The Blessed Trinity and the Sacraments

"Material or sense-perceptible elements, raised by grace to the rank of sacraments, become the channel of God's presence and implant in man's soul a 'fountain springing up into eternal life.'

"The sacraments are truly efficacious signs of grace. But the Divine Presence effected by the sacraments-and this is the central point of the present study-is not just the presence of the Divine Nature or of One Divine Person. It is the presence of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

"In speaking of the Divine Life born and nourished in us by the sacraments, it is to be remembered that the Life of God is the Life of Three Persons. The Divine Life we receive by grace is the personal Divine Life of the Three Persons of the Trinity. Necessarily, then, the Three Persons are active in each of the sacraments, disposing us to receive their Presence, assimilating our life to Theirs, and enabling us to grow continually in grace.... Says St. John Chrysostom: 'Neither angel nor archangel can accomplish anything in the gifts of God; the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost dispose of everything. The priest but lends his lips and his hands.'

"Our salvation is, in the strictest sense, an operation of the Blessed Trinity. The Three Divine Persons are together the author of salvation; the one act of redemption is realized by the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; salvation is a personal gift made by each of the Divine Persons. Christ is the center of the whole redemptive system, but in and through Christ there is everywhere an echo of the Trinity....

"The sacraments, each in its own particular way, express different aspects of the Divine plan to wed time and eternity, enabling Christians to reproduce in their lives a reflection of the eternal mystery of God."

In these words we see outlined the ambitious goal of Fr. Taymans d'Eypernon's important study of the seven sacraments as revelations and actions of-and intimate participations in-the Triune God. First published in 1961 and quickly forgotten in the maelstrom that accompanied the Second Vatican Council, The Blessed Trinity and the Sacraments is ripe for rediscovery in our own times.