Collect
God our Father, who by sending into the world
the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification
made known to the human race your wondrous mystery,
grant us, we pray, that in professing the true faith,
we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory
and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Reading 1
DT 4:32-34, 39-40
Moses said to the people:
"Ask now of the days of old, before your time,
ever since God created man upon the earth;
ask from one end of the sky to the other:
Did anything so great ever happen before?
Was it ever heard of?
Did a people ever hear the voice of God
speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?
Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself
from the midst of another nation,
by testings, by signs and wonders, by war,
with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors,
all of which the LORD, your God,
did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
This is why you must now know,
and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God
in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.
You must keep his statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today,
that you and your children after you may prosper,
and that you may have long life on the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever."
Responsorial Psalm
PS 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the Lord the earth is full.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made;
by the breath of his mouth all their host.
For he spoke, and it was made;
he commanded, and it stood forth.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Reading 2
ROM 8:14-17
Brothers and sisters:
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a Spirit of adoption,
through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!”
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.
Alleluia
REV 1:8
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit;
to God who is, who was, and who is to come.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
MT 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
May 31
Visitation
This is a fairly late feast, going back only to the 13th or 14th century. It was established widely throughout the Church to pray for unity. The present date of celebration was set in 1969 in order to follow the Annunciation of the Lord (March 25)
and precede the Nativity of John the Baptist (June 24).
Like most feasts of Mary, it is closely connected with Jesus and his saving work. The more visible actors in the visitation drama (see Luke 1:39-45) are Mary and Elizabeth. However, Jesus and John the Baptist steal the scene in a hidden way. Jesus makes John leap with joy—the joy of messianic salvation. Elizabeth, in turn,
is filled with the Holy Spirit and addresses words of praise to Mary—words that echo down through the ages.
It is helpful to recall that we do not have a journalist’s account of this meeting. Rather, Luke, speaking for the Church, gives a prayerful poet’s rendition of the scene. Elizabeth’s praise of Mary as “the mother of my Lord” can be viewed as the earliest Church’s devotion to Mary. As with all authentic devotion to Mary, Elizabeth’s (the Church’s) words first praise God for what God has done to Mary. Only secondly does she praise Mary for trusting God’s words.
Then comes the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). Here Mary herself (like the Church) traces all her greatness to God.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will proclaim Your Praise!
Invitatory Psalm
Psalm 99 (100)
The true God is one in Trinity and a Trinity in One:
come, let us adore him.
Rejoice in the Lord, all the earth,
and serve him with joy.
Exult as you enter his presence.
The true God is one in Trinity and a Trinity in One:
come, let us adore him.
Know that the Lord is God.
He made us and we are his
– his people, the sheep of his flock.
The true God is one in Trinity and a Trinity in One:
come, let us adore him.
Cry out his praises as you enter his gates,
fill his courtyards with songs.
Proclaim him and bless his name;
for the Lord is our delight.
His mercy lasts forever,
his faithfulness through all the ages.
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 honour, 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 forever.
Let us praise and exalt them above all forever.
Hymn
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 forever 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.
