On the Holy Spirit

1. O Holy Spirit, who art breathed forth

from the generator and the generated!

Have mercy and compassion upon us.

 

2. The Holy Spirit exists so that infinity

may be able to accomplish its infinite activity,

and the divine will <fulfil> its desire.

 

3. Since the Father and the Son feel great love for each other,

they breathe forth the Holy Spirit, Who constitutes a property

wherein the nature of love and friendship achieves its goal.

 

4. As the Father, by understanding, has generated the Son,

so the Father and the Son have willed the Holy Spirit,

each loving the other with greatness of power.

 

5. Were the love that the Father and the Son feel for each other not to have become a person

by reason of infinity and eternity,

Their love would be finite and characterised by quantity.

 

6. So greatly do the Father and the Son love each other in unity

that they both share a single spirativity

when they spirate a single spirability.^[1]

 

7. O Holy Spirit, in Whom the number of the Trinity is made complete

for the reason that You do not breathe forth yet are Yourself breathed forth,

inspire^[2] us to do your will.

 

8. Between the Father and the Son there must exist spiration,^[3]

so that in both of them there may exist great concordance

by virtue of love and loving.

 

9. O Holy Spirit, who art conceived by love!

The world belongs to You, yet it has gone astray almost in its entirety,

because You are loved and known but little.

 

10. Since through You, O Holy Spirit, greatness and goodness are conjoined,

and such is the case in virtue of <the> lover and <the> beloved,

conjoin within us Your mercy and compassion.

 

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