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[Alexandr Korol]

Who is the Holy Spirit?
In Christianity, the Holy Spirit is the third Hypostasis (Person) of the One God, a part
of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit.
He is not a “force” or “energy,” but a full Person — eternal, almighty, omnipresent, and
equal to the Father and the Son. He is true God.
The distinction from the Father and the Son: The Father is the source without
beginning. The Son is begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father
(in Orthodoxy; in Catholicism — from the Father and the Son, this is the filioque,
one of the points of difference between the churches). He is the “other Comforter”
(the Paraclete), whom Jesus promised to send after His departure (John 14:16, 26).

What does He do?
The Holy Spirit is the active presence of God in the world and in people. Here are His
main works:
• In creation: He participated in the making of the world (“the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters,” Gen. 1:2). He gives life to all that lives.
• In the Old Testament: He would come upon chosen people — prophets, kings,
judges — for special tasks (for example, upon David or Samson). But He did not
abide permanently.
• In the New Testament: — He descended upon Jesus at the baptism in the form of a
dove. — At Pentecost (Acts 2), He was poured out upon the apostles in the form of
tongues of fire — and since then abides in the Church and in every believer. — He
gives new birth (regeneration), sanctifies, teaches, comforts, gives the strength to
live in God’s way.
He is within the Christian: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost which is in you?” (1 Cor. 6:19).

Symbols of the Holy Spirit in the Bible
The Bible often uses images, because the Spirit is invisible but very real:
• The dove — meekness, purity, peace (at the baptism of Jesus).
• The wind — an invisible but mighty force (“The wind bloweth where it listeth,”
John 3:8).
• Fire — purification, passion, power (Pentecost).
• Water — the quenching of thirst, life, renewal (John 7:38–39).