June is that awkward month with no female saints on the current calendar. Apart from the Mother of God, that is, whose newest memorial as Mother of the Church was observed on the first. Her Immaculate Heart is also honored (20) and the usual BVM Saturday memorials resume with Ordinary Time (20, 27).

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . .” Where have you found the greatest graces? For what gifts are you particularly grateful? What does redemption and salvation mean to you?

Years back, I belonged to a parish near a major theological school. Our proximity to this wealth of learning meant that now and then we were dubiously treated to guest homilists who were at work on their Ph.D.s. One religious sister must have been doing her doctoral thesis on the Trinity because she was asked to speak to us every year on this feast without fail.

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.

My maternal grandparents lived with us. I am told that I was Grampa’s favorite. My few memories of him—he died when I was 6 years old—are entirely that of an old man with a weathered face seated on a log in the backyard watering his vegetable garden.

"God’s going to punish you!” the angry older sister said. Her little brother had been misbehaving since they’d arrived at the playground. Her babysitting resources all depleted, the girl resorted to her trump card—threatening punishment from God.

Mom suffered through cancer three times and eventually succumbed to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. Through all her difficulties, she rarely complained.

Back when I was a student in the seminary, we would be tested in general areas of theology as well as in the specific course work we were taking. They would give us an extensive reading list for those “area” exams. One of them included the theology of the Holy Trinity.

We turn to God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--for the forgiveness that reconciles us to one another.

If we are right to think that the Father gives and the Son receives the kiss, we do not err in thinking that the kiss itself is the Holy Spirit.