The purifying and transforming experience of the Holy Spirit, an experience that is painful and joyful at the same time, this "fire of the Spirit," St. Simeon compares to a burning furnace: "Do not be deceived! God is fire, and fire came, and He threw it to the earth. And he goes about everything, seeking a substance to seize it, that is, good will and will, in order to fall on it and set it on fire. And in those whom it has kindled, it rushes upwards like a great flame, and reaches to the heavens, and does not allow that which is kindled to be idle or calm. And not unknown ... burns the inflamed soul, for it is not an insensible substance, but in feeling and knowledge, and in unbearable pain in the beginning, for it is sensitive and reasonable. After this, having completely cleansed us of the filth of the passions, it becomes in us food, illumination and unceasing joy, and makes us ourselves light through communion. For just as a burning furnace at first becomes blacker because of the smoke emitted by the substance, but when it burns violently, it becomes completely transparent and like fire, and from that hour it does not receive any blackness from the smoke after communion, so the soul, which begins to be kindled by divine desire, first sees the darkness of the passions emanating in it in the fire of the Spirit, like smoke, and she beholds, as in a mirror, the blackness inherent in her because of the smoke, and laments it, and feels that thorny thoughts and brushwood-like habits are completely burned and incinerated. When all this is destroyed and only the essence of the soul remains, without passions, then the divine and immaterial fire is essentially united with it. And immediately it is lit and becomes transparent, and communes, like an oven, of this sensual fire. In the same way, the body itself becomes fire through the communion of divine and ineffable light" [838]. Let us note here this transfiguration of the whole person, body and soul, by the fire of the love of the Holy Spirit.

Up to now we have considered mainly those moments when the monk speaks of the Holy Spirit, without mentioning the other Persons of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity, the Son in particular. In this way we tried to determine the special place of the Holy Spirit in the mystical life and the effect that He has on us. It should be noted, however, that we have not been able to "isolate" the Holy Spirit in all cases, and in our quotations Christ is also mentioned together with Him more than once, so inseparable is their action. Now we will try to write about this in more detail.

First of all, the action of the Holy Spirit is manifested in the revelation of the Son of God. "The mouth of God," says Simeon. — is the Holy Spirit, and the word and word are the Son of God and God. Why is the Spirit called the mouth of God? and what about the Son in word and word? For just as through our lips the word that is in us comes and is revealed to others, and it is impossible to say or reveal it in any other way than through the sound of the lips, so the Son of God and the Word, unless it is spoken as with the lips by the Holy Spirit, that is, is revealed, cannot be known or heard" (839). Ave. Symeon develops the analogy, explaining that the revelation of the Word takes place in us through the illumination of the Spirit: "Just as if we do not open our mouths, for when they are closed, our word cannot come out of them, so the mouth of God, His Holy Spirit Himself, if it is not opened by the illumination that has occurred in us, not the Spirit, but our mind, which is illumined by Him, the Son, and the Word of God, is not visible or knowable, and, of course, it is not revealed to our visual and auditory sense" [840].

The inseparable unity of revelation and the vision of the Son in the Holy Spirit is examined by St. Simeon in a Trinitarian context: "Thus, the image of the Father is the Son, and the image of the Son is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he who saw the Son saw the Father, he who saw the Holy Spirit saw the Son, for... The Apostle well said that the Spirit is the Lord in His cry, "Abba, Father!" but that in the Holy Spirit we see and contemplate the Son of God. And that never does the Son without the Spirit, or the Spirit without the Son, reveal Himself to anyone, but that the Son in the Spirit Himself and through the Spirit cries out Himself, "Abba, Father!" [841] Bearing in mind the same context, St. Simeon exhorts us: "May we be caught up in the Spirit in the truest life to the third heaven, or rather spiritually to the very heaven of the Holy Trinity" (842).

