There is a foundational pattern of giving and receiving in every aspect of the universe—modeled on the very shape of God as Trinity. Once we have a dynamic waterwheel of outflowing love, as St. Bonaventure called it, it flows in only one direction: always positive, always giving, always outpouring, where there is no possibility of anger, unlove, wrath, or hatred in God. The doctrine of the Trinity was developed to order to move us to the dynamic principle of three, where there is always movement forward. But the ego naturally pulls us back into the principle of two, which is inherently comparative, competitive, and antagonistic, and usually either/or. Trinity undoes that. All we can do is jump into the flow and allow it to happen. The only way of really jumping in is through standing in love—even in our mind.
—from the book Silent Compassion: Finding God in Contemplation
by Richard Rohr, OFM
