[Salvation]

	Questions and Answers on the Holy Spirit Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God and the third Person of the Blessed Trinity. (a) The Holy Spirit is also called the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Love. From whom does the Holy Spirit proceed? The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. (a) The Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Father and the Son by spiritual generation. Only the Son proceeds from the Father by generation. This is one of the mysterious truths that we know only from revelation. Is the Holy Spirit equal to the Father and the Son? The Holy Spirit is equal to the Father and the Son, because He is God. (a) Because of the oneness of nature in the Blessed Trinity, the Father is entirely in the Son and in the Holy Spirit; the Son is entirely in the Father and in the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is entirely in the Father and in the Son. No one of the three divine Persons is outside the other, for none precedes the other in eternity, nor surpasses the other in power, nor exceeds the other in any way. This indwelling of one divine Person in the others is called circumincession. What does the Holy Spirit do for the salvation of mankind? The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church as the source of its life and sanctifies souls through the gift of grace. (a) Although the sanctification of mankind, like all other outward works of God, is performed by all three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, it is attributed to the Holy Spirit, the third Person. The sanctification of mankind is attributed to the Holy Spirit because He is the love of the Father and the Son and because the sanctification of man by grace shows forth God's boundless love.
The Baltimore Catechism, Lesson 9. Electronic text (c) Copyright EWTN 1997. All rights reserved. by Rev. William G. Most

[Salvation]

The Gifts of the
Holy Spirit in General

by Rev. William G. Most

Grace is any gift from God to us. There are two great categories or groups of graces: sanctifying and charismatic.

Sanctifying graces are those that are aimed at making the recipient holy. They include: actual grace, a grace He sends me at this moment, to lead me and to enable me to do a particular good thing here and now, and habitual grace (also called sanctifying) which actually does make the recipient holy. It gives the soul the radical ability to take in the face to face vision of God in the next life. Increase in sanctifying grace means an increase in that capacity -- for since the vision is infinite, our capacity can never reach the limit of growth.

The other category is called charismatic. These graces are not aimed directly an making the recipient holy. They are for some other sort of benefit to the individual or the community. There are two kinds of charismatic graces: ordinary and extraordinary.

Where do the Gifts of the Holy Spirit fit in? There are two groups of them, one in the sanctifying, one in the charismatic category.

In the "sanctifying" category, we find the seven gifts, which are given along with sanctifying (habitual) grace.

In the "charismatic" category, we find both the ordinary gifts -- e.g, the gift to be a good parent or a good teacher -- and the extraordinary gifts, those which are or seem miraculous, such as the gifts of healing, tongues or miracles.