PRAYER OF THE DAY
The Athanasian Creed
Quicumque: A Profession of Faith
Whoever wishes to be saved,
needs above all to hold the Catholic faith;
unless each one preserves this whole and inviolate,
he will without a doubt perish in eternity.
But the Catholic faith is this,
that we venerate one God in the Trinity,
and the Trinity in oneness;
neither confounding the persons,
nor dividing the substance;
for there is one person of the Father,
another of the Son,
and another of the Holy Spirit;
but the divine nature of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one,
their glory is equal,
their majesty is coeternal.
Of such a nature as the Father is,
so is the Son,
so also is the Holy Spirit;
the Father is uncreated,
the Son is uncreated,
and the Holy Spirit is uncreated;
the Father is infinite,
the Son is infinite,
and the Holy Spirit is infinite;
the Father is eternal,
the Son is eternal,
and the Holy Spirit is eternal;
and nevertheless there are not three eternals but one eternal;
just as there are not three uncreated beings,
nor three infinite beings,
but one uncreated,
and one infinite;
similarly the Father is almighty,
the Son is almighty,
and the Holy Spirit is almighty;
and yet there are not three almightys but one almighty;
thus the Father is God,
the Son is God,
and the Holy Spirit is God;
and nevertheless there are not three gods,
but there is one God;
so the Father is Lord,
the Son is Lord,
and the Holy Spirit is Lord;
and yet there are not three lords,
but there is one Lord;
because just as we are compelled by Christian truth to confess singly each one person as God,
and also Lord,
so we are forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there are three gods or three Lords.
The Father was not made, nor created, nor begotten by anyone.
The Son is from the Father alone, not made nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, not made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
There is, therefore,
one Father, not three Fathers;
one Son, not three Sons;
one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits;
and in this Trinity there is nothing first or later,
nothing greater or less,
but all three Persons are coeternal and coequal with one another,
so that in every respect,
as has already been said above,
both unity in Trinity,
and Trinity in unity must be venerated.
Therefore, let him who wishes to be saved,
think thus concerning the Trinity.
But it is necessary for eternal salvation that he faithfully believes also the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Accordingly,
it is the right faith,
that we believe and confess,
that our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God is God and man.
He is God begotten of the substance of the Father before time,
and He is man born of the substance of His mother in time:
perfect God, perfect man,
consisting of a rational soul and a human body, equal to the Father according to His Godhead,
less than the Father according to humanity.
Although he is God and man,
yet He is not two,
but He is one Christ;
one however,
not by the conversion of the Divinity into a human body,
but by the assumption of humanity in the Godhead;
one absolutely not by confusion of substance,
but by unity of person.
For just as the rational soul and body are one man,
so God and man are one Christ.
He suffered for our salvation,
descended into hell,
on the third day arose again from the dead,
ascended into heaven,
sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead;
at His coming all men have to arise again with their bodies and will render an account of their own deeds:
and those who have done good,
will go into life everlasting,
but those who have done evil,
into eternal fire.
This is the Catholic faith;
unless every one believes this faithfully and firmly,
he cannot be saved.
Amen.
Saint Athanasius (296-373)
DAILY MASS READINGS
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Reading 1
EX 34:4B-6, 8-9
Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai
as the LORD had commanded him,
taking along the two stone tablets.
Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there
and proclaimed his name, "LORD."
Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out,
"The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity."
Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.
Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord,
do come along in our company.
This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own."
Responsorial Psalm
DN 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
R. Glory and praise forever!
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.
R. Glory and praise forever!
Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.
R. Glory and praise forever!
Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise forever!
Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise forever!
Reading 2
2 COR 13:11-13
Brothers and sisters, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the holy ones greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Gospel
JN 3:16-18
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
SAINT OF THE DAY
June 15
Servant of God Orlando Catanii
An unexpected encounter with St. Francis of Assisi in 1213 was to forever change—and enrich—the life of Count Orlando of Chiusi.
On the day a festival was being organized for a huge throng, St. Francis, already well known for his sanctity, delivered a dramatic address on the dangers of worldly pleasures. One of the guests, Orlando (also known as Roland) was so taken by Francis' words that he sought out the saint for advice on how best to lead a life pleasing to God.
A short time later, Francis visited Count Orlando in his own palace, located at the foot of Mount La Verna. Francis spoke again of the dangers of a life of wealth and comfort. The words prompted Orlando to rearrange his life entirely according to the principles outlined by Francis. Furthermore, he resolved to share his wealth by placing at Francis' disposal all of Mount La Verna, which belonged to Orlando. Francis, who found the mountain's wooded recesses and many caves and ravines especially suitable for quiet prayer, gratefully accepted the offer. Orlando immediately had a convent as well as a church built there; later, many chapels were added. In 1224, two years before the death of Francis,
Mount La Verna was the location where Francis received the holy wounds of Christ.
