The Holy Spirit - The third of the Trinity

The Council of Florence, taught us there is one nature in God, and that there are two processions, three persons, and four relations that constitute the Blessed Trinity. The Son “proceeds” from the Father, and the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.” These are foundational to the four relations that constitute the three persons in God:

1. The Father actively and eternally generates the Son, constituting the person of God, the Father.

2. The Son is passively generated of the Father, which constitutes the person of the Son.

3. The Father and the Son actively spirate the Holy Spirit in the one relation within the inner life of God that does not constitute a person, only a spirit. It does not do so because the Father and Son are already constituted as persons in relation to each other in the first two relations.

4. The Holy Spirit is passively spirated of the Father and the Son, constituting the person of the Holy Spirit.