Holy Trinity Sunday
For centuries, this Sunday was considered the end of the Feast of Pentecost. They appointed John 3:1-17 as the text. After the turn of the first millennia, churches began observing this Sunday as Holy Trinity. Some popes discouraged this, but in 1332 Pope John XXII ordered that the Trinity be preached on this Sunday and that the appointed text would be Matthew 28:18-20.
The Feast of Holy Trinity marks the end of the Festival half of the Church Year which commemorates the historic events of our salvation in Christ. It also marks the beginning of the Non-festival half of the Church Year, which teaches us the great doctrines of the Bible and instructs us in how we are to live as Christians out of love for Jesus.
The Introit: This Introit introduces our service with a confession that God is the Holy Trinity and undivided Unity. We worship God because “He has shown His mercy to us,” which looks back to the Festival half of the Church Year (Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost). Psalm 8:1 speaks of God’s excellent name because of His salvation.
The Collect: In this prayer, we praise God for calling us into God’s Kingdom through baptism, so that by faith we confess the triune God and by His power we worship the one true God. Because so many people and religious groups reject this teaching about God, we ask Him to keep us steadfast in this faith and to defend us from all adversities.
The Gradual praises God for both seeing what is unseen in the depths of the universe and also dwelling as ruler over the angels. The Triune God is to be praised and glorified forever by all people for His majesty, His mercy, and His salvation.
The Paraments are white to symbolize the glory and majesty of God who reigns in the splendors of heaven. The white color also symbolizes that righteousness that Jesus won for us on the cross that He gives us through faith in Him, so that one day we also may in the presence of heavenly glory praise God throughout all eternity.