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Trinitarian Prayer in the Liturgy of Today
We should, however, pay special attention to the reformed liturgy itself, especially the Eucharist as it is now celebrated and the Eucharistic Prayer in particular.  In fact, all the Prefaces and all the new Eucharistic Prayers of the Roman Rite are not directed to the Son or to the Spirit.  With the sole exception of the ancient Roman Canon, the first Eucharistic Prayer, all the Eucharistic Prayers provide at least one epiclesis, the invocation of the Holy Spirit that is regularly found in the anaphoras of the East.   In the Roman Rite, none of these invocations is directed to the Spirit; all of them are directed to the Father for the gift of the Spirit.  That’s no accident.

As H.A. Reinhold pointed out in 1960, in Bringing the Mass to the People, the impending reform of the Mass would come to reflect this theology.  In the Eucharist, we pray only in terms of the dynamic Trinity.  Two prayers, dating from the Middle Ages, were characteristic of the Trinitarian piety of the time.  These two prayers had their origin, not in Rome, but in the Gallican Rite, used in France. The first was the Suscipe, Sancte Trinitas, said quietly by the priest towards the end of what was called the offertory.  The second was the Placeat tibi, Sancte Trinitas, also said quietly by the priest, just after the dismissal and before the final blessing.  The priest was to bow for both prayers and to say them with his hands joined, as was common in the Middle Ages.  Both prayers are apologiae, private “apologies” by which the priest admitted his sin, expressed humility, and sought pardon before God.   Both these apologies were dropped in the reform of 1969/1970, with good reason.   As Reinhold put it, in the Roman Mass, we do not pray to the Trinity as such.

It seems that very few people, at least in the U.S., have paid attention to the central importance of the dynamic Trinity in our life of prayer.  The static perspective still seems to predominate.  The opening prayer for Trinity Sunday illustrates this fact well.  In the original Latin and in the first version of the prayer in our present Sacramentary, the collect is worded in this way:

Father, you sent your Word to bring us truth and your Spirit to make us holy.  Through them we come to know the mystery of your life.  Help us to worship you, one God in three Persons, by proclaiming and living our faith in you. 

Now, that’s excellent.  As the Constitution on the Liturgy asked for hymns, the idiom is that of Scripture and the Fathers.  Both the Son and the Spirit are not the object of prayer; rather, their role in our salvation is emphasized, as well as their instrumentality in bringing us to share the life of God our Father.  That’s the kind of prayer we need in the liturgy, to express our relationship to God.  That’s our Catholic tradition, at its very best.

The original Latin is even better than this English version:

Deus Pater, qui Verbum veritatis et Spiritum sanctificationis mittens in mundum, admirabile mysterium tuum hominibus declarasti, da nobis, in confessione verae fidei, aeternae gloriam Trinitatis agnoscere, et Unitatem adorare in potentia majestatis.

The original Latin doesn’t mention “three Persons.”  As many have pointed out, the word “person” in English is readily understood to mean  [subsistent] “individual.”  But there is only one divine nature, not three.  Hence, the liturgy tends to avoid terms that are too academic or philosophical, such as “person” in this sense.

Almost perversely, the introduction to this prayer says, “Let us pray to the one God, Father, Son, and Spirit.”  That’s the Trinity understood as an external reality, apart from us, rather than indwelling in us. That’s the static doctrine of the Trinity; it seems the general public can’t get away from it.  Moreover, the alternative prayer in the Sacramentary misses the point entirely of the doctrine of the dynamic Trinity:

God, we praise you:  Father, all-powerful, Christ Lord and Savior, Spirit of love. . . One God, three Persons . . . We ask you this, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, true and living, for ever and ever.

Good Grief !  Three times has the translator missed the point.   Three times has the translator inserted the doctrine of the static Trinity into the text.  It’s not there, but the translator does not think of the Trinity in any other terms.   He even alters the traditional prayer conclusion of the Roman Rite, to reflect his perspective.

