Tag: holy spirit

  • The Holy Spirit

    The Biggest Heresy You Rarely Hear About

    https://www.catholic.com/audio/cot/the-biggest-heresy-you-rarely-hear-about

    Where Does the Bible Teach That the Holy Spirit is God?

    https://stpaulcenter.com/posts/where-does-the-bible-teach-that-the-holy-spirit-is-god

    The heresy of Pneumatomachi

    https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/pneumatomachi

    The 21 Ecumenical Councils

    https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-21-ecumenical-councils&lang=en

    Pneumatomachianism Refuted: Defending the Divinity of the Holy Ghost

    Pneumatomachi

    https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/pneumatomachi

    Holy Ghost – The Third Person of the Holy Trinity

    https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/holy-ghost

    The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Explained

    Understanding the Holy Spirit – BISHOP BARRON

    The Holy Spirit is a person, it’s not an impersonal force. It is The Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity.

    In theology a person is an individual substance of a rational nature and so the Holy Spirit is a person, it is of the same essence of God The Father and of God The Son, it is the same Divine Essence, the same Divinity therefore it is God but it has its own intellect and will.

    A careful study of the Holy Scriptures perfectly shows that the Holy Spirit speaks, the Holy Spirit says, the Holy Spirit prevented Paul from going to Asia (Acts 16: 6), the Holy Spirit moves into action, the Holy Spirit is saddened…. the Holy Spirit is quoted in dozens of texts in specific action cleary proving that He is a rational person with an intellect.

    A person is a substance with a will and an intellect with a rational nature is the same difference between a human person and an animal: we would never say that an animal is a person because, although it has some instinct and even feelings,it doesn’t has an intellect nor a rationality and neither an intelligent will. An animal doesn’t reflect upon itself. Most animals don’t even know that they are their own entity: a cat may mistake his own image for another cat in the mirror they don’t have this intellectual concept of their individuality, they don’t have a will, they don’t plan the future as we do, they don’t worry, they don’t study, they don’t rationalize as we do that’s why we do not consider animals as “persons”.

    Yes they do have a body therefore having a body doesn’t define a person, having an intellect and a will does.

    Likewise, angels are persons. Every single angel is an individual person.

    Also God is one God ,only one Divine Essence, only one Divine Nature, it’s not three Gods, there is ONLY ONE GOD but in three persons:

    God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit do have their own individualities within the Holy Trinity and this Divine Holy Family forms the Family we are called to belong to, to be Sons and Daughters of the Holy Trinity. They become hosts of our souls and we are to receive the Holy Trinity inside the temple of our body, blood soul and humanity. Inside each of our own human inner personal universe, we are to receive the Holy Trinity as a guest into our souls.

    SEE SECTION ON “THE HOLY TRINITY” AND ARTICLES “DEFINITION OF A PERSON” – https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=35539&randomterm=false#:~:text=AND https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11726a.htm

    We get to pray for the Holy Spirit to come, to enlighten us, to guide us, to impart to us His 7 gifts as recorded in Isaiah 11:1 -3. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are, according to the Catholic Tradition: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God. Starting to develop a personal relationship with God The Holy Spirit adds a whole other dimension in our relationship with God!!!

    SEE ARTICLES “The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit – What are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and why do they matter?” https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-seven-gifts-of-the-holy-spirit AND https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_gifts_of_the_Holy_Spirit#:~:text=

    DEFINITION OF A “PERSON”

    In Catholic theology, a person is fundamentally an individual substance of a rational nature, defined by intelligence, will, distinctiveness, and self-subsistence (incommunicability), meaning they are complete in themselves but called to communion with others. This definition applies analogously to God (the Trinity), angels, and humans, but for humans, personhood also involves being a body-soul composite, uniquely reflecting God’s image through intellect and love in relationship, and possessing inherent dignity from conception. 

