Tiber River Cafe--TRCx2--Nicene Creed

Hello, and welcome to the Tiber River Café.  My name is Dean Humphreys.  Today’s two minute topic is the Nicene Creed. 

In the early Church the apostles would summarize the basic beliefs and teachings of Christianity.  Jesus instructed us to evangelize; in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28 verse 19 Jesus said, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations”.  The Creed was fundamental to evangelization and initiation in the early Church, and 2000 years later we continue to stand and profess our faith.

We stand and declare our beliefs every Sunday at Mass after the homily.  The word ‘creed’ comes from the Latin word credo, which means “I believe”.   The Nicene Creed begins with these words, ‘I believe’.  Although we are a social community of believers, for we are social by nature, we are still unique individual beings.  The Creed is ultimately an individual statement of belief, “I believe”, but at the same time the Creed expresses the collective beliefs of the Church, our collective statement of faith.  We are a people gathered in prayer in a particular place and time, but we are united with other Catholic believers around the world.  We gather together and we stand together at Mass to express our faith. 

Catholic Christians have a set of foundational beliefs and these beliefs are summarized in our Creed which we recite at each Sunday at Mass.  These are the basic beliefs that make a Catholic a Catholic, it is our faith put into words.  The Creed is not the total deposit of our faith, but rather a summary of what the Church, of what we, believe.

So, there it is, a simple explanation of the Nicene Creed.  When we stand at Mass as the people of God and say the Creed, when we say “I believe”, we are pledging ourselves to these beliefs.  And when we truly believe this statement of faith, it must change how we see ourselves and our neighbor, it must change who we are at a foundational level.  This is our Catholic faith. 

So there you have it, a two minute overview of the Nicene Creed.  Thanks for stopping by the Tiber River Café, where there is always plenty of room at the banquet table.  I hope to see you next time.  Peace be with you.