What are we really celebrating at Christmas?

The short answer to this question, of course, is “We celebrate Jesus’ birthday.”

But if we stop there, and regard the holiday as just another historical anniversary, we would overlook the life-changing truth: God became man, and was born of the Virgin, to fulfill his saving plan for you.

Jesus knows us, intimately and personally, because He is truly God, the Son of the Father. Existing from all eternity, He thought of us and loved us, eons before He created us.

That’s why the Son descended from heaven and became a baby in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Jesus was undertaking a divine mission to redeem us from our sins and make it possible for us to enjoy life with God forever.

Therein lies the radical newness of Christmas, its fundamental difference from the usual events of human history. Instead of receding ever further away from us over time, Christmas marks a new stage of the relationship between God and humankind – a relationship that is ongoing, touching each one of us, and drawing us toward union with God.

Benedict XVI has spoken movingly of the meaning of Christmas:

At Christmas, therefore, we do not limit ourselves to commemorating the birth of a great figure: we do not simply and abstractly celebrate the birth of the man or in general the mystery of life…

A great light really was lit: the Creator of the universe became flesh, uniting Himself indissolubly with human nature…made Himself tangible to our senses and our minds: we may now touch Him and contemplate Him.

Thus the Word of God “is a ‘Word’ addressed to us…a Person who is concerned with every individual person: He is the Son of the living God Who became man…”

We rejoice that God is not a “remote being, Whom it would never be possible to reach, but a God Who made Himself our neighbor and Who is very close to us, Who has time for each one of us and Who came to stay with us.”

Quotes from General Audience of December 17, 2008

Engaging the Gospel – Luke 14:1, 7-14

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C): Gospel – Luke 14:1, 7-14

Why is pride so harmful to the spiritual life? Pride is rooted in a lie, as though we’re the architects of our own existence, with no need for God.

Humility, on the other hand, is grounded in the truth of who we are. As creatures, we are constantly dependent upon God. As sin-prone human beings, we are incapable of saving our souls for eternal life. And as disciples of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we are called to emulate His humility.

In today’s Gospel, set against the background of intense social competition at a banquet, Jesus takes the opportunity to instruct the guests on the virtue of humility. In essence, He counsels us to follow His example.

As God the Son, the Eternal Word of the Father, He humbled Himself to take up our humanity in order to redeem us. Just as He tells His host that he should invite the poor and outcast, so does Jesus invite us, who cannot possibly repay Him, to His eternal banquet.

In the words of Pope St. Gregory the Great (d. 604),

that He might bring us back to the way of life through humility, He deigned to exhibit in Himself what He teaches us…For to this end the only begotten Son of God took upon Himself the form of our weakness; to this end He endured…the reproaches of derision, the torments of suffering; that God in His humility might teach man not to be proud. How great, then, is the virtue of humility for the sake of teaching which alone He Who is great beyond compare became little even unto the suffering of death!

— Book V, Letter 18.

Remembering that we are sinners, forever in God’s debt, helps us to develop a true sense of humility before God and neighbor – not to denigrate our gifts and accomplishments, but to know that they come from God, and to view ourselves in proper perspective.

Because humility enables us to recognize our dependence upon God, and to treat others charitably, it is essential for growth in the spiritual life.

Question for reflection: How might I cultivate the virtue of humility?

Engaging the Gospel – Luke 5:1-11

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C): Gospel – Luke 5:1-11

Despite the fact that Simon Peter had failed to catch a single fish after spending all night at sea, he obediently followed Jesus’ instruction to “put out into the deep water,” and was amazed at the miraculous number of fish bursting within his nets. As a result, he grasped the significance of Who Jesus is:

Faced with God’s fascinating and mysterious presence, man discovers his own insignificance….Before the divine signs wrought by Jesus, Peter exclaims, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’ (Catechism paragraph 208).

The term “Lord” itself encompasses the name of God:

Out of respect for the holiness of God, the people of Israel do not pronounce His Name. In the reading of Sacred Scripture, the revealed name (Yhwh) is replaced by the divine title ‘Lord’ (209).

The New Testament uses this full sense of the title ‘Lord’ both for the Father and – what is new – for Jesus, Who is thereby recognized as God Himself (446).

By attributing to Jesus the divine title ‘Lord,’ the first confessions of the Church’s faith affirm from the beginning that the power, honor, and glory due to God the Father are due also to Jesus (449).

