To fully know someone you need to know them in the context of all of the multiple facets of the roles they fulfil.

That is virtually impossible. For example - I am a daughter, a sister, a mother, a wife, a teacher and a friend to different people. I am not all of those roles to anyone of those who know me, and those for whom I take on one or more of those roles at a time, see different facets of me within those roles.

The doctrine of the Trinity tries to get Christians to take that idea on board and to think of God as 'One', but appreciate that we encounter Him via three different persons. To think of God as only one of the Persons is to not consider all of the Aspects of Him.

St. Patrick likened the Trinity to the clover leaf. If you have a clover leaf with all three leaf parts in place - it is complete and instantly recognisable as a leaf of clover. If you drew a clover leaf showing only one or two of the leaf parts it would not serve as a drawing that people could use to recognise clover easily. They would point out to you that your picture was not complete. Similarly if you sketched the three parts as being different sizes, the sketch would not serve for people to use it to identify the plant.

We know about God in the form of three Persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost (or Spirit as is more fashionable for Him to be called these days). Each of those Persons is interlinked and inseperable if you want a full understanding of God the Trinity.

To emphasise one of the Persons is to distort the picture of God. To omit one of the Persons is to distort the picture of God. We need to accept all three Persons and appreciate the facet of God's overall Three-In-One Person that that each separate Person conveys.

As a physicist I liken the Trinity to seeing in colour. Your eye contains visual receptors called 'cones' (because of their shape) that detect different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum - different colours of light. You have red-light detectors, green-light detectors and blue-light detectors. When light from an object enters your eye it stimulates these receptors and sends signals through to the brain via your visual cortex.

Light from a red object will strongly stimulate the red cones and a strong signal from them will be sent to your brain. As the object is red the blue and green cones will send no or very small signals. The brain then tells you the object is red.

Light from a yellow object will strongly stimulate the red and green cones and a strong signal from them will be sent to your brain. As the object is yellow the blue cones will send no or very small signals. The brain then tells you the object is yellow.

If your cones all work perfectly you will see a full range of colours and hues when you look at an object. If you are colour-blind you will have one or more cone that doesn't detect colour very well or not at all. The image you see is not in 'full colour'. You will be unaware that your vision is defective until you undergo tests because you will be used to how you see and be unaware that you are missing anything.

The top picture on the right shows a child's picture when viewed in white light - all three cone types can be stimulated. The one below shows the same picture viewed through a red filter. The filter only allows the red light to get through, therefore only your red cones can be stimulated by it. It therefore shows you what you would see if only your red cones were 'working'.

You actually miss out on a lot of the detail in the picture as well as seeing the whole in the wrong shade. It is like that when you perceive God via only one of the three Persons of the Trinity. Your understanding of God's will for yourelf, the world around you and of the Holy Scriptures is distorted. You can misinterpret what is going on around you or in your own life.

All three persons of the Trinity are needed to stimulate your spiritual self in a way in which you can appreciate God's world in a way He wants you to view it. You should therefore meditate on teachings regarding all three Persons and not exclusively concentrate on one of them.