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30. The Plurality of Persons in God

1. A divine Person is a real divine relation as subsisting in the divine nature or essence. Since there are several real relations in God, there are several Persons in God.

2. There are, in fact, three and only three Persons in God. The four real relations (paternity, filiation, relation consequent on spiration, relation consequent on procession) involve not four, but three, relatively opposed or contrasted terminals.These three are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

3. When we call God "One," we indicate the undivided divine essence or nature. When we call the Persons"Three," we mean that each is really distinct from the others as a Person, but not as God.

4. The meaning of the term person is common to the three Persons in God. Whether applied to Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, the term person means a really distinct divine relation, in which subsists one and the same undivided divine nature or essence.

"A man should keep himself down, and not busy himself in mirabilibus super se."
St Philip Neri

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"Shun too great a desire for knowledge, for in it there is much fretting and delusion. Intellectuals like to appear learned and to be called wise. Yet there are many things the knowledge of which does little or no good to the soul, and he who concerns himself about other things than those which lead to salvation is very unwise. "
Thomas á Kempis

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"To do God's will -- this was the goal upon which the saints constantly fixed their gaze. They were fully persuaded that in this consists the entire perfection of the soul. "
St Alphonsus de Liguori

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