This paper examines, from a Thomistic perspective, the possible consequences of the twentieth-century reform of the ‘Kyrie eleison’ from ninefold set of invocations to a sixfold call-and-response structure. First, we present Aquinas’s distinctly Trinitarian exegesis of the ‘Kyrie’ in light of the history of troped liturgical texts. Next, we will account for the historical diversity of the troped ‘Kyrie’ genre while emphasizing importance of the Trinitarian elements. The third section recounts recent work on Aquinas’s theory of the passions and their effects of language formation; this leads to the fourth section, which casts a philosophical eye on the role of melisma in the liturgy. To conclude this study, we suggest the restoration of some troped ‘Kyrie’ texts in the Roman Rite.

This paper argues that the Dominican, Robert Holcot's, Trinitarian theology is methodologically consistent with what one finds in the Franciscan theologian, William of Ockham's, Summa logicae. Both theologians, it is argued, develop a form of Trinitarian minimalism that rejects many of the developments in thirteenth-century Trinitarian theology. Further, it is argued that the traditional two-model approach to medieval Trinitarian theology, as found in Théodore de Regnon, Michael Schmaus, and Russell Friedman must be re-evaluated in light of current research.

In this article – the first Bishop Kevin Dunn Memorial Lecture ‐ I argue that one of the most important resources available for Catholics seeking to understand or teach Trinitarian doctrine is the liturgy of the Mass. I suggest that the text of the liturgy (novus ordo) offers us three patterns of Trinitarian speech that we should emulate. The first ascribes equal glory to Father, Son and Spirit. The second pattern teaches us that the fundamental story of Christian faith is a Trinitarian one. The creation comes from the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit; salvation is a process of being incorporated into the Son by the Spirit so that we may be led to the Father. This narrative is seen particularly clearly in the new eucharistic prayers of the Roman rite. The third pattern is that of using such theological formulae“as one nature and three persons”. These formulae are used sparingly and in contexts which emphasize that the realities of which they speak remain mysterious ‐ and must be the subject of our worship if our understanding is to grow. In our thought, teaching and prayer we should be attentive to the relative priority that these liturgical patterns suggest.

Not only did Pierre Teilhard de Chardin speak about the work of the Holy Spirit in the human heart and see the Holy Spirit as the driving force of evolution, but the human union and community of persons joined by mutual love, in what he called the ‘noosphere’, was clearly analogous in his mind to the Trinitarian union of persons. Yet the Trinitarian dimension of Teilhard's writings has received little attention. On Teilhard's understanding, the Holy Spirit is the power through which evolution becomes the awakening of soul or spirit in matter, rather than being random variation and natural selection. It is also the Holy Spirit who promotes spiritual evolution in the human heart and opens human eyes to the divine presence in the world. Finally, Teilhard's concept of the ‘noosphere’ is analogous to that of the Trinity, understood as a personal unity where neither the individual person nor the Trinity as a whole would be complete without the other.