And so Father Basil had spoken to Phoebos about God. But the first lesson of this cathecumen had not gone exactly as the good cleric had planned. No, not at all.

Basil had begin by speaking of God in three Persons. He spoke of the awesome power and omnipotence of God the Father, Who is everywhere and fills everything. He spoke of the revelation and incarnation of His Son. Lastly, he spoke of the mystery of the third Person and His presence with the Church and all the Faithful. Phoebos considered all this and with perfect seriousness stated that he thought a tripartite deity explained a lot in regard to how the world we lived in so often seemed to indicate that it had been designed by consensus and not by a singleness of mind. He spoke of the inevitable conflicts between father and sons. Spirit, he acknowledged, was everywhere but seemed to necessitate that the recipient intepret and judge the Spirit's meaning on his own. That was a bit of a puzzler to Basil, who had to enter into a discussion of God's singleness of will and purpose. Phoebos said nothing to this.

Basil turned to our inability to truly comprehend God in essence. Phoebos seemed to acknowledge this point right off. He said that he could well understand the difficulty of knowing anything in essence. Especially, if the mind at work were man's! "Ah, man's imperfection!" Basil thought and described the failure of mankind's progenitures. Phoebos smiled and seemed somewhat amused by the story of the Garden. "I've heard something like this before, good priest. It seems Christians too have their Pandora!" Basil was left in the garden of St. Isisdore's scratching his head as Phoebos went off to play his lyre.