The mystery of the Holy Trinity. The holy trinity appeared to him

The dogma of the Trinity- the basic dogma of Christianity. God is one, one in essence, but threefold in Persons.

(The concept “ face", or hypostasis, (not a face) is close to the concepts of "personality", "consciousness", and personality).

The first Person is God the Father, the second Person is God the Son, the third Person is God the Holy Spirit.

These are not three Gods, but one God in three Persons, Consubstantial and Inseparable Trinity.

St. Gregory the Theologian teaches:

"We worship the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, sharing personal attributes and uniting the Godhead."

All three Persons have the same Divine Dignity., between them there is neither senior nor junior; as God the Father is true God, so God the Son is true God, so the Holy Spirit is true God. Each Person carries in Himself all the properties of the Divine. Since God is one in His being, then all the properties of God - His eternity, omnipotence, omnipresence and others - belong equally to all three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. In other words, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit are eternal and almighty, like God the Father.

They differ only in that God the Father is not born or emanated from anyone; The Son of God is born of God the Father - eternally (timelessly, beginninglessly, infinitely), and the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit - eternally abide with each other in continuous love and constitute one Being with Themselves. God is the most perfect Love. God is love Himself in Himself, because the existence of the One God is the existence of Divine Hypostases, staying among themselves in “the eternal movement of love (Venerable Maximus the Confessor).

1. The dogma of the Holy Trinity

God is one in Essence and threefold in Persons. The dogma of the Trinity is the basic dogma of Christianity. A number of the great dogmas of the Church and, above all, the dogma of our redemption, are directly based on it. Due to its particular importance, the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity constitutes the content of all the symbols of faith that have been and are used in the Orthodox Church, as well as all private confessions of faith written on various occasions by the pastors of the Church.

Being the most important of all Christian dogmas, the dogma of the Most Holy Trinity is at the same time the most difficult for its assimilation by limited human thought. That is why the struggle about no other Christian truth was so intense in the history of the ancient Church as about this dogma and about the truths directly connected with it.

The dogma of the Holy Trinity contains two basic truths:

A. God is one in essence, but threefold in Persons, or in other words: God is triune, triune, Consubstantial Trinity.

B. Hypostases have personal or hypostatic properties: Father is not born. The Son is born of the Father. The Holy Spirit comes from the Father.

2. On the Unity of God - the Holy Trinity

Rev. John Damascene:

"So, we believe in one God, a single beginning, beginningless, uncreated, unborn, incorruptible, equally immortal, eternal, infinite, indescribable, limitless, omnipotent, simple, uncomplicated, incorporeal, alien flow, impassive, immutable and indispensable, invisible, - the source of goodness and truth, mental and inaccessible light, - by force, indefinable by any measure and measured only by one's own will, - for everything that delights, can - all creatures visible and invisible, the creator, all-embracing and preserving, providing for everything, all-powerful , who rules over everything and reigns in an endless and immortal kingdom, having no rival, filling everything, incomprehensible, but all-embracing, containing and exceeding everything, which penetrates all essences, remaining pure itself, remains outside the limits of everything and is removed from the range of all beings as the most essential and existent above all, the most divine, most good, full, which is tired She pours out all the authorities and ranks, and she herself is above any leadership and rank, above essence, life, word and understanding, which is light itself, goodness itself, life itself, essence itself, since it does not have any being or anything from another from what is, but itself is the source of being for everything that exists, life - for everything living, reason - for everything reasonable, the cause of all good things for all beings, - because of the force that knows everything before the existence of everything, a single essence, a single Deity , one power, one desire, one action, one beginning, one power, one domination, one kingdom, in three perfect hypostases, cognized and worshiped by one worship, worshiped and revered from every verbal creature (in hypostases), inseparably united and inseparably divided, which is incomprehensible - into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in whose name we were baptized, for this is how the Lord commanded the Apostles to baptize, saying: "He baptizes them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28, 19).

… And that there is one God, and not many, this is undoubtedly for the believers of the Divine Scripture. For the Lord at the beginning of His law-making says: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you may not be Bozi inii unless Me” (Ex. 20, 2); and again: “Hear, to Israel: the Lord your God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6, 4); and Isaiah the prophet: "I am the first God and I am still, except for Me, God is" (Is . 43, 10-11). And the Lord in the Holy Gospels says this to the Father: “Behold, this is the eternal life, that they may know You the one true God” (John 17: 3).

With those who do not believe the Divine Scripture, we will reason like this: God is perfect and has no shortcomings in goodness, wisdom, and power - beginningless, infinite, everlasting, unlimited, and, in a word, perfect according to everything. So, if we admit many gods, then it will be necessary to recognize the difference between these many. For if there is no difference between them, then already one, and not many; if there is a difference between them, where is the perfection? If perfection is lacking, either in goodness, or in strength, or in wisdom, or in time, or in place, then God will no longer be there. Identity in everything indicates rather one God, and not many.

Moreover, if there were many gods, how would their indescribability be preserved? For where there was one, there would not be another.

How, then, would the world be ruled by many and not be destroyed and upset when a war broke out between the rulers? Because difference introduces confrontation. If someone says that each of them controls his own part, then what introduced such an order and made a division between them? This actually would be God. So, there is one God, perfect, indescribable, Creator of everything, Content and Ruler, above and before all perfection. "
(An accurate statement of the Orthodox faith)

Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky (Orthodox dogmatic theology):

“I believe in one God” - the first words of the Creed. God owns all the fullness of the most perfect being. The idea of ​​completeness, perfection, infinity, all-inclusiveness in God does not allow thinking about Him otherwise than as One, i.e. the only and consubstantial in Himself. This requirement of our consciousness was expressed by one of the ancient church writers with the words: "if God is not one, then there is no God" (Tertullian), in other words, a deity, limited by another being, loses its divine dignity.

All of the New Testament Scriptures are filled with the teaching of one God. “Our Father, who art in heaven,” we pray in the words of the Lord's Prayer. "There is no other God but One" - expresses the basic truth of faith by the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 8: 4). "

3. About the Trinity of Persons in God with the unity of God in essence.

“The Christian truth of the unity of God is deepened by the truth of the unity of the triune.

We worship the Most Holy Trinity with one indivisible worship. Among the Church Fathers and in worship, the Trinity is often referred to as "the unit in the Trinity, the Trinity unit." In most cases, prayers addressed to the worshiper of one Person of the Holy Trinity end with a doxology to all three Persons (for example, in a prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ: "For you were glorified with Thy Originless Father and with the Most Holy Spirit forever, amen").

The Church, turning prayerfully to the Most Holy Trinity, calls on Her in the singular, not in the plural, for example: "Like Ty (and not you) praise all the powers of heaven, and to You (and not to You) we glory, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit , now and forever and forever and ever, amen. "

The Christian Church, realizing the mystery of this dogma, sees in it a great revelation that raises the Christian faith immeasurably above any confession of simple monotheism, which is also found in other non-Christian religions.

... Three Divine Persons, having eternal and eternal existence, are revealed to the world with the coming and incarnation of the Son of God, being "one Power, one Being, one Deity" (stichera on the day of Pentecost).

Since God in His very Being is all consciousness and thought and self-consciousness, then each of these threefold eternal manifestations of Himself by God the One has self-consciousness, and therefore each is a Person, and Persons are not simply forms or individual phenomena, or properties, or actions; Three Persons are contained in the very Oneness of the Being of God... Thus, when in Christian teaching we speak about the Trinity of God, we say about the mysterious, in the depths of the Divine, the hidden inner life of God, revealed - ajar to the world in time, in the New Testament, by the sending of the Son of God from the Father into the world and by the action of the miraculous, life-giving, saving power of the Comforter - the Holy Spirit ”.

"The Most Holy Trinity is the most perfect union of three Persons in one Being, because it is the most perfect equality."

“God is a Spirit, a simple Being. And how does the spirit manifest itself? Thought, word and deed. Therefore, God, as a simple Being, does not consist of a number or of a multitude of thoughts, or of a multitude of words or creations, but He is all in one simple thought - God the Trinity, or in one simple word - the Trinity, or in three Persons united into one ... But He is all and in all that exists, everything passes away, fills everything with Himself. For example, you read a prayer, and He is all in every word, like the Holy Fire, penetrates every word: “everyone can experience it himself if he prays sincerely, diligently, with faith and love.”

4. Testimony of the Old Testament about the Holy Trinity

The Truth of the Trinity of God is only covertly expressed in the Old Testament, only slightly revealed. The Old Testament testimonies of the Trinity are revealed and clarified in the light of the Christian faith, just as the Apostle writes about the Jews: "... until now, when they read Moses, the veil lies on their hearts, but when they turn to the Lord, this veil is removed ... it is removed by Christ"(2 Cor. 3, 14-16).

The main Old Testament passages are as follows:

Gen. 1, 1 and others: the name "Elohim" in the Hebrew text, which has the grammatical form of the plural.

Gen. 1, 26: " And God said: Let us make man in our image, and in the likeness"The plural indicates that God is not one Person.

Gen. 3, 22: " And the Lord God said: Behold, Adam became like one of Us, knowing good and evil"(the words of God before the expulsion of the forefathers from paradise).

Gen. 11, 6-7: before the confusion of languages ​​in pandemonium - " One people and one language for all ... Let's go down and mix their language there".

Gen. 18, 1-3: about Abraham - " And the Lord appeared to him by the oak grove of Mavre ... lifted up (Abraham) his eyes looked, and, behold, three men stood opposite him ... and bowed to the ground and said: ... if I have found favor in Thy eyes, do not pass by Thy servant"-" You see, Blessed Augustine instructs, Abraham meets Three, and worships the One ... Having seen the Three, he understood the mystery of the Trinity, and having worshiped as One, confessed the One God in three Persons. "

In addition, the Church Fathers see an indirect reference to the Trinity in the following places:

Num. 6, 24-26: The priestly blessing, indicated by God through Moses, in threefold form: " May the Lord bless you ... may the Lord look upon you with His bright face ... may the Lord turn His face on you…".

Is. 6.3: Glorification of the seraphim standing around the Throne of God, in threefold form: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts".

Ps. 32, 6: "".

Finally, it is possible to point out in the Old Testament Revelation the places where it is spoken separately about the Son of God and the Holy Spirit.

About the Son:

Ps. 2, 7: " You are my Son; Today I have given birth to You ".

Ps. 109, 3: "... out of the womb before the day is like the dew your birth".

About Spirit:

Ps. 142, 10: " Let Your good Spirit lead me to the land of righteousness. "

Is. 48, 16: "... the Lord and His Spirit sent me".

And other similar places.

5. Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament about the Holy Trinity

The Trinity of Persons in God is revealed in the New Testament at the coming of the Son of God and in the sending of the Holy Spirit. The message to earth from the Father of God, the Word and the Holy Spirit, constitutes the content of all the New Testament writings. Of course, the manifestation of the Triune God to the world is given here not in a dogmatic formula, but in the narration of the manifestations and deeds of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

The manifestation of God in the Trinity took place at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is why baptism itself is called the Manifestation. The Son of God, having become human, received water baptism; The Father testified of Him; The Holy Spirit, by His appearance in the form of a dove, confirmed the truth of the voice of God, as expressed in the troparion of the feast of the Baptism of the Lord:

"In the Jordan, baptizing Thee, Lord, Trinity worship appears, the Parents testifying to Thee, calling the beloved Son, and the Spirit, in the form of a dove, has given word to the word."

There are sayings in the New Testament Scriptures about the Triune God in the most succinct, but, moreover, precise form, expressing the truth of the Trinity.

These sayings are as follows:

Mt. 28, 19: " So go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit". - St. Ambrose notes:" The Lord said: in the name, and not in the names, because there is one God; not many names: because not two Gods and not three Gods. "

2 Cor. 13, 13: " The grace of the Lord (our) Jesus Christ, and the love of God (Father), and the communion of the Holy Spirit with all of you. Amen".

1 John 5, 7: " For three testify in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are the essence of one "(this verse is absent in the surviving ancient Greek manuscripts, but is found only in Latin, Western manuscripts).

In addition, St. Athanasius the Great is the next text of the epistle to Eph. 4, 6: " One God and Father of all, who is above all ( God the Father) and through all (God the Son) and in all of us (God the Holy Spirit). "

6. Confession of the dogma of the Holy Trinity in the ancient Church

The truth about the Holy Trinity is confessed by the Church of Christ from the beginning in all its fullness and integrity. Speaks clearly, for example, about the universality of faith in the Holy Trinity St. Irenaeus of Lyons, disciple of St. Polycarp of Smyrna, instructed by the Apostle John the Theologian himself:

"Although the Church is scattered throughout the universe to the end of the earth, but from the apostles and their disciples she accepted faith in one God the Father Almighty ... and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, incarnate for our salvation, and in the Holy Spirit, through the prophets who proclaimed the economy of our salvation ... Having accepted such a sermon and such a faith, the Church, as we said, although scattered all over the world, carefully preserves it, as if dwelling in one house; equally believes this, as if having one soul and one heart, and preaches according to about this he teaches and transmits, as if having a single mouth.Although there are numerous dialects in the world, the power of Tradition is the same ... unskilful in the word. "

The holy fathers, defending the catholic truth of the Holy Trinity from heretics, not only cited the evidence of Holy Scripture, as well as rational, philosophical grounds for refuting heretical wisdom, but also themselves relied on the evidence of the early Christians. They pointed to examples of martyrs and confessors who were not afraid to declare faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit before the torturers; referred to the Scriptures of the apostolic men and, in general, ancient Christian writers and to the liturgical formulas.

So, St. Basil the Great cites a small doxology:

"Glory to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit", and another: "To Him (Christ) with the Father and the Holy Spirit honor and glory forever and ever," and says that this doxology has been used in churches since the very time the Gospel was proclaimed ... Indicates St. Basil is also a luminous thanksgiving, or evening song, calling it an "ancient" song, passed down "from the fathers", and quotes from it the words: "We praise the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit of God", to show the faith of ancient Christians in the equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.

St. Basil the Great also writes, interpreting Genesis:

“Let us make man in our image and that likeness” (Genesis 1:26)….

You have learned that there are two persons: the Speaker and the One to Whom the word is directed. Why didn't He say, "I will create," but "Let us make man"? So that you know the highest power; so that in recognizing the Father, you do not reject the Son; so that you know that the Father created through the Son, and the Son created at the behest of the Father; so that you glorify the Father in the Son and the Son in the Holy Spirit. Thus, you were born as a common creation in order to become a common worshiper of the One and the Other, not separating in worship, but treating the Divine as one. Pay attention to the outer course of history and to the deep inner meaning of Theology. “And God created man. - Let's create! " And it does not say, "And they created it," so that you have no reason to fall into polytheism. If the face were multiple in composition, then people would have a reason to make themselves many gods. Now the expression "let's create" is used so that you know the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

“God created man” so that you would recognize (comprehend) the unity of the Divine, not the unity of Hypostases, but unity in power, so that you glorify God alone, without making a difference in worship and not falling into polytheism. After all, it is not said “the gods created man”, but “God created”. Special Hypostasis of the Father, special - of the Son, special - of the Holy Spirit. Why not three Gods? Because the Divine is one. What Deity I contemplate in the Father is the same in the Son, and what in the Holy Spirit is the same in the Son. Therefore, the image (μορφη) in Both is one, and the power that proceeds from the Father remains the same in the Son. Consequently, our worship as well as praise is the same. The foreshadowing of our creation is true Theology. "

Prot. Mikhail Pomazansky:

“There are many testimonies of the ancient fathers and teachers of the Church also that the Church from the first days of her existence performed baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as three Divine Persons, and denounced heretics who attempted to be baptized or in the name of one Father, considering The Son and the Holy Spirit by lower powers, or in the name of the Father and the Son and even one Son, humiliating the Holy Spirit before them (testimonies of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Irenaeus, Cyprian, Athanasius, Ilarius, Basil the Great and others).

However, the Church experienced great unrest and withstood an enormous struggle to defend this dogma. The struggle was directed mainly on two points: first, to affirm the truth of consubstantiality and equanimity of the Son of God with God the Father; then - for the confirmation of the oneness of the Holy Spirit with God the Father and the Son of God.

The dogmatic task of the Church in its ancient period was to find such exact words for dogma, which best protect the dogma of the Holy Trinity from being reinterpreted by heretics. "

7. About the personal properties of Divine Persons

Personal, or Hypostatic, properties of the Most Holy Trinity are designated as follows: Father - not born; The son is eternally born; The Holy Spirit comes from the Father.

