Chapter 48 — That love in God is not accidental

Just as God’s act of understanding is his existence, so also his act of loving is his existence. Therefore, God does not love himself through something that comes to his essence from outside it, but he loves himself through his very essence. When, therefore, God loves himself according as he is in himself as the beloved in the lover, God the beloved is not in God the lover in an accidental way, as the objects of our love are accidentally in us who love them. Rather, God is substantially in himself as beloved in lover. Therefore, the Holy Spirit, who represents the divine love to us, is not something accidental in God, but is a thing subsisting in the divine essence like the Father and the Son. And so in the rule of Catholic faith he is shown to be adored and glorified together with the Father and the Son.