The Holy Trinity

See also: God, Holy Spirit, Paraclete, Spirit, Jesus.

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The Holy Trinity

The Trinity is the affirmation that there is only one God in three persons.

We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons: "the consubstantial Trinity". The divine persons do not share the single divinity but each of them is whole God.

The Holy Trinity is a foundation of the Christian faith, fully revealed by Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is a mystery that can only be known if revealed from above.

The Trinity is strictly a mystery of faith, one of the "Hidden mysteries in God, which cannot be known unless revealed from above.

The concept of the Trinity exists outside of the Christian Religion, but the same notion does not cover the same reality.

Some Christian movements, like other Religions, reject the concept of the Trinity and relegate Jesus to the rank of great prophets.

But the baptized, by becoming a child of God, gains access to His intimacy. This can be approached through inspired descriptions made to us by mystics, among whom Maria Valtorta ranks.  

She had two main visions that Jesus comments on.

The Two Visions of Maria Valtorta

The First Vision: God is Light

That of July 1, 1943 was preceded by a dictation from Jesus:

God has no body, He told her: He is light... Our Trinity is light. An unlimited light. Source of itself, living of itself, operating in itself. The universe is not as big as It is infinite. Its essence fills the Heavens, glides over creation, dominates the infernal caves. It does not penetrate them - that would be the end of Hell - but crushes them. Its sparkling is beatific in Heaven, consoling on Earth, terrifying in Hell. Everything is triple in Us. Forms, effects, powers.

"God is light, of an immense, majestic, and peaceful light: an infinite circle embracing all creation, from the moment it was said: Let there be light. It will continue to embrace what remains in its ultimate form with those who will be, in Heaven, eternal with Him.

Within the eternal circle of the Father, there is a second circle, generated by the Father, which operates differently, but not oppositely, for the Essence is one. It is the Son. His light, more vibrant, does not only give life to bodies, but gives to Souls, through His Sacrifice, the life they had lost.  

Within the second circle, produced by the operation of the first two circles, there is a third one. Its light is even brighter and more vibrant. It is the Holy Spirit: Love produced by the relationship of the Father with the Son, intermediary between the Two and consequence of the Two, wonder of wonders.

The Trinity is very often represented by a triangle, but Maria Valtorta contemplates it, in this first vision, as an infinite circle of light, beyond Creation.   Hildegarde Von Bingen (1098-1179), recently declared Doctor of the Church, had an identical vision eight centuries earlier. She wrote in the Scivias, one of her works:

I saw a splendid light and, in it, a human form, sapphire-colored, burning with a bright and sweet Fire. This splendid light penetrated all the bright Fire, the bright Fire infused itself into this splendid light. Together, they penetrated this entire human form, making only one light, by one virtue and one Power. I heard this living light that said to me: "... you see a splendid light that has no origin, and to which nothing can be lacking: It designates the Father and, in it, a human form, without any stain of Imperfection, envy, or iniquity, designates the Son, begotten by the Father, before time, holy in divinity; but then, incarnated in time, holy in humanity, and coming into the world.   It burns entirely with a bright and sweet Fire, which without any touch of dry and dark mortality, demonstrates the Holy Spirit, whom the only Son of God, conceived holy in flesh and born of a virgin in time, spread in the world the light of true clarity."

Light is therefore both nature and effect of God. At the The Transfiguration of the Lord of Jesus on Tabor, the Apostles present testify that His Face shone "like the sun" and that His clothes became "white as light".-- and

John opens his Gospel with the affirmation that Jesus is Good Light come into the world and that He is God. This echoes the psalmist's cry: "The Lord is my light and my salvation!"  

The Son is begotten by the Father and not created, the Creed explains. His existence is therefore an eternal present. "An eternal generation," says Marie d'Agréda in her vision of the Trinity. In begetting Him, the Father gave everything to His only Son except His being Father, affirmed the Council of Florence. What Jesus proclaims during the Last Supper. 

In, Jesus justifies the begetting before the Pharisees of the Temple who thought they knew Him holy:

The Angels, spiritual creatures, were created by God like man, like animals, like everything that was created. But they were not begotten by Him. For God begets only another Himself, because the Perfect can only beget a Perfect, another Being similar to Himself, so as not to degrade His perfection by the generation of a creature inferior to Himself.   If then God cannot beget the Angels, nor raise them to the dignity of being His sons, who will be the Son to whom He says: "You are my Son. Today I have begotten You"? " And what nature will He have if, in begetting Him, He says to His Angels pointing to Him: "And let all the Angels of God worship Him".

