The Creed
Our word ‘creed’ comes from the the Latin ‘credo’, meaning ‘I believe’. As well as the longer Creed that we are familiar with, the Church - from the earliest times - has also spoken about a ‘kerygma’. ‘kerygma’ is a Greek word meaning (roughly) ‘proclamation’. The Christian Kerygma is the essence of what Christians believe, and it is expressed in just a few lines (1 Corinthians 15:3-5). So what is essential for us to believe?
What We Believe
Every Sunday at Mass we recite the Creed together. For the early Church this was a key way to help Christians express what is essential to know about Christianity. People had often got those essentials wrong, so the words of the Creed are written in a very definite way. There are no metaphors and there is no poetry. We can rely on these words - as they are - to increase our understanding and to shape our belief.
“Who do people say the Son of Man is?
...
Who do you say I am?”
What do people outside of the Church think and say about Jesus. What do they believe about him?
What do people think about God? What have you heard people say (including online)?
Belief
When it comes to the Catholic understanding of belief, there are three key words: Revelation, Faith and Reason.
Revelation
What has God revealed to us? How does God reveal things to us? Why does God reveal anything to us?
Faith
What does it mean to have faith? What is it? How does it come to us?
Reason
How does our intelligence come into our grasp of what we believe? Have you ever been able to believe some aspect of faith more easily because you were able to understand it?
Learing From the Saints
What difference do faith and belief make in our own lives and in our world?
Try to find out about the story of Saint Perpetua.
New Lines for the Creed?
If the Church was going to add a new line to the Creed (just one) to express what modern Christians believe, what should it say?
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