    Core Characteristics

    • Individual Substance: A complete, self-existing entity, not a part of something else.
    • Rational Nature: Possesses intellect and will, enabling knowledge and love, distinguishing persons from animals or inanimate objects.
    • Incommunicability: Each person is unique and distinct, unable to be completely merged into another.
    • Openness to Others: While distinct, persons are made for communion, not isolation, finding fulfillment in relationships, especially with God. 

    Types of Persons in Theology

    • God: The Holy Trinity is three distinct Persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) in one divine nature.
    • Angels: Purely spiritual, intellectual beings, existing as individual persons.
    • Humans: A unique composite of a rational soul and a body, made in God’s image, with inherent dignity from the first moment of existence. 

    Key Distinctions for Humans

    • Body-Soul Union: Humans are not just spirits but are embodied, allowing for unique forms of thought, love, and procreation.
    • Capacity for Change: Unlike angels, human persons have the capacity for growth, development, and change through their embodied lives.
    • Dignity: Every living human individual, regardless of developmental stage or capability, is a person with intrinsic worth and rights, reflecting God’s image. 

    Person

    According to the generally accepted definition of Boethius, a person is an individual substance of a rational or intellectual nature.  The notion of person is subject to analogical differences depending on whether the term is referring to human, angelic, or divine persons.

    PERSON

    “An individual substance of a rational nature” (Boethius). Therefore every individual intellectual substance which is complete in itself, uncommunicated and existing for itself, is a person. Essential to person in theological terms are intelligence and substantiality, wholeness in oneself and especially individuality. From individuality flow such features of personhood as distinctiveness, incommunicability, and uniqueness. Among human persons there are also the elements of responsibility and possession of distinctive rights. (Etym. Latin persona, actor’s mask; character; supposition of a rational nature.)

    https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=35539&randomterm=false#:~:text=

    Person

    https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11726a.htm

    The Latin word persona was originally used to denote the mask worn by an actor. From this it was applied to the role he assumed, and, finally, to any character on the stage of life, to any individual. This article discusses (1) the definition of “person”, especially with reference to the doctrine of the Incarnation; and (2) the use of the word persona and its Greek equivalents in connection with the Trinitarian disputes. For the psychological treatment see PERSONALITY.

    Definition

    The classic definition is that given by Boethius in “De persona et duabus naturis”, c. ii: Naturæ rationalis individua substantia (an individual substance of a rational nature).

    Substantia — “Substance” is used to exclude accidents: “We see that accidents cannot constitute person” (Boethius, op. cit.). Substantia is used in two senses: of the concrete substance as existing in the individual, called substantia prima, corresponding to Aristotle’s ousia prote; and of abstractions, substance as existing in genus and species, called substantia secunda, Aristotle’s ousia deutera. It is disputed which of the two the word taken by itself here signifies. It seems probable that of itself it prescinds from substantia prima and substantia secunda, and is restricted to the former signification only by the word individua.

    Individua — Individua, i.e., indivisum in se, is that which, unlike the higher branches in the tree of Porphyry, genus and species, cannot be further subdivided. Boethius in giving his definition does not seem to attach any further signification to the word. It is merely synonymous with singularis.

    Rationalis naturae — Person is predicated only of intellectual beings. The generic word which includes all individual existing substances is suppositum. Thus person is a subdivision of suppositum which is applied equally to rational and irrational, living and non-living individuals. A person is therefore sometimes defined as suppositum naturae rationalis.

    The definition of Boethius as it stands can hardly be considered a satisfactory one. The words taken literally can be applied to the rational soul of man, and also the human nature of Christ. That St. Thomas accepts it is presumably due to the fact that he found it in possession, and recognized as the traditional definition. He explains it in terms that practically constitute a new definition. Individua substantia signifies, he says, substantia, completa, per se subsistens, separata ab aliia, i.e., a substance, complete, subsisting per se, existing apart from others (III, Q. xvi, a. 12, ad 2um).