Rev. John Damascene expresses the idea of ​​the incomprehensibility of the mystery of the Holy Trinity:

"Although we have been taught that there is a difference between birth and procession, but what the difference is and what is the birth of the Son and the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father, we do not know this."

Prot. Mikhail Pomazansky:

“All kinds of dialectical considerations about what is birth and what procession is, are not able to reveal the inner mystery of the Divine life. Arbitrary speculation can even lead to a distortion of Christian doctrine. The very expressions: about the Son - "born of the Father" and about the Spirit - "comes from the Father" - represent the exact transmission of the words of Holy Scripture. About the Son it is said: "only begotten" (John 1:14; 3:16, etc.); also - " from the belly before the right hand like the dew your birth"(Psalm 109: 3);" You are my Son; I have given birth to you"(Psalm 2, 7; the words of the psalm are quoted in Hebrews 1, 5 and 5, 5). The dogma of the procession of the Holy Spirit rests on the following direct and accurate saying of the Savior:" When the Comforter comes, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me"(John 15:26). Based on the above sayings, the Son is usually spoken of in the past grammatical tense -" born ", and about the Spirit - in the grammatical present tense -" emanates. "However, different grammatical forms of tense do not indicate any relation to time: both birth and procession are “eternal,” “timeless.” About the birth of the Son, theological terminology sometimes uses the present tense form: “eternally born” of the Father;

The dogma of the birth of the Son from the Father and the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father points to the mysterious internal relationships of Persons in God, to the life of God in Himself. These eternal, eternal, timeless relationships must be clearly distinguished from the manifestations of the Holy Trinity in the created world, distinguished from providential actions and manifestations of God in the world, as they were expressed in the events of the creation of the world, the coming of the Son of God to earth, His incarnation and the sending of the Holy Spirit. These providential phenomena and actions took place in time. In historical time, the Son of God was born from the Virgin Mary by the descent of the Holy Spirit on Her: " The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You; therefore, the Holy One being born will be called the Son of God"(Luke 1:35). In historical time, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus during His baptism from John. In historical time, the Holy Spirit was sent down by the Son from the Father, appearing in the form of tongues of fire. The Son comes to earth through the Holy Spirit; the Spirit is sent down Son, according to the promise: "" (John 15, 26).

To the question about the eternal birth of the Son and the procession of the Spirit: "when is this birth and procession?" St. Gregory the Theologian answers: "before when. You hear about birth: do not try to know what the way of birth is. You hear that the Spirit comes from the Father: do not try to know how it comes out."

Although the meaning of the expressions "birth" and "procession" is incomprehensible to us, this does not diminish the importance of these concepts in the Christian doctrine of God. They indicate the perfect Divinity of the Second and Third Persons. The being of the Son and the Spirit rests inseparably in the very being of God the Father; hence the expression about the Son: " from the womb ... gave birth to you"(Psalm 109: 3), from the womb - from the being. Through the words" born "and" emanates "the existence of the Son and the Spirit is opposed to the existence of all creation, everything that is created, which is caused by the will of God from non-being. Being from the essence of God can to be only Divine and Eternal.

What is born is always of the same essence as that which gives birth, and what is created and created is of a different essence, lower, is external in relation to the creator. "

Rev. John Damascene:

“(We believe) in one Father, the beginning of everything and the cause, not from someone born, Who alone has no cause and is not born, the Creator of everything, but the Father, by nature, His only Son, the Lord and God and Savior our Jesus Christ and the healer of the All-Holy Spirit. And into the only Son of God, our Lord, Jesus Christ, born of the Father before all ages, Light from Light, true God from true God, born, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, through whom everything happened. Speaking about Him: before all ages, we show that His birth is timeless and without beginning; for the Son of God, the radiance of glory and the image of the Hypostasis of the Fathers (Heb. 1: 3), living wisdom and power, the Word of the hypostatic, the essential, perfect and living image of the invisible God, was brought into being not from existent; but He was always with the Father and in the Father, from whom he was born eternally and without beginning. For the Father never existed when there would be no Son, but together the Father, together and the Son, born of Him. For the Father without the Son would not have been called the Father; if he had ever existed without the Son, he would not have been the Father, and if after he began to have the Son, then he also became the Father afterwards, not being the Father before, and would undergo a change in the fact that not being the Father, he became Him, and such a thought is more terrible than any blasphemy, for it cannot be said about God that He does not have the natural power of birth, and the power of birth consists in the ability to give birth from oneself, that is, from one's own essence, a being, similar to itself by nature.

So, it would be wicked to say about the birth of the Son that it took place in time and that the existence of the Son began after the Father. For we confess the birth of the Son from the Father, that is, from His nature. And if we do not admit that the Son existed from the beginning together with the Father, from whom He was born, then we will introduce a change in the hypostasis of the Father in that the Father, not being the Father, afterwards became the Father. True, creation came after, but not from the essence of God; but by the will and power of God it was brought from non-being into being, and therefore there was no change in the nature of God. For birth consists in the fact that from the essence of the one who gives birth is produced something that is born, similar in essence; creation and creation consists in the fact that what is being created and what is being created comes from the outside, and not from the essence of the creator and the creator, and is completely dissimilar in nature.

Therefore, in God, who alone is passionless, unchangeable, immutable and always the same, both birth and creation are impassive. For, being by nature dispassionate and foreign to flow, because it is simple and uncomplicated, He can not be subject to suffering or flow, either in birth or in creation, and has no need for anyone's assistance. But birth (in Him) is beginningless and eternal, since it is the action of His nature and originates from His essence, otherwise the one who gives birth would undergo a change, and there would be God the first and God the next, and there would be multiplication. Creation with God, as an act of will, is not co-eternal with God. For what is brought from non-being into being cannot be eternal to the Beginningless and always Existing. God and man do not create the same way. A person does not bring anything from non-existent into being, but what he does, he does from previously existing matter, not only by desiring, but also having considered and imagining in his mind what he wants to do, then he acts with his hands, accepts labor, fatigue, and often does not reach the goal when hard work does not work out the way you want; But God, only having delighted, brought everything out of non-existence into being: in the same way, God and man give birth not in the same way. God, being flightless and beginningless, and passionless, and free from flowing, and disembodied, and one only, and infinite, and gives birth without flowing and beginninglessly, and passionlessly, and without flowing, and without combination, and His incomprehensible birth has no beginning, no end. He begets without beginning, because he is unchangeable; - without expiration because it is dispassionate and incorporeal; - out of combination, because again he is incorporeal, and there is only one God who has no need for anyone else; - infinitely and ceaselessly because it is flightless, and timeless, and infinite, and always the same, for what is beginningless is infinite, and what is infinite by grace is by no means without beginning, like, for example, the Angels.

So, the everlasting God gives birth to His Word, perfect without beginning and endlessly, so that God, who has a higher time and nature, and being, does not give birth in time. Man, as it is obvious, gives birth in an opposite way, because he is subject to birth, and decay, and expiration, and multiplication, and is clothed with a body, and in human nature lies the male and female sex, and the husband needs the help of his wife. But may He be merciful who is above all and who surpasses all thought and understanding. "

8. Naming the Second Person with a Word

Orthodox dogmatic theology:

“The naming of the Son of God by the Word, or Logos, which is often found among the holy fathers and in liturgical texts, has its foundation in the first chapter of the Gospel of John the Theologian.

The concept, or the name of the Word in its exalted meaning, is repeatedly found in the Old Testament books. These are the expressions in the Psalter: " Forever, Lord, your word is established in heaven"(Ps. 118, 89);" Sent his word and healed them"(Psalm 106, 20 - a verse speaking about the exodus of the Jews from Egypt);" By the word of the Lord the heavens were created, and by the spirit of his mouth all their host"(Ps. 32, 6). The author of the Wisdom of Solomon writes:" Thy almighty Word descended from heaven from royal thrones into the middle of the perishing earth, like a formidable warrior. It carried a sharp sword - Your unchanging command, and, having become, filled everything with death, it touched the sky and walked on the earth"(Wis. 28: 15-16).

The Holy Fathers make an attempt with the help of this divine name to somewhat understand the mystery of the relationship of the Son to the Father. St. Dionysius of Alexandria (a disciple of Origen) explains this attitude as follows: "Our thought spits out from itself a word according to what the prophet said:" A good word has poured out from my heart"(Ps. 44, 2). Thought and word are different from each other and occupy their own special and separate place: while thought dwells and moves in the heart, the word - on the tongue and in the mouth; however, they are inseparable and not for a minute. are deprived of each other. Neither thought can exist without a word, nor a word without thought ... in it having received being. Thought is, as it were, a secret word inside, and the word is a revealed thought. Thought passes into a word, and the word transfers the thought to the listeners, and so In this way, thought, through the medium of the word, takes root in the souls of the listeners, entering them together with the word. And thought, being from itself, is, as it were, the father of the word, and the word is, as it were, the son of thought; before thought, it is impossible, but not from where. either from the outside it happened together with thought, and from it it penetrated. So the Father, the greatest and all-embracing Thought, has the Son - the Word, His first Interpreter and Messenger "((quoted in St. Athanasius De sentent. Dionis., n. 15 )).

St. John of Kronstadt in his reflections on the Holy Trinity ("My life in Christ"). In the above quotation from St. Dionysius of Alexandria's reference to the Psalter shows that the thoughts of the Church Fathers were based on the use of the name "Word" on the Holy Scriptures not only of the New Testament, but also of the Old Testament. Thus, there is no reason to assert that the name Logos-Word was borrowed by Christianity from philosophy, as some Western interpreters do.

Of course, the Church Fathers, like the Apostle John the Theologian himself, did not ignore the concept of the Logos as it was interpreted in Greek philosophy and by the Jewish philosopher - the Alexandrian Philo (the concept of the Logos as a personal being, mediating between God and the world, or as an impersonal divine power) and contrasted their understanding of the Logos is the Christian doctrine of the Word - the Only Begotten Son of God, consubstantial with the Father and equal to God with the Father and the Spirit. "

Rev. John Damascene:

“So this one and only God is not without the Word. If He has the Word, then He must have a Word that is not hypostatic, which has begun to be and which has to cease. For there was no time when God was without the Word. On the contrary, God always has His Word, which is born of Him and which is not like our word - non-hypostatic and spreading in the air, but is hypostatic, living, perfect, not outside of Him (God), but always abiding in Him. For where can He be outside of God? But since our nature is temporary and destructible; even our word is not hypostatic. But God, as everlasting and perfect, and the Word will also have the perfect and hypostatic, which always is, lives and has everything that the Parent has. Our word, originating from the mind, is neither completely identical with the mind, nor completely different; for, being from the mind, it is something else in relation to it; but since it reveals the mind, it is not completely different from the mind, but being by nature one with it, it differs from it as a special subject: so the Word of God, since it exists by itself, differs from the one from whom it has hypostasis; because it manifests in itself the same thing that is in God; then by nature there is one with him. For as perfection is seen in the Father in all respects, so the same is evident in the Word born of Him. "

St. right. John of Kronstadt:

“Have you learned to foresee the Lord before you, I will take it out - as the omnipresent Mind, as the living and effective Word, as the life-giving Spirit? Sacred Scripture is the realm of the Mind, Word and Spirit - God of the Trinity: in it He manifests itself clearly: “verbs, even I am verbs to you, the spirit is the essence and the belly” (John 6, 63), said the Lord; the writings of the holy fathers - here again the expression of the Thought, Word and Spirit of the hypostatic, with a great participation of the human spirit itself; the writings of ordinary secular people are a manifestation of the fallen human spirit, with its sinful attachments, habits, passions. In the Word of God we see face to face with God and - ourselves, what - we are. Recognize yourself in it, people, and walk always in the presence of God. "

St. Gregory Palamas:

“And since the perfect and all-perfect Goodness is Mind, what else could come from It, as from the Source, if not the Word? Moreover, It is not like our spoken word, for this our word is not only the action of the mind, but also the action of the body, set in motion by the mind. It is not like it and our inner word, which, as it were, has an inherent disposition to the images of sounds. It is also impossible to compare Him with our mental word, although it is silently carried out by completely incorporeal movements; however, it needs intervals and considerable periods of time in order, gradually proceeding from the mind, to become a perfect inference, being at first something imperfect.

Rather, this Word can be compared with the word inherent in our mind, or knowledge, always coexisting with the mind, due to which we should think that we were brought into being by the One who created us in His image. Mostly this Knowledge is inherent in the Highest Mind of all-perfect and super-perfect Goodness, which has nothing imperfect, for except only that the Knowledge emanates from It, everything related to it is the same unchanging Goodness as Itself. Therefore, the Son is and is called by us the Highest Word, so that we know Him as Perfect in our own and perfect Hypostasis; after all, this Word is born of the Father and is in no way inferior to the Father's essence, but is completely identical with the Father, except only for His being in the Hypostasis, which shows that the Word is divinely born of the Father. "

9. About the procession of the Holy Spirit

Orthodox dogmatic theology:

The ancient Orthodox teaching about the personal properties of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is distorted in the Latin Church by the creation of the teaching about the timeless, eternal procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son (Filioque). The expression that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son originates from the blessed Augustine, who, in the course of his theological reasoning, found it possible to express himself in this way in some places of his writings, although in other places he confesses that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. Having thus appeared in the West, it began to spread there about the seventh century; it was established there, as obligatory, in the ninth century. Even at the beginning of the 9th century, Pope Leo III - although he personally inclined to the side of this teaching - forbade changing the text of the Nicene-Constantinople Creed in favor of this teaching, and for this he ordered to inscribe the Symbol of Faith in his ancient Orthodox reading (i.e. . without Filioque) on two metal boards: on one - in Greek, and on the other - in Latin - and exhibited in the Basilica of St. Peter with the inscription: "I, Leo, put it out of love for the Orthodox faith and to protect it." This was done by the Pope after the Council of Aachen (in the ninth century, presided over by Emperor Charlemagne) in response to the Council's request that the Pope declare Filioque a church-wide teaching.

Nevertheless, the newly created dogma continued to spread in the West - and when Latin missionaries came to the Bulgarians in the middle of the ninth century, Filioque stood in their creed.

As the relations between the papacy and the Orthodox East intensified, the Latin dogma was more and more strengthened in the West and, finally, was recognized there as a universally binding dogma. Protestantism also inherited this teaching from the Roman Church.

The Filioque Latin dogma represents a significant and important deviation from Orthodox truth. He was subjected to a detailed analysis and denunciation, especially by the patriarchs Photius and Michael Kerullarius, as well as Bishop Mark of Ephesus, a participant in the Council of Florence. Adam Zernikav (18th century), who converted from Roman Catholicism to Orthodoxy, in his work "On the Procession of the Holy Spirit" cites about a thousand testimonies from the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church in favor of the Orthodox teaching about the Holy Spirit.

In modern times, the Roman Church, of its "missionary" goals, obscures the difference (or rather, its significance) between the Orthodox teaching about the Holy Spirit and the Roman one; for this purpose, the popes left for the Uniates and for the "Eastern rite" the ancient Orthodox text of the Creed, without the words "and from the Son." Such a technique cannot be understood as a half-refusal of Rome from its dogma; at best, this is only a veiled view of Rome that the Orthodox East is backward in the sense of dogmatic development, and this backwardness should be treated with condescension, and that the dogma expressed in the West in a developed form (explicite, according to the Roman theory of "the development of dogmas"), hidden in Orthodox dogma in an as yet undetected state (implicite). But in Latin dogmatics intended for internal use, we find a certain interpretation of the Orthodox dogma about the procession of the Holy Spirit as "heresy." In the Latin dogma of the doctor of theology A. Sanda, officially approved, we read: "The opponents (of this Roman teaching) are the Greek schismatics, who teach that the Holy Spirit emanates from one Father. Already in 808, Greek monks protested against the introduction of the word Filioque by the Latins into The symbol ... Who was the founder of this heresy is unknown "(Sinopsis Theologie Dogmaticae specialist. Autore D-re A. Sanda. Vol. I).

Meanwhile, the Latin dogma does not agree with either the Holy Scriptures or the Holy Church Tradition, it does not even agree with the most ancient tradition of the local Roman Church.

Roman theologians cite in his defense a number of passages from Holy Scripture, where the Holy Spirit is called "Christ's", where it is said that He is given by the Son of God: from this they conclude that He also proceeds from the Son.

