"All (the Persons) are one nature, one
essence, one will, and are called the Holy Trinity; and these also are haines subsistent,
one nature in three persons, and one genus. - St. Gregory Thaumaturgus ("On The
Trinity" 3rd century A.D.)
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth." - Genesis 1:26
"And the Lord appeared unto him (Abraham) in the plains of Mamre:
and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked,
and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent
door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour
in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray
you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: And I will fetch
a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore
are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said." - Genesis
18:1-5
"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." - 1 John 5:7
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." - Matthew 28:19
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and
without him was not any thing made that was made." - John 1:1-3
"I and my Father are one." - John 10:30
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past
unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom
he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the
brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by
the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he
at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a
Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into
the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he
saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son
he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the
sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God,
even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou,
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the
works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as
doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but
thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels said he at any
time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation?" - Hebrews 1:1-14
What the Catechism of the Catholic Church says on
"The Trinity:"
232. "Christians are
baptized 'in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' [Mt 28:19.]
Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a three-part question when asked to
confess the Father, the Son and the Spirit: 'I do.' 'The faith of all Christians rests on
the Trinity.' [St. Caesarius of Arles, Sermo 9, Exp. symb.: CCL 103, 47.]"
233. "Christians are
baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not in their
names, [Cf. Profession of faith of Pope Vigilius I (552): DS 415.] for there is only one
God, the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity."
234. "The mystery of
the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of 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'. [GCD 43.] 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'. [GCD 47.]"
235. "This paragraph
expounds briefly (I) how the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was revealed, (II) how the
Church has articulated the doctrine of the faith regarding this mystery, and (III) how, by
the divine missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfils the 'plan of
his loving goodness' of creation, redemption and sanctification."
236. "The Fathers of
the Church distinguish between theology (theologia) and economy (oikonomia). 'Theology'
refers to the mystery of God's inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and 'economy' to all
the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life. Through the oikonomia
the theologia is revealed to us; but conversely, the theologia illuminates the whole
oikonomia. God's works reveal who he is in himself; the mystery of his inmost being
enlightens our understanding of all his works. So it is, analogously, among human persons.
A person discloses himself in his actions, and the better we know a person, the better we
understand his actions."
237. "The Trinity is
a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the 'mysteries that are hidden in God,
which can never be known unless they are revealed by God'. [Dei Filius 4: DS 3015.] To be
sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his
Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery
that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of
God's Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit."
238. "Many religions
invoke God as 'Father'. The deity is often considered the 'father of gods and of men'. In
Israel, God is called 'Father' inasmuch as he is Creator of the world. [Cf. Dt 32:6; Mal
2:10.] Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel,
'his first-born son'. [Ex 4:22.] God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most
especially he is 'the Father of the poor', of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under
his loving protection. [Cf. 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 68:6.]"
239. "By calling God
'Father', the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of
everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving
care for all his children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of
motherhood, [Cf. Is 66:13; Ps 131:2.] which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy
between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of
parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience
also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and
motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between
the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and
motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: [Cf. Ps 27:10; Eph 3:14; Is 49:15.]
no one is father as God is Father."
240. "Jesus revealed
that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is
eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in
relation to his Father: 'No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the
Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.' [Mt
11-27.]"
241. "For this reason
the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God'; as 'the image of the invisible God'; as the 'radiance
of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature'. [Jn 1:1; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3.]"
242. "Following this
apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325)
that the Son is 'consubstantial' with the Father, that is, one only God with him. [The
English phrases 'of one being' and 'one in being' translate the Greek word homoousios,
which was rendered in Latin by consubstantialis.] The second ecumenical council, held at
Constantinople in 381, kept this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and
confessed 'the only- begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from
light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father'.
[Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed; cf. DS 150.]"
243. "Before his
Passover, Jesus announced the sending of 'another Paraclete' (Advocate), the Holy Spirit.
At work since creation, having previously 'spoken through the prophets', the Spirit will
now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them 'into all the truth'. [Cf.
Gen 1:2; Nicene Creed (DS 150); Jn 14:17, 26; Jn 16:13.] The Holy Spirit is thus revealed
as another divine person with Jesus and the Father."
244. "The eternal
origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in time. The Spirit is sent to the
apostles and to the Church both by the Father in the name of the Son, and by the Son in
person, once he had returned to the Father. [Cf. Jn 14:26; Jn 15:26; Jn 16:14.] The
sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus' glorification [Cf. Jn 7:39.] reveals in
its fullness the mystery of the Holy Trinity."