    If to this be added rationalis naturae, we have a definition comprising the five notes that go to make up a person: (a) substantia– this excludes accident; (b) completa– it must form a complete nature; that which is a part, either actually or “aptitudinally” does not satisfy the definition; (c) per se subsistens–the person exists in himself and for himself; he is sui juris, the ultimate possessor of his nature and all its acts, the ultimate subject of predication of all his attributes; that which exists in another is not a person; (d) separata ab aliis–this excludes the universal, substantia secunda, which has no existence apart from the individual; (e) rationalis naturae–excludes all non-intellectual supposita.

    To a person therefore belongs a threefold incommunicability, expressed in notes (b), (c), and (d). The human soul belongs to the nature as a part of it, and is therefore not a person, even when existing separately. The human nature of Christ does not exist per se seorsum, but in alio, in the Divine Personality of the Word. It is therefore communicated by assumption and so is not a person. Lastly the Divine Essence, though subsisting per se, is so communicated to the Three Persons that it does not exist apart from them; it is therefore not a person.

    Theologians agree that in the Hypostatic Union the immediate reason why the Sacred Humanity, though complete and individual, is not a person is that it is not a subsistence, not per se seorsum subsistens. They have, however, disputed for centuries as to what may be the ultimate determination of the nature which if present would make it a subsistence and so a person, what in other words is the ultimate foundation of personality. According to Scotus, as he is usually understood, the ultimate foundation is a mere negation. That individual intellectual nature is a person which is neither of its nature destined to be communicated–as is the human soul–nor is actually communicated–as is the Sacred Humanity. If the Hypostatic Union ceased, the latter would ipso facto, without any further determination, become a person. To this it is objected that the person possesses the nature and all its attributes. It is difficult to believe that this possessor, as distinct from the objects possessed, is constituted only by a negative. Consequently, the traditional Thomists, following Cajetan, hold that there is a positive determination which they call the “mode” of subsistence. It is the function of this mode to make the nature incommunicable, terminated in itself, and capable of receiving its own esse, or existence. Without this mode the human nature of Christ exists only by the uncreated esse of the Word.

    CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

    I. “IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT”

    https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_one/section_two/chapter_one/article_1/paragraph_2_the_father.html#:~:text=

    232 Christians are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”53 Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the Son and the Spirit: “I do.” “The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity.”54

    233 Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not in their names,55 for there is only one God, the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity.

    234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith”.56 The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men “and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin”.57

    235 This paragraph expounds briefly (I) how the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was revealed, (II) how the Church has articulated the doctrine of the faith regarding this mystery, and (III) how, by the divine missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfils the “plan of his loving goodness” of creation, redemption and sanctification.

    236 The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology (theologia) and economy (oikonomia). “Theology” refers to the mystery of God’s inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and “economy” to all the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life. Through the oikonomia the theologia is revealed to us; but conversely, the theologia illuminates the whole oikonomia. God’s works reveal who he is in himself; the mystery of his inmost being enlightens our understanding of all his works. So it is, analogously, among human persons. A person discloses himself in his actions, and the better we know a person, the better we understand his actions.

    237 The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the “mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God”.58 To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel’s faith before the Incarnation of God’s Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.

    II. THE REVELATION OF GOD AS TRINITY

    The Father revealed by the Son

    238 Many religions invoke God as “Father”. the deity is often considered the “father of gods and of men”. In Israel, God is called “Father” inasmuch as he is Creator of the world.59 Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, “his first-born son”.60 God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is “the Father of the poor”, of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.61

    239 By calling God “Father”, the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God’s parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood,62 which emphasizes God’s immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. the language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard:63 no one is father as God is Father.

    240 Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”64

    241 For this reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”; as “the image of the invisible God”; as the “radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature”.65

    242 Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is &uot;consubstantial” with the Father, that is, one only God with him.66 The second ecumenical council, held at Constantinople in 381, kept this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed “the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father”.67

    The Father and the son revealed by the spirit

    243 Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of “another Paraclete” (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having previously “spoken through the prophets”, the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them “into all the truth”.68 The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the Father.

