On Procession and Return

The 16th Council of Toledo, held in AD 693, gave us (among other things) the following:

296 Let the designation of this "holy will"-although through a comparative similitude of the Trinity, where it is called memory, intelligence, and will-refer to the person of the Holy Spirit; according to this, however, what applies to itself, is predicated substantially. For the will is the Father, the will is the Son, the will is the Holy Spirit; just as God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Holy Spirit and many other similar things, which according to substance those who live as protectors of the Catholic faith do not for any reason hesitate to say. And just as it is Catholic to say: God from God, light from light, life from life, so it is a proved assertion of true faith to say the will from the will; just as wisdom from wisdom, essence from essence, and as God the Father begot God the Son, so the Will, the Father, begot the Son, the Will. Thus, although according to essence the Father is will, the Son is will and the Holy Spirit is will, we must not however believe that there is unity according to a relative sense, since one is the Father who refers to the Son, another the Son, who refers to the Father, another the Holy Spirit who, because He proceeds from the Father and the Son, refers to the Father and the Son; not the same but one in one way, one in another, because to whom there is one being in the nature of deity, to these there is a special property in the distinction of persons.

Let us focus on on particular snippet:

…another the Holy Spirit who, because He proceeds from the Father and the Son, refers to the Father and the Son; not the same but one in one way, one in another… [emphasis mine]

That is, the sense of the procession is NOT "as from a single principle and a single source", which would be "the same", but rather "one in one way, and one in another". To put it succinctly: if the "proceeds from the Father and the Son" is to be permitted at all to be said in the Catholic Faith (let alone in the Creed!), it is to be distinguished between two meanings, one applicable to how the Spirit proceeds from the Father, and the other applicable to how the Spirit proceeds from the Son. The Catholic Church has held this always to mean, that the Spirit proceeds from the Father as the sole source and fount of the Godhead, receiving His essence from the Father, receiving said essence as the same essence which the Father gave to the Son in generation, since both are consubstantial with the Father, the essence being first and without principle that of the Father which He shares with the Son by generation and the Holy Spirit by procession. This is the "one in one way."

The "one in another [way]" is that the Spirit's procession from the Father is not without the Son, since this would introduce a division in the Godhead; rather the Son was generated of the Father before all time, without time, before all the ages, with no introduction of time, etc., such that He has eternally with Him His only-begotten Son, and there is no time when the Son was not. Since, then, there is no sense in which the Father exists without the Son whom He begot by generation, it is impossible but that the Holy Spirit, in proceeding, proceeds from the Father in some relation to the Son who is with the Father. Thus "not without the Son". It is in accord with the Catholic Faith, I believe, to say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father _to_ the Son, completing (if such a term can be understood to apply, not to introduce composition) the number of the Triad in Unity, and bringing the Divine Council to its full number without division or any hint that the Godhead could ever be or have been without its fulness. (Since the procession is also eternal, we are safe from this. Let us not introduce such madness, but understand the words according to the magnitude of the weakness of our tongues, considering the Scriptures to apply to our humility, "Tongue cannot express", and "I have contemplated on things too high for me".)

When, then, in the eternal contemplations and deliberations of the Godhead it was decided that creation should be called forth and given shape, and an image made therein of the same Godhead, the Holy Spirit must needs be sent forth into the creation to bring it to completion as well, imaging His own role in the eternal. And likewise the Son must also be begotten as the image of the one formed without parentage, the Spirit perfecting this begetting, being sent forth from the Father to rest in the Son.

And since the Son Himself is the very image of the Father, He must also beget sons, into whom He breaths the Holy Spirit, thus uniting in one all things such that God may be all in all as He is in Himself the Godhead. Thus the Holy Spirit is found to proceed not only _to_ the Son, but _through_ Him, and also from those begotten back to their "Father of the age to come", and from Him back to His Father, "delivering up the Kingdom", and so laying down all that rule and authority at His Father's feet, just as those He made to rule with His own authority lay their crowns at His own feet: not, as it were, abandoning the rule and power and authority granted (for He is King unto the ages of ages, forevermore), but by the Holy Spirit showing Who is that first and causeless principle of all, the "one and only Potentate, the King immortal, invisible, God only wise".

To Whom be all glory, honor, and worship, together with His only-begotten Son and His all-holy, adorable, and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.