In these same Trinitarian texts, St. Simeon speaks of the Son of God, the Divine Logos, revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. In other, perhaps more numerous, passages, St. Simeon teaches that the revelation of Christ is given by the grace of the Holy Spirit. However, there is no contradiction between the two statements, because for St. Simeon Christ is always the true God incarnate, only here the incarnation itself is more prominent. Thus, St. Simeon says that the grace of the Holy Spirit shines forth in us Christ: "Thou art the Kingdom of Heaven, Thou, O Christ, the land of the meek... Thou art both joy and repose, Thou art sweetness and glory, Thou art both gladness and gladness, and Thy grace shines forth like the sun, O my God, the Most Holy Spirit in all the saints, and Thou shalt shine, the unapproachable sun, in their midst, and all shall shine according to their faith, deeds, hope and love, purification and enlightenment from Thy Spirit, O God" [843]. The unity of man with Christ is accomplished by the Spirit: "He who has united his spirit with the Divine Spirit has become God-like, having received Christ into the bosom, a Christian from Christ, transfigured into Christ, having in himself undoubtedly elusive and the one, truly unapproachable to all creation" [844]. But in order for Christ to dwell in us by the Holy Spirit, it is necessary that we be completely freed from the passions: "It is impossible, it is impossible," exhorts St. Simeon, "for all of us to receive incorruptible blessings, if we do not feel disgust for corruptible things as for garbage, nor for those who hold on to the temporal, nor for those who hold on to the temporal ones, nor for us to have Christ living in us by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, whose heart is possessed by even a small passion" [845]. Also by the Holy Spirit we become one body with Christ, "for God, being the Spirit... wants us in the Holy Spirit to be united to Him and to cleave to Him, and to be co-incarnates and joint heirs with Him" [846]. Although the name of Christ is not mentioned here, it is clear that it is the Body of Christ, as is evident from the entire context. Here we can establish some similarity with the passage where St. Simeon says that "neither Elijah was taken bodily to heaven without a flaming chariot, nor our Lord and God without the cloud of the Spirit lifting Him" [847].

Our humanity is always lifted up by the Spirit to God in Christ. But if the Holy Spirit reveals and gives us the knowledge of Christ and unites us with Him as in one body, then Christ sends us the Holy Spirit and gives His grace, by His appearance He bestows the Holy Spirit and reveals the Father: "Let it be known to all Christians that the true Christ and God is true, and that He is undoubtedly the one who shows his love for Him by keeping His commandments, as He Himself said. And the Holy Spirit Himself is given to them by His appearance, and again by the Holy Spirit He Himself and the Father are inseparably with them" [848]. That is why St. Simeon turns to Christ with a prayer to send him the Holy Spirit, but at the same time it is a prayer that Christ would reveal Himself to him in light and in His triune glory. "Have mercy on me, Son of God," he says, "and open my spiritual eyes, that I may see the light of the world, Thee, God, and I may become a son of the divine day, and will not remain unpartakers, as unworthy, of Thy Divinity, O Good One. Show me, O Lord, Thyself, that I may know that Thou hast loved me, as having preserved, O Lord, Thy divine commandments. Send me the Comforter, O Most Merciful, that He may teach me Himself concerning Thee, and declare Thy (works), O God of all. Shine upon me, O true light, that I may see Thy glory, which Thou hadst before the world was created with Thy Father. Abide, as I have said, in me, that I also may become worthy to abide in Thee, and consciously enter into Thee, and consciously acquire Thee in myself. Desire to be imagined in me, O invisible one, so that, seeing Thy intolerable beauty, I may clothe myself, O most heavenly one, in Thy image and forget all that is visible. Give me the glory which I have given Thee, O merciful Father, that I also may become like Thee, like all Thy servants, to be God by grace and with Thee continually, now and ever, and unto endless ages. Amen" [849]. It can be said that in this mysterious Trinitarian prayer, pneumatological but above all Christocentric, because He, the Son of God, appears in light and in glory, the quintessence of the spirituality of St. Simeon is briefly indicated. The Son of God sends the Spirit and reveals Himself by the Spirit.

These themes are developed in other works of St. Simeon. Thus, he speaks of the life-giving action of the Holy Spirit, who resurrects us in Christ [850]. Or of the living water given by Christ, which splashes in the midst of his heart, speaks to him, and which is the Holy Spirit. In the Catechetical Homilies, St. Simeon directly explains that this living water is the grace of the Spirit of Christ: "As a cistern of flowing water, so our holy father (Simeon the Pious) partook of the fullness of our Lord Christ and was filled with the grace of His Spirit, which is living water" (852). Ave. Simeon uses another image to explain the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit granted by Christ. This is the image of a soldier, a king and the payment that the latter gives to the soldier. "We must," he says, "... who have fulfilled all virtue, to make our man perfect according to God, that is, in nothing and in no way deficient... and to receive the grace of the Spirit from the most heavenly King Christ, just as soldiers receive daily maintenance from the earthly. And then, as having already become perfect men, having entered into the stature and measure of Christ and numbered among His soldiers and servants, we will go on a campaign against the enemies at war, because, as Paul says... No one fights on his own food. What does he call "sustenance"? Daily royal maintenance. If, therefore, we also have not received from God the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, that is, the grace of the Spirit, for this is the spiritual daily sustenance with which the soldiers of Christ are nourished and with which they are spiritually armed, how, tell me, shall we go out with the host of God, or how shall we be numbered among His servants?" [853]

