Faith

A creed is a list of tenets that those who profess it -- spoken or chanted -- commit both to believe and to promote by deed and word.

Father Robert M.
O'Grady

Each Sunday and solemnity, following a period of reflection after the homily, we recite or chant the Creed. There are two options: The Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed.
We are hearing a good deal about the former these days as Pope Leo XIV makes a pastoral visit to Turkey and Lebanon. The stop in Turkey was precisely to visit an archaeological site near the place of the Council of Nicaea, which wrote the Creed. Some adjustments were made a few hundred years later at a Council in Constantinople. It is that version which serves as the basis for the Creed, which is familiar to us from Sunday Mass.
A creed is a list of tenets that those who profess it -- spoken or chanted -- commit both to believe and to promote by deed and word.
Both options proposed for Mass are obviously Trinitarian -- they spell out or officially state what all Christians hold to be the professed faith of the church in our God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We also profess our faith about the church, the sacraments, and life and death.
Any other teaching of the church ought to be able to be traced back to the content of one of these creeds.

Why every Sunday? The short explanation is that Sunday Masses took their form from the celebration of Easter. So, we might hear "each Sunday is a little Easter," some would remind us of this connection by adding immediately, "Easter is the BIG Sunday." The point is the Easter connection. For at Easter, the newly baptized are questioned about their faith using the Apostles Creed in the form of questions and answers. At Easter, we renew our baptismal promises. And really, each Sunday, we do this by reciting or chanting the words of the Nicene Creed.
Coincidentally, just a few days ago, Pope Leo XIV released a letter prior to his departure for his first pilgrimage and as a reflection on the Creed whose 1700th anniversary Christians observed this year. The letter is entitled "In the Unity of Faith." With clarity and precision, the Holy Father speaks of the Creed and its formulation. He invites us to pay more attention to it as we recite, or better, pray it at Mass. Homilists may use this as a jumping-off point if they opt to preach about the Creed, especially appropriate during the Lenten season when we review our faith and our practice and are joining with those catechumens who are preparing for the Easter sacraments.
You can find the English text here: www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/apost_letters/documents/20251123-in-unitate-fidei.html.
The text of the Nicene Creed is here: www.usccb.org/prayers/nicene-creed.
As mentioned above, there is another option for the Creed, and that is the Apostles' Creed. Here it is: www.usccb.org/prayers/apostles-creed.
Readers who pray the holy rosary are certainly very familiar with this Creed, as it is the one with which we begin the recitation of the rosary "on the crucifix," as the directions for celebrating the rosary urge. This is one of the many fine examples in Catholic life where the liturgy and popular devotion intersect.
This rubrical option appears in the Order of Mass in the Roman Missal 2011 at #19. "Instead of the Niceno?Constantinopolitan Creed, especially during Lent and Easter Time, the baptismal Symbol of the Roman Church, known as The Apostles' Creed, may be used."
The Creed is not to be omitted, except when there is the renewal of the baptismal promises usually with the sprinkling and preferably during the Easter Season. Likewise, it would be omitted when the Order of Baptism of Children is celebrated during Sunday Mass. The reason is simply that the parents and godparents with the rest of the assembly renew their own baptismal promises as happens at Easter Vigil.
In parishes where the various rites and stages of the Order of the Christian Initiation of Adults (which also includes children of catechetical age) are celebrated at Sunday Mass, we see the dismissal of the catechumens following the homily and prior to the profession of the faith in one of the creeds.
Again, the explanation is that those who have not professed the faith of the church in holy baptism, cannot truly profess that faith until they have entered the life of the church through the Easter sacraments. The seeds of their faith are being watered and nourished by their formation. Their departure can serve as a reminder to the community assembled at Mass of its responsibility not only to state their faith but to commit to living and sharing it.
Let me conclude with the words used following the profession of faith by parents and godparents at the baptism of children: "This is our faith. This is the faith of the church. We are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

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  DominionArchbishop Richard G. Henning

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  Empty Room Overflowing with ChristDaria Braithwaite

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  Pope Leo's Epiphany homily for the close of the Jubilee of HopePope Leo XIV

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  Preparation and presentationFather Robert M. O'Grady

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  Anointed onesScott Hahn