"The Holy Ghost Himself is Love"

* "GREGORY says (Hom. xxx, in Pentecost.): The Holy Ghost Himself is Love.

"...The name Love in God can be taken essentially and personally. If taken personally it is the proper name of the Holy Ghost; as 'Word' is the proper name of the Son."

─S.T. I, Q. 37, A. 1.

* "AUGUSTINE says (De Trin. iv, 20): "As 'to be born' is, for the Son, to be from the Father, so, for the Holy Ghost, 'to be the Gift of God' is to proceed from Father and Son." But the Holy Ghost receives His proper name from the fact that He proceeds from Father and Son. Therefore Gift is the proper name of the Holy Ghost.

"...Gift, taken personally in God, is the proper name of the Holy Ghost.

"In proof of this we must know that a gift is properly an unreturnable giving, as Aristotle says (Topic. iv, 4)─i.e. a thing which is not given with the intention of a return─and it thus contains the idea of a gratuitous donation. Now, the reason of donation being gratuitous is love; since therefore do we give something to anyone gratuitously forasmuch as we wish him well. So what we first give him is the love whereby we wish him well. Hence it is manifest that love has the nature of a first gift, through which all free gifts are given. So since the Holy Ghost proceeds as love, as stated above (I:27:4; I:37:1), He proceeds as the first gift. Hence Augustine says (De Trin. xv, 24): By the gift, which is the Holy Ghost, many particular gifts are portioned out to the members of Christ."

─S.T. I, Q. 38, A. 2.

~St. Thomas Aquinas

Pentecost, by Barnaba Da Modena.
Egg tempera on wood,1377; National Gallery, London.

Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost

WE should speak about Him without whom no one can speak rightly, about Him who gives speech and gives the power to speak copiously. And indeed, it is impossible to speak rightly without Him. Nor should one marvel at what is said: "Who can know the sense [sensum]" of the truth of God "unless he shall send His Spirit from the Most High?" (Wis. 9:17). Without a feeling [sensu] for the truth, no one speaks what is true. In like manner, the Holy Spirit makes all the saints speak copiously, and for this reason Gregory says: "Those whom He fills, He makes wise." The same thing is manifest today [on Pentecost], when "the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in various tongues" (Acts 2:4). Therefore, even though we are mute, we shall ask that He who gives abundant speech shall give me words to speak.

"Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created." Today Holy Mother Church solemnly celebrates the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles—a sending which the Prophet besought, when moved by the Spirit of prophecy he said: "Send forth Thy spirit and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth."

—Excerpt from Sermon and Collation of St. Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Pentecost.

● Read the complete sermon here.