By Henry Aloysius Barry
The Fathers show us the personal character of the Holy Ghost as "sanctity," as "sweetness," as "goodness"-—preeminently will-qualities and love properties. St. Augustine speaks of the Holy Ghost in explanatory reference to the dove and the fiery tongues and observes: "the dove on account of holy love, the fire, however, on account of the light and fervor of charity." (Contra Maximinum 1, i. c. 19.)
St. Bernard says,—"The Lord breathed upon them and said, 'Receive ye" the Holy Ghost.' This certainly was a kiss. What kind of a one? Was it a corporeous flatus? Nay, rather an invisible one of the spirit, who, thereby was given in the kiss of the Lord so that we would thereby be given to understand that the Spirit proceeds from Him no less than from the Father, as, forsooth, a kiss is common to the one kissing and the one kissed; that is to say, if, indeed, the the Father is the one kissing and the Son is the one kissed, we may well say that the Holy Ghost is understood to be the kiss, inasmuch as He is the imperturbable peace of the Father and Son, sealing wax, the undivided love, the indivisible unity." (In Cant ser. viii. n. 2)
