“It is not easy to find a name that will suitably express so great an excellence, unless it is better to speak in this way: the Trinity, one God, of whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things.
Thus the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and each of these by Himself, is God, and at the same time they are all one God; and each of them by Himself is a complete substance, and yet they are all one substance....
To all three belong the same eternity, the same unchangeableness, the same majesty, the same power. In the Father is unity, in the Son equality, in the Holy Spirit the harmony of unity and equality.
And these three attributes are all one because of the Father, all equal because of the Son, and all harmonious because of the Holy Spirit.”
–Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine, I.V.5.
Hail, co-essential Three,
In mystic Unity!
Father, Son, and Spirit, hail!
God by Heaven and earth adored,
God incomprehensible;
One supreme, almighty Lord,
One supreme, almighty Lord.
Thou sittest on the throne,
Plurality in One;
Saints behold Thine open face,
Bright, insufferably bright;
Angels tremble as they gaze,
Sink into a sea of light,
Sink into a sea of light.
...................................
How wonderful the Three-in-One,
whose energies of dancing light
are undivided, pure and good,
communing love in shared delight.
Before the flow of dawn and dark,
Creation's Lover dreamed of earth,
and with a caring deep and wise,
all things conceived and brought to birth.
The Lover's own Belov'd, in time,
between a cradle and a cross,
at home in flesh, gave love and life
to heal our brokenness and loss.
Their Equal Friend all life sustains
with greening power and loving care,
and calls us, born again by grace,
in Love's communing life to share.
How wonderful the Living God:
Divine Beloved, Empow'ring Friend,
Eternal Lover, Three-in-One,
our hope's beginning, way and end.
...........................................
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
The Love of God
And the Communion of the Holy Spirit
be with us all, Amen.
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