245. "The apostolic
faith concerning the Spirit was confessed by the second ecumenical council at
Constantinople (381): 'We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who
proceeds from the Father.' [Nicene Creed; cf. DS 150.] By this confession, the Church
recognizes the Father as 'the source and origin of the whole divinity'. [Council of Toledo
VI (638): DS 490.] But the eternal origin of the Spirit is not unconnected with the Son's
origin: 'The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is God, one and equal with the
Father and the Son, of the same substance and also of the same nature. . . Yet he is not
called the Spirit of the Father alone,. . . but the Spirit of both the Father and the
Son.' [Council of Toledo XI (675): DS 527.] The Creed of the Church from the Council of
Constantinople confesses: 'With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.'
[Nicene Creed; cf. DS 150.]"
246. "The Latin
tradition of the Creed confesses that the Spirit 'proceeds from the Father and the Son
(filioque)'. The Council of Florence in 1438 explains: 'The Holy Spirit is eternally from
Father and Son; He has his nature and subsistence at once (simul) from the Father and the
Son. He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one spiration...
And, since the Father has through generation given to the only-begotten Son everything
that belongs to the Father, except being Father, the Son has also eternally from the
Father, from whom he is eternally born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son.'
[Council of Florence (1439): DS 1300-1301.]"
247. "The affirmation
of the filioque does not appear in the Creed confessed in 381 at Constantinople. But Pope
St. Leo I, following an ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition, had already confessed it
dogmatically in 447, [Cf. Leo I, Quam laudabiliter (447): DS 284.] even before Rome, in
451 at the Council of Chalcedon, came to recognize and receive the Symbol of 381. The use
of this formula in the Creed was gradually admitted into the Latin liturgy (between the
eighth and eleventh centuries). The introduction of the filioque into the
Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed by the Latin liturgy constitutes moreover, even today, a
point of disagreement with the Orthodox Churches."
248. "At the outset
the Eastern tradition expresses the Father's character as first origin of the Spirit. By
confessing the Spirit as he 'who proceeds from the Father', it affirms that he comes from
the Father through the Son. [Jn 15:26; cf. AG 2.] The Western tradition expresses first
the consubstantial communion between Father and Son, by saying that the Spirit proceeds
from the Father and the Son (filioque). It says this, 'legitimately and with good reason',
[Council of Florence (1439): DS 1302.] for the eternal order of the divine persons in
their consubstantial communion implies that the Father, as 'the principle without
principle', [Council of Florence (1442): DS 1331.] is the first origin of the Spirit, but
also that as Father of the only Son, he is, with the Son, the single principle from which
the Holy Spirit proceeds. [Cf. Council of Lyons II (1274): DS 850.] This legitimate
complementarity, provided it does not become rigid, does not affect the identity of faith
in the reality of the same mystery confessed."
249. "From the
beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the very root of the
Church's living faith, principally by means of Baptism. It finds its expression in the
rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching, catechesis and prayer of the Church.
Such formulations are already found in the apostolic writings, such as this salutation
taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy: 'The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of
God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.' [2 Cor 13:14; cf. 1 Cor
12:4-6; Eph 4:4-6.]"
250. "During the
first centuries the Church sought to clarify her Trinitarian faith, both to deepen her own
understanding of the faith and to defend it against the errors that were deforming it.
This clarification was the work of the early councils, aided by the theological work of
the Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian people's sense of the faith."
251. "In order to
articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the Church had to develop her own terminology with
the help of certain notions of philosophical origin: 'substance', 'person' or
'hypostasis', 'relation' and so on. In doing this, she did not submit the faith to human
wisdom, but gave a new and unprecedented meaning to these terms, which from then on would
be used to signify an ineffable mystery, 'infinitely beyond all that we can humanly
understand'. [Paul VI, CPC # 2.]"
252. "The Church uses
(I) the term 'substance' (rendered also at times by 'essence' or 'nature') to designate
the divine being in its unity, (II) the term 'person' or 'hypostasis' to designate the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them, and (III) the term
'relation' to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each
to the others."
253. "The Trinity is
One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the 'consubstantial
Trinity'. [Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 421.] The divine persons do not share
the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: 'The Father is
that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which
the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God.' [Council of Toledo XI (675): DS 530:26.] In
the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), 'Each of the persons is that supreme
reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature.' [Lateran Council IV (1215): DS
804.]"