Question for reflection: When have I found unexpected joy in doing God’s will?

Crux fidelis

A beautiful hymn with great theological depth, Crux fidelis is a 6th century composition by Mamertus Claudianus, according to Dom Prosper Gueranger’s Liturgical Year.

You can listen to it chanted in Latin here.

And here is the translation as it appears in the current edition of the Roman Missal:

Faithful Cross the Saints rely on, noble tree beyond compare! Never was there such a scion, never leaf or flower so rare. Sweet the timber, sweet the iron, sweet the burden that they bear!

Sing, my tongue, in exultation of our banner and device! Make a solemn proclamation of a triumph and its price: how the Savior of creation conquered by His sacrifice!

(Repeat) Faithful Cross the Saints rely on, noble tree beyond compare! Never was there such a scion, never leaf or flower so rare.

For, when Adam first offended, eating that forbidden fruit, not all hopes of glory ended with the serpent at the root: broken nature would be mended by a second tree and shoot.

(Repeat) Sweet the timber, sweet the iron, sweet the burden that they bear! 

Thus the tempter was outwitted by a wisdom deeper still: remedy and ailment fitted, means to cure and means to kill; that the world might be acquitted, Christ would do His Father’s will.

Faithful Cross the Saints rely on, noble tree beyond compare! Never was there such a scion, never leaf or flower so rare.

So the Father, out of pity for our self-inflicted doom, sent Him from the heavenly city when the holy time had come: He, the Son and the Almighty, took our flesh in Mary’s womb.

Sweet the timber, sweet the iron, sweet the burden that they bear! 

Hear a tiny baby crying, Founder of the seas and strands; see His Virgin Mother tying cloth around His feet and hands; find Him in a manger lying tightly wrapped in swaddling-bands!

Faithful Cross the Saints rely on, noble tree beyond compare! Never was there such a scion, never leaf or flower so rare.

So He came, the long-expected, not in glory, not to reign; only born to be rejected, choosing hunger, toil and pain, till the scaffold was erected and the Paschal Lamb was slain.

Sweet the timber, sweet the iron, sweet the burden that they bear! 

No disgrace was too abhorrent; nailed and mocked and parched He died; blood and water, double warrant, issue from His wounded side, washing in a mighty torrent earth and stars and oceantide.

Faithful Cross the Saints rely on, noble tree beyond compare! Never was there such a scion, never leaf or flower so rare.

Lofty timber, smooth your roughness; flex your boughs for blossoming; let your fibers lose their toughness, gently let your tendrils cling; lay aside your native gruffness, clasp the Body of your King!

Sweet the timber, sweet the iron, sweet the burden that they bear! 

Noblest tree of all created, richly jeweled and embossed; post by Lamb’s Blood consecrated, spar that saves the tempest-tossed; scaffold-beam which, elevated, carries what the world has cost!

Faithful Cross the Saints rely on, noble tree beyond compare! Never was there such a scion, never leaf or flower so rare.

Wisdom, power, and adoration to the Blessed Trinity for redemption and salvation through the Paschal Mystery, now, in every generation, and for all eternity. Amen.

Engaging the Gospel – Second Sunday of Lent

Second Sunday of Lent (Year B): Gospel – Mark 9:2-10

The Transfiguration is rich in meaning on several levels, beginning with its timing. Christ’s divine glory was made manifest during the Jewish Feast of Sukkoth. Commemorating Israel’s time of wandering in the desert after the Exodus, living in tents (“sukkoth”), this feast had messianic overtones: the Jewish people believed that it foreshadowed the coming age of the Messiah.

Jesus fulfills this hope, as Benedict XVI observes:

Indeed, the Lord has pitched the tent of His body among us and has thus inaugurated the messianic age…Jesus is the holy tent above whom the cloud of God’s presence now stands.

— Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1, pp. 315-16.

The presence of Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration demonstrates Jesus’ fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures. They represent the Law and the Prophets, which proclaimed the Messiah’s coming. Although Moses and Elijah had encounters with God in the Old Testament, “only on the mountain of the Transfiguration” did they “behold the unveiled face of Him Whom they sought” – in Christ (Catechism paragraph 2583).

Moreover, the Transfiguration gives us a glimpse of the Holy Trinity.