    244 The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in time. the Spirit is sent to the apostles and to the Church both by the Father in the name of the Son, and by the Son in person, once he had returned to the Father.69 The sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus’ glorification70 reveals in its fullness the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

    245 The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was confessed by the second ecumenical council at Constantinople (381): “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father.”71 By this confession, the Church recognizes the Father as “the source and origin of the whole divinity”.72 But the eternal origin of the Spirit is not unconnected with the Son’s origin: “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 also of the same nature. . . Yet he is not called the Spirit of the Father alone,. . . but the Spirit of both the Father and the Son.”73 The Creed of the Church from the Council of Constantinople confesses: “With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.”74

    246 The Latin tradition of the Creed confesses that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque)”. the Council of Florence in 1438 explains: “The Holy Spirit is eternally from Father and Son; He has his nature and subsistence at once (simul) from the Father and the Son. He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one spiration… 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.”75

    247 The affirmation of the filioque does not appear in the Creed confessed in 381 at Constantinople. But Pope St. Leo I, following an ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition, had already confessed it dogmatically in 447,76 even before Rome, in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon, came to recognize and receive the Symbol of 381. the use of this formula in the Creed was gradually admitted into the Latin liturgy (between the eighth and eleventh centuries). the introduction of the filioque into the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed by the Latin liturgy constitutes moreover, even today, a point of disagreement with the Orthodox Churches.

    248 At the outset the Eastern tradition expresses the Father’s character as first origin of the Spirit. By confessing the Spirit as he “who proceeds from the Father”, it affirms that he comes from the Father through the Son.77 The Western tradition expresses first the consubstantial communion between Father and Son, by saying that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque). It says this, “legitimately and with good reason”,78 for the eternal order of the divine persons in their consubstantial communion implies that the Father, as “the principle without principle”,79 is the first origin of the Spirit, but also that as Father of the only Son, he is, with the Son, the single principle from which the Holy Spirit proceeds.80 This legitimate complementarity, provided it does not become rigid, does not affect the identity of faith in the reality of the same mystery confessed.

    III. THE HOLY TRINITY IN THE TEACHING OF THE FAITH

    The formation of the Trinitarian dogma

    249 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. It finds its expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching, catechesis and prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the apostolic writings, such as this salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”81

    250 During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify her Trinitarian faith, both to deepen her 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 the faith.

    251 In order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the Church had to develop her own terminology with the help of certain notions of philosophical origin: “substance”, “person” or “hypostasis”, “relation” and so on. In doing this, she did not submit the faith to human wisdom, but gave a new and unprecedented meaning to these terms, which from then on would be used to signify an ineffable mystery, “infinitely beyond all that we can humanly understand”.82

    252 The Church uses (I) the term “substance” (rendered also at times by “essence” or “nature”) to designate the divine being in its unity, (II) the term “person” or “hypostasis” to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them, and (III) the term “relation” to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others.

    The dogma of the Holy Trinity

    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 splendour. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me. .92

    IV. THE DIVINE WORKS AND THE TRINITARIAN MISSIONS

    257 “O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!”93 God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the “plan of his loving kindness”, conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: “He destined us in love to be his sons” and “to be conformed to the image of his Son”, through “the spirit of sonship”.94 This plan is a “grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began”, stemming immediately from Trinitarian love.95 It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church.96

    258 The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation: “The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle.”97 However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, “one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are”.98 It is above all the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons.

    259 Being a work at once common and personal, the whole divine economy makes known both what is proper to the divine persons, and their one divine nature. Hence the whole Christian life is a communion with each of the divine persons, without in any way separating them. Everyone who glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him.99

    260 The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity.100 But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: “If a man loves me”, says the Lord, “he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him”:101

    O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so 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.102

    IN BRIEF

    261 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

    262 The Incarnation of God’s Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in the Father and with the Father the Son is one and the same God.

