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Views from the Choir Loft

A Verse for Trinity Sunday

Fr. David Friel · June 7, 2020

RINITY Sunday is a splendid occasion for adoring the goodness of God and admiring the mystery of the divine nature. Many good hymns stand ready to assist us in the task of praising the Trinity. There is also one poem, in particular, which might contribute to our prayer on this feast.

Written by the great Welsh poet and Anglican priest, George Herbert (1593-1633), this poem is entitled simply Trinity Sunday.

Like many other of Herbert’s poems (e.g., The Altar, Easter Wings, and Man), this one is carefully crafted in order to communicate not only through its words, but also through its form. The result is something at once creative, thought-provoking, and deeply spiritual.

First the poem, then a few brief observations about it.

Trinity Sunday

Lord, who hast form’d me out of mud,
And hast redeem’d me through thy blood,
And sanctifi’d me to do good;

Purge all my sins done heretofore:
For I confess my heavy score,
And I will strive to sin no more.

Enrich my heart, mouth, hands in me,
With faith, with hope, with charity;
That I may run, rise, rest with thee. 1

HIS poem consists of three stanzas, each composed of three lines. The first stanza, moreover, turns on the use of three parallel verbs (“form’d” | “redeem’d” | “sanctifi’d”). The second stanza showcases the three principal tenses (“heretofore,” past | “I confess,” present | “sin no more,” future). Finally, the third stanza presents a unique triad in each of its three lines (line 1, “heart, mouth, hands” | line 2, “faith . . . hope . . . charity” | line 3, “run, rise, rest”).

Herbert’s poem helps us to recognize that all of human experience—indeed, all of creation—is suffused with Trinitarian patterns. Like the text and form of his poem, today’s feast invites us to celebrate traces of the Trinity wherever they are found.

On this feast of the Most Holy Trinity, may all glory truly be given to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the God who was and who is and who is to come, in whom we live and move and have our being!


NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   George Herbert, “Trinity Sunday,” in George Herbert: The Complete English Works, ed. Ann Pasternak Slater, Everyman’s Library (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), 65.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and teaches liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.—(Read full biography).

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    26 January 2023 • FEEDBACK
    “Jeff, I wanted to personally thank you for your spiritual witness at the Symposium & often blogs that you write too. Praying that prayer in the mornings My God, my Father and my all (by Cardinal Merry Del Val), mentioning saints’ stories of Brébeuf, Jogues, John Vianney, monks who fought in WWII, their hard work in spite of terrible conditions, their relentless zeal for the faith, their genuine love for the laypeople they served, etc. Overall though—more than anything concrete I can point to that you did or said—it was your demeanor at the Symposium. I could tell you really absolutely love and believe the Catholic Faith. You don’t get that everywhere, even in Church circles. And your humility is what then makes that shine even brighter. It is super inspiring! God is working through you probably way more than you know.”
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    The editor of the Sacred Music Magazine recently made available to the public this splendid article by our own Charles Weaver. It includes an edition of polyphony for the GOOD FRIDAY “Reproaches.” Renaissance composers often set the various offices of Holy Week; e.g. readers will probably be familiar with the beautiful TENEBRAE setting by Father Tomás Luis de Victoria (d. 1611). From what I can tell, Ludwig Senfl (d. 1543) was originally a Catholic priest, but eventually was seduced by Luther and ended up abandoning the sacred priesthood.
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“And thus, when we renounce for Thee | Its restless aims and fears, | The tender mem’ries of the past, | The hopes of coming years, | Poor is our sacrifice, whose eyes | Are lighted from above; | We offer what we cannot keep, | What we have ceased to love.”

— Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman

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