What is the official Catholic view of a feminine element within the Trinity?

What is the Catholic view of the Trinity and does it contain a feminine element?

The Trinity is the term employed to signify the central doctrine of the Catholic religion, the truth that in the unity of the Godhead there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, these Three Persons being truly distinct one from another.

Catholics are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the Son and the Spirit: "I do." "The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity."

What is the Trinity?

A term used since A.D. 200 to denote the central doctrine of the Christian religion. God, who is one and unique in his infinite substance or nature, is three really distinct persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The one and only God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet God the Father is not God the Son, by generates the Son eternally, as the Son is eternally begotten. The Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but a distinct person having the divine nature from the Father and the Son by eternal procession. The three divine persons are co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial and deserve co-equal glory and adoration. - The Holy Trinity

In essence there is no feminine principle in the Trinity. Nevertheless some have expressed a feminine element so to speak in regards to the person of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that God is called "Father", while his love for man may also be depicted as motherhood, but he ultimately transcends the human concept of sex, and that "God is neither man nor woman: he is God".

The Father revealed by the Son

238 Many religions invoke God as "Father". The deity is often considered the "father of gods and of men". In Israel, God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of the world.59 Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, "his first-born son".60 God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is "the Father of the poor", of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.61

239 By calling God "Father", the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father.

240 Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

Of the thirty or so parables in the canonical Gospels, the Prodigal Son was one of the four that were shown in medieval art almost to the exclusion of the others, but not mixed in with the narrative scenes of the Life of Christ (the others were the Wise and Foolish Virgins, Dives and Lazarus, and the Good Samaritan. The Labourers in the Vineyard also appears in Early Medieval works).

God the Father will never forget his children here on earth, just as a mother would never forget the child of her womb.

Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee. - Isaiah 49:15

This painting is perhaps the most famous, dramatic and beautiful presentation of the forgiving and accepting grace of God the Father. As was Rembrandt’s custom, he presents the figures in this piece primarily in darkness, with the primary light being on the face of the father, his embracing hands upon the back of his returned son, as well as upon the face of the jealous and judgmental older brother. Notice how Rembrandt has the son positioned between the arms of the father. These arms are both receiving and protectively outlining the son. In this tender embrace, we can wonder if Rembrandt had John 1:18 in mind where we are told that God the Son dwelt in the bosom of God the Father.

Roger Scruton comments in session 9 of The Family Project, “These are hands that are not in the business of judging or scolding.” Henri Nouwen, in his wonderful devotional on this painting, asks a question about these hands which are distinctly different from one another. One, the left, is large, strong and masculine. The right is smaller, more slender. Perhaps feminine? Could they represent both fathering and mothering nature of God? Nouwen tells of one of his friends pointing out to him how these two hands correspond with the difference in the son’s feet. He explains,

“…the caressing feminine hand of the father parallels the bare, wounded foot of the son, while the strong masculine hand parallels the foot dressed in a sandal. Is it too much to think that the one hand protects the vulnerable side of the son, while the other hand reinforces the son’s strength and desire to go and get on with his life.” (p. 99)

It is very possible, as this is God’s heart and nature toward each of us. - Rembrandt’s “Return of the Prodigal Son”

Further food for though may be obtain with the following(s):

• What the ‘Early Church Parents’ said about God’s gender