Eventide & Altar

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever. The canticle from Daniel moves through the attributes of God's dwelling - the temple, the throne, the cherubim - praising him from every angle. The Trinity is the interior life of the one who is praised from all these angles: the Father from whom the love flows, the Son through whom the grace comes, the Spirit in whom the fellowship is given.

When they saw him they worshiped, but some doubted. The eleven on the mountain are the whole picture of the Church: worshipers and doubters present in the same company, given the same commission, promised the same presence. I am with you always. The doubters receive the same promise as the worshipers. The commission is given to both.

In the evening of life, Trinity Sunday is the feast that contains all the other feasts - the mercy proclaimed to Moses before the commandments were written a second time, the grace of the Son who died and rose, the fellowship of the Spirit poured out at Pentecost. All of it, to all of you, from the name into which you were baptized.

The Glorious Mysteries trace the full arc of the Trinitarian work: the Resurrection (Father raises the Son), the Ascension (Son goes to the Father), Pentecost (Spirit sent from Father and Son), the Assumption and Coronation of Mary (the creature fully received into the Trinitarian life). Pray the Glorious Mysteries tonight as a meditation on the Trinity not as doctrine but as event.

• For those in the evening of life who have worshiped with doubt and doubt with worship, that I am with you always would be the ground that holds both, we pray to the Lord.
• For all who are baptized in the Trinitarian name, that the name they were given would be the name they live from in ordinary time, we pray to the Lord.
• In this Sacred Heart month, for the love of the Father that is the second movement of Paul's benediction - the love from which everything flows, we pray to the Lord.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Say this benediction over your household tonight - over each person specifically. The Trinitarian blessing is not an abstraction. It is given to you, to give to them.