Behold, there are three: the lover, the beloved, and the love itself. Ecce tria sunt: amans, et quod amatur, et amor. - St. Augustine, De Trinitate VIII.10
Father Son Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit: The third Person of the Trinity, Who was created by God in response to the separation as God’s remaining communication link with His separated Sons. He is both the Voice for God and the Voice of God, Who guides all of the sleeping Sons back to awakening.
“The Holy Spirit is described throughout the course as giving us the answer to the separation and bringing the plan of the Atonement to us, establishing our particular part in it, and showing us exactly what it is” (C-5.2:1).
Nothing can prevail against a Son of God who commends his spirit into the hands of his Father. By doing this, the mind awakens from its sleep and remembers its Creator. All sense of separation disappears and level confusion vanishes. The Son of God is part of the Holy Trinity, but the Trinity Itself is one. There is no confusion within Its levels, because they are of one Mind and one will. This single purpose creates perfect integration, and establishes the reign of the peace of God. - ACIM
Freedom is creation because it is love. What you seek to imprison you do not love. Therefore, when you seek to imprison anyone, including yourself, you do not love him and you cannot identify with him. When you imprison yourself, you are losing sight of your own true identification, because you cannot identify with me and with the Father. Your identification is with the Father and with the Son. It cannot be with one and not the other. If you are part of one, you must be part of the other, because They are one. The Holy Trinity is holy because It is one. If you exclude yourself from this union, you are perceiving the Holy Trinity as separated. You must be included in It, because It is everything. Unless you take your place in It and fulfill your function as part of It, It is as bereft as you are. No part of It can be imprisoned if Its truth is to be known. Can you be separated from your identification and be at peace? - ACIM
God would not have us be alone because He does not will to be alone. That is why He created His Son and gave him the power to create with Him. Our creations are as holy as we are, and we are the Sons of God Himself, and therefore as holy as He is. Through our creations we extend our love, and thus increase the joy of the Holy Trinity. You do not understand this for a very simple reason: You who are God’s Own treasure do not regard yourself as valuable. Given this belief, you cannot understand anything. - ACIM
“God wants only His Son, because His Son is His only treasure. ²You want your creations, as He wants His. ³Your creations are your gift to the Holy Trinity, created in gratitude for your creation. ⁴They do not leave you, any more than you have left your Creator. ⁵But they extend your creation, as God extended Himself to you.” [CE T-8.V.4]
8 God does not take steps, because His accomplishments are not gradual. ²He does not teach, because His creations are changeless. ³He does nothing last, because He created first and for always. ⁴It must be understood that the word “first” as applied to Him is not a time concept. ⁵He is first here only in the sense that He is first in the Holy Trinity Itself. ⁶He is the Prime Creator because He created His co-creators. ⁷And because He did, time applies neither to Him nor to what He created. [CE T-6.VIII.8]
⁴The Son of God is part of the Holy Trinity, but the Trinity Itself is one. ⁵There is no confusion within Its levels, because they are of one Mind and one will. ⁶This single purpose creates perfect integration, and establishes the reign of the peace of God. [CE T-3.III.9:4-6]
11 God would not have us be alone because He does not will to be alone. ²That is why He created His Son and gave him the power to create with Him. ³Our creations are as holy as we are, and we are the Sons of God Himself, and therefore as holy as He is. ⁴Through our creations we extend our love, and thus increase the joy of the Holy Trinity. ⁵You do not understand this for a very simple reason: You who are God’s Own treasure do not regard yourself as valuable. ⁶Given this belief, you cannot understand anything. [CE T-8.V.11]
⁴When you imprison yourself, you are losing sight of your own true identification, because you cannot identify with me and with the Father. ⁵Your identification is with the Father and with the Son. ⁶It cannot be with one and not the other. ⁷If you are part of one, you must be part of the other, because They are one. ⁸The Holy Trinity is holy because It is one. If you exclude yourself from this union, you are perceiving the Holy Trinity as separated. ²You must be included in It, because It is everything. ³Unless you take your place in It and fulfill your function as part of It, It is as bereft as you are. ⁴No part of It can be imprisoned if Its truth is to be known. ⁵Can you be separated from your identification and be at peace? CE T-8.IV.2-3
Voices on the Trinity
From Scripture
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. - Matthew 3:16–17
Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father... Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? - John 14:9–10
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. - John 15:26
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth... He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine. - John 16:13–15
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.
The Creeds
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father... And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified. - The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, 325 / 381
And the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. - The Athanasian Creed (Quicumque Vult), c. 5th century
The Church Fathers
No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the Splendour of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish Them than I am carried back to the One. - Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 40.41
If you understand it, it is not God. Si comprehendis, non est Deus. - St. Augustine, Sermon 117
The Father is the source of all divinity; the Son is begotten of him; the Spirit proceedeth from him — so that the Three are One in essence, undivided in glory, indivisible in substance. - after St. John of Damascus, On the Orthodox Faith I.8
The Medieval Mystics
For where Jesus appeareth, the blessed Trinity is understood, as to my sight. - Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ch. 4
Truth seeth God, and Wisdom beholdeth God, and of these two cometh the third: that is, a holy marvelling delight in God; which is Love. - Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ch. 44
In perfect love three are required: the lover, the beloved, and the one with whom love is shared. For the perfection of charity demands a community of three. - after Richard of St Victor, De Trinitate III
The Father laughs into the Son, and the Son laughs back to the Father; and the laughter brings forth pleasure, and the pleasure brings forth joy, and the joy brings forth love — and that love is the Holy Ghost. - attributed to Meister Eckhart
Eternal Light, in Thyself only existing, only by Thyself understood, and, self-understanding, smiling on Thy own Self. O luce etterna che sola in te sidi, sola t'intendi, e da te intelletta e intendente te ami e arridi! - Dante, Paradiso XXXIII.124–126
In the eternal Abyss the Father is the Will; the Son is the Word and the Heart brought forth from that Will; the Holy Spirit is the moving Life and the Power that proceeds from them both — the three centres of the one fire of God. - after Jacob Boehme, Mysterium Magnum