of the relation and of the surpassing connaturality and of the incomprehensible and ineffable perichoresis, we again find and proclaim Him the Father, Him union, Him bond, knowing Him as both Father and projector and container of the offspring and of the procession; and thus remaining we also posit Him as their beginning.

From whichever of them, I mean the Son and the Spirit, we might see the other paraclete economically manifested to us, immediately through this one we are led up to the first and only beginning. For when the Son sends or gives the Spirit, from where does He have this, if not from the first and only beginning? Therefore He thus sends and gives, as having it subsisting from the Father, but not Himself causing it to proceed with or subsist with; and sending and giving, He shows us this very thing, that it is mine, but from the Father, not from me.

And Athanasius, the great in theology and truly great, having understood this, or rather having been enlightened, and having conveyed the light to us by his word, in one of the letters To Serapion: “There being,” he says, “one Son, the living Word, there must be one and full sanctifying and illuminating life, being His energy and gift; which indeed is said to proceed from the Father, because it shines forth from the Word Who is from the Father, and is sent. "For thus (p. 234) God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son,” and the Son sends the Spirit.” For this is that very thing, said a little above by Gregory, surnamed the Theologian, that whatever is said more humbly concerning the divine Spirit, the grace, the gift, and anything else of the sort, must be referred to the first cause, that the 'from whom' might be shown. For the great one, having said here more humbly that the Holy Spirit is a gift and energy of the Word, and having shown that the Word for Him is not concerning the existence nor concerning the hypostasis of the Spirit (for energy is rather acted upon than acts, but the Holy Spirit is a provider and bestower of His own gifts) therefore having clearly shown that he is not speaking of the pre-eternal procession, he added that “it shines forth from the Word Who is from the Father, and is sent.”

What then, by its shining forth and being sent from the Word do we understand that it proceeds from Him? "Away with it," he says, "as you cast very far from the mark." But that it proceeds from the Father we understand and say, since it is given and sent by the Son. For the Son, having the Holy Spirit co-subsisting from there before the ages, now both sends and gives it to us. And since the giving is an illumination (and this the initiated know, all who have both seen and experienced the brightness of God, all who saw the glory of the Lord "as of the only-begotten from the Father," all who were illumined by the light of the divinity on the mountain, and in addition to these also those who have securely believed these things) since, therefore, the giving is an illumination, instead of its being given and sent by the Son, he said it shines forth and is sent by the Son. And this he shows even more clearly from the structure of the argument: “For God and the Father,” he says, “gave the Son for us; and the Son, the Spirit.”

(p. 236) But just as the giving or sending of the Son by the Father for the salvation of the world is not generation, much less indeed would it be the pre-eternal and infinite one, so also the giving of the Holy Spirit by the Son or the sending is not procession, by how much more and beyond how much the one before the ages from the Father, not having come to be, away with it, but both existing before these things and co-beginningless with the Father.

Can anyone still say because of the sending that it proceeds from the Father and the Son

σχέσεως καί τῆς ὑπερβαλλούσης συμφυΐας καί τῆς ἀπερινοήτου τε καί ἀφθέγκτου περιχωρήσεως, αὐτόν αὖθις εὑρίσκομεν καί κηρύττομεν τόν Πατέρα, αὐτόν ἕνωσιν, αὐτόν σύνδεσμον, αὐτόν καί Πατέρα καί προβολέα καί συνοχέα γινώσκοντες τοῦ γεννήματός τε καί τοῦ προβλήματος˙ καί οὕτω μένον καί ἀρχήν αὐτῶν ἐκεῖνον τιθέμεθα.

Παρ᾿ ὅτου δ᾿ ἄν αὐτῶν, Υἱοῦ λέγω καί Πνεύματος, οἰκονομικῶς ἡμῖν ἴδωμεν τόν ἕτερον παράκλητον φανερούμενον, αὐτίκα διά τούτου πρός τήν πρώτην καί μόνην ἀρχήν ἀναγόμεθα˙ πέμπων γάρ ἤ διδούς τό Πνεῦμα ὁ Υἱός, πόθεν τοῦτ᾿ἔχει, ὅτι μή παρά τῆς πρώτης καί μόνης ἀρχῆς; Οὐκοῦν οὕτω πέμπει τε καί δίδωσιν, ὡς ἔχων ὑφιστάμενον ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ αὐτός συνεκπορεύων καί συνυφιστῶν˙ καί πέμπων καί διδούς, τοῦτ᾿ αὐτό δείκνυσιν ἡμῖν, ὡς ἐμοῦ μέν ἔστιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός, οὐκ ἐξ ἐμοῦ.

