1 Resources for Better Understanding of the Apostles’ Creed

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; the third day He rose
again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and is seated 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 Spirit,
the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
God’s love for us
Praying and focusing on this one prayer throughout the entire year will allow
you to develop a deeper friendship with Jesus and come to realize more and
more how much He loves you. The following resources are meant to foster
this process. Please consider incorporating one simple aspect with praying
the Apostles’ Creed each week.

Why do we want to pray the Apostles’ Creed every day?

The prayer of the Apostles’ Creed helps you to realize how much God loves
you by giving you a summary of everything He has done for you.
 God the Father created you for a friendship with Himself. He
knows you by name.
 Your friendship is broken through sin.
 Jesus restores your friendship by giving His life for you through His Death and
Resurrection.
 You respond to Christ by speaking with Him in prayer each day and inviting Him to be at
the center of your life.
 You can trust Jesus. He only wants what is best for you. You will want to follow Him
more closely.

What are the goals of praying the Apostles’ Creed each day?
1) Learn the foundational truths of the Catholic Faith so as to develop and deepen your
friendship with the Person of Jesus.
2) Grow in awareness of all that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have done for you.
3) Become more aware of how much Jesus loves you.
4) With these Truths in your heart and coming to know Jesus better personally, you will
become more disposed to trust Jesus in everyday life.

Meaning of the Words

 I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth You affirm your
faith in God the Father, Creator of Heaven and earth because He has told us who He is.
He is the first Person of the Blessed Trinity. There is only one God. In God there are
three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God the Father is almighty
because He can do all things. He made all things from nothing. God is eternal: He always
was and always will be, and always remains the same. God is all-knowing: He knows all
things, past, present and future, even our most secret thoughts, words, actions. God is
2 Resources for Better Understanding of the Apostles’ Creed

all-present: He is everywhere. God sees you and watches over you with loving care.
God made you to show forth His goodness and love and to share with you His everlasting
happiness in Heaven. (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 199-421)
 And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord Jesus is the Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity. He is God and is the Savior of all of us. After Adam and Eve committed the first
sin, God promised to send a Savior into the world to free us from sins so that we could
be reunited with Him; and to reopen to us the gates of Heaven. (CCC paragraphs 422-
455)
 He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the Virgin Mary
This article teaches you that Jesus is God and He became man for you.
Mary was betrothed to Joseph which was a Jewish marriage. In the Jewish tradition of
betrothal, husband and wife did not live together for one year.
God chose to send the Savior through the free cooperation of a human person. He
prepared Mary with special gifts for this role. The Angel Gabriel was sent to Mary and
greeted her with the words, “Hail, full of grace.” The Angel used these words of
greeting to reveal that Mary was the woman of God’s promise of Genesis 3:15. God
enriched Mary with the unique gift of being conceived “full of grace” so that with her
free cooperation with God’s grace, she could be the sinless Mother of the Savior. This
is the Immaculate Conception.
The essence of the angel’s message to Mary was that she will conceive in her womb
through the power of the Holy Spirit. She will “bear a son, and He is to be named
Jesus…The child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” Mary gave her fiat,
meaning “let it be done” - her yes to the Angel Gabriel to be the Mother of the Savior.
This event is called the Incarnation which is God taking on human flesh. Only Jesus,
because He is God, could reunite us with God in a relationship of love. (CCC 456-457)
Jesus was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Christmas Day in Bethlehem in a stable,
and was laid in a manger as there was no room in the inn.
 Jesus Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried
Jesus suffered and died for your sins. Jesus redeemed you by offering His sufferings and
death to God in satisfaction for the sins of every person. From these horrible sufferings
and death of Christ on the Cross, you learn God’s love for you and the evil of sin. (CCC
571-630) Jesus defeated Satan, sin and death for your sake.
 He descended into Hell on the third day He rose again Jesus rose from the dead,
glorious and immortal, on Easter Sunday, the third day after His death. Christ’s descent
into Hel means that after He died, His soul visited the souls of the just who had died up
to that time, awaiting the actual opening of the gates of Heaven by the Risen Christ. His
death on the Cross had indeed redeemed the world, including the invisible world of the
dead. Except for Jesus’ death on the Cross, no one living before or after Jesus would be
able to enter Heaven. (CCC 631-658) You are now offered Heaven through the mercy
and love of God.
 He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father This highlights
our Lord's role as the bridge between God and Man. In Jesus Christ, the Son of God
made man, who died and rose from the dead, salvation is offered to each person as a
gift of God’s grace and mercy. Through Jesus you can call God our Father. Christ
ascended, body and soul, into Heaven, forty days after His Resurrection. Christ sits at
the right hand of God because, as God, He is equal to the Father, and as man He has the
highest place in Heaven, next to the Father. (CCC 659-667)
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 From thence He will come again to judge the living and the dead
On the last day Our Lord will return and will judge all of us, living
and dead, in the Last Judgment (Matt. 25:32-33), separating those
who have chosen to follow Christ, those who keep returning to Him
when they sin, asking for His forgiveness and cooperating with His
grace to do better. They will be separated from those who have
rejected Christ and who will not return to seek forgiveness. The
former will have Eternal Life and joy in Heaven and the latter will
be in eternal misery in Hell. (CCC 668-682)
You need not fear this judgment. You must prepare for it by
deepening your friendship with Jesus through daily prayer, living a
life of faith in God, receiving His love and seeking to love Him with all of your heart and
being obedient to God. Having a strong prayer life can be a great help in this regard!
 I believe in the Holy Spirit The Father and Son sent the Person of the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit is a Divine Person. He is pure Spirit and so He does not have a body. There are
Biblical signs so that we know He is present, such as wind, flames of fire, a dove. The Holy
Spirit prepares you to receive His grace in the Sacraments so that you are united with Christ.
He manifests Christ to you, helping you to understand all that He has done for you through
His Death and Resurrection, and guiding you to come to know Jesus and to receive His love.
The Holy Spirit makes present Christ’s Death and Resurrection in the Sacraments, most
especially in the Holy Eucharist in order to forgive your sins and bring you back into
communion with God, that you will bear much fruit in the world. (See CCC 737) The Holy
Spirit teaches you how to pray and gives you a desire to pray. You need to ask Him for His
help. The Holy Spirit strengthens you to live a good Christian life, by loving others as God
loves you. (CCC 683 – 747)
 I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints Jesus Christ founded the
Church to bring you to eternal salvation because He loves you. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to
strengthen the Apostles – the first bishops of the Church – on Pentecost to go forth and
teach, sanctify, serve and baptize, as well as celebrate the other six Sacraments, building up
the Church throughout the world. The Holy Spirit continues to guide and instruct the
Catholic Church. The Communion of Saints includes those of us in the Church living on earth,
those in purgatory, and all those in Heaven. (paragraphs 748 - 975)
 I believe in the forgiveness of sins God has given to the Church, through Jesus Christ, the
power to forgive sins. Likewise, when God forgives you of your sins in the Church's
Sacrament of Penance, also referred to as Reconciliation and Confession, you may better
merit the “resurrection of the body” in which you will be raised up to Heaven, with your
glorified body united with your soul, at the Last Judgment. (CCC 976 - 987)
 I believe in the resurrection of the body At the end of the world your body will rise from
the earth and be united again to your soul, nevermore to be separated. By the special favor
of her Assumption, the glorified body of the Blessed Virgin Mary was taken into Heaven,
because she was sinless. (CCC 988 - 1019)
 I believe in life everlasting You will want to pray to live your life, with God's help and grace,
in such a manner that at your death, He might summon you so that with His saints you may
praise Him forever in the never-ending peace and joy of life everlasting in Heaven! This

