The Creed

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Welcome!

• The Creed
• Session 1 I Believe in God the Father

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Why did God create me?
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Session Schedule

• Opening Prayer
• Paired Activity
• Talk 1 I Believe in God, the Father Almighty
  
• Standing Activity
• Talk 2 Creation, Man the Fall
• Small Group Activity
• Closing Prayer

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Overview of the Catechism
IV. Christian Prayer
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Opening Prayer

• Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
• Holy God, we praise Thy Name
• Lord of all, we bow before Thee!
• All on earth Thy rule acclaim,
• All in heaven above adore Thee
• Infinite Thy vast domain,
• Everlasting is Thy reign.
• Hark! the loud celestial hymn
• Angel choirs above are raising,
• Cherubim and seraphim,
• In unceasing chorus praising
• Fill the heavens with sweet accord
• Holy, holy, holy, Lord.

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Holy God, We Praise Thy Name (cont.)

• Holy Father, Holy Son,
• Holy Spirit, Three we name Thee
• While in essence only One,
• Undivided God we claim Thee
• And adoring bend the knee,
• While we own the mystery.
• Let us pray together the Act of Faith.

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The Act of Faith

• My God, I firmly believe that you are one God in
  three divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy
  Spirit.
• Father, I believe that your divine Son became man
  and died for our sins and that he will come to
  judge the living and the dead.
• I believe these and all the truths which the Holy
  Catholic Church teaches because you have revealed
  them who are eternal truth and wisdom, who can
  neither deceive nor be deceived.
• In this faith I intend to live and die. Amen.

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Paired Activity Symbols of the Faith

• Compare Contrast
• What word or phrasespeaks to who God isfor you?

• Apostles' Creed I believe in God, the Father
  almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Nicene Creed I believe in one God, the Father
almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all
things visible and invisible.
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Talk 1 "I Believe in God, the Father
Almighty"

• Creed (Latin, credo) I believe
• Nicene Creed Councils of Nicea (325 A.D.) and
  Constantinople (381 A.D.)
• Whoever says I believe says I pledge myself
  to what we believe (CCC, n. 185)

• Faith the assent of the human person's whole
  intellect and will to God.

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The confession of God's oneness is rooted in
the divine revelation of the Old Covenant. God
is unique there is only one God. The
Christian faith confesses that God is one in
nature, substance and essence (CCC, nn.
199-200) God has revealed himself YHWH (I
am who am)
I believe in God
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Revelation and the Trinity

• We believe in a God who is One in
• nature, substance and essence
• We believe that the one God is Trinitarian
• God is three Persons in one Being or Substance
  (consubstantial)
• God reveals himself as an eternal exchange of
  Love (CCC, n. 221)
• Analogy of Lover, Beloved and the Love itself
• The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the
  central mystery of the Christian faith and life

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1 Nature (what I am) 3 Persons (who I am)
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God the Father

• In Israel, God is called Father because he is
  creator of the world
• Jesus revealed that God is Father not only by
  being creator, but by relationship to his only
  Son

• The Father and the Son are revealed by the Holy
  Spirit
• Father is source and origin of the whole divinity

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I am going to my Father and your Father (Jn
2017)

• By calling God Father, the language of faith
  indicates two main things that God is the
  first origin of everything and transcendent
  authority and that he is at the same time
  goodness and loving care for all his children We
  ought therefore to recall that God transcends
  human distinction between the sexes. He is
  neither man nor woman he is God. He also
  transcends human fatherhood and motherhood,
  although he is their origin and standard no one
  is father as God is Father. (CCC, n. 239)

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Creation and the Fall

• The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses
  figurative language, but affirms a primeval
  event, a deed that took place at the very
  beginning of the history of man. (CCC, n.
  390)
• Figurative Language tells a greater truth than
  factual language can express
• Creation accounts
• God is Creator
• Man is made in Gods image self-consciousness
  free will
• In the Fall, Man chooses self rather than God

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The Father AlmightyThe Omnipotence of God

• Universal God rules everything and can do
  everything
• Loving He is our Father!
• Mysterious His power is made perfect in
  weakness (CCC, n. 268)
• On Earth as it is in Heaven

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Standing ActivityCreation Lessons
Read Discuss one of the following
passages(a) Gen 126-31 (b) Gen 24-7 (c) Gen
218-25 What
does the passage reveal about God?What does it
reveal about the human person?
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Talk 2 Creation, Man and the Fall
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Creation and Science

• Religion asks Why is there something instead
  of nothing?
• Science cannot answer this question
• Science can show us how creation is ordered
• Science asks How and offers a natural
  explanation of natural phenomena, so Big Bang
  theory and evolution
• God created from nothing an ordered, purposeful,
  good creation

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Other Theories of Creation

• Pantheism God is the universe, not separate
  from it
• Dualism matter bad, spirit good
• Deism Dead beat dad God, or watchmaker
  God
• Materialism nothing but matter

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The Creator of Heaven and Earth

• Trinitarian God of Love is both immanent (closer
  than my inmost self) and transcendent (higher
  than the highest mountain)
• Father creates through the Son (Word) and with
  the Spirit
• Human beings reflect both the One God
• (as unique individuals), as well as
• the Three Divine Persons who create
• (as made for relationship)

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Key Truths about Creation

• Creation is the work of the Trinity
• The world was created for the glory of God
• God creates by wisdom and love
• God creates out of nothing (ex nihilo)
• God creates an ordered and good world
• God transcends creation and is present to it
• God upholds and sustains creation

The Creator in and through his Creation
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The Fall

• Human beings and Angels, as intelligent and free
  creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate
  destinies by their free choice and preferential
  love they can go astray.
• Human beings preferred self to God.
• Grace of original holiness was lost.
• Death enters human history.
• God offers the first promise of redemption (Gen
  315the womans offspring will strike at the
  head of the serpent).

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Small Group ActivityTerms and Concepts

• YHWH
• Redemption
• Genesis
• Abba
• Gods Omniopotence

• Mystery of the Blessed Trinity
• Gods Self-Revelation
• Faith
• Creation ex nihilo
• Image of God (imago dei)
• Original sin personal sin
• Apostles' Creed
• Nicene Creed
• God the Father
• The Eternal Son
• The Holy Spirit

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Why did God create me?
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Follow-up Reflection and Resources
1) Session Evaluation Feedback
2) Recommended follow-up US/CCA, ch. 5 6 I
Believe in God, and Man and Woman in the
Beginning
3) For Catechists Catholic School
Teachers Record of Formation,
includingrequired reflection documentation
4) Additional links and resources

• www.dioceseofjoliet.org/evangelization/instituteRe
  sources

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Closing Prayer Apostles Creed Nicene Creed

• 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 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.

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The Nicene Creed

• 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.