How can one explain the Holy Trinity?

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A spring becomes a creek. The creek creates a lake. The lake is not a spring. The creek is not a lake. They are all water. Same essence, distinct persons.
 
I’ve heard it explained that way, too. And that explanation makes the most sense to me, as I can relate to it on my human level.
 
This isn’t particularly theoretical, but an old trappist monk once told me the Father is like the lover, the Son the beloved, and the Spirt the fruit of their love. I found that very comforting and helpful.
 
In reality, no analogy works since there is no creation that is like the Creator. My favorite has always been squares on the cube, and viewing it how a 2D square would perceive a 3D cube. But still, analogies always fall apart.
 
Writer_for_God said:
Read “Theology for Beginners” by Frank Sheed. It has one of the best explanations of the Trinity I have heard, and although the Trinity cannot be completely understood, this explanation will make some sense of it.
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This is a great suggestion. This book is available at low cost and even as a free download. It helps to begin not with the Trinity itself, but by contemplating the attributes of God in His one divine essence, the operation of His intellect and will, as the Persons of the Trinity flow from that.
 
theorangeandblue said:
So I guess you could say the Holy Trinity is like-

Marriage since a man and a woman are to become one flesh.
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And if you use the greatest commandments to describe this relationship -

The husband loves God the Father with all his heart, soul mind and strength.
The husband loves his wife as he loves himself.

The wife also loves God and her husband in the same way.

In John 17, Jesus prays that we should all be one, as he is one with the Father. So we all need to find this oneness with each other, but minus the intimate part of marriage.
 
SeekerOfTruth7 said:
In reality, no analogy works since there is no creation that is like the Creator. My favorite has always been squares on the cube, and viewing it how a 2D square would perceive a 3D cube. But still, analogies always fall apart.
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Yes and that is where their value lies. Because analogies inevitably confess some sort of heresy, formal or material, they help explaining what God is not. Recognizing the heresies, and therefore using negative expressions help towards a proper understanding of God and in fact, it is easier to express what God is not than to express what he is. So to recognize that God has no parts, God is not three modes of a single person, God is not created, God is not mutable, etc. eliminate false understandings and lead us closer to a truthful understanding, even if we will never completely get to that in this life.

But as Father Edward said earlier, off by an inch, miss by a yard, so analogies should not be used to explain the Trinity, but to point out what the Trinity is not, based on their defects.
 
For some people the Trinity is so theologically deep - complex - that it’s just too hard to process without getting a headache.

Try something simpler. I’ve heard priests explain the idea to children these ways;

The Holy Trinity is like a rock band.
God writes the lyrics.
The Holy Spirit plays the music.
And Jesus is the lead singer.

The Trinity is like a tub of neopolitan ice cream.
Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry - keeps everyone happy.
 
Lion_IRC said:
For some people the Trinity is so theologically deep - complex - that it’s just too hard to process without getting a headache.

Try something simpler. I’ve heard priests explain the idea to children these ways;

The Holy Trinity is like a rock band.
God writes the lyrics.
The Holy Spirit plays the music.
And Jesus is the lead singer.

The Trinity is like a tub of neopolitan ice cream.
Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry - keeps everyone happy.
Click to expand...
And yet God is not a group so the rock band and ice cream analogy denies God’s oneness and divine simplicity. God has no parts and is not a composite if there persons.
 
Perhaps we should best not try to intellectualize about the Trinity, or even try to understand the Trinity, but to chalk it up as the fabulous mystery it is and look forward to when we can personally experience the Trinity in heaven. Even then, we shall only completely understand God’s true nature in the Trinity IF God wills us to. If not, that’s okay, too. We’ll still be completely happy in heaven.
 
