Praying the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer

As the season of Lent nears completion adults around the world who are preparing to receive the Easter Sacraments will turn their attention to two very key and important prayers, the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. (Recall that the Lenten Journey of catechumens and candidates reflects our own Lenten journey.)

Within these prayers are the essentials of our faith.  In essence these prayers contain that which we are saying yes to when we recommit ourselves as Disciples of Christ by the renewal of our baptismal promises at Easter.  When we pray the Creed at Mass we publicly announce our belief in God as Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  By doing so we are stating that we believe in, and will try to live as (with the help of God’s grace), a community rooted in love grounded in and reflecting God’s love.  We also pray aloud our belief that God became man and dwelt among us, and through his death and resurrection won for us eternal life with God.  We call this the mystery of the Incarnation.  (This is the part of the Creed where we make a reverent bow.)

Belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation of Jesus, as well as joyfully acknowledging that we are adopted children of God, who depend on Our Father for life and grace, are the essence of our Catholic faith.  We who are preparing to renew our baptismal promises this Easter, along with those who will make those promises for the first time are invited to reflect on the beliefs we hold that root us in Jesus, whose death and resurrection we are about to remember in a very special way on Holy Week.                 

Paula Raposo, Adult Faith Formation