What a Creed Is

Every Sunday, after the homily, Catholics stand and say together what they believe. The words are older than most of the nations that now say them, and they are short enough to learn by heart. That short summary is a creed, from the Latin credo, "I believe" (CCC 187).

"I believe" and "we believe"

The Catechism begins its whole account of the faith with these two small phrases (CCC 26). Faith is personal: no one can make the act of faith for you, and it is your own free answer to the God who speaks to you. But faith is never private. No one can believe alone, any more than anyone can live alone, because we received the faith from others and we hand it on to others (CCC 166).

So the Church uses both forms. "I believe" is the faith of the Church professed by each believer, above all at Baptism. "We believe" is the same faith confessed together, by bishops gathered in council or by a congregation at Mass (CCC 167). At Mass you do both at once: you stand up for your own faith and join your voice to the Church's.

The early Christians also called a creed a symbol, from the Greek word for a token broken in two, whose halves were matched to prove who you were. Saying the Creed is a sign of recognition: it shows you belong to the community of believers (CCC 188).

Two creeds, one faith

Over the centuries the Church has written many professions of faith, but two hold a special place (CCC 192–195).

The Apostles' Creed is the ancient baptismal creed of the Church of Rome. It is called "apostolic" not because the Twelve wrote it line by line, but because it is a faithful summary of their faith (CCC 194). In the traditional wording, which anyone may say and share:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

— The Apostles' Creed (traditional wording)

The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, usually just called the Nicene Creed, comes from the first two ecumenical councils, the gatherings of the whole Church's bishops: Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381 (CCC 195). It says more about who Jesus is, because Nicaea met to answer the claim that the Son was a creature. So it calls him "God from God, Light from Light", and "consubstantial with the Father", that is, of one and the same being with him. Constantinople added fuller words about the Holy Spirit, "the Lord, the giver of life". This creed is still shared, in substance, by the great Churches of East and West (CCC 195).

When each is used

At Sunday Mass and on solemnities, the parish normally says the Nicene Creed. The Roman Missal allows the Apostles' Creed in its place, especially in Lent and Easter Time, because those seasons are so closely tied to Baptism. The Apostles' Creed is also the creed of Baptism itself, asked there as questions, and it opens the Rosary. The Catechism itself is built on the Apostles' Creed, with the Nicene Creed alongside it (CCC 196).

The shape of the Creed

Both creeds have the same three-part shape. The first part is about God the Father and the work of creation; the second about the Son and the work of our redemption; the third about the Holy Spirit, the source of our holiness (CCC 190). Everything else, the Church, forgiveness, the resurrection, eternal life, hangs from the third part, because these are the Spirit's work.

The creeds are Trinitarian because Christian faith is. We were baptised "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19), and the Creed unpacks what that name means. The following articles in this collection walk through it part by part.

What kind of act faith is

Faith is first a gift. We cannot reach it by our own effort alone; God's grace goes before us and helps us to open to him (CCC 153). But faith is also a truly human act. Believing is not a leap away from reason or a switching-off of the mind. It is the intellect agreeing to the truth that God reveals, with the will moved by grace, much as we trust a person whose word we have good reason to rely on (CCC 154–155). We believe, in the end, because of the authority of God who can neither deceive nor be deceived (CCC 156).

Faith is certain, but it is not incurious. St Anselm's phrase "faith seeking understanding" describes the believer who wants to know more and more about the One he trusts (CCC 158). And because the same God gave us both reason and revelation, faith and honest inquiry, including science, can never truly contradict each other (CCC 159).

How to begin

If the Creed has become a blur of familiar sounds, try saying it slowly once this week, alone, pausing after each line to ask: do I mean this? Where you can, say yes. Where you cannot yet, say so to God honestly. That too is faith seeking understanding.

Going deeper

• God the Father, the first part of the Creed.
• Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
• The councils, for Nicaea and Constantinople in their history.
• Read next: CCC 142–184 on faith, and CCC 185–197 on the creeds.