From the treatise on the Trinity by Saint Hilary of Poitiers
May I serve you by making you known |
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I
am well aware, almighty God and Father, that in my life I owe you a
most particular duty. It is to make my every thought and word speak of
you.
In fact, you have conferred on me this gift of speech,
and it can yield no greater return than to be at your service. It is
for making you known as Father, the Father of the only-begotten God, and
preaching this to the world that knows you not and to the heretics who
refuse to believe in you.
In this matter the declaration of my intention is only
of limited value. For the rest, I need to pray for the gift of your
help and your mercy. As we spread our sails of trusting faith and public
avowal before you, fill them with the breath of your Spirit, to drive
us on as we begin this course of proclaiming your truth. We have been
promised, and he who made the promise is trustworthy: Ask, and it will
be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened
to you.
There is an inertia in our nature that makes us dull;
and in our attempt to penetrate your truth we are held within the bounds
of ignorance by the weakness of our minds. Yet we do comprehend divine
ideas by earnest attention to your teaching and by obedience to the
faith which carries us beyond mere human apprehension.
Impart to us, then, the meaning of the words of
Scripture and the light to understand it, with reverence for the
doctrine and confidence in its truth. Grant that we may express what we
believe. Through the prophets and apostles we know about you, the one
God the Father, and the one Lord Jesus Christ. May we have the grace, in
the face of heretics who deny you, to honour you as God, who is not
alone, and to proclaim this as truth.
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