(The most important of these passages, cited by Roman theologians: the words of the Savior to the disciples about the Holy Spirit the Comforter: " He will take from Mine and declare to you"(John 16:14); the words of the Apostle Paul:" God has sent His Son Spirit into your hearts"(Gal. 4: 6); the same Apostle" If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His"(Rom. 8, 9); Gospel of John:" He breathed and said to them: receive the Holy Spirit"(John 20:22)).

Likewise, Roman theologians find in the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church places where it is often said about the sending of the Holy Spirit "through the Son," and sometimes even about "the procession through the Son."

However, no one can use any reasoning to cover up the perfectly definite words of the Savior: " The Comforter I will send you from the Father"(John 15:26) - and next to - other words:" The Spirit of Truth Who Proceeds from the Father"(John 15:26). The Holy Fathers of the Church could not put anything else into the words" through the Son, "but what is contained in Holy Scripture.

In this case, Roman Catholic theologians confuse two dogmas: the dogma of the personal existence of the Hypostases and the dogma of consubstantiality directly related to it, but a special one. That the Holy Spirit is consubstantial with the Father and the Son, that therefore He is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, is an indisputable Christian truth, for God is the Trinity, consubstantial and indivisible.

Blessed Theodorite clearly expresses this thought: "About the Holy Spirit it is said that He does not have being from the Son or through the Son, but that He comes from the Father, is inherent in the Son, as he is called consubstantial with Him" ​​(Blessed Theodorite. On the Third Ecumenical Council) ...

And in Orthodox divine services we often hear the words addressed to the Lord Jesus Christ: "By Thy Holy Spirit enlighten us, instruct, preserve ... "The expression" Spirit of the Father and the Son "is also Orthodox in itself. , the existential Cause of the Son and the Spirit. All Eastern Fathers recognize that the Father is monos - the only Cause of the Son and the Spirit. Therefore, when some Church Fathers use the expression "through the Son," it is precisely with this expression that they protect the dogma of the procession from the Father and the inviolability the dogmatic formula “comes from the Father.” The Fathers speak of the Son - “through” in order to shield the expression “from”, which refers only to the Father.

To this it should also be added that the expression "through the Son" encountered in some of the holy fathers in most cases definitely refers to the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the world, that is, to the providential actions of the Holy Trinity, and not to the life of God in Himself. When the Eastern Church first noticed the distortion of the dogma about the Holy Spirit in the West and began to reproach Western theologians for innovations, St. Maximus the Confessor (in the 7th century), wishing to protect the Westerners, justified them with the fact that by the words "from the Son" they mean to indicate that the Holy Spirit "through the Son is given to the creature, appears, is sent", but not that the Holy Spirit has from Him being. St. Maximus the Confessor adhered strictly to the teaching of the Eastern Church about the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and wrote a special treatise about this dogma.

The providential sending of the Spirit by the Son of God is spoken of in the words: " I will send him to you from the Father"(John 15:26). So we pray:" Lord, like Thy Most Holy Spirit in the third hour sent Thy Apostles, that Good One, do not take away from us, but renew in us those who pray to Thee. "

By mixing up the texts of Holy Scripture that speak of "procession" and "transmission", Roman theologians transfer the concept of providential relationships into the very depths of the existential relationships of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

Introducing a new dogma, the Roman Church, in addition to the dogmatic side, violated the decree of the Third and subsequent Councils (Fourth - Seventh Councils), prohibiting any changes to the Nicene Creed after the Second Ecumenical Council gave it its final form. Thus, she also committed a sharp canonical offense.

When Roman theologians try to suggest that the whole difference between Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is that the first teaches about the procession "from the Son", and the second - "through the Son", then in such a statement lies at least misunderstanding (although sometimes our church writers, following the Catholic ones, allow themselves to repeat this thought): for the expression "through the Son" does not constitute the dogma of the Orthodox Church at all, but is only an explanatory device of some of the holy fathers in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity; the very meaning of the teachings of the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church is essentially different.

10. Consubstantial, equal deity and equanimity of the Persons of the Holy Trinity

The three Hypostases of the Holy Trinity have one and the same being, each of the Hypostases has the fullness of deity, boundless and immeasurable; the three Hypostases are equally honorable and worshipable.

As for the fullness of the divinity of the First Person of the Holy Trinity, there were no heretics who rejected or belittled it in the history of the Christian Church. However, we meet deviations from the truly Christian teaching about God the Father. So, in antiquity, under the influence of the Gnostics, the doctrine of God as the Absolute, God, detached from everything limited, finite (the word itself "absolute" means "renounced") and therefore has no direct connection with the world, in need of a Mediator; thus, the concept of the Absolute approached the name of God the Father and the concept of the Mediator with the name of the Son of God. Such a view is completely at odds with the Christian understanding, with the teaching of the word of God. The Word of God teaches us that God is close to the world, that "God is Love" (1 John 4: 8; 4:16), that God - God the Father - so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him had eternal life; God the Father, inseparable from the Son and the Spirit, belongs to the creation of the world and an unceasing providence for the world. If in the word of God the Son is called the Mediator, then because the Son of God took on human nature, became God-man and united the Divine with humanity, united the earthly with the heavenly, but not at all because the Son is supposedly a necessary connecting principle between the infinitely distant from the world by God the Father and the created finite world.

In the history of the Church, the main dogmatic work of the holy fathers was aimed at affirming the truth of consubstantiality, the fullness of divinity and the equality of the Second and Third Hypostases of the Holy Trinity.

11. Consubstantial, equal deity and equanimity of God the Son with God the Father

Rev. John Damascene writes about the consubstantiality and equality of God the Son with God the Father:

“So this one and only God is not without the Word. If He has the Word, then He must have a Word that is not hypostatic, which has begun to be and which has to cease. For there was no time when God was without the Word. On the contrary, God always has His Word, which is born of Him ... God, as everlasting and perfect, and the Word will also have the perfect and hypostatic, which always is, lives and has everything that the Parent has. … The Word of God, since it exists by itself, differs from the one from whom it has the hypostasis; because it manifests in itself the same thing that is in God; then by nature there is one with him. For as perfection is seen in the Father in all respects, so the same is seen in the Word born of Him.

But if we say that the Father is the beginning of the Son and is greater than Him (John 14:28), then this does not show that He takes precedence over the Son in time or in nature; for through Him the Father create forever (Heb. 1: 2). Nor does it prevail in any other respect, if not in respect of cause; that is, because the Son was born from the Father, and not the Father from the Son, that the Father is the originator of the Son by nature, just as we do not say that fire comes from light, but, on the contrary, light comes from fire. So, when we hear that the Father is the beginning and greater than the Son, then we must understand the Father as the cause. And just as we do not say that fire is of one essence, and light is of another, so we cannot say that the Father is of one essence, and the Son is different, but (both) are one and the same. And how we say that fire shines through the light emanating from it, and we do not believe that the light emanating from fire is its service organ, but, on the contrary, is its natural strength; so we say about the Father, that everything that the Father does, he does through His Only Begotten Son, not as a service instrument, but as through natural and hypostatic Power; and just as we say that fire illuminates and again we say that the light of fire illuminates, so everything that the Father does and the Son also does (John 5:19). But light does not have a hypostasis special from fire; The Son is the perfect hypostasis, inseparable from the Father's hypostasis, as we have shown above.

Prot. Mikhail Pomazansky (Orthodox dogmatic theology):

In the early Christian period, until the Church's faith in the consubstantial and equality of the Persons of the Holy Trinity was precisely formulated in strictly defined terms, it so happened that those Church writers who carefully preserved their agreement with the universal Church consciousness and did not intend to violate it in any way. with their personal views, they sometimes admitted, alongside clear Orthodox thoughts, expressions about the Divinity of the Persons of the Holy Trinity that were not entirely accurate, did not clearly affirm the equality of Persons.

This was mainly due to the fact that the pastors of the Church put in one and the same term - one content, others - another. The concept of "being" in the Greek language was expressed by the word usia, and this term was understood by all, in general, the same. As for the concept of "Persons", it was expressed in different words: ipostasis, prosopon. The various uses of the word "hypostasis" made it unclear. With this term, some denoted the "Face" of the Holy Trinity, while others, the "Being". This circumstance made mutual understanding difficult, while, at the suggestion of St. Athanasius, it was not decided to mean definitely by the word "hypostasis" - "Person".

But besides this, in the ancient Christian period there were heretics who deliberately rejected or belittled the Deity of the Son of God. Heresies of this kind were numerous and at times caused great disturbances in the Church. These were, in particular, the heretics:

In the Apostolic Age - Evionites (named after the heretic Evion); the early holy fathers testify that against them St. the evangelist John the Theologian wrote his Gospel;

In the third century, Paul of Samosata, denounced by two councils of Antioch, in the same century.

But the most dangerous of all heretics was - in the 4th century - Arius, the presbyter of Alexandria. Arius taught that the Word, or the Son of God, received its beginning of being in time, although above all; that He was created by God, although then through Him God created everything; that He is called the Son of God only as the most perfect of created spirits and has a nature other than the Father, not Divine.

This heretical teaching of Arius excited the whole Christian world, as it carried away so many. The First Ecumenical Council was convened against him in 325, and at it 318 chief hierarchs of the Church unanimously expressed the ancient teaching of Orthodoxy and condemned the false teaching of Arius. The Council solemnly pronounced an anathema against those who say that there was a time when there was no Son of God, against those who claim that He was created or that He is from a different entity than God the Father. The Council compiled the Symbol of Faith, confirmed and supplemented later at the Second Ecumenical Council. The Council expressed the unity and equality of the Son of God with God the Father in the Creed in the words: "consubstantial with the Father."

The Arian heresy after the Council split into three branches and continued to exist for several decades. It was subjected to further refutation, its details were reported at several local councils and in the writings of the great fathers of the Church of the IV century, and partly in the 5th century (Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, Epiphanius, Ambrose of Mediolansky, Cyril Alexandria and others). However, the spirit of this heresy later found a place in various false teachings, both in the Middle Ages and in modern times.

The Fathers of the Church, answering the Arians to their reasoning, did not ignore any of those passages of Holy Scripture to which the heretics referred to justify their thought about the inequality of the Son with the Father. In the group of sayings of the Holy Scriptures, which speak, as it were, of the inequality of the Son with the Father, the following should be borne in mind: a) that the Lord Jesus Christ is not only God, but became a Man, and such sayings can refer to His humanity; b) that, in addition, He, as our Redeemer, was in the days of His earthly life in a state of voluntary humiliation, " humbled Himself, being obedient even to death"(Phil. 2: 7-8); therefore, even when the Lord speaks of His Godhead, He, as sent by the Father, as He who came to fulfill the will of the Father on earth, sets Himself into obedience to the Father, being consubstantial and equal in honor to Him, as The Son, giving us an example of obedience, this subordination does not refer to the Being (usia) of the Godhead, but to the action of Persons in the world: the Father is the sending, the Son is the sent. This is the obedience of love.

Such is the meaning, in particular, of the words of the Savior in the Gospel of John: " My Father is greater than Me"(John 14:28). It should be noted that they were told to the disciples in the farewell conversation after the words expressing the idea of ​​the fullness of Divinity and the unity of the Son with the Father -" Whoever loves Me will keep My word: My Father will also love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him."(John 14:23). In these words, the Savior unites the Father and Himself in one word" We "and speaks equally in the name of the Father and from His own; but as sent by the Father into the world (John 14:24), He puts Himself in a subordinate relation to the Father (John 14:28).

When the Lord said: " No one knows about that day or hour, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only Father ts "(Mark 13, 32), - said about Himself in a state of voluntary humiliation; leading according to the Divine, He humbled Himself to the point of ignorance of humanity. St. Gregory the Theologian interprets these words in a similar way.

When the Lord said: " My Father! If possible, let this cup pass from Me; however, not as I want, but as You"(Matthew 26, 39), - showed in Himself the human weakness of the flesh, but coordinated His human will with His Divine will, which is one with the will of the Father (Blessed Theophylact). This truth is expressed in the words of the Eucharistic canon of the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom about the Lamb - the Son of God, "who came, and still looking at us, in the night, indulging in a nude, even more than giving Himself for the life of the world."

When the Lord called on the cross: " My God, My God! Why did you leave me?"(Matthew 27, 46), - then he called on behalf of all mankind. He came into the world in order to suffer with humanity his guilt and his distance from God, his abandonment by God, for, as the prophet Isaiah says, He is" sins it bears ours and sickens about us "(Isa. 53, 5-6). This is how St. Gregory the Theologian explains these words of the Lord.

When, going to heaven after His resurrection, the Lord said to His disciples: " I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God"(John 20:17), - then he spoke not in the same sense about His attitude towards the Father and about their attitude towards the Heavenly Father. Therefore, he said separately: not" to our "Father, but" To my Father and to your Father". God the Father is His Father by nature, and ours is by grace (St. John of Damascus). The Savior's words contain the thought that the Heavenly Father has now become closer to us, that His Heavenly Father has now become our Father - and we are His children - by grace. This is accomplished by earthly life, the death of the cross and the resurrection of Christ. " See what love the Father gave us to be called and be children of God"- writes the Apostle John (1 John 3: 1). After the completion of the work of our adoption to God, the Lord ascends to the Father as a God-man, that is, not only in His Divinity, but also in Mankind, and being of one nature with us , appends the words: " to my God and your God", suggesting that He is forever united with us by His Humanity.

A detailed examination of these and similar passages of Holy Scripture is found in St. Athanasius the Great (in words against the Arians), in St. Basil the Great (in Book IV against Eunomius), at St. Gregory the Theologian and others who wrote against the Arians.

But if there are implicit expressions similar to those given in the Holy Scriptures about Jesus Christ, then they are numerous, and one could say - countless, places testifying to the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel taken as a whole bears witness to Him. Of the individual passages, we will indicate only a few, the most important ones. Some of them say that the Son of God is the true God. Others - that He is equal to the Father. Still others - that He is consubstantial with the Father.

It must be remembered that the naming of the Lord Jesus Christ as God (Theos) in itself speaks of the fullness of the Godhead. "God" cannot be (from the logical, philosophical point of view) - "second degree", "lower class", God is limited. The properties of the Divine nature are not subject to convention, change, decrease. If "God", then in whole, not in part. This is indicated by the Apostle Paul, speaking of the Son that " For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily"(Col. 2: 9.) That the Son of God is the True God, says:

a) the direct naming of Him by God in the Holy Scriptures:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. Everything through Him began to be, and without Him nothing began to be that began to be"(John 1, 1-3).

"Great piety mystery: God appeared in the flesh"(1 Tim. 3:16).

"We also know that the Son of God came and gave us (light and) reason, that we may know (God) the true and may we be in His true Son Jesus Christ: This is the true God and eternal life "(1 John 5:20).

"Theirs are the fathers, and of them is Christ according to the flesh, who art over all God, blessed forever, amen"(Rom. 9: 5).

"My Lord and my God!"- exclamation of the Apostle Thomas (John 20, 28).

"So take heed to yourself and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of the Lord and God, which He acquired for Himself with His own blood."(Acts 20, 28).

"We lived piously in this age, waiting for the blessed hope and manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. "(Tit. 2, 12-13). That the name "great God" belongs here to Jesus Christ, we are convinced of this from the structure of speech in Greek (a common term for the words "God and Savior") and from the context of this chapter.

c) calling Him "the Only Begotten":

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt with us, full of grace and truth, and we saw His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father"(John 1:14, 18).

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."(John 3:16).

On the equality of the Son with the Father:

"My Father still does, and I do"(John 5:17).

"For what He does, so the Son also does" (John 5:19).

"For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, so the Son also gives life to whomever he wants"(John 5:21).

"For as the Father has life in himself, so he gave the Son to have life in himself"(John 5:26).

"That everyone should honor the Son as they honor the Father"(John 5:23).

On the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father:

"I and the Father are one" (John 10:30): en esmen - consubstantial.

"I am in the Father and the Father is in me"(is) (John 24:11; 10:38).

"And all mine is yours, and yours is mine"(John 17: 10).

The Word of God also speaks of the eternity of the Son of God:

"I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is, and was, and is coming, the Almighty."(Rev. 1, 8).

"And now, O Father, glorify Me with You with the glory that I had with You before the world was."(John 17: 5).

About His omnipresence:

"No one ascended to heaven, but the Son of Man who came down from heaven, which is in heaven "(John 3:13).

