The Holy Trinity

The Orthodox Church is the Church of the Holy Trinity. "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit!" is a constant cry of the Orthodox in prayers and services. We believe in One God who has revealed Himself to us in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Many today discard the idea of the Holy Trinity as something beyond understanding, and therefore unessential to religion. The Orthodox, however, accept the belief in the Holy Trinity in faith, knowing that as human beings we can certainly never fully grasp the Nature of God, yet knowing that this is the manner in which God has revealed Himself to us in the teachings of Christ and His Apostles, and the understanding given to them by the Holy Spirit in the early Church.

The Orthodox do not see the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as a dry philosophical concept, but rather as something essential to belief in a God who is Love.

"God is Love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." (I John 4:16)

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and every one who loves is born of God and knows God." (I John 4:7)

This should not be confused with the modern philosophy "Love is God" proclaimed by those who wish to "worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator" (Romans 1:25). Rather, God is the God of Divine Love expressed both in the Unity of the Divin e Persons-Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and in the manner through which God has come to dwell among us as man in Christ.

"For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son..." (John 3:16)

"The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hands." (John 3:35)

"For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing." (John 5:20)

"That they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me." (John 17:22-23)

It is by partaking of that love we become partakers of His Divinity.

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