We absolutely need spiritual grace to discourse on the Holy Spirit, not in order to speak of him fittingly - because this is impossible -, but in order to explain with certainty what is said in Sacred Scriptures. In the Gospels what Jesus said is described as a great fear: "whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" (Mt 12:32). We must always be afraid so that we will not be condemned for having slighted him, either through ignorance or through traditional devotion. Jesus Christ, the judge of the living and the dead, said that there is no forgiveness; what hope is there for those who have sinned?

The grace of Jesus Christ allows us to speak perfectly to you and you to listen with intelligence. Intelligence is needed not only among those who speak, but also among those who listen, so that in listening they do not misunderstand. Of the Holy Spirit we will only say what has been written, and if anything has not been written, we will not investigate out of curiosity. It was the Holy Spirit himself who spoke in Scriptures: he said of himself what he wanted and what we are capable of. So let us say what he said; let us not dare to say what he did not say. (Cyril of Jerusalem)

A CITY OF THE SPIRIT

There is only one Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. Just as God, the Father, is one, and there is no second father; just as the only-begotten Son, the Word, is one, and he has no brother; so the Holy Spirit is one and there is no second spirit who has equal honour with him (cf. 1 Cor 8:6). The Holy Spirit is a mighty force, something divine and inscrutable. He lives and is rational, he is the sanctifier of all beings created by God through Christ. He enlightens the souls of the just and was in the prophets and also in the apostles of the New Testament. We must abhor those who dare to separate the operative virtues of the Holy Spirit. God, the Father, is one, Lord of the Old and the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ, who was prophesized in the Old Testament and came in the New, is one. The Holy Spirit is one: he announced Christ through the prophets and, after Christ's coming (cf. Mt 3:16), he came down and manifested himself. (Cyril of Jerusalem)

SCRIPTURAL PROOFS

... Let us now go back to divine Scriptures and drink the water from our own cisterns and from the springs of our own wells (cf. Prov 5:15). We drink living water, "welling up to eternal life" (Jn 4:14; 7:38). "Jesus was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive" (Jn 7:39). Consider what he says: not simply, "he who believes in me", but "as Scripture says - he refers us to the Old Testament -: from his breast shall flow fountains of living water". Not fountains that fall under the senses, which simply water a land that produces thorns and trees, but fountains that enlighten the soul. In another part he says: "the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (Jn 4:14). A new water in its kind, which lives and wells up; it wells up on those who are worthy of it. (Cyril of Jerusalem)

CENTER">A CITY OF THE SPIRIT

There is only one Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. Just as God, the Father, is one, and there is no second father; just as the only-begotten Son, the Word, is one, and he has no brother; so the Holy Spirit is one and there is no second spirit who has equal honour with him (cf. 1 Cor 8:6). The Holy Spirit is a mighty force, something divine and inscrutable. He lives and is rational, he is the sanctifier of all beings created by God through Christ. He enlightens the souls of the just and was in the prophets and also in the apostles of the New Testament. We must abhor those who dare to separate the operative virtues of the Holy Spirit. God, the Father, is one, Lord of the Old and the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ, who was prophesized in the Old Testament and came in the New, is one. The Holy Spirit is one: he announced Christ through the prophets and, after Christ's coming (cf. Mt 3:16), he came down and manifested himself. (Cyril of Jerusalem)