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Trinity Sunday
excerpt from COMMON PRAYER
Volume 4: Trinity Sunday to the Twelfth Sunday After Trinity
Daily Reading on the Lectionary of the Book of
Common Prayer by W. J. Hankey, D. P. Curry, J.A. Matheson, B.L.
Craig, R. U. Smith, and G. W. ThorneRevised by D. P. Curry, P. W. Harris, and B. M. Large
St. Peter Publications
Inc. Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, 1999.Reprinted with permission of the publisher.
Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy
servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory
of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship
the Unity: We beseech thee, that this holy faith may evermore be our defence
against all adversities; who livest and reignest, one God, world without
end. Amen.
Thus far in the Church year the Love of each Person of the Trinity has
been remembered in separate festivals. In the Incarnation, Death,
Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord, we see the Love of both the Father
and the Son, for it was the Father who sent his Son into the world.
In the sending forth of the Blessed Spirit by the Father and the Son on
Whitsunday, we acknowledge the special and marvellous work of the Holy
Spirit.
Today, on Trinity Sunday, we bring to a close the first half of the
Christian year as we gather together all three Persons of the Trinity in
our worship, witnessing to the glory of the eternal Trinity, Father, Son
and Holy Ghost, as one God, equally concerned in our salvation. Our
Epistle for today encourages us to look upward into Heaven and to cry with
all the Saints triumphant:
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,
which was, and is,
and is to come...
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory, and honour,
and power;
Trinity Sunday is also the beginning of the second half of the Church year.
Having been taught who God is and what he has done for us in and through
his Son, we now focus our hearts and minds on living the Christian life.
This new start is reflected in the fact that we begin to read from three
books of the Bible, Job, James, and Mark. We shall see Job struggling
to understand how God can be active within his life, in the midst of tragedy,
sorrow and pain. The readings from Job will help us to see how we must
place our trust and faith in God, knowing that he will never forsake us
and that only he, in his Wisdom, and Love, can know what is best for us.
The readings from James assist us as we focus on the practical living of
the Christian life. Its principle themes are: patience in temptation;
humility and equal treatment of the poor; the necessity of faith producing
good works; the control of the tongue; the curbing of lusts; the danger
of material riches; the beauty and use of prayer. The readings from
St. Mark remind us that the Christian life must be guided by the example
of the life of our Lord.
The Gospel for today makes it very clear that Trinity Sunday is a new
beginning: “Ye must be born again”. Born again by the Spirit, we
let the Spirit shape our lives by his life during this Trinity season.
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