In return for his generous gift, Orlando desired only to be received into the Third Order and to have St. Francis as his spiritual director. Under Francis' guidance, Orlando completely detached himself from worldly goods. He zealously performed acts of charity as a Christian nobleman. After his happy death, Orlando was laid to rest in the convent church on Mount La Verna.
OFFICE OF READINGS
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will proclaim Your Praise!
Invitatory Psalm
Psalm 23 (24)
The true God is one in Trinity and a Trinity in One:
come, let us adore him.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all who live in it.
He himself founded it upon the seas
and set it firm over the waters.
The true God is one in Trinity and a Trinity in One:
come, let us adore him.
Who will climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who will stand in his holy place?
The one who is innocent of wrongdoing and pure of heart,
who has not given himself to vanities or sworn falsely.
He will receive the blessing of the Lord
and be justified by God his saviour.
This is the way of those who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
The true God is one in Trinity and a Trinity in One:
come, let us adore him.
Gates, raise your heads. Stand up, eternal doors,
and let the king of glory enter.
Who is the king of glory?
The Lord of might and power.
The Lord, strong in battle.
The true God is one in Trinity and a Trinity in One:
come, let us adore him.
Gates, raise your heads. Stand up, eternal doors,
and let the king of glory enter.
Who is the king of glory?
The Lord of hosts
– he is the king of glory.
The true God is one in Trinity and a Trinity in One:
come, let us adore him.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
The true God is one in Trinity and a Trinity in One:
come, let us adore him.
Hymn
Father all-holy, merciful and tender;
Son co-eternal, worthy to be praised;
Spirit of comfort, fount of loving kindness;
God everlasting!
Trinity holy; Unity unchanging;
Goodness unbounded; very God of heaven;
Light of the angels; refuge of the friendless;
Hope universal.
All thy works hymn thee; all thy saints adore thee;
They for thy pleasure are, and were created:
Now, while we also worship thee devoutly,
Hear thou our voices.
Thine be the glory, Deity almighty,
One in Three Persons, Monarch in the highest:
Glory and honor, song and praise beseem thee
Now and forever.
Psalm 8
The greatness of God, the dignity of man
Come and be with us,
one almighty God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
How wonderful is your name over all the earth,
O Lord, our Lord!
How exalted is your glory
above the sky!
Out of the mouths of children and infants you have brought praise,
to confound your enemies, to destroy your vengeful foes.
When I see the heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and stars, which you set in their place –
what is man, that you should take thought for him?
what is the son of man, that you should look after him?
You have made him but one step lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honour;
you have set him over the works of your hands.
You have put everything beneath his feet,
cattle and sheep and the beasts of the field,
the birds in the air and the fish in the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the waters.
How wonderful is your name above all the earth,
O Lord, our Lord!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Come and be with us,
one almighty God, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
Psalm 32 (33)
The Lord provides
The Father is love,
the Son is grace,
the Holy Spirit is the one who unites,
O blessed Trinity.
Rejoice in the Lord, you just:
it is good for the upright to praise him.
Proclaim the Lord on the lyre,
play his song on the ten-stringed harp.
Sing a new song to the Lord,
sing out your cries of triumph,
for the word of the Lord is truly just,
and all his actions are faithful.
The Lord loves justice and right judgement;
the earth is full of his loving kindness.
By the Lord’s word the heavens were made,
and all their array by the breath of his mouth.
He gathered the seas as if in a bag,
he stored up the depths in his treasury.
Let every land fear the Lord,
let all the world be awed at his presence.
For he spoke, and they came into being;
he commanded, and they were made.
The Lord confounds the counsel of the nations,
throws the thoughts of the peoples into confusion.
But the Lord’s own counsel stands firm for ever,
his thoughts last for all generations.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
The Father is love,
the Son is grace,
the Holy Spirit is the one who unites,
O blessed Trinity.
Psalm 32 (33)
The Father is true,
truth the Son and truth the Spirit,
O blessed Trinity.
Happy the nation whose lord is God,
the people he has chosen as his inheritance.
The Lord looks down from the heavens
and sees all the children of men.
From his dwelling-place he looks
upon all who inhabit the earth.
He moulded each one of their hearts,
he understands all that they do.
The king will not be saved by his forces;
the abundance of his strength will not set the strong man free.
Do not trust a horse to save you,
whatever its swiftness and strength.
For see, the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
upon those who trust in his mercy,
hoping he will save their souls from death
and their bodies from hunger.
Our souls praise the Lord,
for he is our help and our protector,
for our hearts rejoice in him,
and we trust in his holy name.
Lord, show us your loving kindness,
just as we put our hope in you.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
The Father is true,
truth the Son and truth the Spirit,
O blessed Trinity.
The word of the Lord established the heavens.
– He breathed forth his Spirit and the powers of heaven were created.
First Reading
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
As for me, brothers, when I came to you, it was not with any show of oratory or philosophy, but simply to tell you what God had guaranteed. During my stay with you, the only knowledge I claimed to have was about Jesus, and only about him as the crucified Christ. Far from relying on any power of my own, I came among you in great ‘fear and trembling’ and in my speeches and the sermons that I gave, there were none of the arguments that belong to philosophy; only a demonstration of the power of the Spirit. And I did this so that your faith should not depend on human philosophy but on the power of God.
