SUCCASUNNA How well do you think you understand the statements of faith in the Creed that you recite at Mass every Sunday such as our belief as Catholics in the Communion of Saints?
An eager group of parishioners from St. Therese here have been asking themselves that very question, while also examining many statements or phrases in the Nicene Creed, during an eight-week faith-formation series on Friday mornings, called Faith Fridays. Father Marc Mancini, St. Therese’s pastor, has been leading these 90-minute sessions — a mix of traditional classroom-type teaching, video instruction, lively discussion and probing questions. During Mass, we Catholics anticipate reciting a profession of our faith in either the Nicene Creed or the earlier Apostles’ Creed.
“We recite the Creed every Sunday, but are we aware of what we are reciting and what it means to us? So it’s a good idea to focus on the statements that are in the Creed,” said Father Mancini, who devised the Friday Fridays series — new to St. Therese — and its topic: “The Nicene Creed: Our Profession of Faith.” “The participants — most of whom have been involved regularly in Bible study here — enjoy being engaged in conversation about our Catholic faith.”
The 10 to 11:30 a.m. sessions started Oct. 2 and have explored the following statements or phrases in the Creed: “We believe in one God,” “Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,” “He came down from Heaven…and he rose again,” “He ascended into Heaven…and his kingdom will have no end,” “the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life” and “We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” Last week, the group, which meets in St. Therese’s all-purpose room, explored “the Communion of Saints” — perfect for November, when the Church prays for souls in Purgatory. Tomorrow, they will end the series by covering “We look forward to the resurrection of the dead…life of the world to come.”
In Nov. 13 session, Father Mancini explored the Communion of Saints, noting that Catholic doctrine calls it “a spiritual solidarity, which binds together the faithful on Earth, the souls in purgatory and the saints in heaven in the organic unity of the same mystical body under Christ, its head.”
“The participants [in the Communion of Saints] are called saints by reason of their destination and of their partaking of the fullest of the Redemption of Christ,” said Father Mancini, who noted a fact that members of the study group realized immediately when reading his handouts: that the damned are excluded. “The living, even if they do not belong to the body of the Catholic Church, share in it [the Communion of Saints] according to the measure of their union with Christ and with the soul of the Church,” the priest said.
Father Mancini told participants that we could unite ourselves with the faithful departed through prayer and sacrifice, such as the Mass, while they can unite with us by interceding on our behalf.
“Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness…They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits, which they acquired on Earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus...So by their fraternal concerns is our weakness greatly helped,” participants read from section 956 of the “The Catechism of the Catholic Church” on a handout that morning.
Father Mancini offered many salient insights — mixed with his occasional offbeat humor —about the Communion of Saints. In between his teachings, he answered questions from participants, such as, “Why do we pray for the dead?” The priest replied, “Leaves die but people do not die. We take on a different form after death.”
Participant Gene Galan made a reference to the game Monopoly, when asking Father Mancini, “Why do we pray for those souls in Purgatory? For them, is it like getting a Get Out of Jail Free Card?” Members laughed, before the priest replied in all seriousness, “No, but we all must be prepared to receive the heavenly banquet. We are praying for those souls that are being purified.”
Toward the end of the Nov. 13 session, Father Mancini spoke about the Church’s formal canonization process for saints and about incorruptibility: that the bodies of many of them have not decomposed. He showed a video about the incorruptibility of saints, such Bernadette, Padre Pio and John Bosco, and another short clip about the types of relics of the saints.
Sometimes participants become the teachers, as with Dr. Lucy Balko, a retired physician, who spoke about the miracle of incorruptibility.
“When all systems fail, our bodies start to disintegrate. There’s nothing we can do about it — eventually we will turn to dust. So it [incorruptibility] happens because of God — not us,” Balko said.
After last week’s session, Galan told The Beacon that he enjoyed the Faith Friday sessions, because “I like the interaction. It’s not just about sitting here and listening. Everyone gets a chance to express his or her views.”
“It’s very interesting, because it gives us a deeper meaning and insights to what we are doing, when we recite the Creed,” Galan said.
Another participant, Irene Preuss, said, “We see Father Marc up on the altar every Sunday for Mass. It’s great to see him in a different light as a teacher.”
Father Mancini noted that he learned a great deal about the Creed, when preparing the sessions. He received some help teaching from Father Andres Baquero, a St. Therese parochial vicar.
“I hope that Faith Fridays gave participants a better understanding of what the words of the Creed mean. I hope that they go from reciting the Creed to internalizing it,” Father Mancini said.
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