Our Glorious St Patrick
The Trinity
Three persons in one God
When March comes around every year the Irish scattered all over the world are preparing to celebrate the feast of their much-loved and patron saint, St. Patrick, with great zeal and gusto. He has got to be the best loved patron saint of all time!
A timely word of warning would not go amiss to any folk, who on that night, may be invited to an Irish Embassy "do". My advice refers to shamrock, that significant and sentimental symbol of Ireland's emerald banks and braes.
This little three-leaved plant was used by the saint to expound
“The Trinity”
Three persons in one God
Now let me tell you the story of its disappearance in XXX on St. Patrick's night in the ninteen hundreds when Dublin threw a gargantuan banquet to mark the opening of their embassy there. As was the case in XXX, if you attend a "do", you are sure to find a gorgeous Waterford crystal bowl of shamrocks flown in, at no expense, by Ryanair, from the
Island of Saints and Scholars".
As you wait in line to shake the hand of the ambassador, you will have ample time in which to pin on the plant to your lapel - pins being supplied on a silver salver.
In the nineteen hundreds, every leading mover and shaker in XXX turned up for the bash and, in true Irish style, the reception went on forever. Strangely, there was not a sprig to be seen on any person's lapel. Eventually, the riddle was solved by an astute diplomat who spotted several heavy -weights removing green fragments from their teeth.XXX rulers had, in fact, successfully grazed their way through half an acre of a verdant slope in County Tipperary!
BEANNACTAI AN FEILE PADRAIG ORB GO LEIR AGUS AN LA ATA INNU , AGUS MILE BIOCHAS . MAY THE BLESSINGS OF SAINT PATRICK SURROUND YOU AND BRING YOU PEACE ! Le mor gra.
The Trinity.
The Trinity is one.
We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the "consubstantial" Trinity.
The divine persons do not share the one divinity between themselves, but each of them is God whole and entire; The Father is that which the Son is, the Son is that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is i.e. by Nature One God.
The divine persons are really distinct from one another. God is One but not solitary. '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. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin:
It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Spirit who proceeds.
The divine Unity is Triune.
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 if their relations, we believe in one nature or substance. Indeed everything (in them) is one where there is no opposition of relationship. 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.
Anita Kilbride-Jones,
St Pauls Bay Malta
Above Sheba & Shaymus celebrate
below Mark & Sheba's daughters
Siobra & Orlaith
Orlaith's Baptism 3rd August 2008
at Kilavullen Mallow, Co. Cork Ireland
Mark & Sheba with the Captain of the Ship
