Understanding the Trinity: "A Prayer from the Heart"
The expression of the Trinity
When I first wrote ‘A Prayer from the Heart’ the Holy Trinity appeared in it in the 3 places: at the beginning; in the middle and right at the end. In prayer, I strongly felt that I needed to show children that the Hoy Trinity is with them everywhere. How good would it be if they realised through the story that the most powerful force in the Universe is with them wherever they go?! Of course, this would just be a piece in the jigsaw of life that will make up their faith. And I am honoured to be part of that jigsaw.
The Holy Trinity is expressed in two ways in my book: Full-blown and as an echo. This first image is an example of how the ‘fullness’ of the Holy Trinity is expressed in my book.
And here is an example of how the Holy Trinity is expressed in most of the illustrations in my book: as an ‘echo’.

Omnipresence
I remember being taught in school about God’s superpower of omnipresence. I learnt that He was everywhere and that I could pray to Him wherever I happened to be. Though I only prayed to God at meal times and bedtimes, this was still good to know! As a child, I imagined Him – somewhere up in the clouds- distant from me and not really interested in every aspect of my life. Because of this there was no way that I could experience emotional security in God, even though I believed He was everywhere. I needed more: I needed a personal relationship with Him. I needed someone to show me that this God was lovely; that He cared about me in every way and that it was the-best-thing-ever to have a relationship with Him.
Upbringing
My beloved parents took us to mass every Sunday and my mother made sure that we prayed before we went to bed at night. These are good and wonderful things to offer children and every parent offers the best they can with what they know. But children need more than ‘doing’ Sunday mass in order to have a personal relationship with their omnipresent God. I had to wait till I was 27 years old before I set sail on my personal prayer adventure… God had a lot of work to do on me before I was ready to open my heart to Him!
Parental modelling
It’s also one thing being taught about God’s omnipresence but it’s quite another thing for it to become a concrete reality in our lives. To help with this, I think that it needs both mum and dad to model the reality of God’s omnipresence. I believe that if they do this, it will go some way to showing their children that not only is God everywhere but that God ‘has their back’ and that He works all things together for their good:
Romans 8:28. For example, parents could do this by praying out loud for a car parking space… as people of influence maybe we should model this to children? I know I felt awkward the first time I prayed out loud with my little niece and nephews in the car…but it became more natural to pray in this way with time. And God found us a parking space too…!
If the Lord doesn’t provide a parking space, well – then it’s an opportunity for us to show that we trust in Him and that He will somehow work this out for us.
Young children LOVE stories, don’t they! We all know that there are some stories that children want their parents to read to over and over again. We know from studies about brain development and psychology, that children engage in the repetition of stories when they are learning something important through them. I hope and I pray that ‘A Prayer from the Heart’ will be one of those stories.
I pray that through the illustrations and the story itself, that children will begin to see that the Holy Trinity is not only with them always, but that God cares about what they care about – and that He has the power to help them in all circumstances of life. I hope that this story will be a stepping stone for little souls to reach for intimacy with God.
