The Holy Spirit
Who the Holy Spirit is, a divine Person and not a force, how he acts in Scripture, and how he works in the Church, the sacraments and our prayer.
Awaiting review A priest has not yet reviewed this article. Read it alongside the Catechism paragraphs it cites, and take questions to your parish.
Of the three Persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is often the one Christians find hardest to picture. We can imagine a father and a son; a spirit seems shapeless. Yet the Spirit is the one we meet most closely, because he is the one who lives in us. The Nicene Creed calls him "the Lord, the giver of life".
A Person, not a force
The Holy Spirit is not an energy, a mood or an impersonal power that God gives off. He is a divine Person, the third Person of the Trinity, one in being with the Father and the Son, and with them he is worshipped and glorified (CCC 685). He knows, loves, speaks, teaches and can even be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). Jesus calls him the Paraclete, a Greek word for one who stands beside you: an advocate, a helper, a consoler (John 14:16, 26; CCC 692).
The Spirit is never sent alone. Whenever the Father sends his Son, he also sends his Spirit; their mission is joint and inseparable (CCC 689–690). That is why it is hard to "see" the Spirit: he is the one who shows us Christ, rather than drawing attention to himself (CCC 687).
The Spirit in Scripture
Scripture speaks of the Spirit through images: water, anointing oil, fire, cloud and light, a seal, a hand, and a dove (CCC 694–701). It also shows him at work from the first page to the last.
- In creation. At the very beginning, "the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2; CCC 703). He is the breath of life in every living thing.
- Through the prophets. The Creed says that he spoke through the prophets. He inspired Israel's prophets to speak God's word and to promise a Messiah on whom the Spirit would rest (CCC 702, 712–716).
- At the Annunciation. The angel told Mary that the Holy Spirit would come upon her, and the power of the Most High would overshadow her (Luke 1:35). By the Spirit, the Son of God was conceived in her womb (CCC 721–726).
- At the Baptism of Jesus. As Jesus came up from the Jordan, the Spirit came down on him like a dove, and the Father's voice was heard (Matthew 3:16–17; CCC 535–536).
- At Pentecost. Fifty days after Easter, the Spirit came on the apostles with the sound of a rushing wind and tongues as of fire. They began to speak in other languages, and Peter preached to the crowd (Acts 2:1–41). This is the Church's birthday: the Spirit poured out on all who believe (CCC 731–732).
"Who proceeds from the Father and the Son"
In the West, the Creed says that the Spirit proceeds from the Father "and the Son", in Latin filioque, a phrase not in the text of 381 that the Latin Church came to add over the following centuries, and which is still a point of disagreement with the Orthodox Churches (CCC 246–247). The Eastern tradition prefers to say that the Spirit comes from the Father, as the first origin, through the Son, and the Catechism holds that these two ways of speaking, rightly understood, are complementary and express one faith (CCC 248).
Gifts and fruits
The Spirit does not only act in great moments of history. He acts in ordinary believers, giving lasting dispositions that make us open to his guidance. Drawing on Isaiah's description of the coming king (Isaiah 11:1–2), the Church counts seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord (CCC 1830–1831). Fear of the Lord here means not terror but the reverence of someone who loves God and does not want to lose him.
The fruits of the Spirit are what grows in a life where he is at home. St Paul names love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). The Church's tradition, following the Latin text of that passage, counts twelve, adding generosity, modesty and chastity (CCC 1832). You can recognise the Spirit's work in someone not by spectacular signs, but by these.
The Spirit in the Church, the sacraments and prayer
The Spirit is often called the soul of the Church: he is to the Body of Christ what the soul is to a human body, its life and its unity (CCC 797). He builds the Church up, gives it life and makes it holy (CCC 737–741).
He is at work in every sacrament. In each one the Church asks the Father to send the Spirit, and he makes Christ's saving work present (CCC 1091–1092, 1104–1107). At Mass, the priest asks the Father to send the Spirit on the bread and wine so that they may become the Body and Blood of Christ. In Confirmation, the Spirit given at Baptism is poured out more fully.
He is also the teacher of prayer. St Paul admits a thing every honest person knows, that "we do not know how to pray as we ought", and then adds that the Spirit himself prays within us (Romans 8:26). It is the Spirit who teaches us to call God "Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6; CCC 742), and no one can even say "Jesus is Lord" except by him (1 Corinthians 12:3; CCC 2670).
How to begin
The simplest and most direct prayer to the Spirit, as the Catechism notes, is also a traditional one: "Come, Holy Spirit" (CCC 2671). Say it before you read Scripture, before a hard conversation, before you decide something that matters. Then pay attention, over the following days, to where love, joy and peace begin to grow.
Going deeper
- God the Father, for the Trinity as a whole.
- Confirmation, the sacrament of the gift of the Spirit.
- What prayer is, on prayer as the Spirit's work in us.
- Read next: CCC 683–747 on the Holy Spirit, and CCC 1830–1832 on his gifts and fruits.