The dictation of July 1, 1943 to Maria Valtorta continues with the intimate description of The Holy Trinity:

Thought created the Word, and Thought and Word love each other. Love is the Paraclete. He operates on your spirit, on your Soul, on your flesh. He consecrates the Temple of your person, created by the Father in the image of the One God in Three Persons and redeemed by the Son. By the Father, the Holy Spirit is the anointing. He is Grace to benefit from the sacrifice of the Son, knowledge and light to understand the word of God. His light is more circumscribed, not because it is more limited than the others, but because this light is the spirit of the spirit of God. It is, therefore, very powerful in its condensation, as in its effects.  

That is why I say: When the Paraclete comes, He will instruct you. Even I, who am the Thought of the Father become Word, cannot make you understand as much as the Holy Spirit can in a single flash.  

Saint Paul addressed this petition to the Corinthians: "Do not forget that you are the Temple of God and that The Spirit of God dwells in you. … The Temple of God is sacred and that is what you are.

We are therefore made sacred by the anointing of The Holy Spirit as Jesus reminds Maria Valtorta. He continues:

"If every knee must bow before the Son, every spirit must bow before the Paraclete, for the Holy Spirit gives life to your spirit. It is the Love that created the Universe, instructed the first servants of God, urged the Father to give the commandments, enlightened the prophets and, with Mary, conceived the Redeemer, put Him on the cross, supported the martyrs, directed the Church and works the wonders of Grace."   "Unbearable to sight and human nature, His white Fire concentrates within Himself the Father and the Son. He is the incomprehensible jewel of our eternal bewitchery. Motionless in the abyss of Heaven, He attracts to Him all the spirits of my triumphant Church and draws to Him those who know how to live by the spirit in the militant Church."  

The creed of the Catholic Church stipulates that The Holy Spirit proceeds, at the same time, from the Father and the Son (filioque). This affirmation, introduced in 451 by the Council of Chalcedon, was however a reason for dispute with the Eastern Churches.

Is Jesus the lesser part of the Trinity, surpassed by His Father and the Holy Spirit? He is equal to them. In a dictation of February 23, 1946, Jesus, second person of the Trinity, presents Himself as “the holy Word who concentrates in Himself the fullness of God, with His will, His power, His knowledge, His love and all His other attributes; the holy Word who possesses all The Holy Trinity.” Three centuries before, with his knack for phrasing, Marie d'Agréda wrote in her trinitarian vision: "In this inseparable trinity, there is nothing that can be said first nor last, greater nor lesser. The three persons are equally eternal in themselves and eternally equal.”  

Shortly before that, in The Notebooks from 1945 to 1950, in her book,

Azarias, her guardian angel, entrusted her with:

Jesus is the synthesis of what the Trinity and the Unity of God is. He is the perfection of the Three summarized in one Person. An abyss of perfection before whom the heavenly armies as well as the blissful multitudes of Paradise prostrate themselves in Adoration. An abyss of perfection that could be - and still can be - understood and accepted by those who possess love and by them alone.

Second Vision: The Virgin Mary within The Holy Trinity

The Virgin Mary - Drawing by Maria Valtorta

On October 24, 1947, Maria Valtorta had another vision of the Trinity in its "incandescent form of the triangle by which it shows itself to our human senses".

The triangle is indeed the oldest sign of the Trinity. Saint Augustine, in the 5th century, was wary of it, as the Manicheans worshipped the Trinity in this form. It remained little widespread until the 15th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it enjoyed great popularity. The meaning of this symbol is clarified by inscribing inside the name Deus-Jehovah in Hebrew, or by placing an eye signifying that God sees all. It has been taken up in the symbols of Freemasonry which gives it another meaning.

In her second vision, Maria Valtorta sees the Virgin Mary standing at the center of this divine and radiant sign, in her most brilliant glorified aspect.  

The voice of the eternal Father tells her:

Thus Mary is in us. Let the theologians understand the meaning and content of this vision about the power and knowledge of Mary, to whom all Love is given, to whom all Wisdom is revealed and before whom all Power bows to hear her.

Maria Valtorta marvels at the brightness of the vision and wonders about its meaning:

I believe the Most High wants to show me this vision to make me understand that Mary is great, very great, second only to God who is the first, but not like God, who is immense, infinite. The censors of the Holy Office noted a similar statement expressed in. The explanations provided with the affirmation "Mary may be called the second-born of the Father" would have avoided a "heresy". It corresponds to certain theological foundations. See. The explanation given by Azarias confirms it.

