Monks during a ceremony at the Abbey

Fr. Thomas speaks on how we can experience the Trinity in our daily life: “In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, will speak what he hears and declare it to us. ‘Everything that the Father has is mine; for that reason, I told you that the Holy Spirit will take from what is mine and declare it to you.’ (Jn. 16:15)

The word “declare” means that the Holy Spirit will proclaim what He had heard between the Father and Son, and interpret this mystery in our lives. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works within the Church, and within each one of us, proclaiming and revealing the Holy Trinity.

Speaking humanly: The Holy Spirit, the bond of love between the Father and Son, overheard them agreeing that the Son would not cling to the form of God, would empty himself taking the form of a slave, would be like any other human person, save for sin, would even humble himself to death on the cross and the passion that death implies. The Father would exalt him, raising him to new life on the third day, and exalt him to a place at his right hand.

To interpret this mystery, the Holy Spirit makes it possible for each one of us to experience in our lives this humility and exaltation of Christ.

By the gift of grace, we enter into this sacred process of humility and exaltation utilizing the forms of humility that come our way, forms of humility that enable us to embrace this Trinitarian mystery. If we look upon Christ Crucified, we see the Face of God, and if we experience Christ crucified in our lives, we find ourselves IN the Face of God.

This is a magnificent way for us to experience the Trinity daily, although no one usually likes to embrace humility. As St. Bernard says: humility always implies humiliation and, I might add, no one like humiliation. We were baptized in the name of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are challenged to be one with Christ in his great humiliation and exaltation.”

May the Grace of God strengthen your life in the Most Blessed Trinity,

Your Brothers of New Clairvaux

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