As St. Thomas Aquinas noted, “The whole Trinity appeared: the Father in the voice; the Son in the man; the Spirit in the shining cloud” (quoted in paragraph 555).

Question for reflection: In what ways do I listen to the Lord?

The Awesome Truth about Christmas

The Nativity Scene at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Lexington, Ky.

Are we so accustomed to Christmas that we overlook the shocking truth of what we’re actually celebrating?

Christmas, “Christ’s Mass,” marks the birth of Our Lord. What a startling fact: God has become man to redeem us! God the Son, the Eternal Word of the Father, holds His arms out to us as a newborn baby!

Pope St. Leo the Great (d. 461) describes the mind-boggling awesomeness:

He comes down from the throne of heaven…Invisible in His own nature, He became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, He chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, He began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, He hid His infinite glory, and took the nature of a servant. Incapable of suffering as God, He did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, He chose to be subject to the laws of death.

Leo’s words are recalled especially for our March 25 celebration of the Annunciation, when the Blessed Virgin Mary accepted her role in salvation history, the Holy Spirit overshadowed her, and she conceived Jesus — the precise instant of the Incarnation, the enfleshment, of the Lord.

God went to such extraordinary lengths to seek us out, cultivate a relationship with us, and save us so that we may enjoy eternal life with Him.

That in turn calls for a response from us, to welcome the Lord into every aspect of our lives. Can’t we respond with greater love and fidelity to the One Who has loved us infinitely?

Engaging the Gospel – Fourth Sunday of Advent

Fourth Sunday of Advent: Gospel – Luke 1:26-38

The Annunciation marks the turning point in all of history: when the Eternal Son of God descends to take on our human nature, our flesh, becoming incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In recognition of this sublime mystery, we bow during these lines when we profess the Creed.

At this moment, God and Mary are entrusting themselves to each other, as St. John Paul II observed in Redemptoris Mater:

For it must be recognized that before anyone else it was God Himself, the Eternal Father, Who entrusted Himself to the Virgin of Nazareth, giving her His own Son in the mystery of the Incarnation (39).

And Mary surrenders herself totally to the Lord, freely consenting to become the mother of the Savior:

The mystery of the Incarnation was accomplished when Mary uttered her fiat: ‘Let it be to me according to your word,’ which made possible, as far as it depended upon her in the divine plan, the granting of Her Son’s desire.

Mary uttered this fiat in faith. In faith she entrusted herself to God without reserve…And as the Fathers of the Church teach – she conceived this Son in her mind before she conceived Him in her womb: precisely in faith! (13).

Thus in a sense Mary as Mother became the first ‘disciple’ of her Son (20).

While Mary’s faith is an example to us, she continues to exercise a much more active role on our behalf. Jesus gave Mary to us as our mother too:

Along the path of this collaboration with the work of her Son, the Redeemer, Mary’s motherhood itself underwent a singular transformation, becoming ever more imbued with ‘burning charity’ towards all those to whom Christ’s mission was directed.

…In response to this interior willingness of His Mother, Jesus Christ prepared her ever more completely to become for all people their ‘mother in the order of grace’ (39).

Thus, in her new motherhood in the Spirit, Mary embraces each and every one in the Church, and embraces each and every one through the Church (47).

Question for reflection: How does the Blessed Virgin Mary help me to be a better disciple?

Engaging the Gospel – Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Exaltation of the Holy Cross: Gospel – John 3:13-17

We could never heal our own brokenness, never restore our relationship with God, never attain the eternal blessedness of heaven, by our own devices.

So out of His great love for us, God took the initiative in a design that unfolded throughout salvation history. He sent His Son, Jesus, to become man, and brought about our redemption through the mystery of His Cross.

Jesus’ “redemptive passion was the very reason for His Incarnation,” and “the desire to embrace His Father’s plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus’ whole life” (Catechism paragraph 607).

“The sign of the Cross is a kind of synthesis of our faith,” as Benedict XVI explains:

for it tells how much God loves us; it tells us that there is a love in this world that is stronger than death, stronger than our weaknesses and sins. The power of love is stronger than the evil which threatens us…

Are we able to understand that in the Crucified One of Golgotha, our dignity as children of God, tarnished by sin, is restored to us? Let us turn our gaze towards Christ. It is He who will make us free to love as He loves us, and to build a reconciled world.

