In the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, "it was ordained that the Holy Spirit should descend" [84: p. 201] upon people. The Lord Jesus Christ, having endured death on the cross and having risen from the dead, "ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit from the Father to us on earth, so that He would endow everyone with those blessings and needs of salvation which are combined for us in the Person of the Lord" [96: p. 152].

The participation of the Holy Spirit in the economy of our salvation consists in assimilating to redeemed sinners the merits of the Son of God and with His assistance to accomplish the work of salvation in the hearts of men. The economy of salvation, "the dispensation of all that is necessary for salvation, was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of the Father, but not without the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit assimilates and applies this salvation to us by the good pleasure of God the Father, but not without Christ the Lord, the Son of God" [96: p. 150].

The descent of the Holy Spirit is "the first breath of mankind by the Divine Spirit" [55: p. 498]. The designation of the Holy Spirit as "life-giving," as included in the Symbol of Faith, testifies to God the Spirit as the Author not only of natural life, but also of grace-filled, spiritual life. The Holy Spirit quickens, nurtures, and develops in us the seed of new life laid by Christ, and unites us with Him. "The Divine Spirit descended, and mankind came to life, breathing in the Divine Spirit — this is the first time, as a newborn child, coming out into the world, breathes air into itself for the first time" [93, p. 31].

The reception of the Holy Spirit is the crown of the blessings bestowed upon mankind by the Incarnation.

On the day of Holy Pentecost, only the apostles received the Holy Spirit. The Apostles, or the entire first Church gathered in the Upper Room, were the lips by which redeemed humanity received "the first breath of the Spirit" [Ibid.], it was they who were His first "life-receiving vessels" [105: p. 180]. The Holy Spirit, having descended upon the Apostles, dwelt not only in them, but through them, as through canals, poured out upon all the faithful, and from that time He "lives and acts in the Church through the Divine Mysteries, reviving to spiritual life, educating and preserving in it everyone who enters it" [105: p. 193].

The faithful, through the divinely instituted sacraments, received the grace of the Holy Dra and, as Bishop Theophan writes, "became new in the very beginnings of life" [84, p. 97], so that "spiritualization and spirituality constitute a distinctive feature of Christians" [5, p. 91], and "the spiritualization of believers is the essence of the New Testament" [84, p. 97].

The Holy Spirit arranges conversion and forms faith in the repentant sinner. Through the Divine word, the Holy Spirit arouses in a person feelings of sinfulness, fears for his eternal fate, repentance and a decision to begin to live rightly.

Having confirmed the faith, the Holy Spirit leads a person to the baptismal font and here instills Christ in him, but He accomplishes salvation only with the free cooperation of the person himself. "The Spirit of God transforms our inner order," writes St. Theophan "but not by creative power and power alone, but by following the conscious and free decisions of man himself and considering them" [86: p. 453]. He strengthens "the believing heart for the difficult struggle with the passions, guides and helps in it" [25, p. 13]. As a careful gardener guards, waters, and cleanses a good tree, so the Spirit of God nourishes and purifies the soul that in its labors gives itself over to His guidance.

Gradually, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the passions weaken and disappear, and in their place good dispositions are introduced and strengthened, the old man decays and a new one is created, and the features of the image of God are revealed more and more clearly.

The Holy Spirit is the perfector of communion with God. "He who has received the Spirit of grace freely fulfills every commandment; the fulfillment of the commandments purifies the heart; a pure heart is a ready-made dwelling place of God, Who dwells in it" [96: p. 149], and then "the entire Holy Trinity shines in the believer inseparably. And behold, he is a perfect man, who has attained the measure of the stature of the fulfillment of Christ" [96, p. 200]. A person who has attained perfection in the spiritual life is led by the Holy Spirit "into the contemplation of the mysteries of God" [68: p. 107].

By the power of the Spirit of God, Christians ascend to the highest degrees of Christian perfection, which is already manifested in them clearly and tangibly through "look, movement, deed, thought, feeling" [5, p. 91]. The soul of a person who has attained holiness becomes pure and innocent, like a blameless child of God, "in the midst of a generation of obstinate and perverse, and will shine as a light in the world" (Phil. 2:15), spreading light everywhere for the glorification of the Heavenly Father.

Chapter 6. Salvation and the Church

The Church on Earth and in Heaven

The Holy Church is of great importance in the life of a Christian. In the Holy Scriptures and in the works of the Holy Fathers, the word "Church" is used in various meanings. In the words of the famous Russian theologian, Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, "the Church of Christ is the society of all rationally free beings, that is, both angels and people who believe in Christ the Savior and are united in Him as one Head" [205: p. 187].