254. "The divine
persons are really distinct from one another. 'God is one but not solitary.' [Fides
Damasi: DS 71.] 'Father', 'Son', 'Holy Spirit' are not simply names designating modalities
of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: 'He is not the Father
who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the
Father or the Son.' [Council of Toledo XI (675): DS 530:25.] They are distinct from
one another in their relations of origin: 'It is the Father who generates, the Son who is
begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds.' [Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 804.] The
divine Unity is Triune."
255. "The divine
persons are relative to one another. Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real
distinction of the persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which
relate them to one another: 'In the relational names of the persons the Father is related
to the Son, the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While they are called
three persons in view of their relations, we believe in one nature or substance.' [Council
of Toledo XI (675): DS 528.] Indeed 'everything (in them) is one where there is no
opposition of relationship.' [Council of Florence (1442): DS 1330.] 'Because of that unity
the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the
Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly
in the Son.' [Council of Florence (1442): DS 1331.]"
256. "St. Gregory of
Nazianzus, also called 'the Theologian', entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the
catechumens of Constantinople: Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for
which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me
bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge
you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of
your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and
containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or nature,
without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts down. . . the
infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely
God. . . the three considered together. . . I have not even begun to think of unity when
the Trinity bathes me in its splendour. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when
unity grasps me. . [St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 40, 41: PG 36, 417.]"
257. "'O blessed
light, O Trinity and first Unity!' [LH, Hymn for Evening Prayer.] God is eternal
blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God
freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the 'plan of his loving
kindness', conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son:
'He destined us in love to be his sons' and 'to be conformed to the image of his Son',
through 'the spirit of sonship'. [Eph 1:4-5, 9; Rom 8:15, 29.] This plan is a 'grace
(which) was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began', stemming immediately from
Trinitarian love.[2 Tim 1:9-10.] It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of
salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued
in the mission of the Church. [Cf. AG 2-9.]"
258. "The whole
divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only
one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation: 'The Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle.'
[Council of Florence (1442): DS 1331; cf. Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 421.]
However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal
property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, 'one God and Father from
whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy
Spirit in whom all things are'. [Council of Constantinople II: DS 421.] It is above all
the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show
forth the properties of the divine persons."
259. "Being a work at
once common and personal, the whole divine economy makes known both what is proper to the
divine persons, and their one divine nature. Hence the whole Christian life is a communion
with each of the divine persons, without in any way separating them. Everyone who
glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows
Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him. [Cf. Jn 6:44; Rom
8:14.]"
260. "The ultimate
end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of
the Blessed Trinity. [Cf. Jn 17:21-23.] But even now we are called to be a dwelling for
the Most Holy Trinity: 'If a man loves me', says the Lord, 'he will keep my word, and my
Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him': [Jn 14:23.] O
my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in
you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to
trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me
more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved
dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there,
whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over
to your creative action. [Prayer of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity.]"
"All those Catholic expounders of the
divine Scriptures, both Old and New, whom I have been able to read, who have written
before me concerning the Trinity, Who is God, have purposed to teach, according to the
Scriptures, this doctrine, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit intimate a
divine unity of one and the same substance in an indivisible equality; and therefore that
they are not three Gods, but one God: although the Father hath begotten the Son, and so He
who is the Father is not the Son; and the Son is begotten by the Father, and so He who is
the Son is not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but only
the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, Himself also co-equal with the Father and the
Son, and pertaining to the unity of the Trinity." - St. Augustine of Hippo
("On The Trinity" 4th century A.D.)
"AGAINST THE SABELLIANS" by Pope
St. Dionysius (3rd century A.D.)
1. Now truly it would be just to dispute against
those who, by dividing and rending the monarchy, which is the most august announcement of
the Church of God, into, as it were, three powers, and distinct substances (hypostases),
and three deities, destroy it. For I have heard that some who preach and teach the word of
God among you are teachers of this opinion, who indeed diametrically, so to speak, are
opposed to the opinion of Sabellius. For he blasphemes in saying that the Son Himself is
the Father, and vice versa; but these in a certain manner announce three gods, in that
they divide the holy unity into three different substances, absolutely separated from one
another. For it is essential that the Divine Word should be united to the God of all, and
that the Holy Spirit should abide and dwell in God; and thus that the Divine Trinity
should be reduced and gathered into one, as if into a certain head--that is, into the
omnipotent God of all. For the doctrine of the foolish Marcion, which Gilts and divides
the monarchy into three elements, is assuredly of the devil, and is not of Christ's true
disciples, or of those to whom the Saviour's teaching is agreeable. For these indeed
rightly know that the Trinity is declared in the divine Scripture, but that the doctrine
that there are three gods is, neither taught in the Old nor in the New Testament.
