The Holy Trinity

In honor of Trinity Sunday, I am going to blog about the Holy Trinity. It is a hard enough concept for adults to ponder so imagine teaching it to children! When I was teaching catechism, I asked the Holy Spirit for some guidance, and He told me to explain the Trinity like a waterfall. So this is how I explained it to my catechism students, and they seemed to get it:

Imagine there is a very high mountain, so high that we can't see the top, but we know that it is covered with snow. The snow begets a waterfall, which is one in being with the snow. Through the action of the waterfall, the snow creates a valley. Mist rises from the snow and the waterfall, filling the valley and strengthening all the plants and flowers that live there. The closer the plants are to the waterfall, the more they are surrounded by the mist, and the lusher they are.


In the same manner, the Father Whom we cannot see begets the Son, Who is one in being with Him. The Father is not the Son, but they are of the same substance, just as the snow is not the waterfall but they are of the same substance, H2O. (In fact, in nature water exists in three states, which may be an example of creation mirroring its Creator.) Through the Son all things were created, just as the valley is created through the action of the waterfall. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (apologies to any Eastern Orthodox readers, since this is very filioque, but that's how the Holy Spirit explained it to me so I guess take it up with Him), just as the mist proceeds from the snow and the waterfall. And the closer we draw to Jesus, the more imbued with the Holy Spirit we become. The flowers closest to the waterfall have the most beautiful blossoms because they receive the most humidity, and in the same way the soul closest to Jesus bears the most beautiful spiritual blossoms, being most filled with the Holy Spirit.

When I visited Niagara Falls a couple of years ago, I saw for myself how well this metaphor shown to me by the Holy Spirit fits with the reality of a waterfall. The source of the water was too distant to see, but through the action of the falls it created a beautiful valley filled with lush plants and flowers. The air was so saturated with mist near the falls that it almost resembled smoke, and when we took a boat right into the curve of the Horseshoe Falls, the mist was so thick that all I could see was whiteness, like when an airplane is flying through a cloud, and it really did seem to me like we were sailing into Heaven.

I highly recommend a trip to Niagara Falls. Even if you don't find it as spiritual an experience as I did, you will probably still find it incredibly beautiful. However, if you are a religious person, go and see what a wonderful metaphor the falls are for the Holy Trinity.

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