Trinity & Visitation
- AndreaGrace
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
These highlights from our service on May 31, 2026, are shared here as a resource for your prayer, reflection, and continued spiritual practice.
On the first Sunday after Pentecost – the Church celebrates the Trinity – God in three manifestations. This year, that happened to also be May 31, the Feast of the Visitation – when Mary and Elizabeth encountered one another – cousins both miraculously pregnant. Through song, readings, and reflection, we will explore the different ways we come to understand and experience God – and we see that presence reflected in The Visitation.
Communion of Saints
St. Patrick lived in Ireland around 400 years after Jesus. He used the shamrock to teach about the Trinity – that there are three persons or leaves – in one plant. Notice that the leaves are heart-shaped! This may seem simple and trite but it is a starting point to go deeper. God is bigger and better, more expansive and brilliant, than all names and adjectives. The shamrock is always green – like the evergreen wreath we use at Christmas – a symbol of God’s eternal life. It’s important to note that this beloved expression of the Trinity is nature-based – very different from the common phrase – the Trinity as “God in Three PERSONS” – three humans.
St. Hildegard of Bingen, Germany had many visions. In one, she came to understand the Trinity in terms of energy. She wrote:
“Then I saw a bright light, and in this light, the figure of a man the color of a sapphire, which was all blazing with a gentle glowing fire. And that bright light bathed the whole of the glowing fire, and the glowing fire bathed the bright light; and the bright light and the glowing fire poured over the whole human figure, so that the three were one light in power of potential.”
Praying with Songs
One Power by Daniel Nahmod
Holy, Holy, Holy (Here in this Place by Gundry) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXyu57tR2gk
Hold onto Love - https://youtu.be/WtrbxIW7bRo?si=nemdEy7a9hVxLfgl
Opening Prayer
Intro: In the 1940s, in Nag Hamadi Egypt, many documents were found from the Early Church. Among them were multiple copies of this prayer which is included in a book called The New New Testament.
Thanksgiving Prayer from the Early Christian Church
We give thanks to you,
every life and heart stretches toward you,
O Name Untroubled,
honored with the name of God,
praised with the name of the Father.
To everyone and everything
comes the kindness of the Father,
and love
and desire.
And if there is a sweet and simple teaching
it gifts us mind, word and knowledge:
mind that we may understand you;
word, that we may interpret you;
knowledge, that we may know you.
We rejoice and are enlightened by your knowledge.
We rejoice that you have taught us about yourself.
We rejoice that in the body
you have made us divine (gods) through your knowledge.
The thanksgiving of the human who reaches you
is this alone:
That we know you.
We have known you,
O Light of Mind,
O Life of Life,
we have known you.
O Womb of all that Grows,
we have known you.
O Womb pregnant with the nature of the Father,
we have known you.
O Never-Ending endurance of the Father who gives birth,
so we worship your goodness.
One wish we ask:
we wish to be protected in knowledge
One protection we desire:
that we not stumble in this life.
When they said these things in prayer, they welcomed one another, and they went to eat their holy food, which had no blood in it.
Readings
Hagar Names The Divine, The-God-Who-Sees-Me (Genesis 16:6b-14:): On this Trinity Sunday, we explore different names and images for the Divine. The first person we know about who named YHWH was Hagar. Sarah and Abraham were unable to conceive so Sarah gave her enslaved woman, Hagar, to Abraham, as his wife – a Biblical example of polygamy. Hagar conceived a son who was named Ishmael. Hagar is the matriarch of Islam.
The Great I AM (Exodus 34:4b-6): While Hagar named God, Moses received God’s name and God’s description for God’s self. God doesn’t say I’m a father… or a son… but rather, this is how I show up… Moses, The Holy One proclaimed,
“I AM, I AM.
I AM the God of compassion and grace,
slow to anger,
great in faithfulness and
unwavering in love.”
PSALM (Genesis 1:1-2; 26a, 27-28a): In this psalm, a prayer-song, we are reminded of God as Creator and Spirit that continues to be present to us.