2. But neither are they less to be blamed who think that the Son was a creation, and
decided that the Lord was made just as one of those things which really were made; whereas
the divine declarations testify that He was begotten, as is fitting and proper, but not
that He was created or made. It is therefore not a trifling, but a very great impiety, to
say that the Lord was in any wise made with hands. For if the Son was made, there was a
time when He was not; but He always was, if, as He Himself declares, He is undoubtedly in
the Father. And if Christ is the Word, the Wisdom, and the Power,--for the divine writings
tell us that Christ is these, as ye yourselves know,--assuredly these are powers of God.
Wherefore, if the Son was made, there was a time when these were not in existence; and
thus there was a time when God was without these things, which is utterly absurd. But why
should I discourse at greater length to you about these matters, since ye are men filled
with the Spirit, and especially understanding what absurd results follow from the opinion
which asserts that the Son was made? The leaders of this view seem to me to have given
very little heed to these things, and for that reason to have strayed absolutely, by
explaining the passage otherwise than as the divine and prophetic Scripture demands.
"The Lord created me the beginning of His ways." For, as ye know, there is more
than one signification of the word "created;" and in this place
"created" is the same as "set over" the works made by Himself--made, I
say, by the Son Himself. But this "created" is not to be understood in the same
manner as "made." For to make and to create are different from one another.
"Is not He Himself thy Father, that hath possessed thee and created thee?" says
Moses in the great song of Deuteronomy. And thus might any one reasonably convict these
men. Oh reckless and rash men! was then "the first-born of every creature"
something made?--"He who was begotten from the womb before the morning
star?"--He who in the person of Wisdom says, "Before all the hills He begot
me?" Finally, any one may read in many parts of the divine utterances that the Son is
said to have been begotten, but never that He was made. From which considerations, they
who dare to say that His divine and inexplicable generation was a creation, are openly
convicted of thinking that which is false concerning the generation of the Lord.
3. That admirable and divine unity, therefore, must neither be separated into three
divinities, nor must the dignity and eminent greatness of the Lord be diminished by having
applied to it the name of creation, but we must believe on God the Father Omnipotent, and
on Christ Jesus His Son, and on the Holy Spirit. Moreover, that the Word is united to the
God of all, because He says, "I and the Father are one;" and, "I am in the
Father, and the Father is in Me." Thus doubtless will be maintained in its integrity
the doctrine of the divine Trinity, and the sacred announcement of the monarchy.
COMMENTS
I never thought I would have to defend this doctrine.
However, I have corresponded with a couple of "Bible" Christians who do not
believe in this doctrine for the word "trinity" is not mentioned in the Bible. The New Testament
is very plain about the Trinity even if the word itself is not mentioned. And as
quoted above, the Trinity is even alluded to in the Book of Genesis.
Genesis 1:26 above uses the plural "us" and
"our" when referring to God. Why is that word used, if God is NOT
trinitarian?
In Genesis 18:2, three men appear to Abraham yet he
addresses all three as "My Lord" (in the singular). And when "they" reply,
"they" do so as one
in Genesis 18:5.
Basically, 1 John 5:7 states it all: "the
three are one" (triune). The word "trinity" itself comes from
"tri-" meaning "three" and "-nity" from the word
"unity" meaning "one." This is exactly what is stated in 1
John 5:7.
John 1:1 states that the Word (Jesus Christ) was
with God yet it also states the Word was
God. If God is one person (instead of three), then
how can God be "with" Himself and also "be" Himself at the same time?
One of the objections from "unitarians" is that the
phrase "God the Son" does not appear in Scripture. However, in the newer,
more accurate translations of the Bible such as the New American Bible, John 1:18
states: "It is God the only Son
, ever at the Father's side, who has revealed
him." In addition, God the Father uses the title of "God" in Hebrews
1:8 when speaking to the Son.
---
Chris
PRAYER TO THE BLESSED TRINITY
The Father is my hope. The Son is my refuge. The Holy
Spirit is my protector. Glory to the holy and undivided Trinity, now and for ever. Let us
praise the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; let us bless and exalt God above all for
ever! Almighty and everlasting God, to whom we owe the grace of professing the true faith,
grant that while acknowledging the glory of the eternal Trinity and adoring its unity, we
may through Your majestic power be confirmed in this faith and defended against all
adversities; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of
the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
CHURCH BELIEFS & ISSUES
