June 12th, 2022

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

by Fr. Clement Dickie, O.P.

—

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Fr. Boniface left last week for our province’s quadrennial chapter leaving me in charge. My first official act has been to also disappear. I am visiting my family and will return later this week. You have been left in the capable hands of two visiting priests, Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P. and Fr. Bartholomew Calvano, O.P., and of course our new NYU chaplain, Fr. Isaiah.

Fr. Innocent is a professor of homiletics at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. He was a classmate of Fr. Boniface. Fr. Bartholomew was ordained a priest on May 21st, along with our summer deacon from last year, Fr. James Ritch. Fr. Bartholomew remains a student at the Dominican House of Studies and will return to Washington after helping us this summer.

Last week, Pentecost brought the Easter Season to fiery end, but we are not ready to go back to normal just yet. Today is Trinity Sunday. Historically, Trinity Sunday was the octave (or eighth) day of Pentecost. The feast remains even though Pentecost has been cut back to single day on the new calendar. 

While as a concept, the Trinity is abstract, a theological account of how God can be One and also Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I see it as a celebration of God’s friendship. It is only because of God’s self-revelation that we know him as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is because Jesus Christ raised us up to the level of friendship with God that we know him with this level of intimacy, that we are able to name him in this way. The Trinity marks our identity as Christians. It is in the name of the Trinity that we are baptized, and it is in this name that we begin our Masses and our prayers. 

The special days continue next week as we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ, or Corpus Christi. The 11:30 Mass on June 19th will conclude with a Eucharist procession. Processions are a traditional way of extending the worship of Christ in the Eucharist throughout the neighborhood.

In Christ,

Fr. Clement Dickie, O.P.
Parochial Vicar