"For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them"(Matthew 18:20).

About the Son of God as the Creator of the world:

"Everything through Him began to be, and without Him nothing began to be that began to be "(John 1, 3).

"For by Him was created everything that is in heaven and that on earth, visible and invisible: whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or powers - everything was created by Him and for Him; And He is first of all, and everything costs Him"(Col. 1: 16-17).

Likewise, the word of God speaks of other divine properties of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As for the Holy Tradition, it contains quite clear evidence of the universal faith of Christians in the first centuries in the true Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see the universality of this faith:

From the Articles of Faith, which were used in every local church even before the Council of Nicea;

From the confessions of faith compiled at Councils or on behalf of the Council of the pastors of the Church up to the 4th century;

From the writings of the apostolic men and teachers of the Church of the first centuries;

From the written testimonies of persons external to Christianity, reporting that Christians worship "Christ as God" (for example, a letter from Pliny the Younger to Emperor Troyan; testimony of the enemy of Christians, the writer Celsus and others).

12. Consubstantial, equal deity and equanimity of the Holy Spirit with God the Father and the Son of God

In the history of the ancient Church, the belittling of the Divine dignity of the Son of God by heretics was usually accompanied by the belittling of the dignity of the Holy Spirit by the heretics.

In the second century, the heretic Valentine taught falsely about the Holy Spirit, who said that the Holy Spirit does not differ in nature from angels. The Arians also thought. But the head of the heretics who distorted the apostolic doctrine of the Holy Spirit was Macedonius, who occupied the Constantinople archbishop's see in the IV century, who found followers in the former Arians and semi-Arians. He called the Holy Spirit the creation of the Son, serving the Father and the Son. The denouncers of his heresy were the Church Fathers: Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Athanasius the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, Amphilochius, Diodorus of Tarsus and others, who wrote works against heretics. The false doctrine of Macedonia was refuted first at a number of local councils and, finally, at the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (381 years). The Second Ecumenical Council, in order to preserve Orthodoxy, supplemented the Nicene Creed with the words: "(We believe) in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, Life-giving, who is descended from the Father, Who is worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, who spoke the prophets," - as well as further members included in the Niceo-Constantinople Creed.

Of the numerous testimonies about the Holy Spirit found in Holy Scripture, it is especially important to keep in mind such passages that a) confirm the teaching of the Church that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal Divine power, but the Person of the Holy Trinity, and b) confirm His consubstantial and equal Divine dignity with the first and second Persons of the Holy Trinity.

A) The testimonies of the first kind - that the Holy Spirit is the bearer of a personal principle - are the words of the Lord in a farewell conversation with the disciples, where the Lord calls the Holy Spirit "the Comforter", Who will "come", "teach", "convict": " When the Comforter comes, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me"(John 15, 26) ..." And He, having come, will convict the world about sin, and about righteousness, and about judgment. About the sin that they do not believe in Me; About righteousness, that I am going to My Father, and you will no longer see Me; About judgment, that the prince of the world is condemned"(John 16: 8-11).

The Apostle Paul clearly speaks of the Spirit as a Person when, speaking about the various gifts from the Holy Spirit - the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healings, miracles, discerning of spirits, different languages, interpretation of different languages, - he concludes: " Yet it is produced by the same Spirit, sharing to each separately as He pleases"(1 Cor. 12: 11).

B) The words of the Apostle Peter, addressed to Ananias, who concealed the value of his property, speak about the Spirit as God: " Why did you allow Satan to put in your heart the thought to lie to the Holy Spirit ... You did not lie to people, but to God"(Acts 5: 3-4).

Passages such as:

"baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit"(Matthew 28, 19),

"The grace of the Lord (our) Jesus Christ, and the love of God (Father), and the communion of the Holy Spirit with you all"(2 Cor. 13, 13):

All three Persons of the Holy Trinity are named here equally. The Savior Himself expressed the divine dignity of the Holy Spirit in the following words: " If anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, he will be forgiven; if anyone speaks to the Holy Spirit, he will not be forgiven either in this age or in the future"(Matthew 12:32).

13. Images explaining the mystery of the Holy Trinity

Prot. Mikhail Pomazansky:

“Desiring to bring the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity closer to our earthly concepts, the incomprehensible to the comprehensible, the Church Fathers resorted to similitudes from nature, which are: a) the sun, its ray and light; b) the root, trunk and fruit of the tree; c) a spring, a spring gushing from it and a stream; d) three candles burning one at the other, giving one indivisible light; e) fire, shine from it and warmth from it; f) mind, will and memory; g) consciousness, subconsciousness and desire and the like. "

The life of the Monk Cyril, the enlightener of the Slavs, tells how he explained the mystery of the Holy Trinity:

“Then the Saracen sages asked Constantine:

Why do you Christians divide One God into three: you call it Father, Son and Spirit. If God can have a Son, then give Him a wife, so that there are many gods?

Do not blaspheme the Divine Trinity, - answered the Christian philosopher, - which we have learned to confess from the ancient prophets, whom you also acknowledge as being circumcised with them. They teach us that the Father, Son and Spirit are three hypostases, but their essence is one. This similarity can be seen in the sky. So in the sun, created by God in the image of the Holy Trinity, there are three things: a circle, a light ray and warmth. In the Holy Trinity, the solar circle is the likeness of God the Father. Just as the circle has neither beginning nor end, so God is beginningless and endless. As from the solar circle comes a light ray and solar warmth, so from God the Father a Son is born and the Holy Spirit emanates. Thus, the sunbeam, which illuminates the entire universe, is the likeness of God the Son, born of the Father and appearing in this world, while the solar warmth emanating from the same solar circle together with the ray is the likeness of God the Holy Spirit, Who, together with the Son being born, is eternal comes from the Father, although in time it is sent to people by the Son! [Those. for the merits of Christ on the Cross: "for the Holy Spirit was not yet upon them, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39)], as ex. he was sent to the apostles in the form of tongues of fire. And like the sun, consisting of three objects: a circle, a light ray and heat, it is not divided into three suns, although each of these objects has its own characteristics, one is a circle, the other is a ray, the third is heat, but not three suns, but one, so the Holy Trinity, although it has Three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is not divided by the Divine into three gods, but there is One God. Do you remember how the Scripture says about how God appeared to the forefather Abraham by the Maurian oak, from which you keep circumcision? God appeared to Abraham in Three Persons. "He lifted up his eyes (Abraham) and looked, and behold, three men stood opposite him, seeing, he ran to meet them from the entrance to the tent and bowed to the ground. And he said: Master, if I have found favor with You, do not pass by Your servant. "(Genesis 18, 2-3).

Pay attention: Abraham sees three Men before him, but he talks as if with One, saying: "Lord, if I have found favor with Thee." Obviously, the holy forefather confessed one God in Three Persons. "

To clarify the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the holy fathers also pointed to a person who is the image of God.

Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov teaches:

"Our mind is the image of the Father; our word (we usually call the unspoken word thought) is the image of the Son; spirit is the image of the Holy Spirit. As in the Trinity-God, three Persons are indivisibly and inseparably one Divine Being, so in the Trinity-man three persons make one being, not mixing with each other, not merging into one person, not dividing into three beings.Our mind has given birth and does not cease to give birth to thought, thought, having been born, does not cease to be born again, and at the same time remains born, intimate in the mind. Mind without thought cannot exist, and thought is without mind. The beginning of one is certainly the beginning of the other; the existence of mind is inevitably the existence of thought. In the same way, our spirit proceeds from the mind and contributes to thought. That is why every thought has its own spirit, every way of thinking has its separate spirit, every book has its own spirit. Thought cannot be without spirit, the existence of one is inevitably accompanied by the existence of the other. In the existence of both is the existence of the mind. "

St. right. John of Kronstadt:

“We sin in thought, word and deed. To become pure images of the Most Holy Trinity, we must strive for the holiness of our thoughts, words and deeds. Thought corresponds in God to the Father, words to the Son, deeds to the Holy Spirit all-accomplishing. The sins of thinking in a Christian is an important matter, because all our pleasing to God is, according to the testimony of St. Macarius of Egypt, in thoughts: for thoughts are the beginning, words and activities come from them - words, because they either give grace to those who hear, or are rotten words and serve as a temptation for others, corrupting the thoughts and hearts of others; deeds all the more, because examples have the strongest effect on people, drawing them to imitate them. "

“As in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are inseparable, so in prayer and in our life thought, word and deed must be inseparable. Do you ask God for anything, believe that what will happen will be done at your request, as God wills; you read the word of God - believe that everything that it says was, is and will be, or has been done, is being done and will be done. So believe, so speak, so read, so pray. Great thing is the word. A great thing is the thinking, speaking and acting soul, the image and likeness of the omnipotent Trinity. Human! know yourself who you are, and behave in accordance with your dignity. "

14. Incomprehensibility of the mystery of the Holy Trinity

The images offered by the holy fathers help us to get a little closer to understanding the mystery of the Holy Trinity, but we must not forget that they are incomplete and cannot explain it to us. Here is what he says about these attempts at similarity Saint Gregory the Theologian:

"Whatever I considered with myself in my inquisitive mind, what I did not enrich my mind, where I did not look for a likeness for this sacrament, I did not find anything to which the earthly nature could be likened to God's nature. then much more escapes, leaving me below with that which was chosen for comparison. ”Following the example of others, I imagined a spring, a key and a stream and reasoned: do not they have similarities with one Father, with another Son, with the third the Holy Spirit? For a spring, a spring and a stream are inseparable by time, and their coexistence is continuous, although it seems that they are separated by three properties. such a similarity does not introduce numerical unity either. For the spring, the key and the stream in relation to the number are one, they are different only in the image of representation. I again took into consideration the sun, ray and light. oh any difficulty seen in the sun and that of the sun. Secondly, so that, having ascribed essence to the Father, not to deprive other Persons of the same independent essence and not to make them the powers of God, which exist in the Father, but would not be independent. Because ray and light are not the sun, but some solar outpourings and essential qualities of the sun. Thirdly, so as not to ascribe to God both being and non-being (to what conclusion can this example lead); and that would be even more absurd than what was said before ... And in general I do not find anything that, upon consideration, would stop the thought on the chosen similitudes, unless someone with due prudence takes from the image one something and discards all the rest. Finally, I concluded that it is best to abandon all images and shadows, as deceitful and far from reaching the truth, to stick to the mindset of the more pious, stopping at a few utterances, to have the Spirit as a guide, and what illumination received from Him, then, keeping to end, with Him, as with a sincere accomplice and interlocutor, go through the present century, and as far as possible and persuade others to worship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one Deity and one Power. "

Bishop Alexander (Mileant):

“All these and other similarities, making it somewhat easier to assimilate the mystery of the Trinity, are, however, only the faintest allusions to the nature of the Supreme Being. They leave a consciousness of inadequacy, of inconsistency with that lofty object, for the understanding of which they are used. They cannot remove from the doctrine of the Triune God that veil of incomprehensibility, mystery, which this doctrine is clothed with for the mind of man.

In this respect, one instructive story has survived about the famous Western teacher of the Church - Blessed Augustine. Once immersed in the thought of the mystery of the Trinity and drawing up a plan for an essay on this topic, he went to the seashore. There he saw the boy, playing in the sand, digging a hole. Approaching the boy, Augustine asked him: "What are you doing?" “I want to pour the sea into this hole,” the boy replied, smiling. Then Augustine understood: "Am I not doing the same as this child, when I try to exhaust the sea of ​​God's infinity with my mind?"

Likewise, that great ecumenical saint, who is honored by the Church in the name of the Theologian for his ability to penetrate with his thoughts to the deepest secrets of faith, wrote to himself that he often speaks about the Trinity comprehension of the dogma of the Trinity. “Whatever I considered with my inquiring mind,” he says, “with whatever I enriched the mind, wherever I looked for a likeness for this, I did not find anything to which the divine nature could be applied.”

So, the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity is the deepest, incomprehensible mystery of faith. All efforts to make it understandable, to introduce it into the usual framework of our thinking are in vain. “Here is the limit of that,” notes St. Athanasius the Great - “that cherubim cover with wings”.

St. Philaret of Moscow answering the question "is it possible to comprehend the Trinity of God?" - writes:

“God is one in three persons. We do not comprehend this inner mystery of the Divine, but believe in it by the immutable testimony of the word of God: "No one knows God except the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:11). "

Rev. John Damascene:

“It is impossible for an image to be found among the creatures that in everything similarly shows in itself the properties of the Holy Trinity. For created and complex, transient and changeable, described and having an image and perishable - how exactly will the divine essence, alien to all this, explain? And it is known that every creature is subject to most of these properties and, by its very nature, is subject to decay ”.

“There must be breath for the Word; for our word is not without breath. But our breath is different from our being: it is the inhalation and exhalation of air drawn in and out for the existence of the body. When a word is pronounced, it becomes a sound that reveals the power of the word. And in God's nature, simple and uncomplicated, one must piously confess the existence of the Spirit of God, because His Word is not more insufficient than our word; but it would be unrighteous to think that in God the Spirit is something outside of the entrance, as it happens in us, complex beings. On the contrary, when we hear about the Word of God, we do not recognize Him as hypostatic or as such, which is acquired by teaching, pronounced in a voice, spreads in the air and disappears, but as such, which exists hypostatically, has a free will, - is active and omnipotent: thus, having learned that the Spirit God accompanies the Word and manifests His action; we do not regard Him with an unhypostatic breath; for in this way we would humiliate to nothing the greatness of the divine nature, if we had the same understanding about the Spirit that is in Him, which we have about our spirit; but we regard Him as a power that really exists, beholden in its own and special personal being, proceeding from the Father, resting in the Word and manifesting Him, which therefore cannot be separated either from God, in Whom it is, nor from the Word, which accompanies it, and which does not reveal itself so as to disappear, but, like the Word, exists personally, lives, has a free will, moves by itself, is active, always wants good, in any will, by force, accompanies desire and has neither beginning nor end; for the Father was never without the Word, nor the Word without the Spirit.

Thus, the unity of nature completely refutes the polytheism of the Hellenes, and the acceptance of the Word and the Spirit rejects the teaching of the Jews; and from both remains what is useful, that is, from the teachings of the Jews - the unity of nature, and from Hellenism - one difference in hypostases.

If a Jew begins to contradict the acceptance of the Word and the Spirit, then he must convict him and block his mouth with the Divine Scripture. For the Divine David says about the Word: For ever, Lord, Thy Word is in heaven (Ps. 119, 89), and in another place: Send His Word, and heal I (Ps. 106, 20); - but the word spoken by the mouth is not sent out and does not endure forever. And about the Spirit the same David says: After your Spirit, and they will be created (Psalm 103, 30); and in another place: by the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their power (Ps. 32: 6); also Job: the Spirit of God created me, but the breath of the Almighty teaches me (Job 33: 4); - but the Spirit that is sent, creating, affirming and preserving is not a vanishing breath, just as the mouth of God is not a bodily member: but both should be understood in a respectful manner. "

Prot. Seraphim Slobodskoy:

“The great mystery that God revealed to us about Himself - the mystery of the Holy Trinity, our weak mind cannot contain, understand.

…St. Augustine is talking:

"You see the Trinity if you see love." This means that the mystery of the Holy Trinity can sooner be understood with the heart, that is, with love, than with our weak mind. "

15. The dogma of trinity indicates the completeness of the mysterious inner life in God: God is Love

Orthodox dogmatic theology:

“The dogma of trinity indicates the completeness of the mysterious inner life in God, for“ God is love ”(1 John 4: 8; 4, 16), and the love of God cannot only extend to the world created by God: in the Holy Trinity it is also turned inward Divine life.

Even more clearly for us, the dogma of trinity indicates the closeness of God to the world: God is above us, God is with us, God is in us and in all creation. Above us is God the Father, the ever-flowing Source, according to the expression of the church prayer, the Basis of all being, the Father of generosity, loving us and taking care of us, His creation, we are His children by grace. With us is God the Son, His birth, for the sake of Divine love He revealed Himself to people as a Man, so that we know and see with our own eyes that God is with us, "sincerely", that is, in the most perfect way "partaking of us" (Heb. 2:14).

