The Spirit, whom the Son sends us from the Father on the feast of Pentecost, is the Spirit of eternal conversation of love between the Father and the Son. It is God's speech that has become a person. We are introduced to this speech; until now it had been a mysterious foreign language for us; and yet, because fiery tongues have descended upon the church, it has become our own "mother tongue." The first word we learn to babble in it as God's children is the word "Abba," which the Holy Spirit teaches us, as Paul explicitly states twice. With this baby word, we do not address people, but God in a language that is his own, which he understands.
(Hans Urs von Balthasar /1905–1988/, Triple Crown)