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wonderful hope for an eternity of love with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit makes a fitting
end to the Apostles' Creed. (CCC 1020 - 1065)
 "Amen" The Creed's final word repeats and confirms its first words: "I believe." To believe
is to say "Amen" to God's words, promises and commandments; to entrust oneself
completely to Him who is the "Amen" of infinite love and perfect faithfulness. Rejoice in
your faith each day and believe everything you say you believe. (CCC 1064)

Learning the Principles

 Prayer is a vital necessity. Prayer and Christian life are inseparable. In other words, if you
know the Person of Christ through prayer, you will be faithful to Him by the way that you
live. (CCC 2744-2745)
 The word creed means what all Catholics believe. The most important truths that you
believe are summarized in the prayer, the Apostles’ Creed. They are called truths of faith
because you must believe them, with full faith, as taught by God, who can neither deceive
nor be deceived.
 The Apostles’ Creed is a profession of faith in the chief mysteries revealed by God through
Jesus Christ and His Apostles, and taught by the Church.
 A mystery is a truth entirely beyond our reason, but not contrary to reason, which we
believe because God has revealed it. You can understand a mystery, but not fully
understand it, because you are not God.
 The chief mysteries professed in the Creed are two: the Unity and Trinity of God; and the
Incarnation – God becoming man, and the Passion and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
 There are three main parts to the Apostles’ Creed:
1. I believe in God the Father
2. I believe in Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God
3. I believe in the Holy Spirit
 The Apostles’ Creed is considered to be a faithful summary
of the faith of the Apostles. (Catechism Glossary, p. 867)
 Most of the Apostles' Creed is a summary of Christ's life
because in the first few centuries some people sought to
refute Christ’s divinity, that He is a Divine Person; and His
humanity, that He took on a human nature.
 “Whoever says ‘I believe’ says ‘I pledge myself to what we
believe.’ Communion in faith needs a common language of
faith, normative for all and uniting all in the same confession of faith. From the beginning,
the Apostolic Church expressed and handed on Her faith in brief formulae for all. This
synthesis of faith was not made to accord with human opinions, but rather what was of the
greatest importance was gathered from all the Scriptures, to present the one teaching of
the faith in its entirety. Such syntheses are called ‘professions of faith’ since they summarize
the faith that Christians profess. They are called ‘creeds’ on account of what is usually their
first word in Latin: credo (‘I believe’). They are called ‘symbols of faith.’