A few days later, she received this explanation from her guardian angel:

The Most High Lord wanted to make you understand the meaning of the words of Mary at Tre-Fontane (Three Fountains). Mary is enveloped, - I could even say "contained" - in The Holy Trinity in which she was, before time existed, and of which she was the Tabernacle. She contained within her the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit containing Jesus, in whom is the unity of the Word, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Since she is thus the love of the One and Triune God, Revelation is her treasure. She is its sweet and beloved Queen, dispenser of Wisdom, she who gives the Word. She is the Spouse and Mother of Wisdom and the Word, the virginal Source fertilized by one God and from whom flow the rivers of Living Water: Eternal life of the one who drinks of it.

The Tre-Fountains (Tre-Fontane) are the supposed place of the martyrdom of Saint Paul whose severed head bounced three times giving birth to three springs. On April 12, 1947, some months before these dictations, the Virgin had appeared to Bruno Cornacchiola and his children. She spoke to him of her Assumption and entrusted:

I am the one who lives at the Heart of the divine Trinity. I am the Virgin of Revelation (of the Apocalypse). You persecute me, stop now!

Bruno Cornacchiola had become Adventist, hostile to the Pope whom he planned to assassinate.

Remarkable Points

Surprising Premonitions

Several things are surprising in these visions:

First, the allusion by the Virgin of Tre-Fontane to her Assumption: Jesus had just clarified to Maria Valtorta, in His dictation of October 23, 1947, the importance of this Assumption. He entrusted her with His wish to see this dogma recognized during the coming holy year (1950). He added: "If you hear what I say through the work, you will communicate these other words to whom you know." But the rest does not reveal the identity of the designated recipient.  

Coincidence of the calendar? It was around this time that the Pope began to read The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me which he encouraged to be published. On December 9, 1949, Bruno Cornacchiola personally met Pius XII: did he speak to him of this presentation of the Virgin Mary which is not without recalling the "I am the Immaculate Conception" of Lourdes? In any case, the Dogma of the Assumption was proclaimed on November 1, 1950, the date on which the Visions and Dictations of Maria Valtorta ceased, except for some sporadic manifestations until 1954. There is convergence of facts absent influence.  

Then the link made by Azarias between the vision of Mary in the Trinity and the message of Tre-Fontane. This message remained secret until 1949 and known only by a few ecclesiastics. Maria Valtorta thus had no knowledge of it. When she commented at length, two months later, on a booklet published about Tre-Fontane, she was completely unaware of this part of the message.  

The two events are not to be dissociated if one believes the confession of the Virgin Mary to Maria Valtorta on October 12 and 13, 1947:

Mary invites me to pray the Rosary a lot. The Rosary is the best defense of the papacy, the Church, Peace and our Homeland. She says it is for this reason she appeared in Rome (at Tre-Fontane) and also to shake the unbelievers, the indifferent, those who are hostile or opposed to the supernatural, finally those who do not believe in the work (name given to the life of Jesus which has just been completed), which is the "glory of her Son and where the salvation of many is found]."

In the article published on January 6, 1960, L'Osservatore Romano comments on the placing on the Index of Maria Valtorta's life of Jesus. It raises four objections of which two complement each other. First the affirmation that "Mary may be called the second-born of the Father," recognizing that the clarifications that follow avoid an "authentic heresy." Then a poetic vision celebrating the Virgin Mary in the bosom of the Trinity. A hermetic notion for the author.  

What we have just mentioned does not seem "hermetic," quite the opposite. The descriptions by Maria Valtorta also recall the act of faith of John Paul II in his book My Vocation, Gift and Mystery: Indeed, faith in Mary proceeds from the Trinity itself and the Incarnation she realized by her consent.  

Paradoxically, L'Osservatore Romano unwittingly praised the theological value of the work it disparaged. It mocks the fact that in this work "there are lessons on Marian theology marked by a complete knowledge of the very latest studies by experts in the field." It probably wanted to denounce a behind-the-scenes rewriting by theologians surrounding the seer, but it is not so. Not only did Maria Valtorta write this life of Jesus herself and in one go, but she had no religious training nor documentation enabling her to be at the level "of theology professors".  

