Hymns on the Trinity

Be present, true light, Father, almighty God. Be present, light of light, mystery and power of God. Be present, Holy Spirit, bond of Father and Son. When you are at rest you are the Father; when you proceed, the Son. You who bind all things into one, you are the Holy Spirit. One, the first; one, arisen from itself; one God before the one. You precede all quantity, known by no limits. Nothing in you is quantity, because no quantity comes from you either; for the one born from you begets quantity rather than holds it. Hence the Father is unmeasured; the Son is measured and unmeasured. But you, Father, are one, and the Son begot one: that the many, or all things, are, this is the one which the Son begot. He who is the seed of being for all is the true power of the seed, in whom and by whom all things are begotten, the power of God that pours forth; and again all things begotten from the seed return into the seed. Christ, then, who is all the power of God, works all things. For Christ is motion in rest, the highest God, and this motion is the wisdom and power of God, in no way distant from the substance: because what motion is, that substance is, and he who is motion, because he is in it and is it. He is called God from God, but born, because he is motion; for every motion is an inclination, and since God is one, the motion of God too exists as one and the same God. Yet the motion itself is, so that it is to itself what it is as motion. But because it is the motion of God, the motion has God in itself; and again, by the very fact that it is the motion of God, God has motion in himself. The Father, then, is in the Son, and the Son himself is in the Father. They are each, then, and always in themselves, while they are each. Hence there is one power for the two, hence one substance; but it is by the Father's gift that the Son has what is his substance. For being comes first, being moved after: not that time is present to God, but in divine things order is power. For being precedes motion, prior in reality, not in time; and this being, they record, is called substance in God. Here, however, motion has arisen, for motion begets substance; and what else is the generation of substance than substance? The motion, then, is also the Father's; the Son, then, is the same substance. Him the Greeks called the Logos, God within in the Father, who is the cause of the birth and arising of all things. For nothing was created without him; through him all things were created. If this Logos is Christ, and if the Logos is begotten life, the Logos is from the Father; for he is the living God, in whom, since God is substance and God is life and substance, and the begotten Son is life, there is one substance. The Logos is God, then: always undivided and always other, at once sent and equal to the sender; and yet the fountain flows, and the Son, sent like a river, always runs on, scattering lives. Hence both are one in substance: the fountain is God, the river the Son. But because in divine things substance is the same as life, and life itself is wisdom, as being comes first, in which there is princely and simple living, so wisdom is present: understanding and wise always, since living comes first; not that anything precedes another, nor that it is wholly other, but that by progression the other is made thrice threefold. The Son, born, is life, by which all things proceed and are created; the same becomes teacher and master, and the same is the perfecting Spirit, watering the souls sown in the ages with the teachings of Wisdom. And since Christ is Wisdom, the same Christ the Son teaches; and the Spirit, setting out from the Father, teaches the Father and Christ. Hence Christ has all things of the Father, and hence the Spirit has all things of Christ. So my Christ, between the Parent and the other who is himself, fills the Spirit from the Parent, while he provides being to all. And being for all is life; and this is what was made in Christ. Why? Because he joins and saves all things, and teaches the true God. The Holy Spirit joins to Christ those who follow Christ, when Christ is reborn in them. Christ, then, is all things; hence Christ is the mystery: through him are all things, and in him all things, and into him all things. His height is the Father, but he himself is the whole; by his progression he is the length, and the height is the Father's. Hence Christ, appearing to the ages, to the depth that is taught and secret; and, innermost within by teaching, Christ became the hidden Spirit. All, then, are one Spirit, all one light; hence for each the truth, hence one substance for the three: proceeding from the Father to the Son, and returning through the Spirit, because the three exist each by himself, and the three each in one. This is the blessed Trinity, this the blessed unity.

Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ. Have mercy, Lord, because I have believed in you; have mercy, Lord, because through your mercy I have known you. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: you are the Logos of my spirit, you are the Logos of my soul, you are the Logos of my flesh. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: God lives, and God lives always; and because nothing is before him, God lives from himself. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: Christ lives; and because God, by begetting, granted that Christ should live from himself, because he lives from himself, Christ lives always. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: and if the Father lives from himself, and, the Father begetting, the Son lives from himself, he is consubstantial with the Father, since the Son lives always. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: you have given me a soul, O God, and the soul is an image of life; since the soul lives for ever, may my soul also live. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: if I was made man according to your likeness, God the Father, and according to the image of the Son, created as life for the ages, it is because the Son has known me. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: I loved the world because you had made the world; I was held back by the world, while the world envies your own; now I hate the world, because now I have perceived the Spirit. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: help the fallen, Lord, help the penitent; for what I have sinned is a mystery to your divine and holy judgment. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: I know, Lord, your command; I know the return written in my soul; I hasten to return, if you command, God our Saviour. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: long I fight, long I resist my enemy; but I still have flesh, in which the devil, conquered, gave you a great triumph and gave us a wall of faith. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: to will is present with me, to leave the world and the earth; but the will without your help is a weak feather: give wings to faith, that I may fly up to God. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: now I seek the gates of the spirit, which the Spirit opens, bearing witness of Christ and teaching what the world is. Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ: you who are ever begotten of the Father, you who represent God, give me the keys of heaven and conquer the devil in me, so that I may rest in the seat of light, saved by your grace.

God the Lord, Holy Spirit: O blessed Trinity. Father, Son, Paraclete: O blessed Trinity. Giver, minister, distributor: O blessed Trinity. Spirit of operations, Spirit of ministries, Spirit of graces: O blessed Trinity. One principle, and one with another, and always one with another: O blessed Trinity. Of which the Father is substance, and the Son himself substance, and the Spirit substance, but thrice the same substance: O blessed Trinity. The Father perfect, the Son perfect from the perfect Father, the Holy Spirit perfect from the perfect Son: O blessed Trinity. Fountain, river, watering: O blessed Trinity. In three, threefold, but one action: O blessed Trinity. Existence, life, knowledge: O blessed Trinity. Love, grace, communion: O blessed Trinity. God is love, Christ grace, the Holy Spirit communion: O blessed Trinity. If there is love, there is grace; if love and grace, there is communion: all, then, in each, and one in three: O blessed Trinity. Hence the apostle Paul says from God: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.” O blessed Trinity. Unbegotten, only-begotten, that is, begotten by proceeding: O blessed Trinity. Begetter, begotten, regenerator: O blessed Trinity. True light, true light from light, true illumination: O blessed Trinity. Rest, progression, return: O blessed Trinity. Invisible invisibly, visible invisibly, invisible visibly: O blessed Trinity. All power, all action, all knowledge: O blessed Trinity. Impassible impassibly, passible impassibly, impassible passibly: O blessed Trinity. Seed, tree, fruit: O blessed Trinity. From one all things, through one all things, in one all things: O blessed Trinity. One, simple, one; one and only one; alone and always one. Another one, one from one, the same one, and all things one; uniter of all, power of the one, working the one, that all things may come to be: O blessed Trinity. Unbegottenly from eternity, begottenly from eternity, so that all things may be eternal, begottenly: O blessed Trinity. You command things to be created, you create, you re-create what was created: O blessed Trinity. You, Father, are substance for all; you, Son, are life; you, Spirit, salvation: O blessed Trinity. Substance itself is life; life itself, which is, is eternal salvation: it is, then, Father and Son and Holy Spirit: O blessed Trinity. You give being to all; you, Son, form; you, Spirit, reformation: O blessed Trinity. You, God, are Father of the infinite and the defined: O blessed Trinity. You, O Son, because you are life, are infinite; because you call life back to the dead, you are defined; you too are Father of the infinite and the defined: O blessed Trinity. You too, Holy Spirit, because you are salvation, are defined; and because, as definition, you hold what is infinite, you too are Father of the infinite and the defined: O blessed Trinity. If, then, the unity is thrice Father, and all fatherhood is from you, O God, God and all fatherhood are one: O blessed Trinity. You, God, created the Logos; hence God became Father; and because the Logos