In us and in all creation - by His power and grace - the Holy Spirit, Who fill everything, life Giver, Life-giving, Comforter, Treasure and Source of good. "

St. Gregory Palamas:

“The Spirit of the Highest Word is, as it were, some ineffable Love of the Parent for the Inexpressible Word itself. This Love is enjoyed by the Beloved Son Himself and the Word of the Father, having It in relation to the Parent, as having come with Him from the Father and resting in Himself unitedly. From this Word communicating with us through His flesh, we are taught about the name of the Spirit, which differs in hypostatic existence from the Father, and also about the fact that He is not only the Spirit of the Father, but also the Spirit of the Son. For He says: "The Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father" (John 15:26), so that we know not only the Word, but also the Spirit, which is from the Father, not begotten, but proceeding: He is also the Spirit of the Son who has Him from the Father as the Spirit of Truth, Wisdom and Word. For Truth and Wisdom is the Word corresponding to the Parent and rejoicing with the Father, according to what He said through Solomon: "I was and rejoiced with Him." He did not say "rejoiced", but precisely "rejoiced", because the eternal Joy of the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit as common to Both, according to the words of Holy Scripture.

That is why the Holy Spirit by both is sent to worthy people, having being from the Father alone and from Him alone proceeding by being. The image of this Highest Love also has our mind, created in the image of God, [nourishing it] to knowledge, from Him and in Him constantly abiding; and this love is from Him and in Him, proceeding from Him together with the inner Word. And this insatiable desire of people for knowledge serves as a clear evidence of such love, even for those who are unable to comprehend the innermost depths of themselves. But in that Archetype, in that all-perfect and super-perfect Goodness, in Which there is nothing imperfect, except for what comes from It, Divine Love is completely Goodness Itself. Therefore, this Love is the Holy Spirit and another Comforter (John 14:16), and so we call it, since He accompanies the Word, so that we know that the Holy Spirit, being perfect in a perfect and own Hypostasis, is in no way inferior to the essence of the Father , but invariably identical in nature to the Son and the Father, differing from Them in Hypostasis and presenting to us His divine procession from the Father. "

Bp. Alexander Mileant:

“However, for all its incomprehensibility, the teaching of the Holy Trinity is of great moral importance to us, and, obviously, that is why this secret is open to people. Indeed, it elevates the very idea of ​​monotheism, puts it on solid ground and removes those important, insurmountable difficulties that previously arose for human thought. Some of the thinkers of pre-Christian antiquity, rising to the concept of the unity of the supreme Being, could not resolve the question of what actually manifests the life and activity of this Being by Himself, outside of His relationship to the world. And so the Deity was either identified in their view with the world (pantheism), or was lifeless, closed in itself, immobile, isolated principle (deism), or turned into a formidable fate that inexorably dominates the world (fatalism). Christianity in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity has revealed that in the Trinitarian Being and in addition to His relationship to the world, the infinite fullness of the inner, mysterious life is manifested from time immemorial. God, in the words of one ancient teacher of the Church (Peter the Chrysologus), is one, but not alone. In Him there is a difference of Persons who are in continuous communication with each other. "God the Father is not born and does not emanate from another Person, the Son of God is eternally born from the Father, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father." From time immemorial, this interconnection of Divine Persons consists of the inner, hidden life of the Divine, which before Christ was covered with an impenetrable veil.

Through the mystery of the Trinity, Christianity taught not only to honor God, to revere Him, but also to love Him. Through this very secret, it gave the world that gratifying and significant idea that God is boundless, perfect Love. The strict, dry monotheism of other religious teachings (Judaism and Mohammedanism), without rising to the frank idea of ​​the Divine Trinity, cannot therefore rise to the true concept of love as the dominant property of God. Love by its very essence is unthinkable outside union, communication. If God is alone, then in relation to whom could His Love be revealed? To the world? But the world is not eternal. How could Divine love be manifested in the domir eternity? Moreover, the world is limited, and the love of God cannot be revealed in all its infinity. The highest love for its full manifestation requires the same highest object. But where is he? Only the mystery of the Triune God provides a solution to all these difficulties. She reveals that the love of God has never remained inactive, without manifestations: the Persons of the Holy Trinity have been with each other in continuous communication of love from eternity. The Father loves the Son (John 5:20; 3:35), and calls Him beloved (Matthew 3:17; 17: 5, etc.). The Son says about Himself: “I love the Father” (John 14:31). The short but expressive words of Blessed Augustine are deeply true: “The mystery of the Christian Trinity is the mystery of Divine love. You see the Trinity if you see love. ”

Perhaps everyone knows what the Holy Trinity is. By this concept they mean the triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit (sometimes referred to as the Holy Trinity). But what does this mean - in other words, how can one God manifest himself in three persons at once?

A detailed answer to this question, a first-hand commentary from a representative of the church - all this can be found in the material.

Trinity is the basic concept of the Christian religion about God. It means that God has three persons (sometimes they are also called hypostases):

• God the Father;
• God the Son (Jesus Christ);
• God the Holy Spirit.

These faces appear in the history of mankind sequentially, one after the other - first, the Father created heaven and earth and everything that is on them. Then the Son came to save sinful humanity. And on the fiftieth day after his physical death, the Holy Spirit descended on earth. This means the onset of a graceful time when each person can receive forgiveness and salvation through sincere repentance in prayer.

Moreover, in reality, all three persons have the same nature and exist without beginning and without end. Interestingly, a certain hint of this can be seen on the very first page of the Bible.

In the book of Genesis (chapter 1), the process of the creation of the world is described step by step. Everyone knows the phrase "And God said ... and it was so." First came light, then land, oceans, vegetation, animals. Finally, the sixth day came - the man's turn came.

And at this point, the attentive reader will easily notice a kind of surprise:

And God said: Let us make man in Our image and in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creeping things that creep on the earth.

How so? Until this moment, God did not address anyone, he simply gave orders and created heaven and earth, as well as living beings. When it comes to the creation of man, God is clearly speaking to someone.

Here it is - the first mention of the Trinity of the Bible: even on the basis of this place, one can understand what it means (both in Orthodoxy and in general in Christian doctrine).

The Most Holy Trinity is God who exists without beginning and without end. However, many people still find it difficult to understand what the Trinity is in Orthodoxy and in Christianity in general.

In other words, how can it be that three persons represent one God? This is not a person's fault - the voice of reason often dominates over faith and wants to receive only specific, clear answers: 1 day, 2 kilograms, 3 kilometers, etc.

The idea of ​​the trinity of God does not fit into a logical framework. After all, mathematics is an exact science, which says that one is one, and three is three. But the point is that faith is not mathematics.

Moreover, the nature of God and his powers in many ways remain a great mystery for man. By the way, science has its own "big" riddles - for example, where did humanity come from, for what purpose it appeared on earth. If we take a close look at our life, we will discover one curious fact: there are much more questions than answers.

Moreover, we are talking not only about important tasks, but even about everyday, everyday affairs. Sometimes even the simplest action gives a person some confusion. What can we say about the mysteries of the Universe, and even more so about the secrets associated with its Creator?

Yes, God is one, but at the same time he is manifested in three persons. However, even on our planet we can find many examples that at least well illustrate this analogy. For example, water can be steam, ice, and liquid - and this is the only substance that, under terrestrial conditions, is capable of being in 3 states at once. And at the same time, water remains water, its nature is one.

And here is another example - a rainbow with its infinite number of tones and halftones. Until now, no one has been able to "disassemble" it into parts, but this is not required: only a combination of colors can be recognized as a rainbow. And individually, each of them is nothing more than a shade of a particular tone.

And there are many more such examples. But their essence is the same: the same nature of things, and at the same time - their different manifestation. This means that the Holy Trinity is one God, manifested in three persons.

Therefore, the question of what the Holy Trinity is in Orthodoxy or in Christianity in general can be answered very briefly: this is God.

What does the Holy Trinity mean in Orthodoxy: a priest's answer

A detailed video commentary by a priest about who the Holy Trinity is and what the Holy Trinity means in Christianity can be seen here.

History and significance of the feast of the Holy Trinity

A holiday of the same name is celebrated in honor of the Holy Trinity. It is traditionally met on the 50th day after Easter (i.e., it also always falls on Sunday).

Interestingly, the very word "Trinity" appeared after the writing of the Bible and even after the earthly life of Christ - it was introduced into circulation by the ancient Greek priest Theophilus of Antioch in the 2nd century AD. And the idea of ​​the trinity of God originated even earlier - it was initiated by a story that happened exactly 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus.

Even during his lifetime, the Savior promised that after his death the Holy Spirit would definitely descend on earth. Most likely, then people did not fully understand his words. Then quite a lot of events took place - dramatic and festive. First, as you know, the Lord entered Jerusalem (on this day we celebrate Palm Sunday), then he died and rose again (Easter), and after 40 days he went to heaven (Ascension).

And on the fiftieth day, several apostles, disciples of Jesus, gather together in one house in Jerusalem. The Bible reads quite nicely about this (Acts 1:14):

They were all unanimously together.

These people gathered because they followed Christ. Whether they were waiting for the fulfillment of the prophecy about the Holy Spirit or not - but at that moment a real miracle happened.

A very strong noise was heard in the sky, as if thunder or, as we would say today, the hum of a low flying plane. However, no one was afraid of this. And suddenly, at some point, a tongue of flame burst into flames over the head of each apostle. At the same time, the audience began to speak in different languages, which were actually used by many of the surrounding peoples of that time.

This miracle shocked all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and they even thought that Christ's disciples were simply drunk. However, in reality, Jesus' followers were filled with the Holy Spirit. They immediately went to preach his word and teach all the nations, as, incidentally, the Lord commanded.

So it turns out that on the day of Pentecost, the teacher, the patron of people and at the same time the helper of God, and at the same time his third person, descended to earth. And all this is the Holy Spirit.

That is why Trinity is often called the Day of Spirits (although in fact it is not celebrated on the Sunday of Pentecost, but the next day - on Monday). Interestingly, Trinity is celebrated on all three days (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with the main celebrations taking place on the first two of them).

Who is the Holy Trinity for us?

What does the descent of the Holy Spirit mean for us? In other words, what exactly is included in the concept of the Holy Trinity?

Of course, this is the Triune God himself. It may be difficult for a person to realize this with pure logic, but it is quite possible to believe in this truth if you correctly set your heart. The Trinity is the manifestation of God in his entirety, as well as a certain image that symbolizes the fulfillment of the divine plan for humanity.

It can be very briefly described as follows: the Father created heaven and earth, the Son saved all people from sin and granted salvation, and the Holy Spirit laid the foundation for the time of divine grace.

That is why it is on the day of the appearance of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Trinity is celebrated, which means the manifestation of God in all three of his persons. Every believer can now address him directly and ask in prayer for forgiveness, reassurance and satisfaction of their needs. Interestingly, up to this point, people turned to their gods only through animal sacrifices and special rituals that accompanied this event.

That is why the Most Holy Trinity personifies the attitude of God, his love and mercy for every person. Despite our sinful nature, each of us has the right not only to cry for forgiveness, but also for salvation. In the same book of Acts it is written (2:21):

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Here it is - the eternal and priceless gift of salvation that comes from heaven. Thanks to the fulfilled mission of each member of the Holy Trinity, any of us can receive this gift today. All you need is desire and at least a little faith.

The Christian holiday Trinity is one of the Orthodox twelve-year holidays, which is celebrated 50 days after Easter, on Sunday. The churches of the Western tradition celebrate on this day the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, Pentecost, and the Trinity itself - on the following resurrection.

The meaning of the feast of the Trinity

The Bible says that the grace given to the apostles by the Holy Spirit descended on them on this very day. Thanks to this, people were shown the third person of God, they joined the sacrament: the unity of God is manifested in three persons - Father, Son and Spirit. From that day on, the message is preached throughout the earth. In general, the meaning of the Trinity as a holiday is that God reveals to people in stages, and not immediately. In modern Christianity, the Trinity means that the Father, who created all living things, sent people the Son, Jesus Christ, and then the Holy Spirit. For believers, the meaning of the Holy Trinity is reduced to the praise of God in all his guises.

Trinity Celebration Traditions

The Holy Trinity, whose celebration history goes back thousands of years, is also widely celebrated today. The people celebrate Trinity for three days. The first day is Klechalny or Green Sunday, when people had to be extremely careful because of the aggressiveness of mermaids, mavoks, rubbers and other mythical evil spirits. In the villages, the holiday of the Russian Trinity is celebrated in accordance with traditions and certain rituals. The floor of churches and houses was decorated with grass, icons - with birch branches. Green symbolized the renewing and life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. By the way, in some Orthodox Churches, golden and white colors are endowed with the same meaning. Girls on Green Sunday are fortune-telling with the help of wicker wreaths. If the wreaths put on the water come together, then this year the young woman will be matched. On this day, deceased relatives were commemorated in the cemeteries, leaving treats on the graves. And in the evenings, buffoons and mummers entertained the villagers.

Klechany Monday comes in the morning. After the service in the church, the clergy went to the fields and read prayers, asking the Lord for protection for the future harvest. Children at this time participated in interesting games, fun.

On the third day, Bogodukhov day, the girls “took Poplar”. Her role was played by the most beautiful unmarried girl. She was adorned beyond recognition with wreaths, ribbons, and taken to country courtyards to be generously treated by the owners. The water in the wells on this day was sanctified, getting rid of the unclean spirit.

Christian western tradition

Lutheranism and Catholicism share the holidays of Trinity and Pentecost. The cycle opens with Pentecost, a week later Trinity is celebrated, on the 11th day after Pentecost - the feast of the Blood and Body of Christ, on the 19th day - the Sacred Heart of Christ, on the 20th day - the feast of the Immaculate Heart of St. Mary. In Poland and Belarus, Catholic churches in Russia these days, temples are decorated with birch twigs. Trinity is considered a public holiday in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Iceland, Luxembourg, Latvia, Ukraine, Romania, Switzerland, Norway and France.

Trinity and modernity

Today, Trinity is especially celebrated in the countryside. Before this day, the hostesses usually put things in order both in the house and in the courtyard, and prepare festive dishes. They decorate rooms, doors and windows with flowers and grass collected early in the morning, believing that they will not let evil spirits into the house.

In the morning, festive services are held in the temples, and in the evening you can attend concerts, festivities, and take part in fun competitions. Most of the traditions, unfortunately, have been lost, but the holiday is still one of the most important for believers.

Day of the Holy Trinity

This article is about a church celebration. For Slavic rituals, see Trinity Day. Request "Descent of the Holy Spirit" is redirected here; see also other meanings. Pentecost request redirects here; for the Jewish holiday see Shavuot. Type Otherwise Installed Celebrated Date In 2016 In 2017 In 2018 Celebration Associated with

Day of the Holy Trinity

El Greco. "The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles."

Christian, in a number of countries state

The week of St. Pentikostia, Pentecost, Trinity Day, Trinity

in honor of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles on the 50th day after Easter

the majority of Christians in the world

50th day (8th Sunday) after Easter, 10th day after the Ascension

divine services, festivals, folk festivals

Easter and the day of the Holy Spirit

Holy Trinity Day at Wikimedia Commons

Day of the Holy Trinity(abbr. Trinity), Pentecost(Greek Πεντηκοστή), Week of Holy Pentecost, (Greek Κυριακή της ἁγίας Πεντηκοστής), sometimes Whit Monday is one of the main Christian holidays.

Orthodox churches celebrate Holy Trinity Day on Sunday Pentecost- 50th day after Easter (Easter - 1st day). The holiday is one of the twentieth holidays.

In the Western Christian tradition, Pentecost or the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles is celebrated on this day, and the Day of the Holy Trinity itself is celebrated on the following Sunday (57th day after Easter).

In the New Testament

The descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles on the day of Pentecost (Shavuot) is described in the Acts of the Holy Apostles (Acts 2: 1-18). On the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (the tenth day after His ascension), the apostles were in the upper room of Zion in Jerusalem, “... suddenly there was a noise from the sky, as if from a rushing strong wind, and filled the whole house where they were. And divided tongues appeared to them, as it were, of fire, and rested, one on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. "(Acts 2: 2-4).