The endorsement brought by the dictations of Maria Valtorta to the declaration of Tre-Fontane: "I am the Virgin of Revelation (of the Apocalypse)" is no coincidence: the central role of the Virgin Mary in the last times is a recurring theme of the work of Maria Valtorta. It runs throughout her work up to its last: Lessons on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

The "Earthly Trinity"

In, Maria Valtorta relates an episode where Jesus makes a parallel between the heavenly Trinity and the "earthly trinity," emphasizing the link between the two:

"Jesus speaks now: "Simon, get up, come here, close to Me." Peter goes to the left of Jesus because Mary is on his right. "What are we now?" asks Jesus. "Us? But there is Jesus, Mary, and Simon."   "That's Good, but what are we?"  "Three, Master."  

"A trinity, then. One day, in Heaven, in the Divine Trinity, a thought came: "It is time for the Word to go to earth," and with a thrill of love the Word came to earth. He separated himself from the Father and from The Holy Spirit. He came to work on earth. In Heaven, the Two who remained contemplated the works of the Word, remaining more united than ever to spread Thought and Love to help the Word who worked on earth.         A day will come when an order will come from Heaven: "It is time to return, for all is accomplished," and then the Word will return to Heaven, thus… (and Jesus steps back leaving Mary and Peter where they were) and from the heights of Heaven He will contemplate the works of the two remaining on earth. They, in a holy movement, will unite more than ever to melt together power and love and make of them the means to accomplish the desire of the Word: "The redemption of the world through the continuous teaching of His Church." And the Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit will make of their radiance a chain to tighten, tighten ever more the two remaining on earth: my Mother, love; you, power."

"He came to work on earth." The publisher clarifies in a footnote: "In order to establish a parallel between the heavenly Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and the earthly trinity (Jesus, Mary, and Peter), the explanation must resort to attributing to God human thoughts and behaviors, establishing separations and reunions between divine Persons.   

It is not a question, however, notes Maria Valtorta on a typewritten copy, of denying the Hypostatic Union (= union of two natures, divine and human) by which the Word, being truly in the flesh of the Son of God and Mary, has not ceased to be one with the Father and therefore with Love; He has not ceased to be the Holy of holies, because He was so by His divine nature and He was so in His human nature, by very perfect Grace and will."

In "The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me"

• The Holy Trinity in Mary: Mary can be called the second-born of the Father, by the perfection she received and knew how to preserve, by her dignity as Spouse and Mother of God.
• Presence of God and Angels near Jesus.
• The Trinity: the Word knows the Thought, and the Thought knows the Word and loves Him by communicating to Him with its treasures to make Him participate in Himself.
• John, during his spiritual retreat, has the revelation of Jesus as the second person of The Holy Trinity.
• I will send you the Fire, the Force that proceeds from the fact that I am begotten by the Father and that binds the Father and the Son by an indissoluble bond, making of One, Three: the Thought, the Blood, the Love. When The Spirit of God, better The Spirit of The Spirit of God, the Perfection of divine Perfections, comes upon you, you will no longer be what you are.
• Comments by Maria Valtorta on the Trinity: …The power of the Father is the generation of the Son, and the act of begetting and being begotten creates the Fire, that is to say The Spirit of The Spirit of God. Power turns to the Wisdom it has begotten, and that turns to Power in the joy of being One for the Other and to know themselves for what they are...
• God generates only another Himself, because the Perfect can only generate a Perfect, another Being similar to Himself, so as not to degrade His perfection by generating a creature inferior to Himself.

In other works of Maria Valtorta

The Notebooks of 1943

• Catechesis of July 1 : Our Trinity is light […] Everything is triple in Us. Forms, effects, powers. […] The Father gives an immense, majestic, and peaceful light. An infinite circle embracing all creation, even if I lived another thousand years, I would never forget the brightness of this intellectual vision…
• Catechesis of December 25 : "I (the Holy Spirit) am the One who, to appease the Father, inspired the idea of the Incarnation and came down, creative Fire, to become seed in the immaculate womb of Mary, and went up made Flesh on the Cross and from the Cross to Heaven to tighten into a bond of love the new Covenant between God and humanity, just as I had tightened the Father and the Son in an embrace of love, begetting the Trinity".
• Catechesis of December 29 : Since we are indissoluble in our Trinity, in Christ, there is the Father, the Son, and the divine Spirit. The Son is only the Word of the Father who took form to be your redemption. But His annihilation does not break the union of the Three Persons, because the perfection of God knows neither limits nor separations.

