On Trinity Sunday in 2013, Father Richard had just returned from an interfaith gathering with the Dalai Lama and representatives from many world religions. Richard shared:  

Perhaps the most quoted line from the Dalai Lama is, “My religion is kindness.” Isn’t that simple? “My religion is kindness.” He asked, really challenging us from other world religions, “How do you teach kindness or compassion and how does this come from your understanding of God?” I had the job of representing the Christian tradition; I thought the job was rather easy, because of the feast we celebrate today of God as Trinity.  

Sadly, the doctrine of the Trinity hasn’t exercised much influence in the Christian understanding of God. If most Christians—Catholic or Protestant—are questioned about their real image of God, it’s generally an old man sitting on a throne. He’s upset half the time and it’s our job to make this god happy. This, of course, has almost nothing to do with our actual doctrine on the nature of God. What our tradition believes is that God is a fountain fullness of love, a water wheel flowing constantly in one direction: Father to Son, Son to Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit to Father—always outflowing, always outpoured, always giving, never taking, but only receiving what the other gives. It would take the rest of your life to try to comprehend what that means! 

Many of us say we believe in the Trinity—but we really don’t, because we don’t know what to do with it. We can’t even imagine it; all of our metaphors are simply words trying to grab at the reality, at the experience of God that ultimately can’t be verbalized. It can only be experienced.

Eileen’s reflections on this.

I have experienced the Spirit’s Presence both within me and in others along with the Gifts of the Spirit.

When I was searching for God, I read the scriptures and the only ones that really intrigued me were the ones about the Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit’s and the Spirit’s gifts on Pentecost and throughout Acts and other Epistles. But when questioning friends who were active in various denominations, I didn’t find anyone who was experiencing those. After my accepting someone’s challenge to say a prayer this way, “Jesus, if you are who you say you are, please be my Savior and Lord,” I experienced a sense of being loved unconditionally so real that I was overwhelmed by sheer joy. I then became part of an ecumenical prayer group made up of women who shared this experience . Most of the predominant Christian denominations were represented. We focused on growing closer to Jesus through Scripture and prayer and seeking the grace to become the people God created us to be. One day a woman in the group asked for prayer for her mother who had emotional issues and always got stressed at Christmas and ruined the family’s holidays. Out of the blue, I blurted out, “NO! We need to praise and thank, because God is already healing her.” Everyone was surprised, but the daughter, Jenny, accepted this with great joy. Somehow at that moment I knew this beyond any doubt. But after I got home that night, my conviction left me and I panicked, aghast at what I had done. To my great relief, Jenny called me the next morning and said she had talked to her mother long distance and that her mother had finally admitted that she had a problem and was already getting counseling and sounded much better. I was greatly relieved, but still confused about saying that. But, Jenny told me that what had happed was that I had received the Gift of Knowledge from the Holy Spirit. And that there were other gifts of the Spirit. Would I like her to bring a friend at 9am the next morning to pray for me to be baptized in the Spirit and receive the other gifts? Well, I didn’t want to miss out on anything God wanted me to have, so I said, “Yes.” But that evening I began to worry about getting off track again, since I had lost my faith when I became disillusioned with my religion. I didn’t want to lose my connection with Jesus and the joy and grace I was experiencing. So, I prayed for a sign that this experience of Pentecost was meant for me too. Well, by midnight nothing had happened, so I went to bed thinking I would call and cancel Jenny coming in the morning. But about 2am, our phone rang. My husband was a sound sleeper, so I quickly answered it with anxiety about family disasters. A man’s voice said, “Is this the Pentecost?” I stuttered out, “I, I, ah beg your pardon?” He replied, “Is this the Pentecost residence?” I managed to answer, “This is the Norman residence,” and he apologized and hung up. I took this as a positive answer to my prayer and with great joy received prayers for the Holy Spirit to come in power with all His gifts. Once our eyes are opened, we begin to recognize the activity of the Spirit both within us and around us. That journey has continued for me for fifty-five years. It doesn’t make life heaven, but it empowers us to persevere through the joys and the sorrows of our journey and want to share the Good News with others.