The Indwelling of the Trinity and St. Teresa’s "Prayer of Recollection" Antonio Moreno, O.P. Father Mo~:eno’s last article in our pages was ~St. John of the’ Cross, Revelations and the Message of Christ" (September/Octob~er, 1981). He teaches in the Graduate Theological Union and resides at 2401 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709. The Christian religion is trinitarian, and in this consists the great difference between Christianity and other prominent religions such as Zen Buddhism and Isiam. We,Christians profess our.belief in the existence of the Trinity; we fix our eyes on heaven where God dwells, andour faith assures usthat there is one God and three Persons. In addition, we hope ultimately to attain to the vision of our God. This is our most-.important belief and hope! to see and love the Blessed Trinity after our death for all eternity. The majority qf Christians, hQwever, find it difficult to re.late and pray to this Triune God of their belief. They do believe;~yet it is all so far away, in heaven,,and .so much beyond their comprehgnsion that they make little sense of their belief. Many Christians meditate on Christ in his mysteries, in his message, in his life; they find consolation and strength in the Blessed Sacra- ment. But the vast majority of Christian believers are ignorant of how to make the Trinity meaningful in their lives. This mystery,.unfortunately, is left to the speculation of theologians and a few privileged individuals. The reason for this is simple. We have forgotten the great mystery--that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, that the Trinity dwells in our souls. There are many passages in Sacred Scripture which manifest this mystery, especially in ,the Epistles of St, Paul and the ~Gospel of St, John. Thus wrote St. John: "Anyone who loves me will be true to my word, and my Father will love him; we will Come to him and make our dwelling place with him" 439 440 / Review for Religious, May-June, 1985 (.In 14:23-24). Love is the profound explanation of everything that we will attempt to explain here. St. Paul wrote in similar words: "Do you know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone.destroy the temple of God, him will he destroy; for holy is the temple of God, and this temple you’ are" (! Co 3:16-17). "You must know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is within--the Spirit you have received from God. You are not your own" (l Co 6!19). "Guard the rich deposit of faith with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us" (2 Tm 1:14). Throughout tradition the presence of God in the soul has been manifested clearly. Leo XIll, in Divinum Illud, compares this presence to the presence of God in heaven: "This wonderful union, or indwelling properly so-called, differs from that by which God embraces and gives joy to the elect only by reason of [ou~’] earthly state."~ Pius XII, in his encyclical Mystici Corporis, emphasizes this presence and the mystery it entails: The divine Persons are said to indwell inasmuch as they are present to beings endowed with intelligence in a way that lies beyond human comprehension, and in a unique and very intimate manner which transcends all created nature, these creatures enter into relationship with them through knowledge and love.2 More recently, Vatican II referred several times to the relevance of this great mystery, and the importance it plays in the Christian life and in the life of the Church. The Decree on Ecumenism says that the Holy Spirit, who dwells within, prays for the faithful, and unifies all the members of the Mystical Body: It is the Holy Spirit dwelling in those who believe and pervading and ruling ~ver the entire Church who bdngs~ about the wonderful communion of the faithful, and joins them so intimately in Christ that he is the principle of the Church’s ,unity.3 The importanceof the indwelling for the life of Christians is stressed also in Lumen Gentium: "The Spirit dwells in the Church and ifi the hearts of the faithful as in a temple (I CO 3:16-18). In them he pra~ys on their behalf and bears witness to the fact that they are adopted sons.TM And "The state of this people is that~of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in his temple.’~ Theologians do not cease to insist on the crucial role of this presence in Christian life. This Schillebeeckx says: Where philosophy speaks of a divine presence which is the enduring, creative act of God maintaining man in being . Scripture speaks much more profoundly of the "indwelling of’God." ’~lndwelling" refers to the familiar ’living together of God, ,the Three Persons, and man. It is only in this personal level that we. can speak of the personal communion between God and man.6 St. Thomas, on the other hand, stresses the social dimension of the mis- sion of the Holy Spirit, and the primacy of love as the source of this mission, as already stated in St. ,iohn: Ihe Indwelling of the Trinity and St. Teresa / 441 In the invisible mission of the Holy Spirit, grace is poured into the soul from the fullness of divine love: and through this working of grace, the subject to whom the mission is directed receives an experimental knowledge of the divine Persons... in a manifestation ~,isible not only to the subject but to others as well.7 According to Aquinas, the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the faithful, contrib- utes to their unity in the sense that he is present simultaneously in all the members of the Mystical Body, and therefore does he exercise a unifying activity in the Church. E. Vauthier summarizes this doctrine thus: The Holy Spirit unifies the Church by being present unum et idem numero in all n~embers of the Mystical Body. Two elements contribute to make the unity thus brought about extremely strong and profound. On the one hand, the Holy Spirit is the principle of the numerical unity among the faithful. On the other hand. he is the immanent principle of unity, for he is the guest of their souls,s The indwelling of the Holy Spirit thus gives the Church its numerical unity. Its members .are gathered together by his presence into the closest unity possible, for the immanence of his indwelling makes each soul present to the same single Person.9 The Mystical Experience of the Trinity’ The experimental knowledge of God has as its object the same God who, in .an ideal and speculative manner, is accepted by our faith: one God and three Persons. Later, as a result of mystical perception, this ideal mental object is revealed experimentally. We may conclude then, that there exists a complete identification between the object of faith and the object of expe- rience. Religious experience presupposes faith, but it adds something fresh, namely, an experimental consciousness through a perception which goes beyondthe pure, speculative knowledge of faith. The object of faith is also the object of human experience, and its more important aspect, the Trinity, can be known because It dwells in the soul of the believer. According to spiritual souls, this presence takes place in the center of the soul, in the innermost layer of our being: "In the deepest center of the soul,’’~0 St. John of the Cross says; St. Teresa, too, was vividly aware of this presence: "And she [the soul] perceives quite clearly that They are in the interior of her heart--in the most interior place of all and in its greatest depths. So, although not being a learned person, she cannot say how it is, she feels within herself this divine communication.’’~i She says again: "I used unexpectedly to experience.a consciousness of the presence of God, of such a kind that ! could not possibly doubt that he was with me or that I was wholly engulfed in him."12 The awareness of the presence of God within is relatively frequent among souls advanced in holiness. The experience of God as Trinity is less so, but it also takes place in souls totally dedicated to God. Saints in the "seventh mansion" experience the mysterious presence of the Trinity, as this is explained by St. Teresa: 149 / Review for~ Religious, May-June, 1985 Here all Three Persons, the most Holy Trinity, reveals itself in all Three Persons. The soul realizes that .m. o~t certainly and truly all these Persons communicate themselves to the soul, and speak to the soul, and explain to it these words which the Gospel attributes to the Lord--namely, ,that He, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit will come to dwell with the soul which loves him and keeps his commandments.~3 In other words, this divine presence-is first realized through faith. Later, advanced souls are conscious of God’s presence inside their souls. Finally, saints in the seventh mansion perceive by experience the Most Holy Trinity. Hence, mystical theology verifies the propositions of faith as well as the co.nclusions of speculative theology, as Aquinas notes:: And since the rational creature by its operation of knowledge and ’love attains to God himself... God is said not only to exist in the rational creature, but also to dwell therein as in his temple ...