.  We celebrate today the truth about God and recognize that this truth means the greatest of all love.  Perhaps this is why our traditional prayer to the Trinity is second nature to us:  Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.  As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.   We are engulfed in this love and experience in all the persons of God, but almost as a fish is engulfed in the sea.  We can only praise this God and be grateful for this tremendous love.   AMEN