Creed (Part 1)

• From the Latin word “Credo” which means “I believe”

• Baptism – we first receive the rule of faith, the Creed
• 2 Principal Catholic Creeds
Apostle’s Creed – a summary of what the apostles believed; recited at Sunday
Masses
Nicene Creed – promulgated during the First Council of Constantinople in 381
• Creeds were handed down to us through Catholic Tradition (Sacred Tradition)
and by the Magisterium – the teaching authority of the Church.

Functions/Uses of the Creed

1. Summary of basic Catholic beliefs – necessary to the Church and to individual
Catholics
For communicating the Christian message to the world (paghahatid ng ating
pananampalataya sa mundo)
To be always anchored in the truth of Jesus Christ (upang laging nakabatay sa
katotohan ni Hesus)
For uniting Catholics in a common faith (upang mapagkaisa ang lahat ng
Katoliko sa iisang pananampalataya)
For interreligious dialogue with non-Christians (sa pakikipag dayalogo sa
mga di-Kristiyano)

2. Pledge of Loyalty (Pagpapahayag ng Katapatan sa Diyos at sa Simbahan)

These are public confessions of the Christian faith in the Triune God (Holy
Trinity)
For praising God
For stating loyalty to the Church (“Church of the living God, the pillar and
foundation of the truth.” 1 Tim 3:15)
Creed is an “apologetic” for the Christian faith (Apologetic  defense of the
faith against those who “oppose the truth” and “falsify the faith” 2 Tim 3:8)

3. Proclaims Who We Are (Pagpapahayag ng ating pagkakakilanlan)

Our basic identity is that God recreated us through Christ in the Holy Spirit into
one community. (Nilikhang muli ng Diyos sa pamamagitan ng pagpapakasakit,
pagkamatay at muling pagkabuhay ni Kristo upang maging isang Sambayanang
Kristiyano)
All the baptized can now boast “I have been crucified with Christ and I no
longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
Creed – tells all who we are and what we stand for as disciples of Christ.

Biblical Creeds
• Early expressions of belief in Sacred Scripture
Old Testament:

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“For the LORD is our judge, The LORD is our lawgiver, The LORD is our king; He will
save us.” Isaiah 33:22
You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides
him there is no other. Deuteronomy 4:35
New Testament: Creeds centered on the Risen Christ.
“The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him
on a cross. 31“He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a
Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. Acts 5:30-31

Liturgical/Catechetical Creeds
• Liturgical acclamations in the early Christian Church developed  these are
declarations of faith in worship
“There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over
all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:5-6
• Catechetical Creeds  used for preparing converts for Baptism
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the
third day according to the Scriptures.” 1 Cor 15:3-5

Early Creeds
• Professions of faith (pagpapahayag ng pananampalataya)
• Used in Baptism – to narrate the saving events on which the Christian faith is
based
• Focused on:
God’s creating act
God’s redeeming act through Jesus Christ
God’s sanctifying presence through the Holy Spirit
• These gave rise to the “Trinitarian pattern of the classic Creeds”

Apostle's Creed
• A formula containing in brief statements the basic articles of Christian belief
• General belief in the Church is that the Apostle’s Creed was put together by the
Apostles on the day of the Pentecost, under the guidance/inspiration of the
Holy Spirit.
• Also called by early Christians the Greek word “Symbol” – a token or password
by which Christians might recognize each other

Nicene Creed
• Nicene Creed was defined because of the heresies of Arius.
• Approved in the Council of Constantinople (381)
• The profession of the Christian Faith common to
the Catholic Church
all the Eastern Churches separated from Rome
most of the Protestant denominations
• Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed – the need to further define the Christian faith
in response to more heresies of Arian followers.

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Arian Heresy: That Jesus Christ is the Son of God who was created by God the
Father, is different from the Father and is therefore subordinate to (lower than) the
Father. Arian teachings were first attributed to Arius (c. AD 250–336), a Christian
presbyter (priest) in Alexandria, Egypt.

Purpose of Man's Existence

• God created us to live with Him in His happy home in heaven. He sent His
Son, Jesus Christ, to lead us to heaven.
• Jesus leads us with love and protection as a Good Shepherd leads his flock.
• Jesus teaches us to worship God. As we follow Jesus, His Sheep, He teaches us to
love and help one another, serve God and worship Him together.
• Worship of God = Liturgy
• God is pleased when we join together to worship Him. The Mass is the highest
form of worshipping God because there we receive God entirely in His Body,
Blood, Soul and Divinity. In the Mass, God Himself is the Priest and also the
Sacrifice. We are taken back to Calvary to witness God giving Himself up for us in
order to save us and return us to Himself.

