Contemplating the Trinity: The Path to the Abundant Christian Life

this is a wonderful little book to have on hand for reflection. it is one of 2 books required for a course on the TRINITY that I am currently taking for 8 weeks.

Father Cantalamessa has a unique ability to explain deep theology in manner that makes it seem so obvious. A book of multiple intellectual challenges explained in a careful and clear manner. Highly recommended for young and old.

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While this was assigned reading - I found myself compelled to read much more than what was assigned.

We read this in our seminary Trinity course. Wonderful and faith-inspiring. Helpful book for everyone, since God wants us to have a personal relationship with all three divine Persons!

I like Cantalamessa but he uses terminology and such that are more understandable and appropriate to an eccleastical audience than to the general public (he is preacher to the Papal Household.) Everything he says is very orthodox and spiritual, but no new ground is broken. Maybe it's just me but hearing the same things explained in about the same ways just makes my eyes glass over. The one book I have read in the last 5 years that really got me thinking about the Trinity and what that means for me and all believers is SHE WHO IS by Elizabeth A. Johnson, CSJ. Now that is a book that really gets you thinking and is orthodox in the best sense of the word. I have learned more from Johnson than I ever did from Cantalamess, though I think he is a very holy person.

This is the first book I've read by Fr. Cantalamessa but I intend to read many more. He is well known as the official preacher to the papal household for the last 27 years. One would think in such a position his presentations would be exceedingly conservative and perhaps somewhat stodgy. Instead, they are refreshingly new and insightful. He presents these seven meditations on the Trinity to overcome the unhappiness, divisions, hypocrisy and false beauty of the world, to teach us to pray, build communion and raise our minds to our final destiny. He takes the most profound and ultimate mystery of the Christian faith and leads us to concrete implications of that faith in our everyday life. Immanuel Kant asserted in his Conflict of the Faculties that the doctrine of the Trinity has no practical relevance at all. Had he read Cantalamessa, he might have thought differently. The author is obviously widely read, well informed, and deeply thoughtful, but his presentations are accessible to the general reader. He draws on his various philosophical, theological, literary and artistic sources for quotations and examples that are very apt and appropriate, but wears his learning lightly. He is careful to balance the western church and the eastern so that the strengths of each might supplement the other. This book was a pleasure to read and provided much food for future thought.

Can't wait to read more books by this author. Very readable even as he pulls from many sources. Highly recommend.

very interesting,as all Raniero's meditations.I liked in particular his saying that both man and woman,as a couple,are made in the image and likeness of God as the Trinity is a communion of Persons