Activities for Learning the Words of the Apostles’ Creed

 Pray the Apostles’ Creed every day.

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 Pray for the grace to pray with your heart; not just rattling words. “Prayer is internalized to
the extent that we become aware of Him ‘to whom you speak.’ In the case of the Apostles’
Creed, you are professing belief in the Persons of God the Father, Jesus, the Son of God and
the Holy Spirit. (Catechism 2700, 2704)
 Reading Bible stories about God creating Heaven and earth
(Genesis 1) the announcement to Mary by the Angel Gabriel that
she would conceive the Son of God (Luke 1:28-35, 38) the birth of
Jesus (Luke 2:6-12) the Death of Jesus (John 19:25-30) the
Resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 28:1-8) the Ascension of Jesus
into Heaven (Act 1:8-11) the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-6,
38-41) will help the Apostles’ Creed “come alive” for your child.
 While studying an Article of the Creed, look up the Scripture
verse(s) as provided on page 5 and further footnoted in each
paragraph of the Catechism. See page 2.
 After praying the Apostles’ Creed, allow time for silence so that
you may journal regarding your thoughts, feelings, desires,
problems, intentions etc.
 Make a visit to Church to pray the Apostles’ Creed and then allow time for silence so that
you can speak with Jesus and listen to Him, becoming more and more aware of His Presence
in the Blessed Sacrament reposed in the Tabernacle.
 The first ‘profession of faith’ is made during Baptism. The symbol of faith is first and
foremost the baptismal creed. Since Baptism is given ‘in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit,’ the truths of faith professed during Baptism are articulated in
terms of their reference to the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. And so the Creed is divided
into three parts: ‘the first part speaks of the first Divine Person and the wonderful work of
creation; the next speaks of the second Divine Person and the mystery of His redemption of
men; the final part speaks of the third Divine Person, the origin and source of our
sanctification - to cleans and purify us and to make us holy – a greater ability to love).’” (CCC
185-187, 189-190)

Spiritual Comprehension – Do they understand?

 The Apostles’ Creed is the prayer that you will want to know by heart and with good
understanding before you decide to go deeper with another prayer. Plan to spend an entire
year praying the Apostles’ Creed every day.

Encountering God Our Heavenly Father, Jesus the Son of God and the Holy Spirit in Prayer
 Pray the Apostles’ Creed aloud and then pray it again silently and slowly. Notice a word or
phrase that stood out for you and take time to think why the word or phrase stood out for
you. This reflection takes prayer to the next level of a deep personal encounter. As a further
progression, take time to have a “heart-to-heart” conversation with God Our Heavenly Father,
Jesus or the Holy Spirit.

Scriptural Foundation
 I believe in God, the Father almighty, (Matthew 5 :45; Isaiah 44:6; Isaiah 45:5)

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6 Parent and Teacher Resources – 5th Grade

 Creator of heaven and earth, (Gen 1:1; John 1:3; Acts 14:15; Rom 1:20)
 And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, (Lk 2:11; Mt 3:17; John 3:16; Jn 20:28; Phil 2:12)
 Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, (Lk 1:35)
 born of the Virgin Mary, (Lk 2:7)
 suffered under Pontius Pilate, (John 19:16; Luke 23:24)
 was crucified, died, and was buried. (John 19:20 – 42; Acts 4:10; 1Corinthians 15:3-4)
 He descended into hell; (1 Pet 3:19 – 20)
 on the third day He rose again from the dead, (Mt 28:1-10; John 20:11-18; 1Cor.15:4)
 He ascended in Heaven, (Lk 24:51; Mark 16:19; Acts 1:11)
 and sits at the right hand of God, (Mark 16:19; Hebrews 1:3) the Father almighty; (Mk 14:36)
 from thence He shall come again (Mt 16: 27; Acts 10:39;)
 to judge the living and the dead. (John 5:22; 1 Corinthians 15: 51; 2Timothy 4:1)
 I believe in the Holy Spirit, (Jn 14:15 – 20; John 15:26; John 16:7-8; John 16:13; Acts 1:7 – 8)
 the Holy Catholic Church, (Mt 16:18 – 19; Ephesians 5:26-27; Col 1:24)
 the communion of Saints, (Mt 28:19 – 20; 2 Corinthians 11:13; 1 Corinthians 15: 33)
 the forgiveness of sins, (John 20:22 – 23; Luke 7:48)
 the resurrection of the body, (1Cor 15:51 – 54; 1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 18)
 and life everlasting. (John 10:28; John 17:2; 1 John 5:20)

Office for Catechesis and Evangelization Diocese of La Crosse