Topic
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, poured out at Pentecost and given in Baptism and Confirmation. He makes Christ present, guides the Church and transforms believers from within.
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What are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit?
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. They are permanent dispositions, received at Baptism and strengthened at Confirmation, that make us docile to the promptings of the Spirit.
Read the full answerQuestions about the Holy Spirit
All The Holy Spirit questions
What are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit?
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. They are permanent dispositions, received at Baptism and strengthened at Confirmation, that make us docile to the promptings of the Spirit.
Who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Holy Trinity — fully God, equal to the Father and the Son. He is not a force or feeling but a divine Person who gives life, makes us holy, guides the Church, and lives within every baptized Christian.
What about Matthew 12:31-32 — speaking against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven?
Forgiveness requires repentance. "Blasphemy of the Spirit" is the unwillingness to repent and accept God's forgiveness; by rejecting grace, one can condemn oneself for eternity.
Are we born with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?
No. The whole human person is *intended to become* a temple of the Spirit in Christ's body (CCC 364). Baptism, our new birth, is what makes us temples of the Holy Spirit (CCC 1265).
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Pentecost
Fifty days after Easter, Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary, empowering them to preach the gospel to the whole world. It concludes the Easter season and marks the Church's manifestation to the world and the start of her public mission.
What the Early Church Believed: Filioque
The Western Church's Nicene Creed adds *filioque* ("and the Son"): the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Scripture reveals this, and the Fathers, Latin and Greek, taught that the Spirit proceeds "from the Father and the Son" or "from the Father through the Son," which mean the same thing.
In Scripture
- Isaiah 11:1-3
- Galatians 5:22-23
- Romans 8:14
- John 14:16-17, 26
- Acts 2:1-4
- Romans 8:26
- Matthew 12:31-32
- Acts 1:4-8
- Matthew 28:18-20
- Isaiah 49:6
- Isaiah 49:22
- Acts 2:2
- Acts 2:3
- Matthew 5:17-18
- 2 Samuel 7:12-13
- Jeremiah 31:31-33
- Amos 9:11-12
- Isaiah 11:1
- Isaiah 11:10
- Acts 1:6
- Revelation 17:14
- Ephesians 6:10-12
- 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
- Luke 1:32-33
- Matthew 16:18-19
- Isaiah 22:15-25
- Luke 22:31-32
- Matthew 18:15-18
- Acts 1:15-26
- Acts 1:8
- Acts 2:37-39
- Acts 22:16
- Acts 8:14-17
- Acts 19:1-7
- Isaiah 11:2-3
- Romans 2:14-16
- Acts 2:41
- Matthew 28:19
- Acts 2:1-11
- John 15:26
- Acts 2:33
- Galatians 4:6
- Matthew 10:20
- John 20:22