But still we have a wisdom to offer those who have reached maturity: not a philosophy of our age, it is true, still less of the masters of our age, which are coming to their end. The hidden wisdom of God which we teach in our mysteries is the wisdom that God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began. It is a wisdom that none of the masters of this age have ever known, or they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory; we teach what scripture calls: the things that no eye has seen and no ear has heard, things beyond the mind of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him.
These are the very things that God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God. After all, the depths of a man can only be known by his own spirit, not by any other man, and in the same way the depths of God can only be known by the Spirit of God. Now instead of the spirit of the world, we have received the Spirit that comes from God, to teach us to understand the gifts that he has given us. Therefore we teach, not in the way in which philosophy is taught, but in the way that the Spirit teaches us: we teach spiritual things spiritually. An unspiritual person is one who does not accept anything of the Spirit of God: he sees it all as nonsense; it is beyond his understanding because it can only be understood by means of the Spirit. A spiritual man, on the other hand, is able to judge the value of everything, and his own value is not to be judged by other men. As scripture says: Who can know the mind of the Lord, so who can teach him?
But we are those who have the mind of Christ.
Responsory
May he who is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the all-glorious Father,
grant us a spirit of wisdom and insight,
to give us fuller knowledge of himself.
May our inward eye be enlightened,
so that we may understand to what hopes he has called us,
how rich in glory is this inheritance of his,
promised to the saints.
What we have received is no spirit of worldly wisdom,
but the Spirit that comes from God.
So that we may understand to what hopes he has called us,
how rich in glory is this inheritance of his,
promised to the saints.
Second Reading
A letter
by St Athanasius
Light, radiance and grace are in the Trinity and from the Trinity
It will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles and guarded by the fathers. For upon this faith the Church is built,
and if anyone were to lapse from it, he would no longer be a Christian either in fact or in name.
We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and created being. It is a wholly creative and energising reality, self-consistent and undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the unity of the holy Trinity is preserved. Accordingly, in the Church, one God is preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as Father,
for he is principle and source; he is through all things through the Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit.
Writing to the Corinthians about spiritual matters, Paul traces all reality back to one God, the Father, saying: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working,
but it is the same God who inspires them all in everyone.
Even the gifts that the Spirit dispenses to individuals are given by the Father through the Word. For all that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son, and so the graces given by the Son in the Spirit are true gifts of the Father. Similarly, when the Spirit dwells in us, the Word who bestows the Spirit is in us too, and the Father is present in the Word. This is the meaning of the text: My Father and I will come to him and make our home with him. For where the light is, there also is the radiance;
and where the radiance is, there too are its power and its resplendent grace.
This is also Paul’s teaching in his second letter to the Corinthians: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. For grace and the gift of the Trinity are given by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Just as grace is given from the Father through the Son, so there could be no communication of the gift to us except in the Holy Spirit. But when we share in the Spirit, we possess the love of the Father,
the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Spirit himself.
Responsory
Let us bless the Father and the Son together with the Holy Spirit.
Let us praise and exalt them above all forever.
Blessed be God in the firmament of heaven,
to be praised and glorified for ever.
Let us praise and exalt them above all forever.
Canticle
Te Deum
God, we praise you; Lord, we proclaim you!
You, the Father, the eternal –
all the earth venerates you.
All the angels, all the heavens, every power –
The cherubim, the seraphim –
unceasingly, they cry:
“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts:
heaven and earth are full of the majesty of your glory!”
The glorious choir of Apostles –
The noble ranks of prophets –
The shining army of martyrs –
all praise you.
Throughout the world your holy Church proclaims you.
– Father of immeasurable majesty,
– True Son, only-begotten, worthy of worship,
– Holy Spirit, our Advocate.
You, Christ:
– You are the king of glory.
– You are the Father’s eternal Son.
– You, to free mankind, did not disdain a Virgin’s womb.
– You defeated the sharp spear of Death, and opened the kingdom of heaven to those who believe in you.
– You sit at God’s right hand, in the glory of the Father.
– You will come, so we believe, as our Judge.
And so we ask of you: give help to your servants,
whom you set free at the price of your precious blood.
Number them among your chosen ones in eternal glory.
Bring your people to safety, Lord,
and bless those who are your inheritance.
Rule them and lift them high for ever.
Day by day we bless you, Lord: we praise you for ever and for ever.
Of your goodness, Lord, keep us without sin for today.
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us.
Let your pity, Lord, be upon us, as much as we trust in you.
In you, Lord, I trust: let me never be put to shame.
Let us pray.
God our Father,
you revealed the great mystery of your godhead to men
when you sent into the world
the Word who is Truth
and the Spirit who makes us holy.
Help us to believe in you and worship you,
as the true faith teaches:
three Persons, eternal in glory,
one God, infinite in majesty.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Let us praise the Lord.
– Thanks be to God.