Nevertheless, the Roman liturgy has not only providentially preserved the mediation of Christ in prayer, expressed in its official texts; the dynamic Trinity is also the regular doctrine found in the Sacramentary, in accord with the Bible.  Over and over again, God is addressed as the object of our prayer; the Son and the Spirit are spoken of indirectly, as coming from the Father.  The Trinity (though that word is hardly used) is not something extrinsic or external to us but an indwelling God, present among us in the Church.

Trinitarian Prayer in Our Hymns and Psalms during the Mass
So, overall, the Roman liturgy itself has been wonderfully restored, so that our official prayer is seen clearly as a powerful and moving expression of our life in the Spirit, directed to the Father through the Son.  By and large, our hymns have yet to be reformed in the same way.   Here are some specific suggestions. 

The familiar doxology, the Glory Be, is to remain part of popular piety, for years to come. Nor is the formula of baptism ever to be changed, in part because it’s based on the words attributed to Jesus himself. Finally, the Nicene Creed, as we have received it, is the result of considerable thought, discussion, decision, and tradition; it’s not going to be changed either.  Certain songs may remain with us, such as the Phos Hilaron in the Greek East and Gloria, Laus, et Honor in the Latin West. So, the static perspective of the Trinity will always remain with us.  That’s a good thing, if only for the sake of theological clarity.   But precisely to counterbalance all these elements, we need our hymns to reflect the doctrine of the dynamic Trinity.

The first step would be to exclude from the Mass all or most hymns explicitly expressing the static perspective.  That sounds radical, perhaps; but it is possible.  Such songs have their place in the baptismal liturgy and in catechesis but not in the Eucharistic celebration.  As Scripture and the Fathers bear witness, the Mass is Eucharistic liturgy; of its nature, it is directed to the Father through the Son, in the Spirit.

One hymn that may have to go by the boards is Holy, Holy, Holy, with the line, “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.”  That’s exactly what we don’t want to sing in the Eucharist.  One respected author, Paul Schilling, in The Faith We Sing, even considers that the song can be interpreted in a heretical sense, that of tri-theism.   He says the same danger exists in the final verse of Now Thank We All Our God.  In comparison, it should be noted that the word “Trinity” and the expression “three persons” are found nowhere in the Bible or in the earliest liturgies.  As noted earlier, the concepts are there, but expressed differently, in relationship to us, in terms of our salvation.  Perhaps pastorally, we will not want to alter a familiar text; it might be better in most cases simply to drop Holy, Holy, Holy from the repertory.

The second step would be to examine some well known texts and revise them.  Here is one such song, the “doxology”:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below.
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Aside from the archaic “ye” and “ghost” and the unfamiliar “host,” this song is clearly in the idiom of the static Trinity, in which God is represented as apart from us, as the object of our prayer, rather than dwelling within us through the Son in the Spirit.

Here is a practical revision of this text:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below.
Praise God the Father through the Son,
Till in the Spirit we are one.

If this single verse were sung every Sunday, in every parish, over time, people would soon surely grow in their understanding of the dynamic Trinity.  Perhaps, with proper permission of ecclesiastical authority, this single verse could be sung after the Great Amen, before the Our Father.  The text would resonate well with every Eucharistic Prayer in the Roman Rite and with the Our Father itself.  Even without such permission, this single verse could be sung every Sunday, for example, at another point in the Mass, such as the beginning of the preparation of gifts or at the beginning of Communion, while the priest receives.

Other revision is possible, perhaps in other than the first verse.  In some hymns, such as Come, Thou, Almighty King; God, Father, Praise, and Glory; or Sing Praise to Our Creator, there are three verses. The first verse clearly addresses the Father. The second verse is directed to the Son; the third, to the Spirit.  If we need to keep these hymns in use, the second and third verses should be revised, so that they are in the third person, not in direct address.     In general, however, changing familiar texts can lead to a hornet’s nest, as pastoral musicians know well.    Hence, in many situations, it would perhaps be preferable not to propose texts that are perceived as altered.    There is a better way:         

The third step in this ongoing reform would be to seek out new texts about the Trinity, to be sung regularly in the liturgy, not just on Trinity Sunday.  One such hymn begins, “Give thanks to God the Father, for all that he has done, for making us his children, for sending us his Son.”  The refrain continues, “Glory be to God on high; to the Father we will cry:  Praise to him, through the Son; in the Spirit, God is one.”   There, in just a few words, is the dynamic Trinity.

