Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit?

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Bruised_Reed

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I say Holy Spirit but I have friends who say Holy Ghost. It’s interesting saying grace with them.
 
I grew up hearing “Holy Spirit.” The first time I heard “Holy Ghost” was when watching The Sound of Music, I think it was before the “My Favorite Things” song, when Maria was saying her prayers, and I had to ask my mom why she said that. I liekd the novelty of saying Holy Ghost for a while as a kid, but over time I felt the concept of Spirit helped me more.

I suppose technically they could be synonyms, but when I think of ghost I think of one thing in one place, whereas when I think of spirit, I think of something more pervasive and infectious that can be trnasmotted, like a spirit of joy…of course that has no religious root, but I feel that Spirit for me better captures the idea of soemthing able to be everywhere and within any person, especially when evoked during sacraments. And it seems the Bible versions I have read always refer to the Holy Spirit.
 
Hi,

I think the word “ghost” in Shakespeare’s time
meant “spirit”.
As the centuries roll on, the meaning of a given
word can change.
You can imagine what it was like for a kid in
the 1950’s to watch a Caspar the Friendly Ghost
cartoon on Saturday afternoon, and then hear
reference to the Holy Ghost on Sunday morning. [though
I think kids then understood the difference.]
For what it’s worth, I think it was a helpful change
in terminology.
reen12
 
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serendipity:
whereas when I think of spirit, I think of something more pervasive and infectious that can be trnasmotted, like a spirit of joy…
Click to expand...
OOps that should have been “transmitted” not trnasmotted…
 
I always say “Holy Spirit”. When I was a little girl, people talked about the “Holy Ghost” & it scared me half to death. The idea of a “ghost” being around all the time was *not *a happy thought…The result is that I decided as an adult that I was not going to use that term any more. The only problem this ever causes is when we recite the Apostle’s Creed in the Methodist church, we are supposed to say “Holy Ghost”. I say “Holy Spirit”…
 
“Holy Ghost” comes from the German (“Geist”).

“Holy Spirit” comes from the Latin (“Spiritus”).

I’ll take Latin!

In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
 
I generally say Holy Spirit. In fact, I don’t think I have ever used Holy Ghost in a prayer, it just sounds odd to me because I wasn’t raised saying it

Eamon
 
When I was a youngster it was The Holy Ghost but somewhere onlong life’s stream the Holy Spirit faded into useage so now depending I use both and I didn’t know one was German and one was Latin as I thought it was reference to the Third person of the Blessed Trinity.
 
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Great-Grandpa-G:
I didn’t know one was German and one was Latin as I thought it was reference to the Third person of the Blessed Trinity.
Click to expand...
It is a reference to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity!

One happens to be derived from the German word for that Divine Person and the other from the Latin word for the same Person.
 
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atsheeran:
It is a reference to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity!

One happens to be derived from the German word for that Divine Person and the other from the Latin word for the same Person.
Click to expand...
AtSheeran:

As a very High Church Anglican, I tend to like the term Holy Ghost. It sounds PERSONAL and almost CORPOREAL. Holy Spirit to me sounds ETHEREAL and IMPERSONAL. That’s the language I was raised with.

Of course, I will use whatever’s in the prayer, but, at this stage in my recovery, I tend to think of God in the most personal terms possible.

Blessings and Peace, Michael
 
I was raised hearing and saying Holy Ghost and adapted to Holy Spirit when it was encouraged. Now I only say Holy Spirit! An interesting question for a thread! Happy Easter and many blessings!
 
Holy Ghost seems a bit more personal (you can understand what a ghost is- and not every ghost is bad anyway- remember Casper?😃 )

The proper translation from the Latin into modern day English is Spirit. I usually use “Spirit”, unless I’m singing a song that uses “Ghost”, because it is what I grew up with.

Michael
 
I grew up saying Holy Ghost, but it switched to Holy Spirit after Vatican II
 
I use Holy Spirit unless it’s written as Holy Ghost in a prayer.
 
As a fan of MR James, E.F. Benson, H.R. Wakefield, etc, I like “Ghost” better.

Peace.
 
Yeah,i grew up learning holy spirit,i find its more graceful than ghost!
 
I say “Holy Spirit”. I grew up with “Holy Ghost”, but nowadays, the word “ghost” has too many non-spiritual pop connotations – Caspar, ghostbusters, etc.
 
Holy Spirit is the proper translation of Spiritus Sanctus.

They mean the same thing, but ghost has too many negative connotations.
 
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