XXVI — LIVING WITH THE TRINITY

Presence of God. — O Father, O Son, O Holy Spirit, receive me in your embrace, deign to admit me to your intimacy.

Meditation

1 — If you want the great gift of the Trinity’s indwelling to bring in you all its fruit of intimate friendship with the three divine Persons, you must accustom yourself to living with the Trinity, since it is impossible to realize true friendship with someone when, though hosting him in one’s own house, one then lives forgetful of him. To live with the Trinity, it is not necessary that you feel its presence in you - this is a grace that depends solely on God to grant or not - it is enough that you rest on faith, by which you know with certainty that the divine Persons dwell in you. Basing yourself on this reality which you do not see, do not feel, and do not understand, but which God has revealed to you, you can orient yourself to a true life of union with the Most Holy Trinity.

You can first consider the Trinity present in you in its undivided unity; indeed, you already know that everything the Trinity does outside Itself, and therefore also in your soul, is operated indistinctly by the three divine Persons. All three dwell equally in you, dwell there simultaneously, and produce there the same effects. All three pour grace and love into you, enlighten you, offer you their friendship, and love you with one single love. Nevertheless, this does not prevent each one from being present in your soul with the characteristics proper to his Person: namely, the Father as the originating source of divinity and of all being; the Word as the splendor of the Father, as light; the Holy Spirit as the fruit of the Father’s and the Son’s love. Each divine Person, therefore, loves you with a personal nuance and offers you his particular gift. The Father offers you his most sweet fatherhood; the Word invests you with his vivid light; the Holy Spirit penetrates you with his ardent love. And you, little creature, try to become conscious of such great gifts so as to profit from them fully.

2 — In correspondence with the particular characteristics of the three divine Persons, you can have with each one particular relations. Considering the Father in you, you will feel the need to live near Him as a good child, to be for Him a loving and devoted child who seeks to please Him in everything, who wants to do his will in everything. And at the same time, especially in moments of difficulty and discouragement, you will feel urged to take refuge in Him, to find in his omnipotence, greatness, and infinite goodness support and remedy for your insufficiency, littleness, and misery.

Considering the Word present in your soul, you will feel the need to let yourself be penetrated by his light, to be instructed by Him who is the Father’s word, so that He may introduce you to true knowledge of divine mysteries and teach you to judge all things according to God. You will feel the need to seek Him in his Incarnation where you find Him more accessible to your humanity, to take refuge in his Redemption by which He gives you life, makes Himself your brother, and presents you to the Father as child.

Considering the Holy Spirit, delightful fruit of the Father’s and the Son’s love, there will arise in you a livelier desire to cooperate with his work of love in your soul; therefore you will want to follow his inspirations more docilely, you will want to let yourself be guided by Him in all things, and finally let yourself be seized by his divine impulse so that He may draw you with Himself into the Father and the Son.

In this way, as St. John says, there will be realized in you that most lofty end for which God created and redeemed us: that “our fellowship may be with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn. 1, 3). And this not because of your merits, but because of Christ’s infinite merits: He has shared with you his glory as Son of God, made you partake of the love with which the Father loves Him, given you his Spirit, and made Himself your food to nourish in the most direct way your life of union with the most holy Trinity.

Colloquy

“O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself completely so as to establish myself in You, immovable and tranquil as if my soul were already in eternity! May nothing disturb my peace nor draw me out of You, O my Immutable One; rather, may every moment carry me farther into the depth of your mystery!

“Pacify my soul, make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest; may I never leave You there alone, but remain there wholly, fully awake in faith, ever adoring, wholly abandoned to your creative action.

“O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, I would like to be a bride for your heart, I would like to cover You with glory, I would like to love You so much... as to die of it. But I feel my powerlessness, and I ask You to clothe me with Yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of yours, to immerse me, to invade me, with all the movements of yours, so that my life may be only an emanation of yours. Come into me as Adorer, as Reparative Victim, and as Savior.

“O eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to You; I want to make myself perfectly docile so as to learn everything from You. Then, through all the nights of the spirit, all the voids, all the helplessnesses, I want to fix my gaze always on You and remain in your immense light. O my beloved Star, fascinate me so that I may no longer withdraw from your radiance.”