Talk 4

Before we spoke, brothers, of the fact that in the one God there are three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—that the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but not three gods, but one God, only in three Persons. Then we showed the personal distinction between Them—namely, that the first Person of the Holy Trinity, or God the Father, is not created by anyone, nor begotten, nor does He proceed from anyone, but has life from Himself and in Himself; the Son was begotten of the Father before all time, or before all ages, spiritually, without any separation from the Parent—incomparably more swiftly than among us are born thoughts and words—was begotten incomprehensibly to any of the rational creatures; the Holy Spirit likewise before all time, eternally and in a spiritual manner proceeds from the Father, not separating Himself from Him.

Now we must say that the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity are completely equal with one another in dignity, so that among Them there is nothing first or last, greater or lesser, servile or accidental, which did not exist before or came afterwards. God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are God in the full and proper sense—God just as truly as God the Father—with all Divine perfections: to each one, to the second, and to the third Person belong equally all Divine attributes: absolute perfection, self-existence, omnipresence, eternity, immutability, omnipotence, omniscience, perfect holiness, infinite goodness and justice—though in such a way that there are not three perfect ones, three self-existent beings, three omnipresent beings, three eternal beings, three immutable beings, etc., but one perfect God, distinguished only in Persons, but in essence and in essential properties eternally One. Although the Son and the Holy Spirit have their being from the Father—the one through begetting, the other through procession—this is not an obstacle to their equality with each other and with the Father: because Their essence or nature is one—so that, as we said, in the Trinity there is nothing first or last, greater or lesser, but the three Persons are consubstantial with themselves and equal. For this reason Their names are often used in different order: sometimes the name of the Father comes first, sometimes the Son, and sometimes the Holy Spirit. Here is one example in which the name of the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity is placed before the first Person. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, writes the holy Apostle to the newly converted Christians. The Son of God Himself speaks of His equality and consubstantiality with the Father thus: My Father has been working until now, and I have been working. Whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whom He will. I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. I and the Father are one. In the Acts of the Apostles it is said that the Holy Spirit is the same God as God the Father and God the Son. Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God, says the holy Apostle Peter to Ananias, who had withheld part of the price of the sold field.

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says in one of his teachings: “The Father does not have one glory, nor the Son another: but they have one and the same, just as the Holy Spirit as well;” in another: “The Son always possesses royal dignity, sits together with the Father, is God and Wisdom and Power;” and in yet another: “The Holy Spirit is honored with equal glory of Godhead with the Father and the Son: in Him have need thrones and dominions, principalities and powers—”that is to say, we add, all the orders of Angels. “For there is one God, the Father of Christ, and one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of the one God; and one is the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies all and deifies, who spoke in the Law and the Prophets, in the Old Testament and in the New.”

Therefore, brothers, the three Persons of the one God are completely equal with one another—and you have heard testimony of Their equality from Divine Scripture and from the teaching of the holy Fathers of the Church. But you can forget these testimonies, as is often forgotten whatever is not more and more confirmed in our memory through repetition. Therefore we point you to the testimonies or teaching on this subject which you can hear and repeat very frequently yourselves. In the Church of God during every Divine Service, each one can hear the Creed of the Orthodox Faith in which we confess the Only-Begotten Son of God as “the true God from true God, of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made,”—and the Holy Spirit as “the Lord, the Life-giver, worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son—”and by these words we acknowledge their complete equality with one another. Moreover, all those standing in the temple hear how the priest in his exclamations or the reader in brief doxologies and endings of prayers from the person of the whole Church frequently send up a single glory and honor to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Especially in the exclamations of the Priest is clearly shown both the consubstantiality and the equality of the Divine Persons. As the one God in three Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are always mentioned together, with the elevation of their common dominion, kingdom, power, and glory, for example: “For Yours is the dominion and Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit;” or: “For You are our God, and to You we send up glory: to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit;” or again: “For You are the King of the world and the Savior of our souls: and to You we send up glory: to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” and so forth.

Let us therefore, brothers, always honor with equal and indivisible worship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Godhead one-sovereign and co-throned. If we pray to our heavenly Father, let us bring to mind at the same time His Only-Begotten and Consubstantial Son and the Holy Spirit, equal in honor to the Father, proceeding from the Father, and let us bow down to the three Persons in one essence. If we bring a prayer to the Son of God, then, asking Him for necessary blessings or having brought Him thanksgiving for His benefits toward us, let us send up together with Him glory to His unoriginate Father with His most holy, good, and life-giving Spirit. And when we ask for blessings from the Spirit of God, then again let us glorify His name with the Father and His Only-Begotten Son. All three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, as self-sufficient, grant us—in addition to the gifts common to all of Them—also special blessings, but as Persons of one substance, They participate also in the granting of blessings sent from one or another Person separately, because They have one will and one intention.

Each time, in every prayer, let us glorify the Father, exalt the Son, and faithfully worship the Divine Spirit—the indivisible Trinity, the Unity in essence, as Light and by Light, and Life and by Life.

Tri-hypostatic Unity, O Father, Son, and Spirit Living, one Godhead, one kingdom—You are praised by the Light-bringing hosts of Angels, and we, who are on earth, sing, bless, and exalt You forever. With this talk we conclude the teaching on the Most Holy Trinity, or on God as He is in Himself. In the talks to follow we shall speak of God as the Creator of the world. Amen.

First Homily. On Theology

1Jn 2:23

Lk 4:18.

Explanation of Sundays and Feast Days of the Gospel. St. P. B. 1806, p. 6.

Chrysostom. Discourse 54.

Socrates.

Solom 9:16.

Summary of Teachings, 6, p. 102, ed. 1824.

1Cor 2:11

Jn 17:3 .

Summary of Teachings VII, p. 132

Creed of Saint Gregory the Wonderworker

From the Creed of Saint Athanasius

Mt 28

Trinity Fasting Triodion, p. 29

Mal 1:6,14.

Is 1:3.

Act 17:28.

Rom 8:26.

See prayer in the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great before the consecration of the holy Gifts.

Liturgy of the Hours, ch. 6, doxology

Mt 6:9.

Jn 17:20,21.

Jn 5:26.

Summary of Teachings XI, p. 190.

Ibid., p. 188.

Ibid., p. 200.

P. 191.

Pp. 196–197.

Jn 15:26.

Theology of Saint John of Damascus, Russian translation, pp. 41–42.

Mt 23:9.

Jn 5:20.

Verses for Great Vespers on Friday, ch. 2, p. 9

From the Creed of Saint Athanasius

Creed of Saint Gregory the Wonderworker

2Cor 13:13 .

Jn 5:17,19,21.

Jn 14:11,10:30.

Act 5:3,4.

Summary of Teachings 6, p. 91.

Teaching 4, p. 62.

Summary of Teachings 16, p. 348.

See the order of Matins.

Fasting Triodion, p. 13, verso. Trinity.

P. 216, ibid.