This has probably been said here already. The father speaks and commands. The son is the word through which the command is accomplished. The holy spirit is the breath accompanying the speaker and the word. But like has been said here it’s just analogies and we’ll never fully understand the absolute mystery. The finite and limited can’t fully comprehend the infinite and unlimited.
 
porthos11 said:
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Lion_IRC:
For some people the Trinity is so theologically deep - complex - that it’s just too hard to process without getting a headache.

Try something simpler. I’ve heard priests explain the idea to children these ways;

The Holy Trinity is like a rock band.
God writes the lyrics.
The Holy Spirit plays the music.
And Jesus is the lead singer.

The Trinity is like a tub of neopolitan ice cream.
Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry - keeps everyone happy.
Click to expand...
And yet God is not a group so the rock band and ice cream analogy denies God’s oneness and divine simplicity. God has no parts and is not a composite if there persons.
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…like I said, those analogies aren’t meant as serious attempts at theology.

Let’s remember that some serious deep thinking monotheistic theology hold that it’s impossible for God to have a Son.
 
Lion_IRC said:
Let’s remember that some serious deep thinking monotheistic theology hold that it’s impossible for God to have a Son.
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Have a Son in a human reproductive way, yes. Not in Eternal Generation as explained by the Church Fathers.
St. Thomas Aquinas says: " the procession of the Word in God is generation; for He proceeds by way of intelligible action, which is a vital operation:—from a conjoined principle (as above described):—by way of similitude, inasmuch as the concept of the intellect is a likeness of the object conceived:—and exists in the same nature, because in God the act of understanding and His existence are the same, as shown above (I:14:4). Hence the procession of the Word in God is called generation; and the Word Himself proceeding is called the Son."

God Bless
 
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Could you please edit your post to reflect the fact that it’s not me who says that God can’t have a Son.
Thanks 😊
 
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Edited to have entire quote. Apologies but your post sounded like you were the one saying that. Are you saying that in a sarcastic manner?
 
No, I’m quite serious.
Islamic objections to the Trinity - as they understand it - are not trivial.
 
Zach said:
This has probably been said here already. The father speaks and commands. The son is the word through which the command is accomplished. The holy spirit is the breath accompanying the speaker and the word. But like has been said here it’s just analogies and we’ll never fully understand the absolute mystery. The finite and limited can’t fully comprehend the infinite and unlimited.
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Does this explain how we should also be ONE as the Father and Son are ONE, in answer to the prayer of Jesus.
 
Trinity is the three ways the One God relates himself to us.

God is ultimately unknowable (we’ll never fully know him), but he wants us to know him. He wants a relationship with every one of us.

God created us for relationship with him and with all. Persons relate to one another, and in his Three Persons, God relates himself to us. God is love. And God is all that is good.

As Father, he relates his love and goodness to us by giving us, his children, all we need in his creation, including in the people he brings into our lives.

As Son, he relates his love and goodness to us in knowable human terms, in his humanity. In ways we can get to know the unknowable God and grow to trust and love him. And in ways we can follow and learn to live in his love, embrace his goodness and mercy, and share his love and mercy with others.

As the Holy Spirit, he relates his love and goodness to us spiritually, within us and among us. As we become more open to his guidance, open to his grace (the gifts of the Holy Spirit), we come to more often see him and his goodness in his creation, in others, and in ourselves. And as we cooperate with his grace his interior spiritual guidance, we allow him to share his love, his goodness, and his mercy through us with others.

No Person of God is lesser than any other Person of God and no Person of God is greater than any other Person of God (a common misconception even among faithful Catholics…). Each Person of God is fully God, the One True God, relating himself - his love, his goodness, his mercy - to us in every conceivable way so as to draw each of us into an eternal relationship of love with him and, through him, with all.
 
mrosem said:
God created us for relationship with him
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But how do we love an invisible God we have never met?

I believe part of the answer is found in Mathew 25.

The Judgment of the Nations. *31f “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne,32g and all the nations* will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.33He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.34Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.35h For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,36naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’37Then the righteous* will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?38When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?39When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’40i And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
 
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