For on this Cross, Jesus took upon Himself the weight of all the sufferings and injustices of our humanity. He bore the humiliation and the discrimination, the torture suffered in many parts of the world by so many of our brothers and sisters for love of Christ.

Because the power of God transformed this cruel death into a means of life, we can rightly see the Cross as a sign of victory:

And the Church invites us proudly to lift up this glorious Cross so that the world can see the full extent of the love of the Crucified One for mankind, for every man and woman. She invites us to give thanks to God because from a tree which brought death, life has burst out anew.

—Homily of September 14, 2008.

Question for reflection: How does it feel to know that God went to such great lengths to save me?

Uniting with Jesus’ Prayer

We should never feel alone or isolated in prayer: made God’s children in Baptism, we are conformed to Christ, and so caught up in the Son’s “filial prayer” to the Father.

Jesus’ prayer is described in the Gospels – His great love for the Father, absolute acceptance of His will, and heartfelt thanksgiving, poured out even before His request is granted.

Now enthroned at the Father’s right hand, Christ continues to pray unceasingly as our High Priest in heaven.

And because we are members of the Body of Christ, He actually prays within us!

St. Augustine captures this beautiful mystery:

He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Therefore let us acknowledge our voice in Him and His in us.

–quoted in Catechism paragraph 2616.

For more, see Catechism paragraphs 2598-2606, 2746-51.

Engaging the Gospel – Matthew 13:1-23

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Gospel – Matthew 13:1-23

The Parable of the Sower

“Christianity is the religion of the ‘Word’ of God, not a written and mute word, but incarnate and living” (Catechism paragraph 108).

Jesus, the Eternal Word made flesh, describes this mystery in the Parable of the Sower.

“In the parables,” as Pope Benedict XVI has noted, “Jesus is not only the sower who scatters the seed of God’s word, but also the seed that falls into the earth in order to die and so to bear fruit,” through His Cross and Resurrection (Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1, p. 191).

God’s word can take root and bear fruit in our lives, but only if we are open and receptive, and allow it to work within us.

Benedict commented upon this dynamic relationship in Verbum Domini:

Every man and woman appears as someone to whom the word speaks, challenges and calls to enter this dialogue of love through a free response.

Each of us is thus enabled by God to hear and respond to His word. We were created in the word and we live in the word; we cannot understand ourselves unless we are open to this dialogue.

— Verbum Domini, 22.

But at the same time,

The word of God also inevitably reveals the tragic possibility that human freedom can withdraw from this covenant dialogue with God for which we were created. The divine word also discloses the sin that lurks in the human heart.

Quite frequently in both the Old and in the New Testament, we find sin described as a refusal to hear the word, as a breaking of the covenant and thus as being closed to God who calls us to communion with Himself. Sacred Scripture shows how man’s sin is essentially disobedience and refusal to hear.

— Verbum Domini, 26.

Question for reflection: How might I allow the Word to bear greater fruit in my life?

Engaging the Gospel – Most Holy Trinity

Most Holy Trinity: Gospel – John 3:16-18

The divine life revealed as a communion of love

“By sending His only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed His innermost secret: God Himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and He has destined us to share in that exchange” (Catechism paragraph 221).

“God is one, but not solitary” (254), for He is “one God in three Persons” (253), the Most Holy Trinity.

Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard of sense: He is Father not only in being Creator; He is eternally Father by His relationship to His only Son” (240), the Eternal Word, Who became flesh to redeem us (422-23).

The Holy Spirit has been described as the eternal Love between the Father and Son: “The Spirit is inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the Trinity and His gift of love for the world” (689).

Indeed, love is God’s “first gift, containing all others” (733), communicating to us “the very life of the Holy Trinity, which is to love as God loved us” (735).

Pope Benedict XVI has explored the meaning of this divine revelation in his encyclical God Is Love:

God “loves with a personal love” (9), as a “lover with all the passion of a true love.”

But this seeking-love is simultaneously a self-giving love, which leads directly to the “mystery of the Cross: so great is God’s love for man that by becoming man He follows him even into death” (10). “This is love in its most radical form. By contemplating the pierced side of Christ…it is from there that our definition of love must begin” (12).

Question for reflection: How have I come to believe in God’s love for me?