Τοῦτο δέ καί ὁ πολύς ἐν θεολογίᾳ καί ὄντως μέγας Ἀθανάσιος ἐννοήσας, μᾶλλον δέ φωτισθείς, καί ἡμῖν τῷ λόγῳ διαπορθμεύσας τό φῶς, ἐν μιᾷ τῶν Πρός Σεραπίωνα ἐπιστολῶν˙ «ἑνός ὄντος», φησί, «τοῦ Υἱοῦ, τοῦ ζῶντος Λόγου, μίαν εἶναι δεῖ καί πλήρη τήν ἁγιαστικήν καί φωτιστικήν ζωήν, οὖσαν ἐνέργειαν καί δωρεάν αὐτοῦ˙ ἥτις γε ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός λέγεται ἐκπορεύεσθαι, ἐπειδή παρά τοῦ Λόγου τοῦ ἐκ Πατρός ἐκλάμπει καί ἀποστέλλεται. "Οὕτω (σελ. 234) γάρ ὁ Θεός ἠγάπησε τόν κόσμον, ὥστε τόν Υἱόν αὐτοῦ τόν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν", ὁ δέ Υἱός τό Πνεῦμα ἀποστέλλει». Τοῦτο γάρ αὐτό ἐστιν ἐκεῖνο, τό παρά τοῦ τῆς θεολογίας ἐπωνύμου Γρηγορίου μικρόν καί ἀνωτέρω εἰρημένον, ὡς ὅ τι ἄν περί τοῦ θείου Πνεύματος ταπεινότερον λέγηται, τό χάρισμα, τό δώρημα, καί εἴ τι ἄλλο τοιοῦτον, ἐπί τήν πρώτην αἰτίαν ἀνακτέον, ἵνα τό ἐξ οὗ δειχθῇ. Εἰπών γάρ ὁ μέγας ἐνταυθοῖ τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον ταπεινότερον δωρεάν καί ἐνέργειαν τοῦ Λόγου, καί δείξας ὡς οὐχί περί τῆς ὑπάρξεως οὐδέ περί τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτῷ τοῦ Πνεύματος ὁ Λόγος (ἡ γάρ ἐνέργεια ἐνεργεῖται μᾶλλον ἤ ἐνεργεῖ, τό δέ Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον παρεκτικόν καί μεταδοτικόν ὑπάρχει τῶν αὐτοῦ δωρεῶν) σαφῶς οὖν ἐμφήνας ὡς οὐχί περί τῆς προαιωνίου λέγει ἐκπορεύσεως, ἐπήγαγεν, ὅτι «παρά τοῦ Λόγου τοῦ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός ἐκλάμπει καί ἀποστέλλεται».

Τί δή, διά τοῦ ἐκλάμπειν καί ἀποστέλλεσθαι παρά τοῦ Λόγου νοοῦμεν ὅτι ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐκπορεύεται; Ἄπαγε, φησίν, ὡς πορρωτάτω βάλλεις τοῦ σκοποῦ˙ ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός ἐκπορεύεται νοοῦμεν καί λέγομεν, ἐπεί παρά τοῦ Υἱοῦ δίδοταί τε καί ἀποστέλλεται. Ἔχων γάρ ἐκεῖθεν πρό αἰώνων συνυφεστώς ὁ Υἱός τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον, νῦν πρός ἡμᾶς καί ἀποστέλλει καί δίδωσιν. Ἐπεί δέ ἡ δόσις ἔλλαμψις (καί τοῦτ᾿ ἴσασιν οἱ μεμυημένοι, ὅσοι λαμπρότητα Θεοῦ καί εἶδον καί ἔπαθον, ὅσοι τήν δόξαν τοῦ Κυρίου εἶδον «ὡς μονογενοῦς παρά Πατρός», ὅσοι τῷ φωτί τῆς θεότητος ἐπί τοῦ ὄρους περιηυγάσθησαν, πρός δέ τούτοις καί οἱ τούτοις ἀσφαλῶς πιστεύσαντες) ἐπεί οὖν ἡ δόσις ἔλλαμψις, ἀντί τοῦ παρά τοῦ Υἱοῦ δίδοσθαί τε καί ἀποστέλλεσθαι, παρά τοῦ Υἱοῦ ἐκλάμπειν ἔφη καί ἀποστέλλεσθαι. Καί τοῦτ᾿ ἔτι σαφέστερον δείκνυσιν ἐκ τῆς κατασκευῆς τοῦ λόγου˙ «ὁ μέν γάρ Θεός καί Πατήρ», φησί, «τόν Υἱόν ἔδωκεν ὑπέρ ἡμῶν˙ ὁ δέ Υἱός, τό Πνεῦμα».

(σελ. 236) Ἀλλά γάρ ὥσπερ ἡ τοῦ Υἱοῦ παρά τοῦ Πατρός ὑπέρ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου σωτηρίας δόσις ἤ ἀποστολή γέννησις οὐκ ἔστι, πολλοῦ γε ἄν δή που δέοι καί ἀπείρου εἶναι ἡ προαιώνιος, οὕτως οὐδ᾿ ἡ παρά τοῦ Υἱοῦ δόσις τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἤ ἀποστολή ἐκπόρευσίς ἐστι, πόσῳ γε μᾶλλον καί ὑπέρ τό πόσῳ ἡ πρό τῶν αἰώνων παρά τοῦ Πατρός οὐ γενομένη, ἄπαγε, ἀλλά καί πρό τούτων οὖσα καί τῷ Πατρί συνάναρχος.

Ἔτ᾿ ἔχει τις λέγειν διά τήν ἀποστολήν ὡς ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός καί τοῦ Υἱοῦ ἐκπορεύεται