On this day, Jews from different cities and countries were in the city on the occasion of the holiday. Hearing the noise, they gathered in front of the house where the apostles were, and since "Everyone heard them speaking in his own dialect"(Acts 2: 6), everyone was amazed. Some of them mocked the apostles and "They said they drank sweet wine"(Acts 2:13). In response to this reaction:

And Peter, standing with eleven, lifted up his voice and cried to them: Men of the Jews, and all that dwell in Jerusalem! This let it be known to you, and hearken to my words: they are not drunk, as you think, for it is now three o'clock in the afternoon; but this is what was foretold by the prophet Joel: And in the last days, says God, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy; and your young men will see visions, and your elders will be enlightened by dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy. (Acts 2: 14-18)

Name and interpretation

The holiday received its first name in honor of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, which Jesus Christ promised them before His ascension into heaven. The descent of the Holy Spirit indicated the triplicity of God. What John Chrysostom writes about this:

"And he filled the whole house." The stormy breath was like a font of water; and fire serves as a sign of abundance and strength. This never happened to the prophets; so it was only now - with the apostles; but with the prophets it is different. For example, Ezekiel is given a scroll of a book, and he eats what he was supposed to say: “and it was,” he says, “in my mouth it is sweet as honey” (Ezek. 3: 3). Or again: the hand of God touches the tongue of another prophet (Jer. 1: 9). And here (everything is done) by the Holy Spirit himself and thus is equal to the Father and the Son

On the day of Pentecost, according to Bishop Alexander (Mileant), the universal apostolic Church was formed (Acts 2: 41-47).

The New Testament does not directly mention that the Mother of God was with the apostles at the descent of the Holy Spirit. The tradition of her presence in the iconographic images of this event is based on the indication in the Acts of the Apostles that after the Ascension, the disciples of Jesus "We were with one accord in prayer and supplication, with some wives and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and with His brothers"(Acts 1:14). In this regard, Bishop Innokenty (Borisov) writes: “ Could the one who conceived and gave birth through Him have not been present at the moment of the coming of the Holy Spirit?».

Divine service

In Orthodoxy

Trinity (icon of Andrei Rublev, early 15th century)

Title in liturgical books: "Week of Saint Penticostia"(Church-Slavic Nєdѣѣlѧ Svѧtyѧ of Antikostia, Greek Κυριακή της ἁγίας Πεντηκοστής) On this day, one of the most solemn and beautiful services of the year is performed in Orthodox churches. On the eve, on Saturday evening, a festive all-night vigil is served, at Great Vespers of which three paremias are read: the first of them tells how the Holy Spirit descended on the righteous in the Old Testament (Num. 11: 16-17 + Num. 11: 24-29 ), the second (Joel 2: 23-32) and the third (Ezek. 36: 24-28) paremia, according to the faith of the Orthodox Church, are prophecies of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles at Pentecost; for the first time after Great Lent, the famous stichera of the sixth voice to the King of Heaven is sung in verse, which is repeated twice more after that at the matins of the all-night vigil; from that day on, prayer to the King of Heaven becomes the first prayer of the usual beginning of both church and home prayers. At matins, the polyeleos is served and the Gospel of John is read, the 65th conception (John 20: 19-23); at Matins, two canons of this holiday are sung: the first was written by Cosma Mayumsky, the second by John Damascus. On the holiday itself, a festive liturgy is served, at which the Apostle is read, the 3rd conception (Acts 2: 1-11) and the composite Gospel of John, the 27th conception is read (John 7: 37-52 + John 8:12 ). After the Liturgy, the ninth hour and Great Vespers are served, at which the stichera are sung glorifying the descent of the Holy Spirit, during Vespers three times praying, led by the priest, kneel down - kneel down, and the priest reads seven prayers (the first and second times of kneeling, the priest reads two prayers, and the third time - three prayers) about the Church, about the salvation of all who pray and about the repose of the souls of all the departed (including “ held in hell») - this ends the post-Easter period, during which there are no knees or prostrations in the temples.

Troparion, kontakion and zadostinik on the Week of Holy Pentecost In Greek In Church Slavonic (transliteration) In Russian

Troparion of the holiday, voice 8 (Ἦχος πλ. Δ ")	Εὐλογητὸς εἶ, Χριστὲ ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, ὁ πανσόφους τοὺς ἁλιεῖς ἀναδείξας, καταπέμψας αὐτοῖς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, καὶ δι" αὐτῶν τὴν οἰκουμένην σαγηνεύσας, φιλάνθρωπε, δόξα σοι.	Blessed are you, Christ our God, like the wisdom of the catchers of manifestations, having sent down the Holy Spirit to them, and thus catch the universe: Human-loving, glory to Thee	Blessed are You, Christ our God, who revealed the fishermen as wise, sent them the Holy Spirit and through them caught the universe. Humanitarian, glory to Thee!
Holiday kontakion, voice 8 (Ἦχος πλ. Δ ")	Ὅτε καταβὰς τὰς γλώσσας συνέχεε, διεμέριζεν ἔθνη ὁ Ὕψιστος· ὅτε τοῦ πυρὸς τὰς γλώσσας διένειμεν, εἰς ἑνότητα πάντας ἐκάλεσε, καὶ συμφώνως δοξάζομεν τὸ πανάγιον Πνεῦμα.	When the languages ​​\ u200b \ u200bof merge have come down, separating the languages ​​of the Most High, when you distribute the fiery tongues, all the call is in the union, and according to the praise of the All-Holy Spirit.	When the Most High descended and mixed languages, He thus divided the nations; when he distributed the tongues of fire, He called everyone to unity, and we praise the All-Holy Spirit in accordance.
Celebrant of the holiday, voice 4 (Ἦχος δ ")	«Χαίροις Ἄνασσα, μητροπάρθενον κλέος. Ἄπαν γὰρ εὐδίνητον εὔλαλον στόμα. Ῥητρεῦον, οὐ σθένει σε μέλπειν ἀξίως. Ἰλιγγιᾷ δὲ νοῦς ἅπας σου τὸν τόκον Νοεῖν ὅθεν σε συμφώνως δοξάζομεν»	Rejoice, Queen, motherly glory, any kind of easy-to-read, benevolent mouth cannot be honored, it is worthy to sing for you, but every mind is amazed at your Christmas to understand. We also glorify Thee.	Rejoice, Queen, glory to mothers and virgins! For no mobile, eloquent mouth, speaking, can sing of Thee with dignity; every mind also becomes exhausted, striving to comprehend the birth of Christ from You; therefore we praise you according to you.

According to the Russian tradition, the floor of the church (and houses of believers) on this day is covered with freshly cut grass, icons are decorated with birch branches, and the color of the vestments is green, depicting the life-giving and renewing power of the Holy Spirit (in other Orthodox Churches, vestments of white and gold are also used). The next day, Monday is the Day of the Holy Spirit.

In Catholicism

Main article: Holy Trinity Day (Roman Rite)

In the Catholic Church and in Lutheranism, the celebration of Pentecost (Descent of the Holy Spirit) and the day of the Holy Trinity are separated, the day of the Holy Trinity is celebrated on the next Sunday after Pentecost. In the Catholic tradition, the holiday of the descent of the Holy Spirit opens the so-called "cycle of Pentecost." It includes:

• Holy Trinity Day (Sunday 7th day after Pentecost)
• Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Thursday, 11th day after Pentecost)
• Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Friday, 19th day after Pentecost)
• Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary (Saturday, 20th day after Pentecost)

Feasts of the descent of the Holy Spirit and the day of the Holy Trinity have the highest status in the Roman liturgical calendar - celebrations. The colors of the vestments of the priests on the day of Pentecost are red, reminiscent of the "tongues of fire" that descended on the apostles; and on the day of the Holy Trinity - white, as in other great holidays. On the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit, two masses are served according to different rites - the Vespers Mass (on Saturday evening) and the afternoon Mass (Sunday afternoon).

In some Eastern European countries (Poland, Belarus) and in Catholic churches in Russia, there is also a tradition to decorate the temple with tree branches (birch).

Iconography

For more on this topic, see Trinity Orthodox Iconography. The Descent of the Holy Spirit
(Gospel of Rabula, VI century) Dome of the Descent of the Holy Spirit Cathedral of St. Mark in Venice.
Tongues of fire emanate from the etymasia with the dove; below the apostles, representatives of different nations are depicted between the windows The Descent of the Holy Spirit
(an icon from the Holy Spiritual Church of the Novodevichy Convent, 18th century)

The development of the iconography of the holiday begins in the 6th century, its images appear in the facial Gospels (the Gospel of Rabula), mosaics and frescoes. Traditionally, the Zion chamber is depicted, in which, according to the book of Apostolic Acts, the apostles gathered. Books, scrolls are placed in their hands, or a blessing gesture (historically a gesture of an orator or preacher) is given to their fingers.

The traditional characters of the scene of the descent of the Holy Spirit are:

• 12 apostles, and the place of Judas Iscariot is usually taken not by Matthias, but by Paul;
• sometimes - the Mother of God (already known from the miniatures of the 6th century, then disappears in the eastern tradition (preserved in the western) and reappears on icons from the 17th century).

The empty space between Peter and Paul (in compositions without the Mother of God) reminds of the presence of the spirit of Jesus Christ, who is absent from this second "Last Supper". The apostles, as a rule, are arranged in a horseshoe shape, which is also close iconographically to "Christ between the teachers." The same composition, associated with the transfer to the plane of the traditional image of the Descent in the dome of the temple, will be repeated by the images of the Ecumenical Councils, since their task is to express the idea of ​​conciliarity, community, clearly expressed here.

"The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles." Archbishop's workshop in Veliky Novgorod. The turn of the XV-XVI centuries.

In the upper part of the icon, rays of light or flame are usually depicted. This descending fire is based on the biblical description (Acts 2: 3) a way of depicting the descent of the Holy Spirit, along with which, especially in the Western tradition, the image of a descending dove, transferred from the description of the Baptism of the Lord, can be used.

In the lower part, inside the horseshoe-shaped composition, a dark space is left, denoting the first floor of a house in Jerusalem, under the upper room where the event took place. It may remain unfilled, thus associating with the empty tomb of Christ and the future resurrection of the dead, or with the world not yet enlightened by the apostolic preaching of the Gospel. On medieval miniatures, crowds of people from different countries, who were witnesses of the descent of the Holy Spirit, were usually depicted here (following the dome compositions). Later they are replaced (occasionally depicted with them) the figure of the king with twelve small scrolls on the canvas. There is an interpretation of this image as King David, whose prophecy about the resurrection of Christ was quoted by the Apostle Peter in his sermon (Acts 2) and whose grave is believed to be located on the ground floor under the Zion chamber. Less common are the interpretations of him as the prophet Joel, also quoted by Peter, Adam, the apostate Judas (cf. Acts 1:16), or Jesus Christ in the image of Old Denmi, staying with his disciples until the end of the age.

Modern Greek icon of Pentecost.
On the first floor, representatives of different nations are shown at the feast in Jerusalem, in the sidebar - David and Joel with the texts of the prophecies quoted by Peter.

The traditional, albeit late interpretation, is the understanding of the king as the image of the people to whom the gospel sermon is addressed and who is represented by the ruler. In his hands the king holds a stretched veil on which 12 scrolls are laid - they symbolize the apostolic sermon (or, according to another interpretation, the totality of the peoples of the empire). In connection with this interpretation, the Greek inscription κόσμος - "peace", according to which the image of the king received the name "Tsar-Cosmos", began to be placed next to the figure.

According to the philosopher Yevgeny Trubetskoy, the image of the tsar on the icon symbolizes the Cosmos (Universe). In his work "Speculation in paints" he wrote:

… Below in the underground, under the vault, a prisoner languishes - "the king of the cosmos" in a crown; and on the top floor of the icon Pentecost is depicted: tongues of fire descend on the apostles sitting on thrones in the temple. From the very opposition of Pentecost to the cosmos to the king, it is clear that the temple where the apostles sit is understood as a new world and a new kingdom: this is the cosmic ideal that should lead the real cosmos out of captivity; in order to make room for this royal prisoner to be freed, the temple must coincide with the universe: it must include not only a new heaven, but also a new earth. And the tongues of fire over the apostles clearly show how the power that is to bring about this cosmic revolution is understood.

This interpretation, based on an expanded interpretation of the Greek word "κόσμος", is also found among a number of art historians. In the church environment, the concept of Tsar-Cosmos is used, but in the meaning of the world (the Universe), without the interpretations inherent in secular philosophy.

Folk traditions

In Italy, in memory of the miracle of the convergence of fiery tongues, it was customary to scatter rose petals from the ceiling of churches, in connection with which this holiday in Sicily and in other places in Italy was called Pasqua rosatum(Easter roses). Another Italian name, Pasqua rossa, originated from the red color of the priestly garments of the Trinity.

In France, during the divine service, it was customary to blow into the trumpets, in remembrance of the sound of a strong wind that accompanied the descent of the Holy Spirit.

In the north-west of England on Trinity (sometimes on Spiritual Friday after Trinity), church and chapel processions were held, the so-called "Spiritual walks" (eng. Whit walks). As a rule, brass bands and choirs took part in these processions; the girls were dressed in white. Traditionally, “Dukhovskie fairs” (sometimes called “Trinity ales”) were held. Traditions were associated with Trinity to brew beer, dance moresku, arrange cheese races and archery tournaments.

According to a Finnish proverb, if you don't find yourself a mate before Trinity, you will remain lonely for the next year.

In the Slavic folk tradition, the day is called Trinity or Trinity Day and is celebrated as a holiday either one day (Sunday) or three days (Sunday to Tuesday), and in general, the period of Trinity holidays includes Prepolovene, Ascension, Semik, the week preceding Trinity, Trinity itself week, individual days of the week following Troitskaya, which are celebrated to avoid drought or hail, or as a commemoration for the unclean dead (primarily Thursday), as well as the Peter's Conjuration. Trinity completes the spring cycle, and after the next Peter Lent, a new summer season begins.

For more on this topic, see Trinity Day. See also: Maypole

Pentecost in different languages

From the Greek. Πεντηκοστή "Pentecost" From lat. Rosālia, Pascha rosata"Feast of Roses, Pink Easter" From st.-Slav. Trinity From "Spirit" From "White Sunday" (according to the color of the clothes of the catechumens) Other

Feast of Trinity: what do we know about it?

The history of Christianity keeps the memory of many great events. In order to make it easier to navigate in them and not to miss an important day, many believers use the Orthodox calendar. However, there are only a few major holidays, and one of them is the Feast of the Holy Trinity. How much do we know about him? If you ask the first person you come across about why the Trinity is celebrated in the Christian world, he will most likely say that this day symbolizes the trinity of the divine essence: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Although this is true, but at the same time, this is far from all there is to know about this great day.

How did the feast of Trinity come about

According to Holy Scripture, on the fiftieth day after Christ was resurrected, a real miracle happened. At nine o'clock in the morning, when people gathered in the temple for prayer and sacrifice, a noise arose over the Zion chamber, as if from a stormy wind. This noise began to be heard in every corner of the house in which the apostles were, and suddenly tongues of fire appeared over their heads, which slowly descended on each of them. This flame had an extraordinary property: it shone, but did not burn. But even more amazing were the spiritual qualities that filled the hearts of the apostles. Each of them felt a tremendous surge of energy, inspiration, joy, peace and ardent love for God. The apostles began to praise the Lord, and then it turned out that they did not speak their native Hebrew, but in other languages ​​they did not understand. This is how the ancient prophecy predicted by John the Baptist (Gospel of Matthew 3:11) came to pass. On this day, the Church was born, and in honor of this, the Trinity holiday appeared. By the way, not everyone knows that this event has another name - Pentecost, meaning that it is celebrated fifty days after Easter.

What is the significance of the feast of Trinity

Some people consider this event to be just a fantasy of the Bible writers. Since most often this unbelief is explained by ignorance of the Holy Scriptures, we will tell you what happened next. Seeing what was happening to the apostles, people began to gather around them. And even then there were skeptics who laughed and explained everything that happened to the influence of wine. Other people were perplexed, and seeing this, the Apostle Peter came forward and explained to the audience that the descent of the Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of ancient prophecies, including the prediction of Joel (Joel 2: 28-32), which is aimed at saving people. This first sermon was very short and at the same time simple, but since Peter's heart was filled with divine grace, many decided to repent that day, and by evening the number of those baptized and accepted the Christian faith had grown from 120 to 3,000 people.

It is not for nothing that the Orthodox Church considers this date to be her birthday. After this event, the apostles began to preach the Word of God all over the world, and everyone had the opportunity to find their true path and find the right guidelines in life. Knowing all the details of this grandiose event, it is difficult to remain a skeptic and an unbeliever. It remains to add that the Trinity holiday in 2013 was celebrated on June 23rd, and next year, 2014, this event will be celebrated on June 8th. Meanwhile, Easter next year falls on April 20.

What is the HOLY TRINITY? Prayers to the Holy Trinity.

