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We'll just have a very brief recap of some of the things that we were talking about this morning.

We talked about two different kinds of processions within God,

and we did something to differentiate the concept of procession from the concept of cause.

Both involve one thing coming from another, but procession involves one thing coming from another

without dependence in being, whereas a causation always involves dependence in being,

in one respect or another.

If you go out and get sunburned, the sunburn has been caused by the sun.

You're not dependent on the sun, but the sunburn is.

Now, notice that the procession of the son from the father as a word is subsistent.

It's a subsistent relation for the reason that the activity and the agent of that

the father are subsistent, which has the consequence that the activity

is subsistent, which gives us grounds for saying that the term of the relation or the term

of the activity is subsistent, and the term or the object of the father's knowing activity is the word.

And this gives us grounds for holding that there is a subsistent relation there,

and the same line of reasoning would hold with the procession of the third of the Trinity and love.

Now, notice that we have still a remarkable problem in trying to talk or speak intelligibly

about real distinction within God and real unity within God. And hopefully we will see that for

this purpose, the term person is remarkably helpful.

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