Preference for One Person in the Trinity?

  • Thread starter Thread starter halleone
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
H

halleone

Guest
I wasn’t sure which forum to pose this question, but here I am, anyway.

As a child, I was pretty much afraid of God the Father, due to the style of teaching in Catholic schools back in the 50’s. And it was pretty hard to get an image of Him in my head, as the OT was mainly appearances in the form of a burning bush, or a voice from on high. At least there were pictures depicting Jesus, so it was easier to relate to him. He is the One that I have most turned to throughout the years.

Being a very recent revert, I am finding myself tremendously drawn to the Holy Spirit, where before I hardly gave him a thought. I am even waiting until Pentecost Sunday to receive communion for the first time in oh-so-many years.

Anyone else experience this, or a drawing to a particular Person?
 
Fr. Groechel has spoken about this - people do hold a preference which will eventually consolidate into a unified understanding of the Trinity.

In like ways, some children & young adults today have such a distorted view of father and fatherhood, that they come to Jesus through Mother Mary.
 
I find that when I pray in a general way I tend to address my prayers to Abba / Father. But in my mind the prayers go to all three persons of the Trinity. How can they not?
OK, here come my “buts” -
When I pray for the right words to address someone, especially in something potentially awkward, faith related or to give comfort I ask the Holy Spirit to give me the right words.
And every morning, during my prayers as I walk into the hospital where I work I ask Jesus to help me to see everyone with His eyes and His heart.
So I guess I have what you consider a preference depending on what I’m praying for… Does that make sense? :confused:
 
I’m going with the Holy Spirit, it’s like the Ringo of the Trinity. Gets no credit. Go Holy Spirit!
 
I’ll be honest, I am most drawn to the Second Person and least drawn to the Third Person, I think because in many ways I do not understand the Holy Spirit well. I am honestly sometimes reserved (for want of a better word) about the Father. The best father figure I had was an Italian Catholic my mother married after her divorce with my father (who, while even today helps around, does not fulfill the father role) who died a little under a year after their marriage. My favorite season is Lent, because it most completely unites us to the Son when He walked upon the earth. One of the devotions I find most beautiful is the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
 
That’s a funny question. The more I get to love one person, the more I get to love the other three in this inseparable way. Because they share the glory. I mean that if there is something I learn about the Son and think how wonderful that is, that Jesus experienced this, then He shares this with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and the same with the Holy Spirit, and the Father.

I’ve noticed Him doing that. It’s kind of a mystery but kind of not at all. In my life, if I see anything good I thank Him for it - or try to. He is perfect, in all Three Persons, so He never forgets to give Himself credit. If a friend helps me to come up with a great idea and he/she wants to remain anonymous I will privately thank them or AT LEAST think I could not do this without you - and I know it and they know it, and it tightens our relationship, which is always more valuable than any idea.

Trying to think Who is my favorite slips through my hands before I can grasp it for long. I can’t even think of anything good to compare it to. I know that at certain points it may be more practical to speak to the Father or the Son or to a saint or to a clerk in a store. Or to my mom if I want to know how she is doing or what time to meet her. And in terms of face time I may appear to spend more time talking to the Father.

But at the same time, I really don’t have a preference and it is not because I don’t love Jesus very much. It’s because to increase in love of One is unavoidably to increase in love of all Three Persons.

So that’s my final word. I really can’t choose. And I really did just try. Heehee… Okay now I’m going to stop before my head goes all funny. I really thought I’d be able to say Jesus because He is human and closer to me or the Holy Spirit because He is always there or the Father because loves all of us so much and so passionately that He gives us free will to experience this each in our own ways. And then it really does cycle around to and that is why Jesus became human and died upon a cross so the Holy Spirit can be with us always impressing in each of us the image of the Father.

Ah! 🙂 I give up. The more I think about it the more it’s like that and God has done so much for me and for us that I can’t possibly even capture it in words. I’m going to stop typing now. LOL
 
lifetone said:
That’s a funny question. The more I get to love one person, the more I get to love the other three in this inseparable way. Because they share the glory. I mean that if there is something I learn about the Son and think how wonderful that is, that Jesus experienced this, then He shares this with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and the same with the Holy Spirit, and the Father.

I’ve noticed Him doing that. It’s kind of a mystery but kind of not at all. In my life, if I see anything good I thank Him for it - or try to. He is perfect, in all Three Persons, so He never forgets to give Himself credit. If a friend helps me to come up with a great idea and he/she wants to remain anonymous I will privately thank them or AT LEAST think I could not do this without you - and I know it and they know it, and it tightens our relationship, which is always more valuable than any idea.

Trying to think Who is my favorite slips through my hands before I can grasp it for long. I can’t even think of anything good to compare it to. I know that at certain points it may be more practical to speak to the Father or the Son or to a saint or to a clerk in a store. Or to my mom if I want to know how she is doing or what time to meet her. And in terms of face time I may appear to spend more time talking to the Father.

