On the Holy Spirit
From the Patristic Writings of St. John of Damaskos (+749)
“We believe also in one Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father and rests in the Son: the object of equal adoration and glorification with the Father and the Son, since He is coessential and coeternal. He is addressed along with the Father and the Son: uncreated, full, creative, all-ruling, all-effecting, all-powerful, of infinite power, Lord of all creation and not under any lord; divinizing, not divinized; filling, not filled; shared in, not sharing in; sanctifying, not sanctified; the Intercessor — receiving supplications from all; in all things, like the Father and the Son; proceeding from the Father, and communicated through the Son; … participated in by all creation, through Himself creating; … investing with essence and sanctifying; and maintaining the universe. … He possesses all the qualities that the Father and Son possess, except that of not being begotten or born. … For the Father is unborn, for He is derived from nothing… He is Himself the beginning and cause of all things — in a definite and natural manner. But the Son is derived from the Father, after the manner of generation; and the Holy Spirit, likewise, is derived from the Father — yet not of the manner of generation, but after that of precession. And we have learned that there is a difference between generation and procession, but the nature of the difference we - in no way - understand.”