    263 The mission of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the name of the Son ( Jn 14:26) and by the Son “from the Father” ( Jn 15:26), reveals that, with them, the Spirit is one and the same God. “With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified” (Nicene Creed).

    264 “The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as the first principle and, by the eternal gift of this to the Son, from the communion of both the Father and the Son” (St. Augustine, De Trin. 15, 26, 47: PL 42, 1095).

    265 By the grace of Baptism “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light (cf. Paul VI, CPG # 9).

    266 “Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son’s is another, the Holy Spirit’s another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal” (Athanasian Creed: DS 75; ND 16).

    267 Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

  • The Holy Spirit is a person, it’s not an impersonal force. It is The Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity.

    In theology a person is an individual substance of a rational nature and so the Holy Spirit is a person, it is of the same essence of God The Father and of God The Son, it is the same Divine Essence, the same Divinity therefore it is God but it has its own intellect and will.

    A careful study of the Holy Scriptures perfectly shows that the Holy Spirit speaks, the Holy Spirit says, the Holy Spirit prevented Paul from going to Asia (Acts 16: 6), the Holy Spirit moves into action, the Holy Spirit is saddened…. the Holy Spirit is quoted in dozens of texts in specific action cleary proving that He is a rational person with an intellect.

    A person is a substance with a will and an intellect with a rational nature is the same difference between a human person and an animal: we would never say that an animal is a person because, although it has some instinct and even feelings,it doesn’t has an intellect nor a rationality and neither an intelligent will. An animal doesn’t reflect upon itself. Most animals don’t even know that they are their own entity: a cat may mistake his own image for another cat in the mirror they don’t have this intellectual concept of their individuality, they don’t have a will, they don’t plan the future as we do, they don’t worry, they don’t study, they don’t rationalize as we do that’s why we do not consider animals as “persons”.

    Yes they do have a body therefore having a body doesn’t define a person, having an intellect and a will does.

    Likewise, angels are persons. Every single angel is an individual person.

    Also God is one God ,only one Divine Essence, only one Divine Nature, it’s not three Gods, there is ONLY ONE GOD but in three persons:

    God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit do have their own individualities within the Holy Trinity and this Divine Holy Family forms the Family we are called to belong to, to be Sons and Daughters of the Holy Trinity. They become hosts of our souls and we are to receive the Holy Trinity inside the temple of our body, blood soul and humanity. Inside each of our own human inner personal universe, we are to receive the Holy Trinity as a guest into our souls.

    SEE SECTION ON “THE HOLY TRINITY” AND ARTICLES “DEFINITION OF A PERSON” – https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=35539&randomterm=false#:~:text=AND https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11726a.htm

    We get to pray for the Holy Spirit to come, to enlighten us, to guide us, to impart to us His 7 gifts as recorded in Isaiah 11:1 -3. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are, according to the Catholic Tradition: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God. Starting to develop a personal relationship with God The Holy Spirit adds a whole other dimension in our relationship with God!!!

    SEE ARTICLES “The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit – What are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and why do they matter?” https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-seven-gifts-of-the-holy-spirit AND https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_gifts_of_the_Holy_Spirit#:~:text=

  • THE POPE AND THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION

    The biblical case for the papacy does not rest solely on Matthew 16:18-19

    https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/no-rocks-required

    ¿La Iglesia Católica fue inventada por Constantino? (La verdad histórica) | TEOLOGÍA PARA LAICOS

    POPE PIUS XII – THE POPE DURING WORLD WAR II AND HITLER

    – MINUTE 39 ONWARDS

    A Protestant Asks Scott Hahn to Prove the Papacy…

    w/ Scott Hahn and Cameron Bertuzzi

    CONTROVERSIES: POPE JOHN XXIII

    Can A Pope Become a Heretic? – Father Joseph Iannuzzi.

    FREE DOWNLOAD

    THE LAST 5 POPES

    Popes of the Catholic Church

    https://www.usccb.org/popes

    Supreme Pontiffs

    https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html

    How Does Apostolic Succession Work?