Quote from the message Lunny_Svet-Zakharinka Read it in its entirety into your quote book or community!
What is the HOLY TRINITY? Prayers to the Holy Trinity.

The Holy Trinity - God, one in essence and threefold in Persons

(Hypostases); Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - the One and Only God,

cognizable in three equal, equal, not merging with each other,

but also inseparable in a single Being, Persons, or Hypostases. Images of the Holy Trinity in the material world
How can the Lord God be simultaneously One and Trinity?

Don't forget

that earthly dimensions, familiar to us, are inapplicable to God, including

space, time and forces. And between the persons of the Holy Trinity there is no

no gap, nothing plug-in, no section or separation.

The Divine Trinity is absolute unity. The Mystery of the Trinity of God

inaccessible to the human mind (see details).

Some visible examples, rough analogies of Her can serve as:
the sun is its circle, light and warmth;
mind that gives birth to an ineffable word (thought), expressed by breath;
a source of water hidden in the earth, a spring and a stream;
the mind, word and spirit inherent in the godlike human soul. One nature and three self-consciousnesses
Being one in nature, the Persons of the Holy Trinity differ only in their personal properties: unbornness with the Father, birth with the Son, procession with the Holy Spirit.

The Father is beginningless, not created, not created, not born; Son - Forever

(timelessly) born of the Father; The Holy Spirit - eternally comes from the Father.
The personal properties of the Son and the Holy Spirit are indicated in the Creed: “from the Father born

first of all ages ”,“ from the outgoing Father ”. "Birth" and "progression" can not be thought of either as a single act, or as some kind of extended in time

process because the Divine exists outside of time. The terms themselves:

"Birth", "procession", which the Holy Scripture reveals to us,

are only an indication of the mysterious communication of Divine Persons,

these are only imperfect images of their ineffable communication. As he says

St. John Damascene, "the way of birth and the way of procession are incomprehensible to us."
There are three Persons in God, three “I”. But the analogy of human faces is not applicable here,

Persons unite without merging, but mutually penetrating so that they do not exist

one outside the other, the Persons of the Holy Trinity are in constant mutual

communication between Himself: the Father abides in the Son and the Holy Spirit;

The Son in the Father and the Holy Spirit; The Holy Spirit is in the Father and the Son (John 14:10).
Three Persons have:
- one will (desire and expression of will),
- one force,
- one action: any action of God is one: from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. The unity of action in relation to God should not be understood as a certain amount

three mutually solidary actions of Persons, but as a literal, strict unity.

This action is always just, merciful, holy ... The Father is the source of the existence of the Son and the Holy Spirit
The Father (being beginningless) is the one beginning, the source

in the Holy Trinity: He eternally gives birth to the Son and eternally plagues the Holy Spirit.

The Son and the Holy Spirit simultaneously ascend to the Father as one cause, while the origin of the Son and the Spirit does not depend on the will of the Father. The Word and the Spirit, in the figurative expression of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, are the “two hands” of the Father. God is not only one

because His nature is one, but also because they ascend to a single person

those Persons that are of Him.
The Father has no greater authority and honor than the Son and the Holy Spirit. True knowledge of God the Trinity is impossible without inner transformation

person.
Experiential cognition of the Trinity of God is possible only in mystical revelation

by the action of Divine grace, to a person whose heart is cleansed of

passions. The Holy Fathers experienced the contemplation of the One Trinity, among them one can

highlight the Great Cappadocians (Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian,

Gregory of Nyssa), St. Gregory Palamu, Venerable Simeon the New Theologian,

St. Seraphim of Sarov, Venerable Alexander Svirsky, Venerable Silouan the Athonite. Saint Gregory the Theologian:
“I have not yet begun to think about the One, as the Trinity illuminates me with Its radiance.

As soon as I began to think about the Trinity, the One again embraces me. " How to understand the words "God is Love"
According to the definition given by the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian,

God is love. But God is love not because He loves the world and

humanity, that is, its creation, - then God would not be completely Himself outside

and apart from the act of creation, he would not have perfect being in Himself,

and the act of creation would not be free, but compelled by the very "nature" of God.

According to the Christian understanding, God is love in Himself, because

the existence of the One God is the co-existence of the Divine Hypostases who are

among themselves in the "eternal movement of love", in the words of the theologian of the 7th century, the Monk Maxim the Confessor.
Each of the Persons of the Trinity does not live for Himself, but gives Himself without reserve

other Hypostases, while remaining completely open to their reciprocal action, so that all three are in love with each other.

The life of Divine Persons is interpenetration, so that the life of one

becomes the life of another. Thus, the existence of God the Trinity is realized

as love in which the person's own existence is identified

with dedication. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the basis of Christianity
According to the word of St. Gregory the Theologian, the dogma of the Holy Trinity is the most important

of all Christian dogmas. St. Athanasius of Alexandria defines the Christian faith itself as the faith "in the unchanging, perfect and blessed Trinity."
All the dogmas of Christianity rest on the doctrine of God, one in essence

and threefold in Persons, Consubstantial and Inseparable Trinity.

The doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity is the highest goal of theology, since to know

the mystery of the Holy Trinity in its fullness means entering into the Divine life.
To clarify the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the holy fathers pointed out

on the human soul, which is the Image of God.

“Our mind is the image of the Father; our word (unspoken word we usually

we call thought) - the image of the Son; spirit is the image of the Holy Spirit ", -

taught by St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. - As in the Trinity-God, three Persons are not confusing

and inseparably constitute one Divine Being, so in the Trinity-man

three faces make up one creature, not mixing with each other, not merging

in one person, not dividing into three creatures. Our mind has given birth and does not cease

give birth to a thought, a thought, having been born, does not cease to be born again and together

with that it dwells born, intimate in the mind. Mind without thought to exist

cannot, and thought is crazy. The beginning of the one is certainly the beginning of the other; the existence of the mind is also the existence of thought.

Likewise, our spirit proceeds from the mind and cooperates with thought.

That is why every thought has its own spirit, every way of thinking has

its own spirit, every book has its own spirit.

Thought cannot be without spirit, existence alone is indispensable

accompanied by the existence of the other.

In the existence of both, the existence of the mind is. "
The very doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a doctrine

"Mind, Word and Spirit - one co-nature and divinity", as he said about Her

St. Gregory the Theologian. “The First Existing Mind, God that is consubstantial in Himself has

The Word is with the Spirit perishable, without the Word and the Spirit, never being "-

teaches st. Nikita Studiyskiy.
The Christian teaching about the Holy Trinity is the teaching about the Divine Mind (Father), the Divine Word (Son) and the Divine Spirit (Holy Spirit) -

Three Divine Persons possessing one and indivisible Divine Being.
God has an all-perfect Mind (Reason). Divine Mind is beginningless

and endless, unlimited and unlimited, omniscient, knows the past, the present

and the future, knows what does not exist as already existing,

knows all creations before they were.

The Divine Mind contains the ideas of the whole universe,

there are plans for all created beings.

“Everything from God has its being and existence, and everything is found before being

in His creative Mind, ”says St. Simeon the New Theologian.
The Divine Mind pre-eternally generates the Divine Word with which He

creates the world. The Divine Word is “the Word of the Great Mind,

transcending every word, so that there was not, is not and will not be a word,

which is higher than this Word, ”teaches St. St. Maximus the Confessor.

The Divine Word is all-perfect, immaterial, soundless, does not require human language and symbols, beginninglessly and endlessly, eternal.

It is always inherent in the Divine Mind, is born from Him from eternity,

why the Mind is called the Father, and the Word is called the Only Begotten Son.
Divine Mind and Divine Word are spiritual, for God is immaterial,

incorporeal, immaterial. He is the All-Perfect Spirit.

The Divine Spirit dwells outside space and time,

has no image and form, beyond any limitation.

His All-perfect Being is infinite, “incorporeal, and formless,

both invisible and indescribable "(St. John of Damascus).
Divine Mind, Word and Spirit are completely Personal, therefore They are called

Persons (Hypostases). Hypostasis or Person is a personal way of being

Divine essence, which belongs equally to the Father,

To the Son and the Holy Spirit. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one

by their Divine nature or essence, they are of the same nature and consubstantial.

The Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God.

They are completely equal in their Divine dignity.
Each Person has omnipotence, omnipresence,

perfect holiness, supreme freedom, uncreated and independent

from something created, uncreated, eternal. Each Person carries in Himself all the properties of the Divine. The doctrine of three Persons in God means that the relationship

Divine Persons for each Person are threefold.

Impossible to imagine one of the Divine Faces without

so that two Others do not exist at once.
The Father is the Father only in relation to the Son and the Spirit.

As for the birth of the Son and the procession of the Spirit, one presupposes the other.

God is “the Mind, the Abyss of the Mind, the Parent of the Word and, through the Word, the Giver of the Spirit,

Who reveals Him, ”teaches St. John Damascene.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three full-fledged Personalities-persons,

each of which has not only the fullness of being,

but also is the whole God. One Hypostasis is not a third of the general essence,

but it contains in Himself the fullness of the Divine essence.

The Father is God, not a third of God, the Son is also God and the Holy Spirit is also God.

But all Three together are not three Gods, but one God. We confess "Father and Son

and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity consubstantial and inseparable "

(from the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).

That is, the three Hypostases do not divide a single entity into three entities,

but a single essence does not merge or mix three Hypostases into one. Can a Christian address each of
three Persons of the Holy Trinity?
Undoubtedly:

in the prayer "Our Father" we turn to the Father, in the Jesus prayer to the Son,

in the prayer "Heavenly King, Comforter" - to the Holy Spirit. Who does each of the Divine Persons realize Himself and how can we correctly realize

our conversion so as not to fall into the pagan confession of the three gods?

Divine Persons are not aware of Themselves as separate Persons.
We turn to the Father who eternally bears the Son,

whose spokesman is the Holy Spirit eternally emanating from the Father.
We turn to the Son, eternally born of the Father,

whose spokesman is the Holy Spirit eternally emanating from the Father.
We turn to the Holy Spirit as the spokesman for the Son,

who is eternally born of the Father.
Thus, our prayers do not contradict the doctrine of the unity (including will and action) and the inseparability of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.
* * *
According to legend, when Blessed Augustine was walking along the seashore,

thinking about the mystery of the Holy Trinity, he saw a boy,

who dug a hole in the sand and poured water there,

which he scooped with a shell from the sea. Blessed Augustine asked

why does he do it. The boy answered him:
- I want to scoop the whole sea into this hole!
Augustine chuckled and said it was impossible.

To which the boy said to him:
- And how do you try to exhaust with your mind

inexhaustible mystery of the Lord?
And then the boy disappeared.
source http://azbyka.ru/dictionary/17/svyataya_troitsa-all.shtml

Prayer to the Most Holy Trinity

Holy Trinity, have mercy on us;
Lord, cleanse our sins;
Master, forgive our iniquity;
Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities, for your name's sake.
Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.
Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and now and forever and forever and ever.

Prayer to God the Father

Almighty Master, wise and all-good Lord,
the Primordial Son of the Primordial Parent,

and Thy Life-giving Spirit
eternal and intrinsic to the Self-Producer,
His majesty is uncountable, his glory is unspeakable, and his mercy is immeasurable,
Thank you, for you called us from non-existence

and you have honored with your precious image,
as if you gave us unworthy not just to cognize and love you,
but it is even sweeter, and call Thee as your Father.
We thank You, God of mercy and generosity, as if they transgressed Your commandment
Thou did not leave us in the midst of sin and the shadow of death,

but thou didst favor Thy Only Begotten Son,
The essence of Him and the eyelids was created, send to our earth for the sake of salvation,
Yes by His incarnation and the terrible sufferings of the devil's torment

and the mortal aphids let us free.
Thank you, God love and strength, as,

after the ascension of our dearest Savior to heaven,
I was implored by His Cross, Thou hast sent down Thy Spirit
on His chosen disciples and apostles,

yes, by the power of their inspired preaching,
will illuminate the whole world with the incorruptible light of the Gospel of Christ.
Himself ubo, Humanitarian Master,

hear now the humble prayer of your unworthy children,
Yes, as Thou art created us for Thy goodness alone,

You have redeemed you for your one goodness,
so and save us according to Thy one unapplied mercy:
beyond our deeds below the trace of the imam's salvation,
but the longing for righteous vengeance and separation from the blessed face of Thy face:
Even for a single idle verb it will be recovered on the day of Judgment and trial,
about our uncountable iniquities, the image of those who have sinned before You, cue,
poor, imams give back the answer;
for this reason, desperate justification is very much from our deeds, to Thy one,
every mind and every word that is superior, we resort to goodness, yuhe,
Like a solid foundation of hope for property, we pray to You:

Sins, cleanse, Lord!
Wicked man, forgive, Master!
With anger Ty, be reconciled, Long-suffering!
And save the rest of our mind, conscience and heart from the filth of the world, deliver
and save us from the many-reigning storm of passions and falls,
free and involuntary, led and unknown,
and in the quiet rulership of the haven of faith, love and hope of eternal life.

Remember us in Your mercy, Lord,
grant us all, even for salvation, petitions,

but rather a pure and sinless life;
make us love you, and fear with all our heart,

and do Thy holy will in everything,
with the prayers of our Most Pure Lady Theotokos and all Thy saints,
as God is good and lover of mankind,

and to You we give glory and thanksgiving and worship,
with Your Only Begotten Son, and with the Most Holy and Good

and by Your Life-giving Spirit,
now and ever, and forever and ever. Amen.

Prayer to God the Son

Only begotten Son and Word of God,
for our sake, for our salvation, to incarnate and endure death, now,
and with Thy Most Pure Flesh, in heaven on the Throne with the Father, sit,
and rule the whole world, do not forget us with your mercy,
down with those who are, and with many misfortunes and sorrows of those who are tempted,
as if very unclean and unworthy of me, but in you,
Our Savior and Lord, we believe

and no other Advocate, and we have no hope of salvation.
Give, O All-good Redeemer, let us remember to take it out,
colic torment of your soul and your body is needed for more,
in a hedgehog, satisfy Thy Father's eternal righteousness for our sins,
and how even to hell did you descend from the Cross with your most pure soul,
let us free the power and torment of hell:
Remembering this, let us be guarded from passions and sins,

who were the fault of your fierce sufferings and death,
and may we love righteousness and virtue, the hedgehog of every gift you have in us is the most pleasant.
As if tempted in every way, weigh it yourself, O All-good,

if the weakness of our spirit and flesh is great,
but our enemy is strong and cunning, like a roaring lion walking, seeking someone to devour:
do not leave us with your all-powerful help, and wake up with us, keeping and covering,
instructing and strengthening, rejoicing and gladdening our spirit.
We, in the bosom of Thy love and mercy, are overthrown, our whole belly,
temporary and eternal, we commit to Thee, our Sovereign, Redeemer and Lord,
praying from the depths of my soul, yes, weigh the fate of the image,
make us pass the comfortably gloomy life of this earthly vale,
and your God-red palace has been reached, and you promised to prepare it for all,
to those who believe in Thy name, and to those who follow Thy divine footsteps. Amen.

Prayer to God the Holy Spirit

Heavenly King, All-good Comforter, Truth Soul,
eternally proceed from the Father and take rest in the Son,
the unenviable Source of the gifts of the Divine, sharing them in some way,
as you like,

By him, we too will be sanctified unworthy and have appointed us on the day of our baptism!
Take your servant to prayer, come to us, dwell in us, and cleanse our souls,
let us be prepared in the dwelling of the Most Holy Trinity.
She, O All-good One, do not abhor our filthiness and sinful wounds,
but heal me with thy all-giving anointing.
Enlighten our mind, let us understand the vanity of the world and even in the world, revive our conscience,
let it unceasingly announce to us, even befitting to create and even to sweep away,

fix and renew your heart,
let not the rest of the day and night ooze evil thoughts and dissimilar desires,
tame the flesh and quench the flame of passions with Your dewy breath,
it also darkens in us the precious image of God.
Drive away from us the spirit of idleness, despondency, self-righteousness and idle talk,
give us a spirit of love and patience, a spirit of meekness and humility,

spirit of purity and truth,
yes, fixing weakened hearts and knees,

unceremoniously we follow the path of the commandments of the saints, and so,
avoiding all sin and fulfilling all righteousness,

let us be vouchsafed to seize the end, peaceful and not ashamed,
bring into Heavenly Jerusalem and worship You there, bought with the Father and the Son,
singing forever and ever: Holy Trinity, glory to Thee!