The Notebooks of 1944

• Catechesis of January 10 : There is no other God but us: one and triune. There is no other Religion but ours, several centuries old. There is no other Future, on earth and beyond, than what the sacred books say. Everything else is falsehood destined to be covered with shame by the one who is Justice and Truth. Then Maria Valtorta has the vision of the Trinity in Paradise.

From other sources

Vision of the Trinity  

The Mystical City of God by Marie d'Agreda : Book 1, chapter 3, §§ 27 and following:

"§ 27. I saw by my understanding how the Most High was in Himself, and I had a clear and true knowledge that He is an infinite God in His substance and attributes, that He is eternal, that He is a sovereign trinity and one God in three persons: three, so that the operations of knowing Himself, understanding Himself, and loving Himself are exercised; and one only, for the good of eternal unity. He is Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is not made, nor created, nor begotten, and He cannot be or have any origin. I knew that the Son is of the Father alone by an eternal generation, that they are equal in eternity, and that He is begotten from the fecundity of the understanding of the Father, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son by love. In this inseparable trinity, there is nothing that can be said first nor last, greater nor lesser. The three persons are equally eternal in themselves and eternally equal; I knew that it is a unity of essence in a trinity of persons, one God in this inseparable trinity, and three persons in the unity of one substance. The persons are not confused to be one God, nor is the substance separated or divided to be in three; persons, who being distinct in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, are but one same divinity; the glory is equal and the majesty, power, eternity, immensity, wisdom, holiness, and all attributes are also equal. And although the persons in which these infinite perfections subsist are three, nevertheless there is only one true God, one Holy, one Just, one Mighty, one Eternal, and one Infinite.

§ 28. I also discovered that this divine Trinity is understood by a simple glance, without needing a new or distinct knowledge; that the Father does as much as the Son, and the Son and the Holy Spirit as much as the Father; that they love each other reciprocally by the same immense and eternal love, that this unity understands, loves, and operates equally and indivisibly; that it is a simple, incorporeal, and indivisible nature, and a being of the true God, in whom are found to a supreme and infinite degree all perfections united and assembled.

§ 29. I knew the nature of these perfections of the Most High, I discovered that He is beautiful without ugliness, great without quantity, good without quality, eternal without succession of time, strong without weakness, life without mortality, and true without falsehood; that He is present everywhere, filling it without occupying it and being in all things without extension; that there is no Contradiction in His goodness nor defect in His wisdom; that He is incomprehensible in this wisdom, terrible in His counsels, just in His judgments, very secret in His thoughts, true in His words, holy in His works, and rich in His treasures; that space does not give Him more extent, nor shortcut shrink Him; that His will is not subject to change; that there is neither past nor Future in Him; that sad things cannot afflict Him; that origin gave Him no beginning, and that time will give Him no end. O eternal immensity! How much boundless space have I discovered in you what infinity I do not recognize in Your infinite being! The sight cannot tire nor limit itself contemplating this endless object. He is an immutable being, a being above all beings, a most perfect holiness and a most infallible truth; He is the infinite, the width and the length, the height and the depth, the glory and the cause of this same glory, the tireless rest and supreme goodness. Finally, I saw all things in seeing Him, and I could not find the means to say what I saw.

§ 30. I saw how the Lord was before creating anything, and I contemplated with admiration where He made His dwelling, for it is true that then there was no empyrean heaven nor other lower heavens; no sun, nor moon, nor stars, nor any element. The Creator was alone, without anything created. Everything was desert, without Angels, without men, and without animals; and by this vision I knew that it must necessarily be agreed that God was in Himself, and that He needed no creature, because He was as infinite in His attributes before creating them as after having drawn them from nothing; for He had and will have them throughout His eternity as in an independent and uncreated subject; no perfection could be lacking to His divinity, because it contains them all, and it alone is what it is, all the advantages of creatures and all that has being found in this infinite being in an inconceivable and very eminent way, as effects in their cause.  

§ 31. I knew that the Most High was permanent in Himself when the three divine persons made the decree (as we conceive it) to communicate their perfections and make largesse. It should be noted, to better understand this, that God knows all things by an indivisible, very simple act, without discourse; that He does not know one thing by the knowledge of another that preceded it, as we reason and discourse, knowing them only by various acts of our understanding; because the knowledge of God penetrates them all at once, without there being in His infinite understanding any first, nor last, all gathered in this divine and uncreated science, as they are in the being of God, where they are enclosed and contained as in their first principle."

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