    Apostolic Succession in the Bible

    Tim Staples | Catholic Answers Live

    PETRINE POWERS OF THE POPE

    MINUTE 18:18

  • THE HOLY EUCHARIST




    ABSOLUTE MUST READ: LA SANTA MISA EN EL SIGLO II SEGÚN SAN JUSTINO EL MÁRTIR

    En los Hechos de los Apóstoles encontramos evidencia de que las primeras comunidades cristianas celebraban la Eucaristía, a este respecto resulta muy interesante el relato que nos hace San Justino Mártir para el año 155. […] Sabemos que las primeras comunidades eran perseguidas y acusadas de realizar sacrificios humanos en su culto a Dios. Se conserva una carta que San Justino le envió al emperador romano Antonio Pío para el año 155 en la que el santo explicaba, en un lenguaje que el “César” pudiera comprender, cómo era exactamente eso que hacían los cristianos en aquellas extrañas reuniones dominicales https://tengoseddeti.org/article/la-misa-de-los-primeros-cristianos/

    BISHOP BARRON: THE LORD’S PRAYER

    En el Padre Nuestro el termino “epi ousion” (que suele traducirse en todas las versiones por “correspondiente al día” o “diario”), técnicamente significa de “super/arriba” (epi) “esencia/substancia” (ousion). 

    Al final de ambos textos de Mateo 6:11 y Lucas 11:3 hay otras palabras separadas y distintas “semeron” y “kath hemeran” que literalmente se traducen “hoy” y “cada día” pero la palabra “epi ousion” que acompaña “pan” es distinta. 

    En la traducción latina de Santo Jerónimo, santo padre de la iglesia, que tradujo la Biblia del hebreo y del griego al latín por encargo del papa Dámaso I, aunque guardó el “panem quotidianum” para el texto de Lucas 11:3, tradujo literalmente “panem supersubstancialem” para el texto de Mateo 6:11, o sea “pan en su super substancia” o “pan en su super esencia”, … en otras palabras: Cristo en su forma de pan transubstanciado, la Eucaristía!!!!! Wow!!

    Verifique en el libro de Catequismo y siiiiiii….lo explica tambien muy bien en la referencia número 2837 en la Segunda Sección sobre el Padre Nuestro!!!!

    Dice que en sentido básico pedagógico se puede traducir “diario” para repetir la idea de “hoy” que está al final del texto  (ya que uno debe comer algo fisicamente cada día para vivir y en este sentido comer pan literal es “esencial”) pero tomado en sentido cualitativo “epi ousion” se refiere al pan “lo más esencial”, el Pan de Vida, la Eucaristía!!! 

    STUDY OF OFFICIAL CATECHISM REFERENCE BOOK: CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

    https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM

    THE CHURCH – PEOPLE OF GOD, BODY OF CHRIST, TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

    https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P28.HTM

    790 Believers who respond to God’s word and become members of Christ’s Body, become intimately united with him: “In that body the life of Christ is communicated to those who believe, and who, through the sacraments, are united in a hidden and real way to Christ in his Passion and glorification.”220
     This is especially true of Baptism, which unites us to Christ’s death and Resurrection, and the Eucharist, by which “really sharing in the body of the Lord, . . . we are taken up into communion with him and with one another.”221

    Jesus is right here in the Holy Eucharist!!!

    For more than 40 years I lived on the planet Earth ignoring, not knowing at all that Jesus Christ was right here on Earth, in every single piece of Eucharist, in every single Catholic Church, in every single Tabernacle of Catholic Churches and Chapels all around the world. Jesus is not just seating at the right hand of God the Father Almighty in Heaven, far away in Heaven… He’s right here!!!!

    THE GREATEST GIFT MADE TO HUMANITY, THE TREASURE OF ALL MANKIND HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT, THE GREATEST INVENTION OF ALL TIME: JESUS CHRIST THE VERB THE LOGOS THE SECOND PERSON OF THE HOLY TRINITY ON EARTH IN THE FORM OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST!!!!

