The Year of Faith begins tomorrow with the 50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th Anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
As a Deacon in the Catholic Church, I often pray for an increase in faith, not only in myself, but for the whole world. Sometimes the question is, what is faith? Where does it come from and how do I get it?
What is faith? Looking up faith in the dictionary gives you all sorts of definitions. From allegiance to someone or something, as in loyalty, to belief in someone or something that cannot be proved. Some of the alternate definitions will mention God, but the wording is obscure to say the least. So how can a person come to understand faith if definitions fall short.
Maybe we should re-ask the question from a Catholic standpoint? In other words, what is Catholic faith? What makes us Catholic? Is our Catholic identity based on the parish we attend or the building in which we go to mass? Is our Catholic identity tied up in forms or certificates?
To truly discover our catholic identity, we should really look to our Creed. It seemed that centuries after Christ died and rose, the identity of Christians was being questioned. There was faith there, but some variations in what was believed began to crop up in all corners. In 325AD, the Council of Nicea put those beliefs in words and they remain steadfast til today.
I would like to examine the Creed in parts over several blogposts and welcome any comments and suggestions as we go along.
So, next post will begin as the Creed begins "I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and Earth, of all things visible and invisible."
Until then, God bless and pray well!
Deacon Jimmy
No comments:
Post a Comment