A Tabernacle for the Trinity

Fr. Scott Haynes
Jun 14
5 min read

Fr. Scott Haynes

A Meditation based on the words of

Bl. Josepha Hendrina Stenmanns (1852–1903)

“Make a tabernacle in your heart where the Holy Triune God constantly dwells.”¹— Bl. Josepha Hendrina Stenmanns

On this solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the Church sets before us the most profound mystery of the Christian faith: that God is one in essence and three in Persons—the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It is not merely a doctrine to be explained, but a divine mystery to be adored, worshipped, and lived. The words of Bl. Josepha Hendrina Stenmanns shine like a lamp in the sanctuary of our hearts: “Make a tabernacle in your heart where the Holy Triune God constantly dwells.”

This invitation to interior adoration echoes the prayer of Christ: “If any one love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him.”² The Most Holy Trinity does not merely dwell in heaven or in a distant theological concept. He seeks to dwell within us.

I. The Mystery of Indwelling

From the earliest moments of salvation history, God has sought not merely to reveal Himself, but to dwell with His people. In the Old Covenant, He filled the tabernacle with His glory (Exod. 40:34), then the Temple in Jerusalem. But in the New Covenant, He takes a further step: He makes His home within the soul.

St. Paul teaches: “Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”³ This truth is not poetry, but reality. The Trinity dwells in the soul of the baptized Christian who remains in grace. The Father sustains us in being. The Son redeems and unites us to Himself. The Holy Ghost breathes divine love into our hearts.

St. Augustine explains:

“The whole Trinity dwells in the soul: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet it is only through the Spirit that we recognize their presence.”⁴

In his great work De Trinitate, Augustine saw the image of the Trinity in the human soul—memory, intellect, and will—reflecting the divine Persons in our spiritual nature.⁵ God has formed us to be living tabernacles of the Trinity.

II. Forgetfulness of God: The Root of Spiritual Trouble

Bl. Josepha taught that all our distress stems from our forgetfulness of God’s presence. She speaks not of a merely intellectual forgetfulness, but a spiritual one—the kind of forgetfulness that leads to worry, sin, and distance from grace.

Moses, in Deuteronomy, warned the Israelites: “Forget not the words that thy eyes have seen… but teach them to thy sons and to thy grandsons.”⁶

The saints recognized this forgetfulness as a profound danger. The Desert Father Evagrius Ponticus wrote that the most destructive temptation is acedia, or spiritual sloth—a lack of awareness of God's presence that results in despair, distraction, and detachment.⁷

Our constant spiritual work, then, is remembrance—a continual return to the divine indwelling.

III. Walking in the Presence of God

Bl. Josepha exhorts us: “Walk in the presence of God.” This echoes the divine command to Abraham: “Walk before Me and be perfect.”⁸ This phrase does not merely imply obedience, but attentiveness to the divine presence.

St. Paul described the interior result of such awareness:

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed… cast down, but not destroyed.”⁹

Because he lived in the presence of the Trinity, Paul was not undone by affliction. His soul was a tabernacle.

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, the Carmelite lay brother, speaks powerfully of this interior awareness:

“The most holy and necessary practice in our spiritual life is the presence of God… to take delight in and become accustomed to His divine company.”¹⁰

To walk in God's presence is to walk in peace, even in affliction, because one is never alone.

IV. Prayer: The Physician of the Soul

Bl. Josepha taught that “prayer is the best physician.” How true this is! Prayer heals our memory, restores our peace, and renews our communion with the Triune God.

St. John Chrysostom wrote:

“Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadness.”¹¹

Through prayer, the soul ascends to God, not to inform Him of what He already knows, but to be transformed in His love. Prayer is the furnace in which the Trinity burns away our fears and inflames us with divine charity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church confirms:

“Christian prayer is a communion of love with the Father, not only through Christ but also in Him: the unity of the Holy Spirit who forms the Church.”¹²

V. Saints Who Lived the Trinitarian Life

The saints did not merely believe in the Trinity; they lived in the Trinity.

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, a Discalced Carmelite, wrote this beautiful prayer:

“O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself… Come into me so that I may be lost in You.”¹³

This was not an abstract meditation for her, but the very breath of her spiritual life. At her death, she whispered, “I am going to Light, to Love, to Life.” These were her names for the Three Divine Persons.

St. Gregory Nazianzen, one of the Cappadocian Fathers and champion of the Trinity, said:

“When I speak of God, you must be illumined at once by one flash of light and by three… Three in whom we believe, one in whom we are baptized, and one in whom we hope.”¹⁴

Their lives witness to the fact that the Trinity is not just theological truth, but personal relationship and communion.

VI. How to Make a Tabernacle in the Heart

If we would live Bl. Josepha’s advice to “make a tabernacle in your heart,” we must tend the sanctuary within through:

Silence – “The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.”¹⁵ Silence is the soil of divine intimacy.
Purity – “Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.”¹⁶ Purity of heart opens the soul to divine light.
Charity – “God is charity: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him.”¹⁷ When we love, we enter into the very life of the Trinity.
The Sacraments – In the Eucharist, the indwelling is renewed and deepened. Christ comes not just to visit, but to remain.

Conclusion: A Dwelling Place for the Divine

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity reminds us that the eternal God seeks not simply our worship, but our friendship. He seeks to make of our souls a living sanctuary.

Let us hear again the words of Bl. Josepha Hendrina Stenmanns:

“Make a tabernacle in your heart where the Holy Triune God constantly dwells.”

When we forget the presence of God, fear overtakes us. But when we remember that He is within us, our troubles fall away like dust before the wind. For what can truly harm the soul in whom the Father creates, the Son redeems, and the Holy Ghost sanctifies?

Footnotes

Bl. Josepha Hendrina Stenmanns, personal writings, as quoted by the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit.
John 14:23, Douay-Rheims Bible, 1899 American Edition.
1 Corinthians 3:16, Douay-Rheims.
St. Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.6.
St. Augustine, De Trinitate, Book 10, chs. 11–14.
Deuteronomy 4:9, Douay-Rheims.
Evagrius Ponticus, Praktikos, §12–14.
Genesis 17:1, Douay-Rheims.
2 Corinthians 4:8–9, Douay-Rheims.
Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, 1st Conversation.
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians, Homily 6.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2615.
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, Prayer to the Trinity, Last Retreat, 1906.
St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 40, On Holy Baptism.
Habakkuk 2:20, Douay-Rheims.
Matthew 5:8, Douay-Rheims.
1 John 4:16, Douay-Rheims.