    Jesus had promised in Matthew 28:19 and 20: “And I will be with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things” and He did keep His promise. He went to Heaven and He came back in the form of consacred hosts: every time a Catholic priest pronounces the blessing on the bread and the wine, the bread becomes the flesh and body of Christ and the wine His Blood, both are the Living God Jesus Christ. Not only He is here, not only can wH go and see him, spend time with Him, worship Him in the Exposition of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar but also every Catholic who is baptized and who has received the Sacrament of the First Holy Communion can actually RECEIVE Jesus Christ in the Holy consecrated host and consume Him and become ONE with Him and welcome Him in the house of his soul!!! We eat Him, we drink Him, we consume Him and we become ONE with Him, we become Eucharistic Souls!!! And Jesus is not just sitting in a tabernacle as consacrated hosts, He also becomes part of us as we partake of the Holy Communion. He becomes ONE with us, we consume Him and we enter inside his Divinity: we become ONE with Him and we can take Him home with us in our hearts as He dwells inside of us. He becomes ONE with us. We are ONE!!! We become ONE!!! The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20: “It’s no longer I who lives but Jesus who lives in me.” For 40 years I had no knowledge, no concept whatsoever, of the fact that Jesus was on Earth and that I could become so intrinsically and intimately united with Him!!! It is a whole other dimesion of spirituality!!!

    Jesus is here!!! Jesus is here on Earth!!! Jesus is right here!!!

    If someone was telling me that Jesus was here, on Earth, in flesh and blood, in Times Square, at the Eiffel Tower, or at the Plaza del Sol in Madrid, I would be the first one to run and go see Him, to touch Him, to hug Him, to listen to Him, to ask Him question, to beg Him to heal me, to explain my life to Him that He already knows but stil to talk to Him and pour out my heart to Him, to heal my broken heart, to bless me, to hug me…! But wait… HE IS HERE!! We can go and see Him and spead time with Him in every single Catholic Church with a tabernacle where the Holy Consacred Host resides!!! GOD IS HERE!! That is mind-boggling!!

    I would be like Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, mesmerized, drinking His words, listening to Him, speaking to Him, asking Him all the burning questions I have in my head, talking to Him, asking Him the millions of questions I’ve have my whole life, asking for a blessing, asking Him to talk to me, to explain to me my life, to guide me, to give me counsel, to bless me, to forgive me, to put His hand on my head, to heal me, to heal my body, to heal my heart, to heal my painful years, to heal my broken heart….!!! My dream was always to be at the feet of Jesus as Mary had been and I absolutely always loved that story in the Gospel but as a Jehovah’s Witness I had no hope of ever seeing Jesus because if you are not of the 144,000 you’ll never go to Heaven and according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses you’ll never see Jesus in person, you’ll be on earth in a paradise far from Him… No!! No!!! No!!!!!

    As a Catholic, I now know that Jesus gives to all of us THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL MANKIND, THE BIGGEST TREASURE OF ALL HUMANITY HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: HIMSELF, GOD HIMSELF, GOD THE SECOND PERSON OF THE HOLY TRINITY, THE LOGOS, THE VERB, JESUS CHRIST ON EARTH IN EVERY SINGLE CONSACRED HOST , IN EVERY PIECE OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST, IN EVERY CORNER OF THE EARTH.

    He is here!!! He is here!!! He is here!!!! He lives in every consacrated host and as we partake of the Holy Communion He lives in us, inside of us, He comes home with us, He sleeps in our hearts with us, He goes through everything we go through, He accompanies us in our trials, in our tears, in our hopes, in our dreams, He lives with us, He experiences what we experience, He accompanies us, He carries our crosses for us, He lives inside of us… We are never alone!!! He lives in us, He lives with us, He’s here. He is the biggest treasure of all humankind hidden in plain sight, the greatest gift of God to humanity: Jesus Christ, Our God Lord and King, present in every piece of Holy Eucharist on the planet Earth.

