[Meditationes seu Contemplationes devotissimae]

Attend well, I pray you, faithful soul, because although the sacrament of the highest and uncreated Trinity—of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—is ineffable and incomprehensible, whence the holy prophet, speaking of the generation of the Son, says: Who shall declare his generation?, nevertheless, divine piety has acted salutarily for your life so that many things might be given to you through which you might be led to some little knowledge of that highest and most holy Trinity. The first is the totality of creatures themselves, in which the trace of the holy Trinity clearly shines. For those things which were made by divine art show in themselves a certain unity, and form, and order. For some of these creatures are something eternal, and are formed by some species, and hold some order. And thus, in individual creatures, the trace of the Trinity shines. In which the highest origin is understood as God the Father, from whom are all things, and from whom is the Son and the Holy Spirit. The most perfect beauty is understood as the Son. The most blessed delight is understood as the Holy Spirit. In the second place, the rational creature occurs, which, since it was formed to the likeness of the Godhead, undoubtedly leads us more excellently to the knowledge of that same holy Trinity. Behold how in the rational creature

it remembers itself, understands itself, and loves itself. And if we discern these, we discern a trinity, not indeed God, but the image of God. For here a certain trinity appears, namely of memory, intelligence, and love, which are not three lives, but one life, one essence. The mind itself is the parent, and its knowledge is as it were the offspring. For when the mind knows itself, it begets the knowledge of itself and is the sole parent of its knowledge. The third is love, which proceeds from the mind itself and the knowledge. Considering this, faithful soul, and that one essence in which they are, it extends itself to the contemplation of the Creator and sees unity in trinity and trinity in unity, in which contemplation, by divine illumination, it grasps that in that holy Trinity there is one God the Father, who alone essentially from himself begat one only Son. And one Son, who is essentially from one Father alone. And a third, the Holy Spirit, who alone proceeds essentially from the Father and the Son. In the third place, we are led to the knowledge of the holy Trinity by the divine Scriptures through the expression of the proper names. For the sacred Scripture says: There are three who give testimony in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one. By which we are led through the figures of the Scriptures, as by the present