Catechism:
• Who made us?
God made us.
• Who is God?
God is the Supreme Being who made all things.
• Why did God make us?
God made us to show his goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in
heaven.
• What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven?
We must know, love, and serve God in this world.
• From whom do we learn to know, love and serve God?
From Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who teaches us through the Catholic Church. The
Church is the flock of Christ. In this flock we follow the Good Shepherd. We listen to
Him teaching us what to do.
• Where do we find the chief truths taught by Jesus Christ through the
Catholic Church?
In the Apostle’s Creed. It is called so because in it are all the chief truths that Jesus
taught His apostles.

God and His Perfections:

“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth
• Jesus taught us about His Father
We cannot see God. Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth to teach us about His Father
in heaven. “No one has at any time seen God. The only begotten Son… He has
revealed Him.” (John 1:18) By Jesus’ word and action, Jesus taught us what the
Father is like.
• God knows all things.

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By calming the storm at sea, Jesus showed us that the Father knows all things. Even
though He was asleep, Jesus knew there was a storm. God is ALL KNOWING.
• God can do all things.
Science tells us that a storm has the power of may atom bombs yet with only 1 word,
our Lord calmed the storm. God is ALMIGHTY.
• God is all good.
Jesus showed us that God is all good. He calmed the storm so that no harm would
come to those He loved.
• All these qualities of God are called His Perfections. He has these powers
without limit. We praise the perfections of God in the Mass, especially in the
“GLORIA”. We call this “adoration”.

Catechism
• Why is God called the ‘Supreme Being’
Because He is above all creatures.
• What do we mean when we say God is eternal?
He always was and always will be, and that He always remains the same.
• What do we mean when we say that God is all knowing?
He knows all things, past, present, and future, even our most secret thoughts, words
and actions. We may be able to hide things from other people but we cannot hide
anything from God. He knows everything.
• Why do we say that God is all present?
He is everywhere. God is in this room even if we cannot see Him. He is always with
us to help and protect us.
• Does God see us?
God sees us and watches over us with loving care.
• Why do we say that God is almighty?
He can do all things. There is a limit to what man can do. But there is no limit to
what God can do. He has all power.

The Unity and Trinity of God

• Three Persons in One God
Jesus told His disciple to baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit.”
He made it clear that He and the Father and the Holy Spirit are ONE.
They are different “PERSONS” but only ONE GOD.
• Mystery of the Trinity
A mystery is a deep truth that can only be understood with the eyes of faith.
We believe in the truth of the Trinitarian God because Jesus told us so. We will not
understand this until we reach heaven. We call this mystery of three Persons in One
God  “BLESSED TRINITY”

Catechism
• Is there only one God? – Yes
• How many persons are there in God?

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In God there are three Divine Persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
NOT 3 Gods but only ONE GOD.
God is NOT 1/3 Father, 1/3 Son and 1/3 Holy Spirit
The three unique persons are a community– one with each other.
• What is the Blessed Trinity?
The same God in Three Divine Persons.

Creation and Angels:

“OF ALL THINGS VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE”
• God created all things.
Visible: the world that we live in and all that is in it.
Invisible: Our Lord who knows all things told us about this unseen creation.
• God created angels.
Angels are spirits. We cannot see them. They are not weighed down by having a
body. They have great knowledge and power.
• The Fallen Angels
Some angels were not faithful to God. They would not obey Him. They were cast out
of heaven. They are called “devils”.
• Guardian Angels
Each of us has a good angel to watch over us and keep us from harm. Our guardian
angels give us good thoughts and help us to stay close to God.

Catechism
• Why do we say that God is the Creator of heaven and earth?
Because He made all things from nothing. Man has to have some kind of material
when he makes something. He has to have stone to build a church. But God can
make something from nothing.
• Which are the chief creatures of God?
Angels and Men
• What are angels?
Angels are created spirits, without bodies. The angels cannot be seen or heard or
touched. They have much greater power than man has and they know so much
more.
• Did all the angels remain faithful to God?
Not all angels remained faithful to God; some of them sinned.
• What happened to the angels who remained faithful to God?
They entered into the eternal happiness of heaven, and these are called good angels.
The good angels are always before the throne of God. They love and adore Him and
do what He asks of them.
• How do the good angels help us?
By praying for us, by acting as messengers from God and by serving as our Guardian
Angels.
• What happened to the angels who did not remain faithful to God?
They, fallen angels or devils, were cast into hell. The bad angels use their great
power and knowledge to tempt us to sin. But our guardian angels help us not to
listen to the bad angels.

