Okay, so once again I forgot Wednesday was Wednesday. So sorry. On the plus side, you get two postings today!
Who Proceeds From the Father and the Son
What do we mean when we say the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son? One of the definitions of the word “proceed” is to come from or arise from something. (Encarta Dictionary: English, North American) According to this definition, for something to proceed, something else must have come first. But the Holy Spirit is eternal. So the question is, how can someone eternal (the Holy Spirit) proceed from someone eternal (the Father and the Son)? I confess I couldn’t begin to explain it. So I did what any reasonably intelligent person in the 21st century would do. I did an internet search. And I found a really great explanation. It’s from the Weekly Audience given by Blessed John Paul II, November 20, 1985. He explains it this way:
“…by means of generation, in the absolute unity of the divinity, God is eternally Father and Son. The Father who begets loves the Son who is begotten. The Son loves the Father with a love which is identical with that of the Father. In the unity of the divinity, love is on one side paternal and on the other, filial. At the same time the Father and the Son are not only united by that mutual love as two Persons infinitely perfect. But their mutual gratification, their reciprocal love, proceeds in them and from them as a person. The Father and the Son "spirate" the Spirit of Love consubstantial with them. In this way God, in the absolute unity of the divinity, is from all eternity Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
It can be said that God in his innermost life is "love" which is personalized in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Son. The Spirit is also called Gift.
The Spirit who is Love, is the source of every gift having its origin in God in regard to creatures the gift of existence by means of creation, the gift of grace through the economy of salvation.” http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/alpha/data/aud19851120en.html
Thank you Blessed John Paul II. I never could have explained it so well. I couldn’t have explained it at all.
So the Spirit is love. Just as the Father and the Son are love. That is the love that comes and dwells within us. That is the love that draws us ever deeper into the love of the Father and the Son. “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.” (Come Holy Spirit- a common Catholic prayer Blessed John Paul II concluded his audience with.)
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