Trinity Sunday: An Anglican Journey

The priest on Sunday told us we are made in His image, and I’m inclined to believe him. Have you ever thought how the heart is really a triangle with the edges smoothed out? All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.

We were sitting on the last pew. Multiple times I caught myself looking behind me. Something was there. Something was flickering. It must be the candles by the entrance, I told myself, trembling in an unseen wind. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. We were in the knave of All Saints after all.

I was cold the whole service, but there was something about standing and saying the creed that warmed me. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible: and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. Is that you behind me? The Father eternal, the Son eternal: and the Holy Ghost eternal. I believe it must be. And yet there are not three eternals: but one eternal. As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated: but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty: and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties: but one Almighty. And so we stood, caught in between “yet”s and “but”s, lost in the rise and fall of our neighbor’s voices, our language and strength flickering like the candles behind and before us. It’s hard to stand and read that Athanasian Creed. Just ask the people of All Saints. They know.

My whole life I’ve tried to believe in my own words, and that was a mere chasing after the wind. My belief was mostly feeling, my conviction, shrouded in vagueness. But I say the creeds now with the congregation of saints, every Sunday and sometimes in between-- and somewhere in the rise and fall rhythm of making those words my own, I feel in certain moments that I’ve finally caught the wind. Or that the wind has finally caught me.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

*"Holy Trinity" by Andrej Rublëv: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrej_Rubl%C3%ABv_001.jpg