The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

I once attended a dying man in his hospital room. His family was there with him, keeping the watch. With time on our hands I invited everyone to pray the rosary. Finishing, I gave them my priestly blessing.

The dying man raised his hand for a moment but could not lift his arm, so he pointed at his daughter instead. For a long moment no one could think what he wanted until the women said, “He wants to make the sign of the cross!” She jumped up, took his hand and forearm and helped him sign himself. A few hours later he died.
We begin and end every prayer with the Sign of the Cross. Most of us learned this Sign before we can remember. It is the mark on our foreheads which signals the avenging spirit to Passover us. It allows us entry to Paradise.
The Sign is always accompanied with a word formula: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” We are the people who live in the shadow of the Cross in the name of the Most Holy Trinity. It is fitting that the Easter Season should end with this feast.
We use the Trinitarian formula also as our doxology. The Greek word doxa means glory, as in “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
The last verse of most hymns is a doxology, using the Trinitarian formula:
All praise and thanks to God the father now be given,
the Son and Spirit Blest who reigns in highest heaven,
Eternal triune God whom earth and heaven adore
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
Often, during the Easter Season we heard people wondering about Jesus, “Where does he come from?” They might and should wonder the same about us, “Where are they coming from?” The Easter Season has reminded us. We come from God, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – a very deep mystery, beyond explanation, very real and very beautiful.