But at the same time, I really don’t have a preference and it is not because I don’t love Jesus very much. It’s because to increase in love of One is unavoidably to increase in love of all Three Persons.

So that’s my final word. I really can’t choose. And I really did just try. Heehee… Okay now I’m going to stop before my head goes all funny. I really thought I’d be able to say Jesus because He is human and closer to me or the Holy Spirit because He is always there or the Father because loves all of us so much and so passionately that He gives us free will to experience this each in our own ways. And then it really does cycle around to and that is why Jesus became human and died upon a cross so the Holy Spirit can be with us always impressing in each of us the image of the Father.

Ah! 🙂 I give up. The more I think about it the more it’s like that and God has done so much for me and for us that I can’t possibly even capture it in words. I’m going to stop typing now. LOL
Click to expand...
It is comments like this that make me see how far behind others I am on the path to sanctity!
 
An interesting question.

When I first came into the Church, I was attached , really attached to God the Father. Gradually, I became attached to Jesus. This took a long time. I turn to Jesus most of all. I don’t turn to the Father much, usually it is through Jesus. I do pray a lot more to the Holy Spirit. I feel it was God the Father that was most with me in my early years. I was really in love with the Father when I was around 8-10 years old.
 
This is a great question; as we approach Ascension Thursday and the Upper Room at Pentecost.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.

Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him."
Click to expand...
 
I myself started off as a total atheist, then moved through the levels of agnosticism, pantheism, monotheism, deism, and compassionate-personal-creator-God-ism 😉 rather quickly. Since my first encounter with Jesus came long after my first encounter with arguments for the sake of the existence of (one) “God”, my relationship has always been with the Father most strongly. He has always been the expression of my belief… so when I believed in “God”, the deist mono-entity, it was an easy transition to “add” our holy Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God, once I was able to believe in the blessed Trinity.

Whenever I begin to pray, I say “Father…”, or “Heavenly Father…”, because He is the goal - His total all-consuming love and life is, and all else is not. The only thing that has existed from the ‘beginning of the beginning’ is God the Father, and even the Son is ‘generated, not made’, and the Holy Spirit ‘proceeds’, but the Father is our Principle. Our Lord Jesus Christ points to Him and leads us to Him, and the Holy Spirit helps us to do HIS Will. 😃
 
Glorious Order, I think you might be incorrect in thinking that the Father existed prior to the Son or Holy Spirit. I don’t believe that’s accurate catholic doctrine. I’m not any kind of expert but you should probably check on that one. I’d be interested in hearing what you found out.
Like someone else said, I am also a revert but I have been back for awhile. It seems to me while I was away, it was the Father who kept after me to turn back. I thank Him often now for His patience with me. It wasn’t like I decided to speak with the Father but that it was specifically that Person who chose to communicate with me. At that point in my life I was a little/a lot afraid of Jesus just because I knew how far I’d drifted. When I finally started speaking to Jesus from afar, he kept His distance and never made any sudden moves,He was careful not to spook me.Eventually, I feel in love with Him again like I had when I was a very young child. I read some very good books by George Schulloff who started “The Apostles of the Holy Spirit” here in Cincinnati, OH You can get their materials online now Its all free. hen I was able to see and relate to the Holy Spirit like Jesus and the Father too. I never thought I would be able to before.
One day, something really wonderful happened for me at Mass. When the priest calls down the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the Consecration (epiclesis ? ) I suddenly felt very good and thought “Oh my Friend is coming” It was totally spontanious. When I realized what I had just thought/felt then I though OK I may never ever understand this Trinity thing but at least I have some wroking idea of who these Persons are.I try to call this thought to mind at this part of the Mass when I remember but that first tie it was a realization like flipping on a light.

The most trouble I have is trying to remember that They are ONE God not three gods. I can think and believe it in my head and think of the whole shamrock thing, thank you st patrick, but by the time I add the Blessed Mother in there I feel downright Hindu. I don’t know how to get my gut feeling and the rest of me with the program or where my head is. Sometimes I even feel I am even neglecting the other two! Which I know is theologically inaccurate but thats how it feels.
Does anyone else run into this?
 
MariaTheresa, I’m only just starting Aquinas’ Summa when it comes to God. Give me a few months to get through the blessed Trinity. 😛

Either way, our holy Creed says “generated, not made”, but a generation requires a generator. Obviously, there is no concept of causality beyond the realm of time (how can there be?), but for some reason the Holy Spirit guided the Church to use the words “generate” and “proceed” to describe the Logos and the Spirit of God. This is very perplexing, obviously, and I don’t pretend to know what I’m talking about. This is a guess based on information the Church gives us. I, for one, can ‘see’ the blessed Trinity in generation, procession, and yet total eternity and oneness. It cannot be described, but He is truly One God. There is no dispute… 🙂
 
OK Glorious- I see your point and we are already out in water to deep for me and I don’t have my swimmies on 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top