- In teaching about the Person of the Holy Spirit, the Fathers of the Church emphasize first and foremost what differentiates the Person of the Holy Spirit from the Persons of the Father and the Son, that is, that the Holy Spirit proceeds (in Ukrainian, iskhodyt; in Greek, exporeutai) from the Father. In conciliar unified fashion, they professed this belief through the Symbol of Faith: “I believe ... in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father.” On the procession of the Holy Spirit, Saint Cyril of Alexandria teaches: “The Holy Spirit is the one [who] ... pours forth from God the Father, through the Son, and shows to us his existence, in the image of breath of the mouth” (Cyril of Alexandria, Dialogues on the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, 2)
- The Holy Fathers made a distinction between the interior life of the Most Holy Trinity and the revelation of the Trinity in creation. In the Most Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit proceeds (in Ukrainian, iskhodyt; in Greek, exporeutai) from the Father—the one and only Source of the Most Holy Trinity. When the Holy Fathers spoke about the action of the Persons of the Trinity in creation, they professed that the Father sends the Holy Spirit “through the Son”(See Gregory of Nyssa, On the Life of Saint Gregory the Wonderworker). Saint Cyril of Alexandria, professing this very same faith, explained this sending of the Holy Spirit “through the Son” as the fact that the Holy Spirit “comes from (in Ukrainian, походит; in Greek, προεναι) the Father and the Son” (See Cyril of Alexandria, Thesaurus on the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity) This interpretation was emphasized by the Fathers of the Council of Florence: “Some [were] saying the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son, others saying the Holy Spirit comes from the Father through the Son. All were aiming at the same meaning in different words”(Council of Florence, Bull Laetentur caeli [Let the Heavens Rejoice] ( July 6, 1439)). This opinion was also expressed in the Articles of the Union of Brest: “The Holy Spirit ... proceeds from one Source, as if from a well-spring, from the Father, through the Son”(Articles of the Union of Brest, 1).
From Christ Our Pascha,
the Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church
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