Trinity Sunday Year C

Mass Readings for Trinity Sunday Year C

• First Reading – Proverbs 8:22-31: God's wisdom declares it was created first, before the earth and oceans. Present during creation, it rejoiced beside God, delighting in the formation of the world and humankind.
• Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 8: In awe of the heavens and stars, I marvel at human significance and dignity, honored by God with dominion over all creatures of earth, sea, and air.
• Second Reading – Romans 5:1-5: Justified by faith, we are at peace with God through Jesus, and rejoice in hope. Our sufferings produce endurance, character, and hope, filled with God's love through the Holy Spirit.
• Gospel - John 16:12-15: Jesus acknowledged the disciples' limitations in understanding and promised the coming of the Spirit of truth. This Spirit would guide them into all truth, speaking not independently, but revealing future events and glorifying Jesus by sharing His teachings. Jesus affirmed that the Spirit's revelations are from His divine authority.

Themes for Trinity Sunday Year C

The readings for The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity for Year C invite us to live in the light of God's truth. In the first reading we hear of the eternal nature of God. The psalm praises God for the wonders of his creation and his care for us. In the second reading Paul reminds us that faith brings us hope. In the gospel Jesus tells us that all that is the Father's is also his and he promises us the Spirit of truth.

• The relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• Lover, Beloved, and Love
• Mutual indwelling
• What the Trinity means to us

See the Homilies and Reflections section and the More Thoughts section for further expansion on these readings and some reflection questions for Trinity Sunday Year C.

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What Is the Holy Trinity?

What does the mystery of the Trinity tell us? It tells us that God is relationship. In fact, God is such a perfect relationship in unity that God is truly one.

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A Prayer of Human Dignity

This prayer is based on Psalm 8, which is the responsorial psalm for Trinity Sunday Year C. It praises God for granting us human dignity as His children.

You Are My Beloved – Discussion and Reflection Questions

Think about the Trinity. God the Father is the lover. God the Son is the beloved. And God the Holy Spirit is the love between them, a love which is so strong that it is it’s own person.

What Is the Trinity?

From Bishop Robert Barron. Trinity Sunday has been called “the preacher’s nightmare.” But while the Trinity remains a supreme mystery, Thomas Aquinas used a basic principle that helps us to get at it: beings, at all levels, tend to make images of themselves. The higher you go in the hierarchy of being, the more interior and the more perfect this principle becomes.

The Trinity and Wisdom

Jeff Cavins reflects on the readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, focusing especially on the theme of wisdom. Do you need guidance in your life?

Begotten Not Made

Bishop Robert Barron explains that the Nicene Creed articulates the mystery of the Trinity with the wonderful phrase “begotten not made,” meaning that the Son is not a creature but rather shares in the selfsame nature as the Father. The Holy Spirit is then the life-giving love breathed out between the Father and the Son.

Glorious Processions

In today’s Liturgy we’re swept through time in glorious procession—from before earth and sky were set in place to the coming of the Spirit upon the new creation, the Church. Scott Hahn reflects that that we will find peace and union in God, we will share the life of the Trinity, we will dwell in God as He dwells in us.

Praying with the Trinity

The Trinity is a beautiful mystery that cannot be fully explained or understood through human language, which makes it a challenge to communicate to children when we rely on words in our catechesis.

We Are Not Alone

Today's gospel reminds us that as disciples of Jesus we cannot know the future. We can only know that, whatever shape the future takes, we will not have to face it alone.

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We even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

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The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity tells us that we do not have a solitary God up there in heaven, far away; no, He is the Father who gave us his Son, who became man like us, and who sends his own Spirit to be even closer to us.

Pope Francis