Some hymns appropriately would end with a doxology, a verse directed to the Father through the Son in the Spirit.  Here, for example, is such a doxology: 

All glory be to God through Christ the Prince of Peace;
Now in the Spirit of the Church God’s praise will yet increase.
(from “In Christ the Prince of Peace”)

Here’s another:

The Spirit sings within our hearts;
The Church lifts up her voice:
In God we glory, day by day,
In him we all rejoice.
(from “Where Love Is Living”)

With such hymns, the songs we sing would be integrated into the liturgy itself, supporting its perspective and reinforcing its theology. Metrical Psalms are texts in regular meter, usually with rhymes at the end of each verse.  In these songs, the final verse could also be a poetic doxology, directed to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.  This would complement the familiar Glory Be, still sung at the end of non-metrical Psalms.   Precedent for such poetic doxologies exists in the many metered Psalms of the Reformed tradition and in the Psalter of Joseph Gelineau, S.J., from the mid-twentieth century. Today, we need new words, in terms of the dynamic Trinity. Here are some such doxologies:

Highest glory, highest praise, to God we gladly give. For in the Spirit all our days, through Christ our Lord we live.
(from �How Holy the Banquet�)

Great glory be to God on high through Christ his only Son. His people offer praise again for all that God has done. (from �The Lord of Light�)

To God who comes, so great, so grand, All glory be through Christ his Son. The day of wonder, here at hand� His kingdom comes, his will is done.
(from �The Mountains Will Sing�)

All glory to God, to the Father through the Son, We sing in the Spirit; reviving, we are one. We sing in the Spirit; reviving, we are one. (from �I Bless You�) Acclaim our King of Kings; let songs of joy ascend. Through God�s own Son, our Spirit sings. Our praise will never end. (from �Bless the Lord in the Dawning Day�)

Praise when we meet him, God, the great �I AM.� Elders rise and greet him, God�s own Son, the Lamb. No doubt shall deter us: praise him now, again: Let his Spirit stir us; saints respond �Amen.� (from �Praise God in Glory�)

All blessing be to God Most High: his love we shall proclaim. His Son�s great glory fills the sky; blest be his holy Name. (from �Blest Be the God of Israel�/Benedictus and �How Great Is God�/Magnificat)

All glory, honor, might, and praise We sing forever, all our days. To God the Father, through the Son, For in the Spirit, God is one.
(from �We Raise Our Prayer�)

With such doxologies, the hymn or Psalm comes to a conclusion, within the life-giving mystery of the dynamic Trinity, with its eschatological association: in the Spirit by means of the Son we shall praise God forever and ever.

Ultimately, this reform of our hymn texts would be associated with all the other elements of liturgical renewal, so well formulated by Jungmann and Kilmartin, as well as by the teaching Church herself. Once the Trinity is appreciated as dynamic, thanks to our hymns, thanks to the liturgy itself, then people will be more able to appreciate, for example, the Church as the unity of the Spirit, grace as the indwelling of God, the priest as a mediator rather than a consecrator, and Jesus Christ as our way, our truth, and our life.

Who, then, will reform our hymn texts? In general, Rome isn�t going to do this for us. Rome promulgates excellent liturgical books, as it has for many centuries, but not hymnals in English. It�s up to each nation, each region, each culture, to develop songs in the spirit of the liturgy, fostering its renewal and revitalization. Let us begin.

Let our hymns be genuine prayer, not just rote sounds, like that of the unbelievers (Mt 6:7). Let us sing with our minds as well as our hearts (1 Cor 14:15). Let us sing gratefully to God from our hearts, in hymns, Psalms, and inspired songs. Whatever you do, do it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Give thanks to God the Father through him (1 Col 3:17).

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Michael J. Gilligan
Article written, 7/28/2007
[email protected]
(708) 331-5485

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