In the 51st hymn, St. Simeon gives a complete picture of the saving action of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Christ, crucified and glorified, sends us the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit deifies us and unites us with the glorified Christ: "He, having endured the cross and also death, having risen in the Spirit, ascended in glory, and renewed the way to heaven to all who believe in Him by undoubted faith, and poured out the All-Holy Spirit abundantly to all who manifest faith by works. And now He abundantly pours Him out as such, and by Him He deifies those with whom He is suddenly united, and from the people with whom they were, He changes them without change, and shows them to be children of God, brothers of the Saviour, co-heirs with Christ, heirs of God, gods who dwell with God in the Holy Spirit, prisoners of the flesh alone, but free in spirit, easily ascending with Christ to heaven, and having all their dwelling there in the contemplation of good things, whom the eyes have not seen" [854]. In another hymn, St. Simeon asserts that the knowledge of God through the grace and illumination of the Spirit is a threefold knowledge. It alone makes it possible to understand the dogmas of the Church and to teach them. "Yes, indeed," he says, "so it happens and so it is done, so the grace of the Spirit is revealed, and, through Him and in Him, the Son is with the Father. (Man) sees Them as far as he can see, and then inexpressibly learns from Them concerning Them, and speaks out, and writes and expounds God-like dogmas to all others, as all the preceding Holy Fathers teach. For in this way they dogmatized the Divine Creed. Having become such, as we have said, they expressed with God and expressed that which is (proper to) God. Who, without becoming such, theologized the Trinitarian Unity or refuted heresies? Or who was called holy without being a partaker of the Holy Spirit? No one, never!" [855] The Holy Spirit, in giving us the knowledge of the divine mysteries, not only inspired the prophets, but also revealed to the apostles and to believers in general what Christ had not told them. To confirm this, Fr. Simeon quotes the words of the Lord: "I have yet many things to say to you, but now you cannot bear it. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth." The monk explains: "What Christ did not say to them, the Holy Spirit, Who came upon the Apostles, taught and said" [856].

We would like to say a few more words about prayers to the Holy Spirit in St. Simeon. Generally speaking, prayers directly addressing the Holy Spirit are quite rare in the Orthodox Church. Prayers are usually addressed to the Father, to Christ, or to the Most Holy Trinity. This can be explained by the fact that the Person of the Holy Spirit is the least revealed, the least known. Because if the grace of the Holy Spirit works in us, then His Face remains hidden. Nevertheless, in Orthodox worship and spiritual life there is a prayer of great beauty, to the Heavenly King, addressed to the Holy Spirit, but this is rather an exception. Even the Trinitarian prayers read at Pentecost Vespers do not address themselves to the Holy Spirit, but to the Father and the Son.

The prayer of the Eucharistic epiclesis is also addressed to the Father, so that He would send His Holy Spirit, and not to the Holy Spirit Himself. It is not surprising, therefore, that we find in St. Simeon very few prayers addressed directly to the Holy Spirit. It is possible, however, to mention a prayer of this kind in his 3rd Theological Sermon. However, this is more of a Trinitarian prayer, St. Simeon prays first to the Father and the Son, and then turns to the Holy Spirit. This rather long, rather dogmatic prayer will be abbreviated. It emphasizes the action of the Holy Spirit, especially His adoring action, which reveals to us the heavenly mysteries even in earthly life. "Likewise," writes St. Simeon, turning with prayer to the Father and the Son, "invoking the Holy Spirit, we say: the Holy Spirit, inexpressibly proceeding from the Father and through the Son to us, the faithful, coming (έπιφοιτών), the Spirit of life and reason, the Spirit of holiness and perfection, the good, wise, loving of mankind, sweet, most glorious, nourishing and watering us, merciful, enlightening, strengthening, the Divine Spirit of patience.

For those in whom Thou dwellest have in them in themselves all good" [857].

This chapter can be concluded with another prayer by St. Simeon, which forms the preface to his book of hymns. True, it does not directly say that it is addressed to the Holy Spirit, but if we consider its content, especially the first part, if we pay close attention to the images, special expressions, such as "come" (Ελθέ), and compare them with the corresponding expressions of the church prayer to the Heavenly King, as well as with the prayer just quoted, we can safely conclude that the preface to the Hymns is addressed to the Holy Spirit. although it ends with a doxology to the Most Holy Trinity.

Come, eternal joy, come, unfading wreath, come, purple of our great God and King, come crystalline and covered with stones, come, unapproachable shoes, come, royal scarlet robe and truly autocratic right hand. Come, my wretched soul has longed for Him and desires Him, come, One, to the one, for I am alone, as you see. Come, O thou who hast separated me from all and made me one on earth, come, Thou who hast become in me the very lust and hast created me to lust after Thee, Who art utterly unapproachable. Come, my breath and life, come, the consolation of my soul, come, joy and glory and my constant delight." [858]

4. THE MOST HOLY TRINITY