The Apostolic faith concerning the Holy Spirit was confessed by the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 381: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father.” By this confession, the Church recognizes the Father as the source and origin of the whole divinity. But the eternal origin of the Spirit is not unconnected with the Son’s origin.
The Council of Toledo in 675 states, that, “the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, is God, one and equal with the Father and the Son, of the same substance and the same nature….Yet He is not called the Spirit of the Father alone,…but the Spirit of both the Father and the Son.”
The Creed of the Church from the Council of Constantinople confesses: “With the Father and the Son, He is Worshipped and Glorified.”
The Council of Florence in 1438 explains, “The Holy Spirit is eternally from the Father and the Son; He has His nature and His subsistence at once from the Father and the Son; He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one spiration (breathing forth)….And since, the Father has through generation given to the only-begotten Son everything that belongs to the Father, except being Father, the Son has also eternally from the Father, from whom He is eternally born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son.”
The Trinity in the Teaching of the Faith
From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the very root of the Church’s living faith, principally by means of Baptism. Christians are Baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christians are Baptized in the name not in the names, for there is only one God, the almighty Father, His only Son, and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity. These truths find their expression in the preaching, catechesis, and prayer of the Church.
During the first centuries, the Church sought to clarify its Trinitarian faith, both to deepen its own understanding of the faith and to defend it against the errors that were deforming it. This clarification was the work of the early councils, aided by the theological work of the Church Fathers, and sustained by the Christian people’s sense of faith. In order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the Church uses words such as Person and nature. The Church uses the term “nature” to designate the divine being, the term “person” to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who are really distinct from one another within the mystery of God.
The Dogma of the Holy Trinity
The Trinity is One God. We do not profess three Gods, but One God in three Persons. The divine Persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire. God is One but not solitary. Father, Son, Holy Spirit are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, but they are really distinct from one another: The Father is not the Son, nor is the Son the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit the Father or the Son. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds by spiration. Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real distinction of persons from one another resides solely in their relations to one another.
The Council of Toledo (675) states: “In the relational names of the persons the Father is related to the Son, the Son to the father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While they are called three persons in view of their relations, we believe in one nature or substance.”
The Council of Florence (1442) says, “Indeed everything in them is one where there is no opposition of relationship. Because of that unity the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son.
Prayer: O my God, whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely so as to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity: May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it Your heaven, Your beloved dwelling and the place of Your rest. May I never abandon You there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to Your creative action.