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The Incarnation:
I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD, WHO WAS CONCEIVED
BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY
• God’s Plan  To send His Son to earth to save men from their sins; to be born,
grow up, work, suffer with us (to take part in our entire human experience)
• Mary’s Fiat  Her ‘YES’ to God meant she was ready to take part in God’s plan
of salvation.
Mary’s obedience/sacrifice is no small thing! She knew her Son would have to suffer
and die for the sins of men, and she would feel it with Him. But she wanted
everything God wanted, no matter what the cost. So she said, “Yes.” Then God sent
His Son to her by the power of His Holy Spirit.
• Jesus  all powerful and almighty God, embraced poverty for us that He may
give us His riches  a share in His Divine Life.
Jesus came to share our sufferings and give us His joy
Jesus came to experience our smallness and give us a share of His greatness.
He came to lead us to His Father in heaven. He was happy to do this because He
loved us so much.

Catechism
• Did God abandon man after Adam fell into sin?
No, He did not abandon man. He promised to send into the world a Savior to free
man from his sins and to reopen to him the gates of heaven.
• Who is the savior of all men?
Jesus Christ  by taking upon Himself our humanity, his suffering, death and
resurrection, Jesus elevated our humanity. “… just as sin entered the world
through one man and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all
men, because all sinned… death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over
those who did not sin in the way that Adam transgressed. He is a pattern of the
One to come. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the
trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that
came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many!” Romans
5:12-15
• What is the chief teaching of the Catholic Church about Jesus Christ?
That He is God made man.
• Is Jesus Christ more than one Person?
Not 2 Jesus, one divine and one human but 1 Person both wholly divine and wholly
human
• How many natures has Jesus Christ?
Jesus has two natures: the nature of God and the nature of man.
A nature is WHAT someone is.
A person is WHO someone is.
• When was Jesus born?
Jesus was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Christmas Day, in Bethlehem, year 1
AD (1 year before Jesus’ birth was 1 BC) –Jesus as the anchor of history, counting of
days made with reference to Jesus’ birth.

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BC (Before Christ)  changed to “CE – Common Era”
AD (Anno Domini, Year of the Lord)  changed to “BCE – Before Common Era”
Change – a sign of Secularism (a removal of all reference to Jesus Christ in the
world)
Jesus had no earthly father. St. Joseph was His foster father and protector of both
Jesus and Mary.

The Redemption:
I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST… WHO… SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS
CRUCIFIED, DIED AND WAS BURIED; HE DESCENDED INTO HELL; ON THE
THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD; HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN,
AND IS SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY; FROM
THERE HE WILL COME TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD.
• Jesus came to show us how to love
Jesus came to show us the way to heaven – this is the way of LOVE
Jesus taught us to walk in His footsteps, to copy Him, to do everything that He does
Jesus taught us to love the Father just as He loved the Father
• He wanted to give His life for us
Even a drop of Jesus’ Blood would have been more than enough to save us from our
sins because He is God.
But His Father’s will was for Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus was willing
to do this freely because His will was fully conformed to the will of the Father.
• Why then did Jesus have to die?
The justice of God meant that man’s rejection of God (Adam’s betrayal) earned for
mankind DEATH.
But the mercy of God desired the salvation of Mankind. No man could atone for the
sin of Man because all men have sinned. All are tainted, “blemished”. It therefore
required a sinless, pure man in order to atone for the sin of all mankind.
Only God made man could satisfy God’s justice and God’s mercy.
God’s perfect love for man made Him offer His own Son to die in order to redeem
what was lost.
• Jesus died for our sins
On the first Good Friday, He took all the sins of the world on Himself and died that
they might be destroyed.
When our Lord died on the Cross  the love in the Sacred Heart of Jesus for His
Father and for us all pleased the Father much more than all the sins of the world
displeased Him.
• Jesus rose that we might rise
Because of Jesus’ obedience and love, God the Father raised His Son from the Dead
and took Him to heaven with Himself. (the right hand of the Father; the bliss of the
Father)
• Happiness in Heaven
We were created by God for Himself. This means that our greatest happiness
is to be with Him.
There are different things that make people happy. Some are happy doing
sports. Some in helping people. Others in being with friends, etc. But our

