The Holy Spirit- a Person or an essence?

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Jade

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Hello!

I thought that since Penecost is coming up, and since I have had this conversation with a few friends of mine, I thought I’d throw this out to you as well.

We were talking of the Holy Spirit and I noticed that whenever they mentioned Him, they refered to Him as “it”. I brought it to their attention and asked them if if their concept of the Holy Spirit is one of a Person or an essence.
That got everyone thinking and we came to the concenses that the Holy Spirit is a Person: part of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity.

How do you think of the Holy Spirit?

Jade
 
The Holy Spirit is God.

Neither person (in the human sense) or essence, but Divine equally with God the Father and God the Son.

So for me, the Holy Spirit is neither ‘it’ nor ‘him’. When I speak of the Holy Spirit I usually refer to “The Spirit” through which God reveals His True Nature to man.

I speak of God, of Jesus, of Christ and of the Spirit. I don’t even use “He” or “Him” much when speaking of God and/or Jesus because “He/Him” doesn’t distinguish which One I’m referring to, so I tend to speak specifically of them by name.
 
The Holy Spirit is a Person.

The Trinity, one God is:
Father,
Son,
Spirit.

Those are the names of the Persons of the Trinity,
each of whom totally possesses the one nature of God.
 
The Holy Spirit is a person, so-defined as a unique individual in union with the Father and Son. He is the Comfortor and Advocate, as Christ said. He is also an “essence”, if by essence you mean “spirit”. He is the essence, the source, of Truth.
 
** It is not what I think but what the Church teaches.**
Study your catechism and don’t waste your time
with a lot of scuttle butt. Try paragraph 243 for a start.
 
I would also recommend Chapters 4 and 5 of Theology for Beginners by Frank Sheed (after you’ve read Chapters 1-3, of course). He explains why the Holy Spirit is a person. A little difficult to follow the first time, but worth a look.

After the Catechism, of course.
 
The three persons of the Godhead being equal, if the Holy Spirit were an essence then the Father and Son also would have to be essence.
 
Hebrews 10:15-17 refers to the Holy Spirit as “he.” Thus, personhood.
And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,” then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
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