A Multifaceted God (2 Corinthians 13:14): St. Paul gave us one of the earliest descriptions of a multi-faceted God: “the grace of Jesus the Christ, the love of God, and the companionship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you”
The Trinity Visible in the Visitation: (Luke 1:39-42): In the story about Mary and Elizbeth’s Divine Encounter, we clearly see the manifestation of the Trinity. God the Creator and Divine Parent that formed two miraculous pregnancies, Jesus as a fetus in utero, and the Holy Spirit that helped Mary discern she should go to Elizabeth. The same Spirit that helped Elizabeth recognize that her baby’s reaction was important. These women joined together to praise their YHWH.
By the way, in the Hail Mary prayer which is taken from Elizabeth’s words, we read “blessed is the fruit of your womb…” Can you imagine a womb filled with fruit like apples and pears? By using the word “fruit,” the Church has removed the human experience of a fetus and of being pregnant, actually watering-down “the incarnation” – Jesus becoming human. One of the Benedictine sisters taught me to use “child” instead of “fruit” – “blessed is the child of your womb, Jesus!”
AndreaGrace's Reflection
Recently, my husband and I saw the movie, The Sheep Detective. It’s about a shepherd who looks into the eyes of each of his sheep and names them – like Hagar says about God. The shepherd is murdered… and he continues to appear to his flock, guiding them to solve the mystery. At one point, a ram is taking two sheep on a tour and takes them by a church. The ram says: “This is a church. It’s where God lives. They say God is a shepherd and God is a lamb and he’s bread that they eat every Sunday! “
We try so hard to describe God… We give so many analogies and descriptions – and so many of them are incomplete. Perhaps in the end, we can echo what St. John said, “God is love.”
God is love – that love is manifested as we co-create, as we are Christ for one another, as we breathe and give breathe….
This week, I read, Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. I highly recommend it! In chapter 21, he writes:
“For anything to be good, truly good, there must be love in it. I'm not even sure I know fully what that means, but the older I get, the more I believe it. There must be love for the gift itself, love for the subject being depicted or the story being told, and love for the audience. Whether the art is sculpture karma, farming, teaching, lawmaking, medicine, music, or raising a child, if love is not in it - at the very heart of it - it might be skillful, marketable, or popular but I do but I doubt it is truly good. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.”
We are called to Love…. to be like our BeLoved… to be love…
As we love, we mirror our Beloved God – who appears in so many forms – who is truly beyond all names and even images.
On our spiritual journeys, we have the opportunity to explore different aspects of this amazing God… to try out different names and images… to notice how God is inviting us to call God’s self.
God is so much more than anything we can describe. Yet – we know about the strength of three… think of 3 strands braided together or a tricycle versus a bicycle.
It helps our human brains to think of God in terms of three – the Trinity.
Prayer Experience
For our prayer experience today, reread these descriptions of the Trinity that we’ve used during the Easter season and that were used at the WOC Conference. Notice which resonate in you, invites you to explore or even surprises you.
YHWH God
Jesus – God made Human
Holy Spirit – Breath, Wind and Fire
Our Mother, El Shaddai
Jesus – Word Incarnate
Holy Spirit – Sophia
God Our Creator
Jesus who is Christ Alive
The Holy Spirit – Gift-Giver
God which is Powerful Love
Jesus - Who is with us in our suffering
The Holy Spirit – Comforter and Advocate
God – Source of All Life
Jesus – The Risen One who is Emmanuel
and the Holy Spirit - Fountain of Grace
God – Energy that Creates Miracles
Jesus – The Risen One
and the Holy Spirit that draws us near
God, Source of Life,
Jesus, Source of Transformation,
Spirit, Source of Justice
Heartbeat of all of creation
Bread of Resurrection and Wine of New Life
Sophia Wisdom
Shekhinah and Kwan Yin
Transformative Justice
Passionate Fire of Hope
Now pause on St. Hildegard’s image of the Divine and be with God – the Great-I-AM-Who-Sees-Us.
Note what aspects of the Trinity touched you today and write down which descriptors you want to pray with in the future.
Eucharistic Liturgy
Read our standard prayers here.
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