Thoughts on the holy spirit..

Mintoz

I heard a priest say on a youtube video, that the holy spirit is the sigh, or breath of love between the Father and the Son. This seems to make sense to me, to help me better understand the trinity. Now Jesus did say the spirit would come only when he had returned to the Father. This seems to correlate with the first statement..

what do you think?

torrentum

Saint Augustine was walking along a beach one day, thinking about the Holy Trinity - How can it be Three and yet One? He spend hours thinking about it.Ahead, he saw a child carrying buckets of water from the sea, and pour it on the beach. The child kept doing this over and over. Puzzled, St Augustine walked over and asked " what are you doing"?. The child replied "I'm trying to empty the sea". St Augustine laughed, "you could spend eternity doing this and never empty the sea!". The child laughed too "exactly the same situation youre in - trying to understand the Trinity - you can spend eternity thinking about it and never understand" St Augustine was stunned - the child vanished before his eyes (it was his guardian Angel).

To address your topic, I've thought about this so often. It truly mystifies me. But when I read the above story, I gave up thinking about it! Though I've never heard it described the way you pit it- very interesting. Do you have a link to the priests videos? Thanks.

georgieporgy

That's a pretty good description Mintoz. I think the best way to understand the Holy Spirit is to study what receiving the Holy Spirit means;

When a Catholic receives the sacrament Confirmation, they also receive the Gifts and the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. Why? What are these "gifts" and "fruits"?

Read more at Suite101: What are the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit: Seven Gifts and the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit | Suite101.comhttp://suite101.com/article/what-are-the-gifts-and-fruits-of-the-holy-spirit-a90202#ixzz20FoTShFc

Mintoz

torrentum wrote: »

Saint Augustine was walking along a beach one day, thinking about the Holy Trinity - How can it be Three and yet One? He spend hours thinking about it.Ahead, he saw a child carrying buckets of water from the sea, and pour it on the beach. The child kept doing this over and over. Puzzled, St Augustine walked over and asked " what are you doing"?. The child replied "I'm trying to empty the sea". St Augustine laughed, "you could spend eternity doing this and never empty the sea!". The child laughed too "exactly the same situation youre in - trying to understand the Trinity - you can spend eternity thinking about it and never understand" St Augustine was stunned - the child vanished before his eyes (it was his guardian Angel).

To address your topic, I've thought about this so often. It truly mystifies me. But when I read the above story, I gave up thinking about it! Though I've never heard it described the way you pit it- very interesting. Do you have a link to the priests videos? Thanks.

Yeah I know I'll never fully understand, but I do think about this from time to time.

The video, you'll find it very interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1INut0Gi09Q

Note, It's actually Fulton Sheen that first said what I wrote about, and he repeated it. Didn't actually see it until now.

torrentum

Fulton sheen is great. I'm actually reading one of his books at the moment. Thanks very much for the link I'll watch the video when I get home (on mobile web right now in work)

Slav

Mintoz wrote: »

I heard a priest say on a youtube video, that the holy spirit is the sigh, or breath of love between the Father and the Son. This seems to make sense to me, to help me better understand the trinity. Now Jesus did say the spirit would come only when he had returned to the Father. This seems to correlate with the first statement..

what do you think?

For some reason it's now rather popular idea in Catholicism and theologically it's totally wrong as it breaks the Trinity. Essentially, this idea makes Duality out of Trinity because it reduces the Spirit to only a relation between the other two hypostases while in orthodox Christianity the Spirit is homoousios (of the same nature) with the other two.

Everything the Father is in nature so is the Son and the Spirit. Everything the Son is in nature so is the Father and the Spirit. Everything the Spirit is in nature so is the Father and the Son.

chozometroid

Slav wrote: »

For some reason it's now rather popular idea in Catholicism and theologically it's totally wrong as it breaks the Trinity. Essentially, this idea makes Duality out of Trinity because it reduces the Spirit to only a relation between the other two hypostases while in orthodox Christianity the Spirit is homoousios (of the same nature) with the other two.

Everything the Father is in nature so is the Son and the Spirit. Everything the Son is in nature so is the Father and the Spirit. Everything the Spirit is in nature so is the Father and the Son.

Thanks.

I've had a couple different takes on the idea of the Trinity.

I think of the Father as the source of all things; Jesus as God's avatar/communicator to the physical universe; and the Spirit as the "Spirit of God" which flows through His creation, breathing life into all things, and providing a link to His power/nature.

Other simple take:
Father/Son/Spirit= Mind/Body/Spirit

I have these thoughts, keeping in mind the limitations of the human mind in explaining something for which is has no base knowledge to work with.

If we insist on imagining God, we end up with an idol of the mind, which is just as offensive to God as an idol of the hands... --paraphrasing A.W. Tozer.

Onesimus

253 The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity".83 The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: "The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God."84 In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), "Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature."85


254 The divine persons are really distinct from one another. "God is one but not solitary."86 "Father", "Son", "Holy Spirit" are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: "He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son."87 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."88 The divine Unity is Triune.


255 The divine persons are relative to one another. Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real distinction of the persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one another: "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."89 Indeed "everything (in them) is one where there is no opposition of relationship."90 "Because of that unity the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son."91


256 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called "the Theologian", entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of Constantinople:

Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts down. . . the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God. . . the three considered together. . . I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendor. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me. . .92

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s2c1p2.htm#249

Above is the Catholic teaching on the Holy Trinity.

Slav

chozometroid wrote: »

I think of the Father as the source of all things; Jesus as God's avatar/communicator to the physical universe; and the Spirit as the "Spirit of God" which flows through His creation, breathing life into all things, and providing a link to His power/nature.

This sounds like a biblical and traditional view. Principle, Logos and Spirit united in one nature.