was created by you, and you are in him, the Logos too became God. These two you anointed into one with the Holy Spirit; you are, then, simple and one, made in three: Spirit, Logos, God: O blessed Trinity. First existent, second existent, third existent, and the three simple: O blessed Trinity. Every existent is substance; the existent is formed substance; formed substance is known either to itself alone, or to others, or to itself and to others: O blessed Trinity. God is substance, the Son form, the Spirit notion: O blessed Trinity. You, God, are the first existent, the true existent; you, God, are, then, all and the whole substance: O blessed Trinity. The second existent is Christ, all form; and universal substance, when it is universal, is form and substance; since, then, he is form, Christ is also God: O blessed Trinity. The third existent is the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is the showing forth of all existence. But showing never shows anything but what is known; and to know, in divine things, is the same as to have; for knowledge itself is the same substance. The Holy Spirit, then, has God, and has Christ, whom he shows forth: O blessed Trinity. You, God, are immeasurable, infinite, invisible, but immeasurable and infinite to others, invisible to others; to yourself measured, to yourself finite, to yourself visible. Hence you have a form for yourself, and so also the Logos: you are the same, because the Logos is form; and because, as form, you are knowledge to yourself, and knowledge is the Holy Spirit, you, then, are God and Logos and Holy Spirit: O blessed Trinity. You, Son, are visible, for you are universal and the form of all; for when you give life to all things, form comes from life; and form is always in substance, and every form is knowledge: in substance, then, you are God, in form Logos, in knowledge Holy Spirit: O blessed Trinity. You too, Holy Spirit, are notion; and every notion is of form and of substance: you know God, then, and have God's form; hence you are God and Son and Holy Spirit: O blessed Trinity. God, you are being; Christ is to be Spirit; the Spirit Paraclete is to appear as what is: O blessed Trinity. Hence the Father sent Christ, and Christ the Paraclete: Christ sent, so as to send the Paraclete; the Paraclete sent, so that through Christ the Father might appear: O blessed Trinity. Secret and hidden substance is God; secret and hidden form, God, you are; secret and hidden notion is God: hence, as the existent of these existents, you are God: O blessed Trinity. You, Logos, are substance now public and appearing; and because you are public and appearing, and form because you are the Father's form, you are therefore substance to yourself. The Father, then, is in you, since the Father is substance, and it is the same substance, for there is no other substance. If, then, the Logos is appearing form, the form is the substance itself; and appearing form and appearing substance is notion: you, then, Logos, are the same, both God and Holy Spirit: O blessed Trinity. Every notion is knowledge, all knowledge is substance, and knowledge itself is form: you, then, Holy Spirit, are the published form and the appearing substance, but saving and regenerating, not the substance that remains and begets: O blessed Trinity. There is, then, one substance of God, Logos and Spirit, remaining in three and existing three times in all three. And this is both form and knowledge: so every simple singularity is tripled: O blessed Trinity. You, unknown God, you are the incomprehensible God, but as the God of the unknown and incomprehensible, as it were a form without form. Hence, when you are called existent instead of existent, you are rather absence and rest. Hence the form of resting knowledge is the form of knowing: O blessed Trinity. You, Logos, since you are form, are the form of the Father; hence you are also the image of the Father. And since you are the form of the Father, form is for you also substance itself, because form is the same as substance: hence the Father is in you and you in the Father. Likewise, because you are form, there is notion there, so the substance is known to you, and from this the Father too is known; for you are in his bosom, begotten by him. You too, then, are the true existent, the existent of the existent; and every existent is always in three: O blessed Trinity. You, Holy Spirit, are the bond; and a bond is whatever binds two; so, that you may bind all things, you first bind two, and you yourself are the third, the embrace of the two, and the embrace itself in no way distant from the one, when you make the two one: O blessed Trinity. Three, then, are one; and thrice, and thrice three one: O blessed Trinity. Hence the highest Father sends the Logos; the one sent creates and ministers all things, bearing for our salvation both flesh and the holy cross, returning victor to the Father, and he sent another to be with us who are to be saved: O blessed Trinity. Christ is always with God according to substance, for he is always life. But since he is life, and action begins to act, this is: Christ was born; and God and Christ act from eternity: from eternity, then, God Christ was born: O blessed Trinity. He who ascended into the heavens is Christ; he who descended from the heavens is the same. Christ, then, is not from man, but came even to man: O blessed Trinity. This is our God, this the one God, this the one and only God: O blessed Trinity. Him we all pray to, and we pray to one: one Father and Son and Holy Spirit: O blessed Trinity. Grant pardon for sins, grant eternal life, give peace and glory: O blessed Trinity. Free us, save us, justify us: O blessed Trinity.