Catechism index

241 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
242 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is "consubstantial" with the Father, that is, one only God with him. 66 The …
243 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
244 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
245 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
246 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
247 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
248 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
249 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
250 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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. …
251 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
252 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
253 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
254 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
255 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
256 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
257 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER "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 …
258 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
259 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …
260 Paragraph 2. THE FATHER 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 …