St AUGUSTINE & THE HOLY TRINITY

This triangle and cicrcle is the usual explanation we have learnt in our Catechism about The Holy Trinity. The mudras representation in Fr TR's painting is much more helpful for contemplation.We have always thought it is simply a mystery which we might understand in the next life but not this. St Augustine tried to attempt to explain the Trinity, to satisfy the scriptural directive to "seek His face evermore".
His book "The Trinity" begins with a consideration of the Scriptural references to the Trinity, with the aim of reconciling them and explaining them through the supposition of three equal persons in one God. Augustine is at particular pains to maintain the equality of the persons: that the Son is equal to the Father, and the Holy Spirit equal to both. His approach is to use the fact that Man was created in the image of God. Given this, Augustine reasons, there should be some image of the Trinity in man. This leads to the consideration of a succession of trinities - the lover, beloved, and love; memory, understanding, and will; the objects of sense, the will to attend to them, and the sense impressions of them; etc. The trinities in man are held up not as exact analogues to that in God, but as a ladder, starting with the most carnal and rising towards the most spiritual; we do not find a single Trinity like that of God within ourselves, but we do find a series of them that we can ascend, and in ascending it we approach the divine Trinity and a deeper understanding of God.

-from a student.

CONTEMPLATING TRINITY

From(ZENIT.org).- For the faithful, communion within the Church should be closely linked to the work of evangelization, says Benedict XVI. The Pope said this today at the general audience when delivering a catechesis on St. Ignatius of Antioch. Some 40,000 people gathered in St. Peter's Square, about a quarter of whom came from Apulia, Italy, accompanying their bishops for their five-yearly visit to Rome. The Holy Father continued his cycle of catecheses on the apostolic fathers. St. Ignatius was bishop of Antioch, a town located in what is today Turkey. He was bishop there from A.D. 70 to 107, the year of his martyrdom in Rome. On his journey to his martyrdom, he wrote seven letters from the cities of Smyrna and Troas. The Pontiff described these letters as examples of "the freshness of the faith of the generations that had known the apostles" and "the ardent love of a saint." He continued: "No other Church Father expressed as intensely as Ignatius the wish for union with Christ and life in him. "For Ignatius, union is 'above all a prerogative of God who being three,' is one in absolute union. He often repeats that God is union and only in God can this be found in the pure and original state." Divine archetype Ignatius thus elaborates a particular vision of the Church, according to which the "union to be reached in this world by Christians is but an imitation, the closest possible to the divine archetype," Benedict XVI explained. He continued: "In general, in Ignatius' letters, we can see a sort of constant and fruitful dialectic between the two aspects characteristic of Christian life: on one hand the hierarchical structure of the ecclesial community, and on the other hand, the fundamental union that links all the faithful in Christ.

TEN LEPERS- Painting by Fr Thamburaj: a Contemplation

While contemplating this Painting by Fr Thamburaj let us recall the story of the ten lepers: It happened when the lepers met Jesus but stayed at a distance because those days the law said a leper must not come near and must call out "Unclean!" so people would avoid even looking at them. These men called out, "Jesus, have mercy on us!" They knew he had healed others. Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests, and as they were going, their skin became clear and free from leprosy! But only one of them turned and came back to Jesus. He fell at Jesus' feet and thanked him profusely. Jesus inquired where the other nine were, were they all OK?" Ten were healed, of course, but only one came back to say "Thank you"...Sometimes we don't even think about all the good things that God gives us. We don't even realize everything that God has given us . We don't realize how precious health is until we get sick. There is always something we can thank God for.And God makes everything turn out for the good for those who love him. He likes to be thanked just like we do when we do something special for someone. ....There is another good point to remember: see the following note about feeling worthy of God's gifts: http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2007/7332.html :-"March 9, 2007: Shifting into Gratitude : The Question of Worthiness .We all know what it's like to finally get something we want, only to find ourselves feeling as if we don't deserve it. Whether it's a car, a new job, or a date with someone wonderful, we suddenly feel as if we are not up to it. Something in us wants to reject this gift from the universe, perhaps because it requires that we think of ourselves in a new way or makes us question why we should have something that others don't have. If these feelings of unworthiness are not consciously acknowledged, they can lead us to sabotage ourselves out of the gift being offered. Perhaps the best way to avoid rejection and sabotage is to simply shift into a state of gratitude, bypassing the question of worthiness altogether.The question of whether we or anyone else deserves something is not really in our jurisdiction. These themes play themselves out in ways we can't fully comprehend-on the level of the soul, over the course of many lifetimes. What we do know is that the universe has its own way of shifting the balance over the course of time so that all things are ultimately fair. We can trust in this process and understand that when a gift comes our way, it is because we are meant to have it. Otherwise, it would not be available to us. Accepting the gift with gratitude and using it to the best of our ability is true humility.When we receive a gift and find that feelings of unworthiness crop up, we can simply acknowledge the feelings and then remind ourselves that they are beside the point. We might say to ourselves, "I am meant to have this." As we allow ourselves to accept the gift, we might feel tenderness in our hearts that naturally shifts into a deep feeling of gratitude. As we sit for a moment, consciously holding the gift in our hands or in our hearts, we say "yes" to the universe's many blessings, and we also say "thank you.""

Blogspot of FrTR's spiritual disciples

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A page of 8 Paintings of FrTR

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FrTR's ARTICLES

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Album of FrTR's Paintings

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/thamburajsj/albums/

website of Fr AJ Thamburaj SJ [Praypaint]

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