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Professing the Creed for the Year of Faith

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CREDO: Professing the Creed for the Year of Faith

In his Apostolic Letter announcing the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict exhorts us to find a way to publicly profess the creed: “Religious communities as well as parish communities, and all ecclesial bodies old and new, are to find a way, during this Year, to make a public profession of the Credo.”

Although the online community is not a formal ecclesial body, Pope Benedict has previously addressed the reality of believers in this virtual space and the need for those of us who inhabit it to to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this “digital continent”. Therefore, I think it altogether fitting and proper for those of us who are at home in this digital world to heed this call to “make a public profession of the Credo.”

In building the Archdiocese of Boston’s Year of Faith website Dom included a page on the Nicene Creed hyperlinked to the corresponding sections of the Catechism. I thought that was a pretty awesome idea (and a really beautiful website); but I kept thinking it would be also great if someone were to host something like Jennifer Fulwiler’s series of blog posts on the Lord’s prayer: Our Father, Word by Word and Sarah Reinhard’s Looking Closer at the Hail Mary series. Well, even though I feel completely incompetent to organize such a huge project while six months pregnant with my fifth child, it seems to me that because the idea occurred to me, that someone is…me.

The creed is obviously much too long to take word by word so I have chosen to divide it into phrases instead—47 of them to be precise.  And I have invited some of my favorite bloggers to write a reflection on what one of those phrases means to them. I will post these reflections once a week, beginning this Thursday, October 11, which marks the formal opening of the Year of Faith and is also the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican II and the tenth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The series won’t quite stretch to the end of the Year of Faith on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King, on 24 November 2013; but will take us to the end of August.

Pope Benedict further exhorts us: “We want this Year to arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope.” I hope that this series will help us all to make our profession with renewed conviction.

“To rediscover the content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed, and to reflect on the act of faith, is a task that every believer must make his own, especially in the course of this Year.” I hope that you, dear readers, will join us as we contemplate the creed and add your own thoughts and reflections in the comments.
Follow the hyperlinked phrases below to navigate to the individual posts, which will appear every Thursday:

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

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