I believe in Jesus Christ

                                    I believe in Jesus Christ,
                                    his only Son, our Lord.
                                    He was conceived by
                                    the power of the Holy Spirit
                                    and born of the Virgin Mary.
                                    He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
                                    was crucified, died, and was buried.
                                    He descended to the dead.
                                    On the third day he rose again.

                                    He ascended into heaven,
                                    and is seated at the right hand
                                    of the Father.
                                    He will come again to judge
                                    the living and the dead.

As Joseph Ratzinger, also known as Pope Benedict XVI, once put it so beautifully:

“What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought?...

He has brought God,

and now we know his face, now we can call upon him.”

Our God cares.

How much?

“Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.” Isaiah49:15

“For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”   Romans 5:8

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us John 1: 14. God became man to transform us, not merely to transport us. Jesus’ death changed everything, yes, but Jesus’ LIFE, TOO, changed everything.

“God became man that man might become God.” Athanasius, On the Incarnation

This is who Jesus is.

This is what it means when we say, “I believe in Jesus Christ.”

This is what we feel when we live, “I believe in Jesus Christ.”

Jesus brought God. When have you met God? Where have you met God? How have you met God?

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth…

This is the first line of the Apostles’ Creed, and it is the core of our faith.

We believe in an THE almighty God. We live in God, we move in God, and we have our being in God. (Acts 17:28) So, God has power, yet God is love. (1 John 4:8) With power so great that we cannot comprehend it, God chose to create us just so he could love us. There is SO much love in God.

In creating us out of love and destined for love, God he chose to limit his almightiness so that we could love him back. God’s almightiness is not thunderbolt-zapping almightiness. And it is not angry almightiness.  God’s greatest expression of His almightiness is his love for us. He calls to us at all times and through all spaces and in all things, yet the almighty God chooses at every moment to be almighty in patience and mercy as He waits on the threshold of our door for us to invite Him in.

The Almighty chose to give us breath, and of course that is almighty.

But He also chose to give us freedom so we have room to breath, and that is really almighty.

God is not distant from us and is not one who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. (Heb. 4: 15)

God the Father almighty is Emmanu-el, “God-with-us,” “always, until the end of the age.”(Mt. 28:20)

            And Mary said:“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness…the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”(Lk. 1:46-49)

When have you experienced God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth?

Or when has your soul proclaimed the greatness of the Lord for doing great things for you?

The Creed: What's That About?

Deus Vobiscum ("The Lord be with you"),

God our savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim 2:3-4

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists, it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator. Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes, CCC Part One, Section One, Chapter One, I, 27

God...created man to share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men. CCC Prologue, I, 1

Those who responded to God’s call echoed God’s love out to the nations by their life; They retold also the wondrous deeds God had done for humankind to come together and be one with him in love. They retold all of the truth and love that God had revealed to them about himself, about his creation and about humankind.

What magnificent treasure did those God-answerers hand on? What were the truths that moved them to love and moved them to spread the faith?

They were are the core of our faith; They are the Creed.

God sent his Word of truth to us in Christ;

Christ echoed that truth to the apostles;

the Apostles echoed the truth on, in preaching and writing, to the whole world;

we are called to echo the truth with our lives and with our words to all generations, until Christ returns in glory. CCC Part One, Chapter 2, Article 2, III, 96

The Church, in her doctrine...transmits…all that she herself is, all that she believes.

Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum 8, CCC Part One, Chapter 2, Article 2, III, 98

God was there in that handing on, in that sharing. Praise God for his love. Praise God for the Creed. The Creed is our chance to hold onto God’s love in memory and to live in his life every day.

So:

• How have you handed on faith to your mother? cousin? grandpa? friends?
• When in your life have you felt most alive and then spread your passion to someone else?

Share your story. We'd all love to hear it.

Pax ("Peace")

Year of Faith, People of Faith, Stories of Faith

Deus Vobiscum ("The Lord Be With You"),

My name is Steve Sheridan, and I am new at Our Lady of the Rosary.
I will be working here for the next two years.
If you want to read more about me, click on the "view my complete profile" link to the right.

Otherwise, I'm just going to tell you what this blog is all about:

1. Pope Benedict declared the period from Oct. 11, 2012 until Nov. 24, 2013 a "Year of Faith" see below or click here for more info
2. This blog represents one of the ways we as a community are living our response to the call to faith. I am asking you to share your STORIES OF FAITH with the whole family, the whole Church. We want to recognize how, when and where God has worked with you and you have worked with God. When and how has God come into your heart and your life. Your individual awesomeness (yes, you reading right now!), your story of passion or perseverance or love or prayer or hope or joy is a fruit that tastes sweetest when shared at one table, together. So, take a few minutes each month to read this blog, to think and pray on God's presence in your life, and (if the monthly meditation strikes a chord with you, reminding you of an event in your own life) to recount that story and share it with the whole community in the "comments" section of the blog.

With his Apostolic Letter of October 11, 2011, Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict XVI declared that a "Year of Faith" will begin on October 11, 2012 and conclude on November 24, 2013. October 11, 2012, the first day of the Year of Faith, is the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) and also the twentieth anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. During the Year of Faith, Catholics are asked to study and reflect on the documents of Vatican II and the catechism so that they may deepen their knowledge of the faith. -copied from USCCB.org-

So with this post, I am beginning this blog for us, the faith community of  
Our Lady of the Rosary. Each month will feature a new post that reflects a particular aspect or element of our faith. It may be a deeper look into one line from our symbol of faith, the Creed, it may be a line from one of the beautiful documents produced from the Second Vatican Council, it may be a meditation on one of the prayers from Tradition like the Our Father (a.k.a. Pater Noster or Padré Nuestro) or the Hail Mary (a.k.a. Ave Maria or Ave Maria).

The purpose of each month's feature post is (1) to aid you (and me too) in continuing to journey further in faith and into the faith and (2) to share our stories of faith, to share personal experiences of God with us, "Emmanu-el". 

So, God Bless and thank you for reading this blog, and keep a lookout for October's feature post. 

Pax Christi ("Peace of Christ")