    Anytime you see in a church a red candle, He is there inside the tabernacle or in the monstrance in the Exposition of the Holy Sacrament of The Altar: that is the Divine Holy True Presence. Stay with Him. Accompany Him. Bathe in His Divinity and in the rays of his Holy Presence and grace that invades the entire church, you will never be the same and the more you are in His presence, the more you realize how much He heals you, how being with Him is like already having a foot in Heaven, and how much you need Him and what a privilege it is to be able to have a private audience with Your King and God every day of your life!!! Since August 2023, I spend minimum 2 hours evry day in worship of the Holy Sacrament during the week and on weekends I easily spend 4 to 7 hours, even 11 hours sometimes, (or entire nights in a 24/7 chapel we have in Madrid) there is no better place on the planet to be at!!!

    So the next time you think: “if only I could speak to Jesus…. if only Jesus was here… if only I could see Jesus I would…”, here is the greatest good news that every single human soul must know:

    “BUT HE IS HERE!!! RIGHT HERE!!! YOU CAN GO AND SEE HIM EVERY SINGLE DAY OF YOUR LIFE!!! HE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR YOU!! COME AND SEE!!!”

    EUCHARISTIC MIRACLES

    MUST SEE: Eucharistic Miracles: Scientific Proof – Explaining the Faith

    EWTN Newsreal: The Miracle of Lanciano, 750 AD

    Los milagros eucarísticos: cuando la ciencia corrobora la Fe . Entrevista al Dr. Ricardo Castañón

    Documental “Los milagros Eucarísticos

    Milagros Eucarísticos más Impresionantes | Podcast Salve María – Episodio 51

    Una Hostia convertida en Carne – El Primer Milagro Eucarístico en Lanciano

    ¿Cómo es la historia del Milagro Eucarístico de Lanciano?

    THE EUCHARIST IN SCRIPTURE

    The Eucharist In Scripture – Explaining the Faith

    PRECIOUS BLOOD

    What is the Most Important Devotion? Start with the Precious Blood – Explaining the Faith

    The Most Important Chapter in the Bible ~ Sunday Homily 8.25.24 ~ Fr. John Hollowell

    Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

    https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/litany-of-the-most-precious-blood-of-jesus-248

    https://www.usccb.org/prayers/litany-most-precious-blood

    THE TOMISTIC INSITITUTE: EUCHARIST

    Fr.Chris Alar – EUCHARISTIC MIRACLE: PERSONAL TESTIMONY

    EL PADRE NUESTRO

    BIBLIA DE JUAN STRAUBINGER

    Understanding the Sacraments: A New Summary! (Part 1 of 2) Explaining the Faith with Fr. Chris Alar

    Part 2 of 2: Understanding the Sacraments. A New Summary! Explaining the Faith w/Fr. Chris Alar

    1ST PASSOVER: JESUS TURNED WATER INTO WINE

    2ND PASSOVER: JESUS MULTIPLIES THE BREAD

    3RD PASSOVER: JESUS TURNED BREAD AND WINE INTO HIS BODY AND BLOOD

    The Proper Disposition: How to Receive the Eucharist Worthily and Well (Aquinas 101)

    What Happens When You Eat the Body of Christ? (Aquinas 101)

    El «síndrome de Chesterton»

    Chesterton sudó al comulgar por primera vez: temblor y temor reverencial ante la Presencia Real. El autor reflexiona sobre ese estremecimiento –mysterium tremendum– para resaltar su contraste con una praxis litúrgica hoy cada vez más horizontal y banalizada, donde gestos, mediaciones y silencio se erosionan. Recuperar la comunión en la boca, de rodillas y administrada por un ministro ordenado no debe ser opción marginal, sino pedagogía medular, necesaria, de lo sagrado.

    https://www.infocatolica.com/?t=opinion&cod=54183