Today, Father's Day, when we celebrate and give thanks for the love we have received from our dads, is also, rather beautifully, Trinity Sunday, a day for celebrating God's abundant, self-transcending love. And rather appropriately, yesterday a trinity of links appeared within my Facebook and Twitter feeds within a few minutes of each other, reminding me of different facets of love, human and divine. So I'm offering them here, as my contribution to today's feast and feasting.
First, Lucy Mangan's article about her dad for Father's Day, reminds us that love reveals itself in small, near-insignificant ways as much as in grand gestures. It certainly made me recall the little things my dad did for me. He didn't give me crustless toast triangles or take me to the Greenwich Book Boat, but he did take me to museums and landmarks, make me my own game of bagatelle, teach me Piemontese nursery rhymes and push me to Bollengo and back on a handcart. And I'm sure he'd have loved to have given me toast triangles, except that he invariably burnt the toast so that I quickly learnt how to make my own!
Then came this Thinking Faith article - The Trinity: On Loving Love Loving - by James Hanvey SJ. He lectured me on the Trinity at Heythrop college, back in the late 1990s, and whilst I have forgotten quite a bit of what I learnt, I can still recall my pleasure - my own little cry of wonder - at hearing that St Augustine's first description of the Trinity was Lover, Beloved, Love. Do read this article - James writes beautifully of Love, loving and love.
And finally... arm yourself with a hankie and watch this video, a simple, moving reminder of the enduring power, depth and strength of love, when all else has disappeared. It certainly makes me pray that I too can become someone for whom love will always be a fundamental instinct...
First, Lucy Mangan's article about her dad for Father's Day, reminds us that love reveals itself in small, near-insignificant ways as much as in grand gestures. It certainly made me recall the little things my dad did for me. He didn't give me crustless toast triangles or take me to the Greenwich Book Boat, but he did take me to museums and landmarks, make me my own game of bagatelle, teach me Piemontese nursery rhymes and push me to Bollengo and back on a handcart. And I'm sure he'd have loved to have given me toast triangles, except that he invariably burnt the toast so that I quickly learnt how to make my own!
Then came this Thinking Faith article - The Trinity: On Loving Love Loving - by James Hanvey SJ. He lectured me on the Trinity at Heythrop college, back in the late 1990s, and whilst I have forgotten quite a bit of what I learnt, I can still recall my pleasure - my own little cry of wonder - at hearing that St Augustine's first description of the Trinity was Lover, Beloved, Love. Do read this article - James writes beautifully of Love, loving and love.
And finally... arm yourself with a hankie and watch this video, a simple, moving reminder of the enduring power, depth and strength of love, when all else has disappeared. It certainly makes me pray that I too can become someone for whom love will always be a fundamental instinct...
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