Some wag once said,” The Trinity must be real, because no one would make up something that crazy.” We are used to saying the Creed. We get the word from the Latin Credo, which means, “I (or We) believe…” It started as a theological document affirmed by the preponderance of Christian theologians in the Patristic period, roughly from 100 to 800 A.D. By saying “Amen” at the end we have made it a prayer.

The Creed is divided into three paragraphs: concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The bulk of it concerns the nature of Jesus as the Christ, answering the wrong teachings of the heretics, well intentioned as they were. For the most part, we don’t publicly debate these issues, as they appear to be settled, at least for the Christian Community. The Creed is said on virtually every Sunday in one form or another as a declaration of the specifics of our faith, it is the core of the baptismal covenant, and it contains the essence of our faith.

Yet how many of us have truly tried to live by its precepts? How much do we understand of what it means? So much of it involves categories of meaning long lost, buried in 1500 years of repetition. It takes a theology degree to unpack all of the nuances.

There is another way of seeing it, though. Joan Chittister, a nun - and still an excellent writer!) wrote a fabulous and deeply insightful book about the Creed. It is called “Search of Belief”, and it is a reflection on the Apostle’s Creed.

Chittister's meditations on the mysteries that her belief affirms in the Creed are rich. She cautions that disbelief in God inevitably leads to a myopic affirmation of one's own divinity, and she repeats the ancient caveats against creating God in our own image, or believing that a human being is able to grasp God intellectually...Her characterization of heaven is both refreshing and challenging...Her reflections on the annunciation and incarnation soar with hope as she affirms the reality of miracles, the active presence of God who fills human flesh 'with an insatiable capacity for the divine.' – from a review in America Magazine

During Lent this year, we will discuss some of her ideas on the nature of God and how we can make God more part of our lives. The book is not necessary to own, but if you want a copy, most bookstores seem to carry it as well as Amazon.com, Barnesand Noble.com, and Borders.com have it..

This will be a rich and meaningful look into our faith, that is far more than an academic exercise.