This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Preface for the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Oddly, this week we are also going to talk about dancing the tango.
For with your Only Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit you are one God, one Lord: not in the unity of a single person, but in a Trinity of one substance.
For what you have revealed to us of your glory we believe equally of your Son and of the Holy Spirit, so that, in the confessing of the true and eternal Godhead, you might be adored in what is proper to each Person, their unity in substance, and their equality in majesty.
I’ve been taking some online classes and the week we studied the Holy Spirit I had a few “aha” moments when we learned about the word perichoresis.
Perichoresis is an ancient Greek word from peri- (around) + chōreō (to go, to make room, to contain). When used by the Church Fathers, it came to mean the mutual indwelling without confusion of the persons of the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit fully inhabit one another without loss of of their own identities.
You’re probably thinking, “How did she get the tango from that?” Honestly, I wasn't really sure, so I decided to watch some videos and found the 2025 World Championship tango dance winners. What I noticed was that for the most part of the dance, their upper bodies were close and moved as one, but their footwork was both individual and yet still in unison. How they didn’t end up tripping over their own feet, I’ll never know.
As I watched them, I learned that tango is about close connection. The dancers I watched never spoke. This dance requires the leader and the follower to be constantly aware of the other, so much so that only the slightest touch or even a change in breath is the only signal needed to communicate. This level of closeness requires both dancers to know the other person so well that they can move as one.
Perhaps for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, being in the Trinity is like dancing the tango. The Trinitarian Persons are both: one, like the closeness of the tango, and individual, like the footwork that makes each person unique. The Persons of the Trinity listen and respond, not only as one person, but also as a whole.
However, the Trinity can also be thought of as the dance. In a dance, the leader dances with the follower. The Father dances with the Son, but the dance is the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the action of God.
This is a dance in which we are invited to join. When we confess the true and eternal Godhead, when we adore in what is proper to each Person, their unity in substance, and their equality in majesty, we are dancing in the love of the Trinity.
The Father leader our dance. Jesus shows us that the dance isn’t about moving our feet, instead, dancing is about coming to encounter the love of the Father. The Holy Spirit is what joins us. He is the Father’s reaching out for our hand, inviting us to experience the Trinity anew, joining in the dance of the Father’s love.