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 highest happiness is to be with God. It is written in our nature. We are built
that way.
It’s like having a great void (hole) in our hearts that only God can fill.
It’s like a newborn baby who seeks his mom.
Our earthly life was never meant to be our permanent home. It is our life of
exile away from God.
Our whole life’s purpose is to reach our true home– heaven, where God is.
Only Jesus can show us the way back to our true home.
It is a huge tragedy when people die without having found Jesus, because
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me.” Jon 14:6
• The Cross is Our Tree of Life
Jesus made the cross a new Tree of Life.
Jesus is the fruit of the tree of the cross. When we need to eat of this fruit in
order to have eternal happiness in heaven.
Jesus: “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink his blood, you have no life in you.” John 6:53
Jesus also said that if we wish to follow Him, we must bear our crosses:
Jesus: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up
their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
Crosses – our hardships, our sufferings, problems, responsibilities,
difficulties, heartaches
The Cross of Being Good All The Time – It is easy to be good sometimes. It is
hard to be good all the time

Catechism
• What is meant by our redemption?
Jesus Christ offered His sufferings and death to God in satisfaction for the sins of
men.
Christ died for our sins and rose to make us holy.
Mary shared in the sacrifice of her Son. Her heart was completely one with Jesus –
this means that Jesus’ will is her will. While Eve refused to follow God’s will, Mary
gave her freedom to God and obeyed God. She therefore helped to undo the sin of
Eve. Mary is called THE NEW EVE.
• What do we learn from the sufferings and death of Christ?
We learn of God’s love for man and the evil of sin.
We know God loves us because He died for us.
To sin is to disobey God. Every sin is a turning away from God in some way.
Think of our sins as the whip marks in the body of Jesus. Looking at the Body of
Jesus on the cross, we learn of the horror of sin. This is what sin does to a man’s
soul.
When we die to ourselves: this means we die to our selfishness and sins, we are
following our Lord Jesus.
• In the Apostle’s Creed, what do we mean by “Christ descended into hell.” 2
words that when translated to English means “hell”

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Gehenna – the place of the damned, those who go to the eternal fires of hell where
the devils are
Sheol – the place or state of rest of souls of the just; the “bosom of Abraham”. (story
of the Rich Man and Lazarus Luke 16:22-23). This is the “hell” referred to in the
Creed.
Jesus set free the souls of the just in Sheol and opened the gates of Heaven to them.
• Jesus’ Resurrection – on the third day after His death
• Jesus’ Ascension – 40 days after His resurrection
• What do we mean when we say that Christ sits at the right hand of God, the
Father Almighty?
Jesus a God – is equal to the Father (God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are CO-
EQUAL and CO-ETERNAL)
Jesus as Man – He has the highest place in heaven, next to God. The “right hand” of
the Father also symbolizes the happiness of the Father: “You make known to me the
path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your
right hand.” Psalm 16:11
• What do we mean when we say that Christ will come to judge the living and
the dead?
On the last day, our Lord will come to judge everyone who has ever lived in the
world.
The “Last Day” – the day that the Church is waiting and praying for.
• It will be a glorious day for those who love Christ.
• Our Lord will destroy all the enemies of His sheep and lead all His
loved ones with Him to His Father in heaven.

The Holy Spirit and Grace

“I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT…”
The Holy Spirit is “Living Water” to Our Souls
• 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity
• Our spiritual life is a garden. The Holy Spirit is the living water that gives lif
e to our soul. We call this living water/life  GRACE
• Without the living water of the Holy Spirit (or GRACE)  our soul would be dry
and lifeless
Psalm 62: King David sang “O God, You are my God Whom I seek; for You my flesh
pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched (dry), lifeless and without water.”

SACRAMENTS = How God pours His Grace/Living Water on us

The principal ways we receive God’s Grace:
• When a baby is baptized
• When we go to Confession (to a priest)
• When we go to Mass and receive Holy Communion
• When we are confirmed
• When a man and woman get married
• When a man is ordained to the priesthood
• When a sick person is given the anointing of the sick
• We also receive God’s grace when we pray and when we desire to do good.

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Symbols of the Holy Spirit
• Water – gives life; cleanses
• Dove – a symbol of love
• Tongues of fire (Pentecost) – also symbols of love
• Wind – the “breath of God”; a symbol of the unseen power of love.

Catechism
• Who is the Holy Spirit?
The 3rd Person in the Holy Trinity – co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the
Son
• What does the Holy Spirit do for the salvation of Mankind?
The Holy Spirit makes the soul holy by giving it grace, which is Christ’s life in us.
• What are the kinds of grace?
Sanctifying Grace
Actual Grace

Two Kinds of Grace

• Sanctifying Grace
Makes us holy and pleasing to God
Makes us adopted children of God
Makes us temples of the Holy Spirit
Gives us the right to heaven
• Actual Grace
Supernatural help of God, which enlightens our mind and strengthens our will to do
good and avoid evil. God gives these actual graces when we need them.

GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

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FRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

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