The Creed and The Lords Prayer RCIA St

The Creed and The Lord’s Prayer RCIA St. Teresa of Avila

St. Augustine in his concern for the Elect emphasized four areas that should be embraced: The Creed The Lord’s Prayer The Fount (Baptism) The Table (Holy Eucharist) • It is important that you as the Elect and also our Candidates profess our Catholic beliefs as found in our Creeds. • Also that we embrace Jesus’ teachings in the Lord’s Prayer

During the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation you will be asked to make a Profession of Faith: v Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth? v Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, Our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father? v Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting?

The Creed Our creeds are definitive statements of Christian belief Early in the Church there were many creeds. Over time they became longer and more detailed as the Church was faced with doctrinal challenges and heresy Today we have two major creeds • The Apostles Creed The Nicene Creed

The Creed is the bare minimum that one needs to believe to be a Catholic Several doctrines of Catholicism are not included in the creeds due to the fact that they were never questioned or challenged: • • • True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist Marian Doctrines Immaculate Conception Mother of God Perpetual Virginity Assumption

The Holy Trinity

The Apostles Creed 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 Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; On the third day he rose again. 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. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer “Our Father” The Lord’s Prayer is the fundamental prayer for all Christianity. It is the summary of the whole Gospel and the quintessential prayer of the Church …the most perfect of prayers. But Jesus does not give us a formula to repeat mechanically. Jesus not only gives us the words of our prayer but at the same time he gives us the Spirit by whom these words become in us "spirit and life. " In Baptism and Confirmation, the handing on of the Lord's Prayer signifies new birth into the divine life

The Lord’s Prayer Our Father The Lord’s Prayer in its current form has been discovered in three texts: Matthew, Luke, and the Didache (1 st century teachings; possibly apostolic). The Lord’s Prayer was given to us from the lips of Jesus and the authenticity of Jesus as the author of the Lord’s Prayer is not questioned. The version in Luke is shorter and believed by many scholars to be the original version. Luke presents the Lord’s Prayer in response to one of the disciples asking Jesus to teach them (the disciples) to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples. (Lk 11: 1) Matthew presents the prayer in the Sermon on the Mount in the setting of Jesus’ teachings on piety.

Our Father. . . This part of the prayer is called the invocation. Its purpose is to identify God to whom the prayer is addressed. All Jewish prayers would have begun with an address or invocation. It remains controversial if Jewish prayers of the Old Testament would have addressed God as Father.

“Father” The metaphor of God as "father" expresses the belief that God is the creator of all life, and that all existence is properly understood as a divine gift. It suggests for us a special relationship manifested by a childlike(unconditional) trust, intimacy, and readiness of access (Our God is near, accessible, not distant) Through our baptism we become children of God and are able to call God Father, as did Jesus (Abba) We can invoke God as "Father" because he is revealed to us by his Son and because the Holy Spirit makes him known to us

“Our” The possessive pronoun "our" places God and all human life, in a clear relationship. When we pray the Lord's Prayer we are praying not only on behalf of ourselves but of all human beings. It is an overt recognition that we stand in relationship to God and each other. In other words, we should not begin to ask God for anything we are not willing to ask on behalf of all human beings.

“Who Art In Heaven" This biblical expression does not mean a place (a physical space), but a way of being (a spiritual state) It does not mean that God is distant, but majestic and divine. Our Father is not "elsewhere: " He transcends everything we can conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice holy (Holy, Holy) that he is so close to the humble and contrite heart.

Hallowed Be Thy Name The first petition requests that God's name be made holy. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his plan of loving kindness and mercy that we might "be holy and blameless before him in love. ” We are asking God to make Himself holy in us. In the waters of Baptism, we are "washed. . . sanctified. . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit. Our Father calls us to holiness

Thy Kingdom Come The fullness of the Kingdom of God lies ahead of us. It is brought near in Jesus; it is proclaimed throughout the whole Gospel, and it has come in Christ's death and Resurrection. The kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to his Father The proclamation of the near arrival of God’s kingdom is the central message of Jesus, and along with the resurrection the basis and object of Christian hope. The prayer presupposes that the kingdom is not yet here in its fullness and thus represents a future eschatology.

Thy Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven This petition is an expansion of the previous petition, “Thy Kingdom Come” That God’s will be done is an interpretation of the coming of the kingdom. Its fulfillment is found in Jesus’ complete surrender to the will of God. Our prayer for the “coming of the kingdom” is a prayer for the coming of Christ

Thy Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven Our Father "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. " We ask our Father to unite our will to his Son's, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for the life of the world. Through prayer we can discern "what is the will of God" and obtain the endurance to do it. Jesus teaches us that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by speaking words, but by doing "the will of my Father in heaven. "

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread "Give us” reflects the trust of children who look to their Father for everything. Jesus teaches us this petition, because it glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all goodness. This "us" recognizes God as the Father of all men and we pray to him for them all

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread "Our bread": The Father who gives us life cannot forsake us the nourishment life requires - all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists on our trust in our Father's providence. But He is not inviting us to idleness but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread "This day" is also an expression of trust taught us by the Lord, In this context, its heavenly meaning is evident: “This day" is the Day of the Lord, the day of the feast of the kingdom, anticipated in the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come. The Eucharist is our daily bread. Its effect is understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive. . . The Body of Christ This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and sing.

Forgive Us Our Trespasses As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "

Forgive Us Our Trespasses as We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us This petition amounts to a request for divine mercy This clause presupposes mutuality and asserts some connection between our treatment of one another and God’s treatment of us, but does not affirm an exact proportionality. God is more merciful and generous than we are (or could ever be)

And Lead Us Not To Temptation This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father not to "lead" us into temptation. " We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin.

But Deliver Us From Evil “Whether evil comes from other men, inner impulse, circumstances, or the enemy, the prayer for deliverance is appropriate and we may be asked to be spared the final, overwhelming test” Some would say that in this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The one who "throws himself across" God's plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ. Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all creation will be "freed from the corruption of sin and death. " The theology of the Lord's Prayer teaches us that we have an obligation to work together with God to abolish evil and meet basic human needs. In this activity we bring about God's kingdom through our voluntary submission to God will.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, for ever. Amen. " This is referred to as the doxology of the Lord's prayer. It is felt to be a later addition that evolved through its use in liturgical prayer. Many feel the addition makes the Lord’s Prayer a more complete act of worship. It expands the meaning of each petition and gives “substance to the hope expressed”

For Thine Is The Kingdom, And The Power, And The Glory, For Ever. Amen. " Some early Church fathers, such as Origen, Tertullian and Cyprian, omit the doxology, proving that some or perhaps many early Christians did not accept the doxology. The Catholic translations of The Lord's prayer in Matthew 6: 9 -13 and in Luke 11: 2 -4 do not include the doxology. The doxology appears in later manuscripts though not in the original texts. There exist several versions of the doxology reflecting progressive evolution of the passage. This suggests that “liturgical development was still in progress before the text of Matthew became settled” (Buttrick 157).

The Nicene Creed I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer Matthew 6: 9 -13 Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not unto temptation but deliver us from evil