Why Catholics Celebrate The Feast of The Holy Trinity

The feast of the Most Holy Trinity is celebrated a week after Pentecost Sunday in honour of the most fundamental of Christian beliefs — “The Holy Trinity”

The Most Holy Trinity – God Is three Persons, In One Nature.

The three Persons of God; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all equally God and cannot be divided. The Holy Trinity is a mystery. By mystery the church does not mean a riddle, but rather the Holy Trinity is a reality, far above our human understanding.

We can never fully understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The common wisdom is that if you talk about the Holy Trinity for longer than a few minutes you may slip into heresies because you may be probing God too deeply.

In the Old Testament, the Most Holy Trinity – the Three Divine Persons, whose indescribable relations are eternal are mentioned. The only controversy is that the mysterious passages which spoke of the Holy Trinity were not fully comprehended by the Jews.

In Genesis 1:26, God spoke in the plural: “Let Us make man in Our image and likeness“. the Jews bow down and believe this, but they couldn’t understand the sacred text. Catholics, on the contrary, who are enlightened by the complete revelation of God, sees under this manifestation – the Three Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, acting together in the creation of Adam in the garden of Eden.

In the Old Testament, prophet Isaiah heard the voice of the Seraphim, as they stood around God’s throne; and singing: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord!“- (Isaiah 6:3). But who will explain to men this triple Sanctus; (Holy, Holy, Holy), it was a clear evidence of the holy trinity.

The world had to wait for the fullness of time to be completed; and then, God would send into this world His only Son, begotten of Him in infinity. This His most merciful motive has been carried out; John 1: 14 “Word made Flesh hath dwelt among us“. By seeing His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, we have come to know that in God, there is Father and Son.

The Son, Who had been sent by the Father, ascended into Heaven, with the human Nature which he finally united himself for all future eternity. The Father and the Son send into this world the Spirit Who proceeds from Them both. It was a new Gift, and it taught man that the Lord God was in Three Persons.

John 14:26
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My [Jesus’] name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

John 15:26
“When the Helper comes, whom I [Jesus] will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me . . .” These verses from the Bible made concrete justification of the Trinity.

On the day of Pentecost the Apostles received, the grace of the Holy Ghost, and they started teaching all nations, and baptizing them in the Name of the Holy Trinity.

Every homage paid to God by the Church’s Liturgy has the Holy Trinity as its object. Time, as well as eternity, relates to the Trinity. Every day, every hour, belongs to the Most Holy Trinity.
The feasts instituted in memory of the mysteries of our Redemption center in the Most Holy Trinity. The feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints are leading us to the praise of God, Who is One in essence, and Three in Persons.

Hence it was right, that the solemnity which is aspired to honor the mystery of One God in Three Divine Persons should immediately follow that of Pentecost, which has a mysterious connection. It was not until after many centuries that it was inserted in the cycle of the Liturgical Year, whose completion is the work of successive ages.

In the eighth century, the trained monk Alcuin formulated a Mass in honor of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. He was prompted to this by the apostle of Northern Germany, Saint Boniface. This Mass was later authorized for the entirety of Germany by the Council of Seligenstadt, held in 1022 A.D.

The celebration of the Most Holy Trinity was first introduced in Belgium when Stephen, Bishop of Liege, solemnly instituted the Feast of the Holy Trinity for his diocese in 920, and had an entire Office composed in honour of the mystery. Riquier, Stephen’s successor in the See of Liege, kept up what his predecessor had begun hence, the feast was gradually adopted for Belgium.

It was taken up by the Benedictine Order for the very first. Berno, the Abbot of Reichenau, was doing all he could to procreate it. At Cluny, also, the feast was established at the commencement of the same century, as we learn from the Ordinarium of that celebrated monastery, drawn up in 1091, in which we find mention of Holy Trinity Day as having been instituted long before.

It was evident from all this, that the Holy See would finally give its sanction for the celebration of this feast for the whole world. Holy Mother Church, led as She is in all things by the Holy Spirit fixed one special day in the year for the offering of a solemn homage to the Blessed Trinity. In the year 1934, Pope John XXII, accomplished the work by a decree and augmented its observance to the whole world.

Further Studies On Holy Trinity From The Bible

The following Bible verses give you an overview of what the Bible is, what it represents and what it’s all about.

It will give you vast knowledge to have a thoughtful conversation about the Bible with someone who still doubt the faith behind the Trinity and help to educate him well.

Matthew 3:16 – “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him.”

Matthew 12:28 – “But if I [Jesus] cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

Matthew 28:19 – “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit . . .”

Luke 3:22 – “And the Holy Spirit descended upon Him [Jesus] in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My [the Father’s] beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

John 14:26 – “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My [Jesus’] name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

John 15:26 – “When the Helper comes, whom I [Jesus] will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me . . .”

Acts 1:4 – “Gathering them together, He [Jesus] commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me . . .”

Acts 2:33 – “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He [Jesus] has poured forth this which you both see and hear.”

Acts 10:38 – “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Romans 1:4 – “Who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord . . .”

Romans 8:9 – “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

1 Corinthians 6:11 – Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

2 Corinthians 13:14 – The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

Galatians 4:6 – Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Ephesians 1:17 – That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Ephesians 2:18 – For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 2:22 – In whom [Jesus] you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Titus 3:6 – Whom [the Holy Spirit] He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Hebrews 9:14 – How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

1 Peter 1:2 – According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: may grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.