Overview of Part One of the Catechism (The Creed)

Donuts & Doctrine

February 27 & March 6, 2011

Opening Prayer

Act of Faith O my God, I firmly believe that

Thou art one God in Three Divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I believe that Thy Divine Son became Man and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who canst neither deceive nor be deceived. Amen.

Small Group Activity

In groups of 3-4 describe:

– Why your faith is important to you

– How you would describe why you believe in God to someone who is a non-believer

– Concrete ways you can be more attentive to what you recite in the Creed each Sunday

Creed: The Faith Professed “When we pray or recite the Creed,

we can be reminded that Catholicism is a revealed religion. God is the author of our faith. All that we are expected to believe is summed up in the revelation of Jesus Christ. God has spoken all that is necessary for our Salvation in Jesus, the Word made flesh. God also gives us the gift of faith that enables us to respond, accept, and live out the implications of Divine Revelation.”

US Catholic Catechism for Adults, xx

[In the time of the Apostles] …A Christian was bound to take without doubting all that the Apostles declared to be revealed; if the Apostles spoke, he had to yield an internal assent of his mind. …Immediate, implicit submission of the mind was, in the lifetime of the Apostles, the only, the necessary token of faith…either the Apostles were from God, or they were not; if they were, everything that they preached was to be believed by their hearers; if they were not, there was nothing for their hearers to believe. To believe a little, to believe more or less was impossible; it contradicted the very notion of believing.”

John Henry Newman Faith and Private Judgment

In expressing and handing on the faith that Jesus entrusted to them before he ascended to his Father, the apostles made use of brief summaries by which all could come to know the fundamental content of Christian belief and preaching. These initial creedal statements synthesized the Christian faith and became the original catechetical reference points for the apostolic Church. They were the first profession of faith; they were intended especially for candidates for Baptism, and they have preserved the substance of the Christian message for people of all the nations for more than two thousand years.

National Directory for Catechesis, # 23

Apostles’ & Nicene Creeds • Apostles Creed is the faith of the

Church professed personally by each believer, principally during baptism.

• Nicene Creed is faith professed by the liturgical assembly of believers.

• “I believe” is also the Church, our mother, responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both “I believe” & “We believe”

• Apostles’ Creed considered faithful summary of apostles’ faith.

• It is ancient baptismal seal of Rome.

• Its authority arises from being the creed of the See of Peter.

Apostles’ & Nicene Creeds • Nicene Creed’s authority from first

two Ecumenical Councils (in 325 & 381)

• Both creeds written in response to a particular heresy attacking foundation of our faith (Apostles’ addressed Gnosticism & Nicene addressed Arianism)

• Communion in faith requires a common language – therefore, from the beginning, the apostolic Church expressed her belief in brief statements.

• These brief statements are rich in meaning and need to be broken open to reveal the depth of what we profess each Sunday.

Differences Between the Two (and Insights from Them) NICENE-CONSTANTINOPLE CREED

(in English as we’ll say it on First Sunday of Advent)

Trinitarian Focus of the Creed As described in NDC #24C

• As the central mystery of the Catholic faith, the mystery of the Triune God animates and orders the presentation of the Christian message in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

• The profession of faith is precisely a confession of faith in the Holy Trinity.

• It is divided into the fundamental doctrinal formulations that state Christian belief in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

• The profession of faith presents the prayer of the believer as a “communion with the Holy Trinity.”

I Believe… • Our desire for God, God coming to

meet man, & our response of faith • CCC #89: There is an organic

connection between our spiritual life and the dogmas. Dogmas are lights along the path of faith; they illuminate it and make it secure.

• Faith is a personal act – the free response of the human person to the initiative of God

• There is no community of believers without the starting point of each person believing

• CCC #168: But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life.

• Being that link in a chain of believers

Only Begotten Son • Begotten – rich word in

describing the Second Person of the Trinity and His relationship with the Father

• How “begotten” surpasses the limitations of generation in time that we typically associate with a Father-Son relationship

• This phrase used repeated by the Church Fathers when speaking of Jesus Christ

Consubstantial • Understanding the rich

philosophy in the Creed (words like substance, person, etc.)

• Homoousios – essential Greek word used at the Council of Nicea to correctly describe the relationship between the Son of God and the Father

• When translated to the Latin “consubstantia” there was much concern expressed to ensure that it was synonymous with “homoousios”

• Importance of being aware of our heritage and familiar with the vocabulary of that heritage

Incarnate of the Virgin Mary

• Nuances of “incarnate” and “born”

• Carnus – Latin for flesh, same as the Greek sarx (sarx)

• Incarnate – to take flesh • The Word became flesh and

dwelt among us… • CCC #463: Belief in the true

Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith

• Living this out in daily recitation of the Angelus

He Suffered Death

• Unity of the Paschal Mystery – His Passion, Death, & Resurrection are ONE joint act that brings about our salvation

• Centrality of that mystery for our lives

• Latin “Passio”, from which we get “Passion” means “To suffer”

• Pontius Pilate ordered Jesus’ crucifixion; yet we are all connected to the suffering which Christ endured

Filioque – from the Father & the Son • Holy Spirit proceeds from both • Proceeding from the Father and the

Son doesn’t make Him inferior to Them any more than the Son being Begotten made Him inferior to the Father

• CCC #246: The Council of Florence in 1438 explains: ‘The Holy Spirit is eternally from Father and Son; He has his nature and subsistence at once

(simul) from the Father and the Son. He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one spiration. …And, since the Father has through generation given to the only-begotten Son everything that belongs to the Father, except being Father, the Son has also eternally from the Father, from whom he is eternally born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son.”

I Confess One Baptism (More than Just Acknowledge)

• Belief – in “I confess” requires taking ownership of it. It’s part of me.

• I can acknowledge that something exists without it having any part of me – that’s not the case regarding confession of one baptism

• Note that this comes immediately AFTER stating our belief in the Church – Baptism doesn’t just express our belief in God; it is to unite us to His Church

I Look Forward to the Resurrection of the Dead

• Going beyond belief to the level of expectation and anticipation

• Looking forward describes how I am to constantly prepare and live the life now because it is a certain reality

• Do I look forward to, and desire heaven to this degree?

• Does that desire translate to living the moral life?

Amen – I Do Believe • The Creed ends with the

Hebrew word “amen”

• “Amen” frequently concludes prayers in the NT and prayers of the Church

• It is a repetition & confirmation of the first words – I believe

• May we all be more aware of what we are saying the next time we are at a Sunday Mass.

• Let us try to pay attention to what we profess with our lips so that we really believe it in our hearts and show it in our lives.

Large Group Activity - Incorporating the Six Tasks of Catechesis from the NDC

• The National Directory for Catechesis describes the six tasks of catechesis.

• In catechizing about part one of the CCC (the Creed), how can we incorporate all six tasks?

– Promotes knowledge of the faith

– Promotes a knowledge of the Liturgy and the sacraments

– Promotes moral formation in Jesus Christ

– Teaches the Christian how to pray with Christ

– Prepares the Christian to live in community and to participate actively in the life & mission of the Church

– Promotes a missionary spirit that prepares the faithful to be present as Christians in society

Living the Creed – Living in Relationship

“Faith is both a relationship with God as well as an engagement with the truths that he reveals. In other words, faith refers to both the act by which we accept God’s word and the content of what he has revealed to us.”

USCCA, Chapter 4

Closing Prayer

Act of Love

O my God, I love you above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me and I ask pardon of all whom I have injured. Amen.