Engaging the Gospel – Matthew 5:38-48

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Gospel: Matthew 5:38-48

Jesus continues to perfect the Law, revealing His divine authority

Today’s Gospel is a seamless continuation from last Sunday, with Jesus perfecting the Old Law in His teaching of the New Law. Beyond just instructing us in His Law, Jesus also embodied it, living it out perfectly to become a model for us.

“Jesus could say to His disciples not only and not merely, ‘Follow My law,’ but, ‘Follow Me, imitate Me, walk in the light which comes from Me,’” as Blessed John Paul II summarized.

Why must we do so? Because Jesus reveals Himself as God:

In the important passages of the Sermon on the Mount, the contraposition is repeated, ‘You have heard that it was said….But I say to you.’ This was not to abolish the divine law of the old covenant, but to indicate its perfect fulfillment…

He did so by claiming for Himself an authority identical with that of God the lawgiver. It can be said that in that expression repeated six times, ‘I say to you,’ there resounds the echo of God’s self-definition, which Jesus also attributes to Himself, ‘I Am.’

John Paul II also noted how this struck Jesus’ audience:

It is a witness to us that the people immediately recognized the difference between Christ’s teaching and that of the Israelite scribes, not only in manner but also in substance. The scribes based their teaching on the text of the Mosaic Law, of which they were the interpreters and glossators. Jesus did not at all follow the method of a teacher or commentator of the old law.

— General Audience, October 14, 1987.

Question for reflection: What concrete steps might I take to act more charitably?

The Blessed Virgin Mary

Summary of Catechism paragraphs 484-511, 963-75:

• The Blessed Virgin Mary was specially chosen by God to be the mother of Christ; conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus took His human nature entirely from her.
• To prepare Mary for her extraordinary role in salvation history, God filled her with extraordinary gifts and graces.
• All of our teachings about Mary are intensely Christ-focused: everything we believe about the Blessed Mother flows from, and integrally connects with, what we believe about Christ.
• Because Jesus is true God and true man in one Person, we honor Mary as the Mother of God – our Western rendering of the Greek Theotokos, or “God-bearer,” her title ratified by the Council of Ephesus in response to heresy in 431.
• By a signal grace of God, Mary was preserved from the stain of original sin when she was conceived by her parents; for this reason, we hail her as the Immaculate Conception, who remained sinless for her entire life.
• Yet Mary was still in fact redeemed by her Son; Christ’s grace was given to her in advance, unlike the rest of us, who receive redemption after we are stained by sin.
• Because Mary was in a wholly unique way set apart for God, we hold the truth of her Perpetual Virginity; she fulfills the Old Testament imagery of the Ark of the Covenant, consecrated to God alone.
• Being perfectly free from sin, Mary was able to give herself freely and unreservedly to accomplish God’s saving plan; even beyond consenting to become Jesus’ mother, she has continually devoted herself to His mission.
• Because of her perfect union with Christ, Mary was taken up into heaven, body and soul, at the conclusion of her earthly life; we celebrate her Assumption as the prefiguration of our own resurrection at the end of time.
• Mary is our mother too, as we all belong to the Body of Christ, and she actively intercedes for us before the throne of God.

Live Your Faith

Devotion to the Blessed Mother has an ancient pedigree in the Church.

The apostolic faith has never seen a rivalry between God and Mary, as if venerating her were somehow taking something away from God. It’s actually the opposite: we give greater glory to God by praising what He has accomplished in Mary.

Moreover, Jesus Himself gave us His mother from the Cross. Would it not grieve Him if we neglected her, and thereby failed to attain all of the graces He wants to give us through her?

The Person of Jesus Christ

Summary of Catechism paragraphs 422-83:

• Jesus Christ is the very heart of the teaching of our faith; indeed, the ultimate purpose of catechesis is to lead us into communion with Him.
• The defining characteristic of the Christian faith is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God who became man – the doctrine known as the “Incarnation.”
• The Eternal Word of the Father took on flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary to reconcile us with God, save us from our sins, show forth God’s love, teach us to be holy, and raise us up to share in His own divine life.
• The very name “Jesus” reveals His identity and redemptive mission, for its Hebrew form means “God saves.”
• “Christ” is the title that describes His mission; deriving from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, the term refers to the One “anointed” by God to inaugurate His kingdom.
• Jesus is anointed, or consecrated, by the Spirit as priest, prophet, and king; these offices are first glimpsed in the Old Testament, where they serve as precursors to their fulfillment in Christ.
• Similarly, “son of God” is a title used in the Old Testament, but only in the sense of a sonship granted by adoption; Jesus is the Son of God in a radically different way, being His only Son by nature, and a divine Person Himself.
• Jesus’ divinity is clearly recognized in the New Testament through the use of the divine title “Lord” – the same word that appears in the Old Testament as a substitution for God’s own name, YHWH; thus Jesus is God Himself.
•  Jesus is fully God and fully man, not a little bit of both; He is one divine Person with two natures, the divine and the human, in perfect union; known as the hypostatic union, this doctrine was articulated at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 in response to heresy.
• This truth has profound implications: Jesus has united Himself to us and truly entered into our experience of human life – growing up, having to eat and sleep, taking care of daily responsibilities – becoming like us in all things except sin.

Live Your Faith

Our personal encounter with Jesus is the essence of Christianity. If we are not on intimate terms with our Lord and Savior, we are missing the entire point.

It is our relationship with the Person of Jesus Christ that fuels our prayer, drives our hunger for the Eucharist, sparks our desire to please Him in all things, and fires our enthusiasm for sharing our faith with others.

Jesus wants to draw us closer; don’t keep Him waiting!

The Holy Trinity

Summary of Catechism paragraphs 232-67:

• The Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christianity, for this truth is fundamental to all other teachings of the faith.
• This is the revealed truth that there is one God in three divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in an eternal communion of love.
• There is unity in the Godhead because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in the divine substance.
• Yet at the same time, each Person is distinct in terms of His relationship to the other divine Persons.
• In one sense, God is called Father because He is the Creator, and a loving parent to His people.
• But Christ reveals how God is Father “in an unheard-of sense” — that from all eternity, He is Father in relation to His only Son.
• The Son, who became man in Christ, reveals the Father; the Son is the image of the Father, the radiance of His glory, His Eternal Word.
• The Father has forever had this divine image of Himself; therefore we proclaim that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and consubstantial with Him, meaning of the same divine substance.
• Proceeding from the loving communion of the Father and the Son is another divine Person, the Holy Spirit; God the Holy Spirit has been described as the Eternal Love between the Father and the Son.
• The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are at work throughout all of salvation history, and His eternal plan is to draw us into the Holy Trinity’s communion of love.

Live Your Faith

Although the mystery of God’s own interior life exceeds the limited capacity of our human minds, we do not need to understand it fully in order to appreciate its richness.

The fact that God is Himself a communion of Persons has implications for the way we live. God is one, but not a solitary, remote, inaccessible figure in stark isolation.

If God gives and receives love within Himself, so are we, who are made in His image and likeness, designed to live in loving communion with others.

Truths of Faith in the Creeds

Summary of Catechism paragraphs 166-84 and 185-97:

• Although faith is a personal act, it is not isolated, but by its very nature is inculcated, nurtured, and lived in communion — that is, the Church.
• The Church communicates the truths of the faith to its members, through word and sacrament; therefore the Church precedes us in belief, and by instilling the divine life within us, serves as our mother in faith.
• By articulating these truths, the Church teaches us the language of faith.
• The most elemental truths are summarized in what we call creeds, a term deriving from the Latin credo, “I believe,” typically the first word of these statements.
• Creeds were first composed as a preparation for the profession of faith at Baptism.
• There have been a number of creeds promulgated over time, and all have enduring value as testimony to our faith; two have been especially significant in the life of the Church, the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.
• The Apostles’ Creed, which we say at the beginning of the Rosary, is the ancient baptismal formula of the Church of Rome.
• The Nicene Creed, which we profess at Mass, was published as the result of the first two Ecumenical Councils of the Church (Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381) and is technically termed the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.
• The Council of Nicaea was called in response to the heresy known as Arianism, after its founder Arius, who denied the divinity of Christ; the Council Fathers condemned that notion and lyrically described the truth that Jesus is fully divine.
• The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed remains the touchstone of belief for most Christian denominations, even many of those who otherwise deny the authority of bishops.

Live Your Faith

The background on the Apostles’ Creed and Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed illustrates the importance of knowing Church history. If you have ever struggled with an aspect of our Catholic faith, or wondered why we believe and worship as we do, delve into our 2,000-year heritage, dating back to Christ himself.

As Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman famously said, “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.”