Paragraph 2. THE FATHER
Catechism number 256
St. Gregory of Nazianzus,
also called "the Theologian", entrusts this summary of Trinitarian
faith to the catechumens of Constantinople:
Above
all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which
I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and
despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge
you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and
patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one
in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without
disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or
inferior degree that casts down. . . the infinite co-naturality of three
infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God. . . the three considered
together. . . I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes
me in its splendour. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity
grasps me. .92
IV. THE DIVINE WORKS AND THE TRINITARIAN MISSIONS