Each Sunday and Solemnity we recite the Creed at Mass. It is the bridge between the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Although we use the first person singular and affirm that I as an individual Christian accept and believe in what the Creed proposes, it is understood to be a common proclamation of a shared faith. The Creed, whether it be the shorter Apostles’ Creed or that (more commonly used) composed in its present form at the ecumenical councils of Nicea/Constantinople [AD 325/381], is a bold statement of belief of amazing durability.

There have been what we now call tweaks to the text over the centuries and the celebrated filioque clause continues to divide the Latin Church from the Orthodox, yet virtually all the words employed and the assertions they articulate go back to the dawn of Christianity. A public acknowledgment of the truths the Creed proposes was from earliest days the sine qua non for reception of the Sacrament of Baptism and thus admittance to and membership of Christ’s Church.