Prayer to the Most Holy Trinity

Holy Trinity, consubstantial Power, of all good Wines,
that we will repay Thee for all, even Thou hast repaid to us sinners and unworthy before,
even if you breathe out into the world, for all, even reward us for all the days,
and you have prepared for all of us in the future!
Looks like you, for a fraction of good deeds and generosity,

thank you not for words,
but even more so are the works that keep and fulfill your commandments:
we, our passion and evil custom outside,
in countless from youth sins and iniquities have been overthrown.
For this sake, as if unclean and defiled,

not exactly before the Trisagion of Thy facelessly appear,
but below Thy Most Holy Name, heap more to us,

if it were not You Yourself pleased,
to our delight, proclaim, like pure and righteous loving,
and sinners who repent are merciful and more graciously acceptable.
Prizri ubo, O Divine Trinity, from the height of Thy Holy Glory
on us, sinners, and our good will, instead of good deeds, accept;
and grant us the spirit of true repentance, so that we may hate every sin,
in purity and truth, we will live until the end of our days, doing Thy holy will
and your sweetest and most glorious name is glorifying with pure thoughts and good deeds.
Amen.
SYMBOL OF FAITH
We believe in one God the Father Almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten,

Alike from the Father born before all ages;

Light from Light, God true from God

true, born, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father,

Imzhe was all bysh.

For us for the sake of man and ours for the sake of salvation descended from heaven,

and incarnate from the Holy Spirit and Mary the Virgin and incarnate.

Crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried.

And he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures.

And he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

And the packs of the coming with glory, judge the living and the dead,

His kingdom will never end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-giving,

Like the outgoing Father,

Alike with the Father and the Son, we are worshiped and glorified, the prophets who spoke.

In one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

We confess one baptism for the remission of sins.

Tea of ​​the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the century to come. Amen.

moonlight diary

What does "Holy Trinity" mean?

What does "Holy Trinity" mean? Does this mean the threefold nature of the Lord?

Olesya astakhova

In Orthodox Christianity (rather than in Catholic Christianity and Protestantism, where only one God is recognized - Christ and his mother, the Mother of God), three components are represented by God - God the Father (the one in heaven, that is, this is the macrocosm, space - if according to the modern), God the Son (the one who is on Earth, the representative of people - Jesus Christ, he proved it, that is, these are living organisms of the planet - sons or creatures of God), God the Holy Spirit (that which binds God the Father and God the Son, that is, spirituality, morality, faith in God, the laws by which everything exists). In general, such an interpretation of God can be accepted and imagined ... Why not.. . Only God should have everyone his own (his own understanding of God) ... there must be faith in him ... But you need to understand and respect others in their spirituality, in their faith, in their religion ... Although God is common to all - this is NATURE and its laws ... That's all.

The fullness of divine life in the Trinity
To make the doctrine of the Trinity more understandable, the Holy Fathers sometimes resorted to analogies and comparisons. For example, the Trinity can be compared to the sun: when we say "sun", we mean the heavenly body itself, as well as sunlight and solar heat. Light and heat are independent "hypostases", but they do not exist in isolation from the sun. But also the sun does not exist
without heat and light ... Another analogy: water, source and stream: one cannot exist without the other ... There is a mind, a soul and a word in a person: the mind cannot be without a soul and a word, otherwise it would be stifling and without words, but the soul and word cannot be without mind. In God there is the Father, the Word and the Spirit, and, as the defenders of "consubstantiality" said at the Council of Nicaea, if God the Father ever existed without God the Word, then He was wordless or non-rational.
But analogies of this kind, of course, also cannot explain anything in essence: sunlight, for example, is neither a person nor an independent being. The easiest way would be to explain the mystery of the Trinity, as St. Spyridon of Trimyphus, a participant in the Council of Nicaea, did. According to legend, when asked how it could be that Three were One at the same time, instead of answering, he took a brick in his hands and squeezed it. From the clay softened in the hands of the saint, a flame burst upward, and water flowed downward. "As in this brick there is fire and water," said the saint, "so in one God there are three Persons ..."

Slavik cherkezov

why are muslims so anxious what does trinity mean?
from their side it is stupid to speak in general and blaspheme against the father against the holy spirit and the son in my opinion

In Orthodoxy, the Trinity is fundamental. The Trinity of God is the basis of all Christian denominations. This teaching reflects the Creator, one in essence, in three hypostases. Consider the meaning of the Trinity of a higher power from the Orthodox point of view.

Many people cannot understand how one God can have three faces, and opponents of Christianity consider the doctrine of the Trinity to be direct idolatry. The Orthodox Church debunks myths about idolatry, pointing to the unearthly origin of the divine. In the spiritual world, there are no concepts of time and distance, and it is unthinkable to assert about the division of the one into parts. Therefore, there is no division into parts or distances between the persons of the Holy Trinity.

The mystery of the Trinity is inaccessible to the human mind, as it relates to the spiritual dimension.

The persons of the Holy Trinity are one in nature, but different in properties. The Father symbolizes the unborn state, the Son - birth, the Holy Spirit - the power of procession. The Father existed from the beginning and was not created, the Son was born of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the Power eternally emanating from God the Father. However, one should take into account spiritual categories and realize that the processes of the outflow of force and birth do not exist in physical time and cannot be understood by the human mind as something physically tangible.

"The way of birth and the way of procession are incomprehensible to us." Damascene.

It is a gross mistake to draw an analogy between human faces and the manifestation of the triune divine essence. Divine faces do not merge with each other, but neither do they exist separately. It is about mutual penetration, incomprehensible to the human mind.

The following characteristics testify to the unity of the Holy Trinity:

• have a single will;
• have a single directional force;
• perform a single directional action.

Therefore, the Orthodox Church claims that God works through the Son through the Holy Spirit. However, it should be understood that the main power in the Trinity is the beginningless Father, although the Son and the Holy Spirit have the same level of authority.

Comprehension of the Trinity

How can you comprehend the Holy Trinity and acquire knowledge about it, if the human mind is not available? The Holy Fathers of the Church affirm that the comprehension of the Trinity is possible through mystical revelation through the descent of Divine grace. That is, this action does not depend on the will and efforts of a person, but is an act of divine grace.

Who can access mystical experience? Someone who has taken care of cleansing his heart from dirty thoughts and decided to devote his life to sincere service to God. It is very important for a believer to free his heart from worldly passions that lead away from the path of comprehending the spiritual dimension.

How can one practically achieve purification from sinful thoughts and get rid of glamor? To do this, you need to open your heart to the world and be filled with love for it. This is what the Holy Trinity teaches us, which abides in perfect unity, thanks to the Power of Love. Each of the persons of the Trinity does not live for itself - It dissolves in another, which is an example of absolute self-giving.

The Christian faith is based on the dogma of the unity of the Holy Trinity. We can say that the Holy Trinity is the very essence of Christianity. It is believed that the highest goal of a Christian is the cognition of the Consubstantial and Indivisible Divine Hypostasis. It is the knowledge of the mystery of the Trinity in its entirety that reveals the Divine life to the Christian.

The Holy Fathers of the Church explain the unity of the Trinity using the example of the human soul:

• the mind of man is the image of God the Father;
• thought and word are the image of the Son;
• the soul is the image of the Holy Spirit.

Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov points out that the unity of thoughts, mind and soul of a person explains the unity of the Triune. Just as our mind, thoughts and soul exist independently, but belong to one person, so do the persons of the Trinity. Our mind constantly gives rise to thoughts, soap cannot exist without mind, just like mind without thought. And the spirit of a person comes from the mind, which constantly gives birth to thoughts. It is impossible to separate these three hypostases, because they cannot exist without each other. There can be no mind without thought, thought without mind and spirit without mind and thought.

The teaching about the Holy Trinity is the teaching of Mind, Word and Spirit.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is the doctrine of the Father (divine mind), the Son (divine word) and the Holy Spirit (divine spirit). These three divine persons are inseparable and interpenetrating, existing in unity and harmony and abiding in absolute love. They form an inseparable Divine Being.

In the divine mind there are ideas of the universe, plans of creation. The divine mind endlessly gives birth to the divine word that creates the universe. However, no analogy should be drawn between the divine word and the human. The divine word characterizes immateriality, soundlessness, absence of symbolism, beginninglessness and eternity.

The Christian must understand that the three persons do not divide the divine essence into parts, but they do not merge into a monolithic whole.

So the divine mind is the Eternal Father, and the divine word is the Only Begotten Son. These are absolutely spiritual concepts, devoid of any traits of materiality. God is a Spirit that dwells outside space and time, is not felt in any way and has no form. The divine spirit is not limited by anything, exists eternally and has no image.

Each person of the Divine Hypostasis is endowed with omnipotence, is found everywhere and everywhere, is not limited by material categories and is endowed with absolute holiness. It is impossible to divide persons into three hypostases: for one does not exist without the second, and the third without the first two. Where one of the faces appears, the other two are immediately present. One Divine Hypostasis is not a separate part of the whole - it contains two other Hypostases. It is one spiritual entity that is both father and son and a producing force at the same time.

Prayer to the Trinity

Many do not understand who exactly needs to be addressed in prayer, to which of the persons of the Trinity? In Orthodoxy, there are three prayers, each of which is directed to an individual person of the Triune:

• Our Father;
• Jesus Prayer;
• Comforter king.

How to realize that this is not the worship of three different gods, for which the pagans reproach Christians? The Orthodox Church teaches that the three mentioned Divine Hypostases do not realize themselves as separate individuals. Therefore, when we turn our gaze to the Father, both the Only Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit are present with him. When we turn our gaze to the Only Begotten Son, the Father is present together with him and the outgoing power - the Holy Spirit. Since time does not exist in the spiritual dimension, the Only Begotten Son is eternally born from the Father, and the outgoing divine power (Holy Spirit) eternally produces the act of birth.

Therefore, a prayer appeal to one divine Hypostasis of the Trinity does not in any way contradict the doctrine of the unity of the divine essence.

The Importance of Realizing the Oneness of the Trinity

Is it really impossible to gain true faith without realizing the trinity of the whole? The Church Fathers teach that the realization of unity is the foundation of correct understanding and service to God. Without comprehending the triune essence, it is impossible to correctly understand the messages of the apostles and the teaching of Christ. It is impossible to understand who the Father is to the Only Begotten Son, and also whose will the Son expresses. A misunderstanding of the doctrine of the Trinity can lead a Christian to heresy, which has already happened more than once in the history of the church.

It should be clearly understood that it is the doctrine of the Trinity that distinguishes the Christian religion from other denominations based on monotheism and polytheism. In this regard, there are many profanations and distortions of the truth of the concept of trinity. The entire history of the church is replete with examples of the struggle against heresy and the distortion of true doctrine. Given the weakness of the earthly mind to comprehend spiritual concepts, faith is necessary. Only faith will help a person to touch the mystery of the inexpressible in earthly language and images.

Birthday of the church

Christians celebrate the day of the Holy Trinity 50 days after Easter. It was at this time that the Holy Spirit descended to earth to reveal himself to the apostles. The latter saw the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of unburning tongues of flame. Together with the flame, the apostles and the virgin felt that they were touched by an incredible power of unearthly origin.

As a result of the touch of the Holy Spirit, the apostles were given the gift of speaking in other tongues. That is, they began to speak in languages ​​that they did not know before. It was the blessed gift of the verb. Since then, this day has been immortalized in a holiday called the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit - Pentecost, Spiritual Day. The descent of the Spirit to earth marked the beginning of the formation of the Church of Christ, because from that moment all the fullness of Divine Unity was revealed.

7 powerful prayers to the Holy Trinity

4.4 (88.67%) 30 votes.

Prayer for the feast of the Holy Trinity

“In the name of the Father-God, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray for forgiveness and mercy on a bright and festive day. Three times our Heavenly Father, we lift up words of joy on this holiday, we are in Your house and bow to images in the hope of guidance and deliverance from diseases and sins that burden our souls. We proclaim the true faith and pass from mouth to mouth the words of gratitude for our lives in Your goodness and mercy. We pray for everyone who lives on earth, who lives under Your gaze. Bless, Lord, to a righteous life in mercy and goodness. Let us, God, live it in reverence for You and in raising children according to Your undeniable and only righteous commandments.
Amen."

Prayer to the Holy Trinity for the fulfillment of desire

“The Most Holy Trinity, consubstantial Power, of all the good Wines that we will repay You for everything, you have already rewarded us sinners and unworthy ones before, even in the light of life, for everything, even you have given us some way for all the days, and you have already prepared for all of us in the whole coming! Befitting you, for a fraction of good deeds and generosity, thank You not for words, but more for deeds that preserve and fulfill Your commandments: we, however, our passion and evil custom outside of us, in countless sins and iniquities from our youth are overthrown. For this sake, as if you were unclean and defiled, not just before Your Trisagion face, you should appear coldly, but below Your name, Most Holy, please, bless us, if it were not You Yourself who deigned, to our delight, proclaim, as pure and righteous loving, and sinners repentant are more benevolent. Look at us, O Divine Trinity, from the height of Thy Holy Glory on us, sinners, and our good will, instead of good deeds, accept; and give us the spirit of true repentance, so that, having hated every sin, in purity and truth, we will live until the end of our days, doing Your holy will and glorifying Your sweetest and most magnificent name with pure thoughts and good deeds. Amen."

Prayer to the Holy Trinity for health and healing

“O merciful God, Father, Son and Holy Soul, worshiped and glorified in the indivisible Trinity, look gracefully on Your servant (name), possessed by illness; let him go of all his transgressions; give him healing from the disease; restore his health and bodily strength; Give him a long-lived and prosperous life, Your peaceful and exemplary blessings, so that together with us he would bring grateful prayers to You, the All-Bountiful God and my Creator.

Most Holy Theotokos, with your omnipotent intercession, help me to pray to your Son, my God, for the healing of the servant of God (name). All saints and angels of the Lord, pray to God for His sick servant (name). Amen."

Prayer to the Holy Trinity from smoking

“O merciful God, Father, Son and Holy Soul, worshiped and glorified in the Inseparable Trinity, look gracefully on Your servant (name), the possessed disease; let him go of all his transgressions; give him healing from the disease; restore his health and bodily strength; Give him a long-lived and prosperous life, Your peaceful and rewarding blessings, so that together with us he would bring grateful prayers to You, the All-Blessed God and our Creator. Amen."

Prayer to the Most Holy Trinity for help

“Most Holy Trinity of Heaven for centuries, have mercy on us sinners. Lord, cleanse our souls from sins and profanity, forgive us the iniquities we have committed, and direct us with the light of God on the righteous and sinless path. We pray for Your forgiveness and mercy, Three times the One Ruler and Ruler of our souls. Amen."

Prayer to the Most Holy Trinity, the creation of Mark the monk

“The Omnipotent and Life-giving Holy Trinity and the Beginning of the Light, all creation, that which is in this world and above the world, by one goodness brought forth from non-existence and provides for it, and preserves, and, besides your other ineffable blessings to the earthly race, repentance until who gave us death for the sake of the weakness of the flesh! Do not leave us, unfortunate ones, to die in our evil deeds, and let us not be a laughing stock to the head of evil, and to the envious, and to the destroyer; for you see, Merciful One, and how strong are his intrigues and enmity against us, and what our passion, and weakness, and neglect are. But do Thy good deeds over us, we pray, who anger Thee every day and hour by breaking Thy sacred and life-giving commandments. So, all our sins, in our entire past life and up to the present hour, in deeds, or words, or thoughts, let go and forgive. Grant us the rest of our lives to end in repentance, and contrition, and the observance of Thy holy commands. If we, being seduced by pleasures, have sinned in many ways, or spent time seduced by vile desires, useless and harmful; if, driven by anger and unreasonable rage, any of our brother was insulted, or because of our language they were entangled in inevitable, wrong and strong nets; if any of our senses, or all of them, willingly or unwittingly, knowingly or ignorantly, in infatuation or deliberately stumbled madly; if the conscience has been defiled by evil and vain thoughts; or if you have sinned in any other way, compelled by a tendency and habit to evil, forgive us and let go of everything, O All-Bounteous, All-Good and Most Merciful, and grant us vigor and strength for the future to do Thy will, good and acceptable, and perfect, so that from nightly and gloomy evil, having changed by light-like repentance and, as acting goodly during the day, we unworthy, purified, appear to Your philanthropy, praising You and magnifying forever. Amen."