The Apostles' Creed — Is Memorizing It Enough?

First, a few promises

• We won't shut a question down with “it's a mystery, so don't ask.”
• We won't turn the Trinity into three gods, or into one God changing three masks, in the name of explaining it.
• We won't use heaven, purgatory, and hell as tools for frightening or controlling people.
• We won't presume to rule on where any particular person is after death.
• We keep apart what the Church teaches and the pictures we have added out of our own imagination.

Today in one line The Creed isn't a code you recite without thinking; it's the map of a belief — that the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, creates us, saves us, and makes us holy.

How to ask when you talk about the Creed

1. Find first which sentence is the sticking point. Rather than “I hate the whole Creed,” look at one article at a time — “I don't understand what the right hand of the Father means.”
2. Tell apart the different senses of one word. Heaven and outer space, the abode of the dead and hell, a person of the Trinity and an individual human being — everyday words and doctrinal terms can be used differently.
3. Say where the analogy stops. Explain together both what an analogy shows and what it distorts.
4. Don't invent the details you don't know. Don't claim to know the age of a risen body, the eternal fate of a particular person, or the date of the Second Coming.
5. Connect the confession to life. If you believe in the Creator, care for creation; if you believe in the resurrection of the body, respect your own body now and other people's.

A 30-second answer “The Creed isn't a test you pass by memorizing it; it's the summary of the faith that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit create us, save us, and make us holy. In the one God, one in nature, there are three distinct persons, and the Son became a true human being, died for us, and rose. The Holy Spirit gathers us into Christ, and we look toward the resurrection of the body and eternal life with God, because death is not the end.”

A note for parents and catechists

• Rather than walking through the Creed from beginning to end, let the child pick the one sentence that feels strangest to them first.
• Keep clearly separate what “the Church teaches this” covers, the analogy that explains it, and the details that can't be known yet.
• Don't have them memorize an analogy for the Trinity as though it were the right answer; help them steer clear of the misunderstandings of ‘three gods,’ ‘three masks,’ and ‘three pieces.’
• Don't use the cross as a story that justifies a parent's violence or a victim's unconditional sacrifice. Where there is abuse, never press for sacrifice; help first with safety and with reporting it.
• When death and judgment come up, watch for a recent bereavement or an experience of anxiety, and hold back from condemning a particular person who has died or from declaring anyone certainly in heaven.
• After reading one question and answer, read slowly the related line of the Creed and one passage of Scripture, and settle together on one act of love for today.

Read more in the official documents

• Catechism of the Catholic Church 185–197 — the profession of faith and the creeds
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 232–267 — the Holy Trinity
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 238–242 — God the Father
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 456–483 — the Incarnation, true God and true man
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 2598–2622 — the prayer of Jesus
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 599–618 — the saving death of Christ
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 631–637 — Christ's descent to the dead
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 659–682 — the Ascension, the Second Coming, the judgment
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 683–747 — the Holy Spirit
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 946–962 — the communion of saints
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 988–1019 — the resurrection of the body
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 1020–1060 — the particular judgment and eternal life
• Matthew 28 — in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
• John 1 — the Word became flesh
• John 10 — Jesus lays down his life of his own accord
• Acts 1 — the Ascension and the coming again
• 1 Corinthians 12 — one Spirit and one body
• 1 Corinthians 15 — the resurrection of Christ and our own
• Revelation 21 — a new heaven and a new earth

These pages are a draft catechetical aid for starting a conversation with children and teens. They do not stand in for everything in the Creed and the Catechism; with the hard questions, keep looking together — read Scripture and the official documents of the Church alongside each other, and get help from a pastor and a catechist you can trust.