Copying St. Patrick

Babysitting the four-year-old yesterday. She was helping me with my plants in my garden kitchen window. I have a holy water font on the front corner. It's Our Lady of Guadalupe. I asked her if she knew who the statue was and she said, "Mary and Jesus."  I asked, "Where's Jesus?"  She pointed to the angel on the bottom.  Interesting.

She also placed every little animal she was playing with, in front of Mary. They were visiting her.

While we were there, I pointed out the purple shamrock plant, next to the statue.  I showed her that it was shaped to show her how to bless herself.  You start at the point, "In the name of the Father."  Then you drop down to the bottom/center. "And the Son."  And at each point, "The Holy--Spirit. Amen."

She liked that.  So we picked one of the purple leaves and pressed it between two pieces of wax paper, for her to keep.

I got the idea from St. Patrick who taught the Trinity on the leaves of a shamrock.

The Trinity

We went to Mass this morning at Our Lady of the Mountains.  The priest said we couldn't understand the Trinity with our mere intelligence.  It's beyond us.  Of course that got me thinking.

I can try can't I?

The Trinity is like:

An egg--shell, yolk, egg white.

Sun--sun, light, heat.

H2O--water, steam, ice.

Triplets--3 persons with same DNA.

Towel--one towel with three folds.

Shamrock--flower with three leaves.

Cake--one three layer cake.

You can't help but try to understand.  Otherwise, one wouldn't have any idea and give up--no image, no picture=no god.

OK.  instead of nouns how about verbs:

The Trinity is like an action verb:

Shine--radiate, warm, glow.

Whisper--murmur, buzz, purr.

Love--feel, embrace, yearn.

Speak--talk, articulate, verbalize.

But there's too many ways to express the ineffable.

How about the verb to be?

The Trinity is like verb to be:

I am!