Our Prayer to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Martyrs_picture
Durante Alberti. Blessed Trinity with St Thomas of Canterbury and St Edmund (“The Martyrs’ Picture”) 1580. Venerable English College, Rome

God has revealed Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He has also guided His holy Church to define the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and reject false expressions which end up by teaching that there are three gods or that the persons of the Trinity are simply three masks for one person. We believe and confess one God, three co-equal persons.

Rather than attempt to explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the appropriate response to God’s revelation of Himself is adoration. Together with the angels and the saints, we bow down before the majesty of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The language that we use when speaking of God is given to us in the scriptures, the teaching of the great councils of the Church, and in the prayers of the sacred liturgy of the Church, our public worship. In the liturgy, we do sometimes pray to the divine persons individually, but very often, we pray to the Father, through the Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. This traditional dynamic of liturgical prayer is a good guide to our own personal prayer.

In the public prayer of the Church, we sometimes pray for the material things that we need, but primarily, we pray in adoration and thanksgiving, and in the offering of sacrifice in reparation for our sins. When we make prayers of petition, these are usually to ask for God’s blessing and grace. Again this helps us by teaching us our utter dependence on God, our humility before Him, and the great generosity with which He hears our prayers.