Well, that’s what the Council of Florence has defined so it’s what Catholics have to go on. The Son receives from the Father, and the Father is the Source of deity.
Saying that the Holy Spirit is somehow put back and forth between the Father and the Son, or that both contribute distinctly, is exactly the “double procession” that is anathemized by the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic Communion. The Holy Spirit must be from a single Spiration, not a Spiration from the Father and then also from the Son, but from the Father and Son together, with the Father being the principal of all deity.
The Monarchy of the Father is only preserved if the Father alone is the Source of deity, as both the Orthodox and the Catholic Communions have declared. You won’t find any Church Fathers who say otherwise, not even St. Augustine.
Peace and God bless!
It would be more than amazing if we could use a keyboard and make a stick drawing that would capture the Infinite.
The Father gives Himself to the Son. Father ---------> Son. If we do not want to use the divine perfection of love, let’s use life. Life------------->Life. The Divine Persons are in a communion. They are not separate beings sitting in a room, apart from one another. Maybe a mental picture of life------->life would be two identical glasses, one being poured out into the other. But now one is empty and the other full. The Father empties Himself into the Son and is never emptied, but remains full. Another problem with this analogy is it is in time. They emptying takes time.
The Divine Persons would be different if one had something the other lacked. If that were the case one could be infinite, but the other not. So we say the Father continually gives all of Himself, all that He has and is, to the Son.
The problem with a drawing X-------->X is that it is a dead end, and it shows a giver and a receiver without showing the thing that is given, the gift. If we say X–gives—>X–to–>X, we can see the giver, the gift and the receiver, but it is still a dead end. The action is done.
One glass is emptied and the other full. God is eternally full and emptying Himself into Himself. We can have an image of a well spring.
What does the Son then do when He receives the Father? He gives Himself back to the Father. Jesus comes from the Father and goes or returns to the Father, eternally. We hear Him saying this in scripture.
So we see X<=======>X. There is an endless or eternal giving, not a dead end. They are two distinct persons with identical nature. But God is three persons, not two.
Remember that God has no beginning. God has no source. He exists of Himself. He alone exists of Himself. That means that if Jesus is a Divine Person, God, and exists of Himself, He has no source. But Florence says the Father is the source of the Godhead. Yet if Jesus is God He can have no beginning. The Father can be the eternal source of the Son if from all eternity the Son comes from the Father without beginning. Father--------->Son. But Jesus says He goes back to the Father. Father<-------Son. All that He has and is He receives from the Father and returns. Father<===>Son.
We can have a mistaken image if we leave it at that. We could see a father son image of an adult and a boy, a big and a little. But both Persons are Infinite, the same.
We can say Existence gives Existence to Existence. God is eternal, so why not say Existence gives Existence to Existence, to Existence, to Existence eternally? E-------->E------->E--------->E-------->E. Then you have God not in three Divine Persons, but infinite persons. The last diagram would describe the way Mormons see God. They use the term eternal progression.
But we know the Son comes from and returns to the Father. F<=====>S. We have God giving and receiving God, from God.
The Son receives and gives, but not in that order. It is simultaneous giving and receiving, or else you have time, and God exists eternally, not in time.
