Creed: Trinity Sunday

Blessed Trinity Sunday, friends! Today marks the final Sunday before Ordinary Time (also known as "Proper Sundays", also known as "Sundays After Pentecost", also known as "Sundays After Trinity Sunday"!) 

If I were in charge I'd call the coming weeks of the calendar Trinity Season. The Trinity exists more than an essential part of Christian doctrine (which it assuredly is) but as the living, loving ultimate reality in which we live and move and have our being. 

We are welcomed to the never-depleted communion of Father, Son, and Spirit and find our truest selves in their midst. We move outward, extending this hand of fellowship to the world, not as individuals, but as those who've been deeply and thoroughly welcomed into the friendship of God. When we love the world, we are loving from this pulsing reality of the Triune God. 

So, celebrate today well, friends. We are deeply welcomed, loved, and abundantly refreshed to share the love indiscriminately with the world.

For more background of this day, visit our friends at The Homely Hours - Trinity Sunday: A Few Traditions and Links. 

Look: The Cherubikon, Elena Cherkasova - Source

I especially love this work because so few images reflecting the Trinity include us, the Church. Viktor Barashkov, in a review of the artist’s work via Artway, says: “In this work the artist combines images with a clearly inscribed text in Church Slavonic – a language that has and had great importance for the liturgical practice of the Orthodox Church. The sacred meaning of the words and their ornamental quality are equally important. We see cherubim in the center around a table with three angels who symbolize the Holy Trinity. We see wine and bread on the table. And – this is important – we see people gathered at the liturgy. There is no division between heaven and earth.”

Listen: Creed, Rich Mullins - Lyrics | Spotify | YouTube

That video is a little dated but worth it to watch Rich Mullins play a hammered dulcimer while smiling at a bunch of kids.

You can listen to the entire playlist here: Pentecost 2021: Rushing Wind

Read: Exodus 3:1-6; Psalm 93; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-16

Daily readings for the week of Trinity Sunday

Sunday (5/30) Psalm 63, 98; Psalm 103; Deuteronomy 11:1-12; Revelation 10:1-11; Matthew 13:44-58

Monday (5/31) Psalm 41, 52; Psalm 44; Deuteronomy 11:13-19; 2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2; Luke 17:1-10

Tuesday (6/1) Psalm 45; Psalm 47-48; Deuteronomy 12:1-12; 2 Corinthians 6:3-13--7:1; Luke 17:11-19

Wednesday (6/2) Psalm 119:49-72; Psalm 49, 53; Deuteronomy 13:1-11; 2 Corinthians 7:2-16; Luke 17:20-37

Thursday (6/3) Psalm 50; Psalm 8, 84; Deuteronomy 16:18-20; 17:14-20; 2 Corinthians 8:1-16; Luke 18:1-8

Friday (6/4) Psalm 40, 54; Psalm 51; Deuteronomy 26:1-11; 2 Corinthians 8:16-24; Luke 18:9-14

Saturday (6/5) Psalm 55; Psalm 138-139; Deuteronomy 29:2-15; 2 Corinthians 9:1-15; Luke 18:15-30

Pray: Collect for the First Sunday after Pentecost: Trinity Sunday

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Do: Read the Athanasian Creed out loud today.

The Church adheres to the Athanasian Creed, but boy-howdy we hardly ever say it out loud together! For efficiency and overall crowd appeal, the Apostles Creed seems to be our go-to or the Nicene Creed when we're feeling particularly earnest in worship. But you can't beat the Athanasian Creed for a robust declaration of our gratitude for the Triune God. That's why a lot of churches will pull this one on Trinity Sunday. I encourage you to read it aloud with whomever you're able to find to join you today. 

(*Note: if you're unfamiliar with the language of the historic creeds, the word "catholic" means the universal Christian church, not the Roman Catholic (capital “C”) church.)