The Trinity is One God. We do not believe in three Gods, but one God in three persons. The divine persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; do not share the one divinity among themselves but each divine person is God whole, entire, and complete.
The divine persons are really distinct from one another. God is one but not solitary. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not simply names designating modalities or operations of the one God. They are really distinct from one another. The Son is not the Father. The Father is not the Son. The Spirit is not the Son or the Father. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin. The Father eternally generates the Son who is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father through the Son. The divine Unity is Triune.
The divine persons are relative to one another. Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real distinction of the persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one another. The names of the Persons contain this relational existence: the Father is related to the Son, the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While three person in view of these relations, there is only one nature or substance in God. Everything in the Trinity is one. There is no opposition of relationship, no division of nature. The Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son.
God is love. The Father completely pours Himself into the Son. The Son completely reciprocates and pours Himself into the Father. The Love between them is the Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of this Trinitarian life to creation especially humans. This plan of love was conceived by the Father before the foundations of the world, in His beloved Son. This plan is a grace given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, stemming immediately from Trinitarian love. It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole of salvation history after the fall, and the missions of the Son and Spirit which are continued in the mission of the Church.
All the acts and works of God, termed the divine economy, are the common work of the three Divine Persons. The Trinity has only nature. The Trinity also has only one operation. There are not three principles of creation, three creators, but only only one principle, one creator. However each Divine Person performs the common work according to His unique personal property. There is one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are. The divine mission of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit display the properties of the Divine Persons.
The entire divine economy reveals what is proper to the Divine Persons, and their one Divine Nature. The whole of the Christian life is a communion with each of the Divine Persons without in any way dividing or separating the One Divine Nature. Every person who glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Every person who follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him.
The ultimate end of the entire divine economy is the entry of each of us into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity, to have a full share in the Divine Family. But even in this earthly life we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity. If a man loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:23
Summary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 253 – 260.
Thank you for this wonderful explanation!
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