In first and second grade, I went to a Catholic elementary school. Each morning we began our day with a short service in the chapel adjacent to the school. I remember a lot of Latin and memorizing prayers and other things in preparation for my First Communion. The teaching made little impact; I don’t remember ever being taught about Jesus or God’s love or a personal relationship with God. It was a dry, mechanical memorization exercise that we performed and perfected, not because it captivated us, but because the nuns’ talk of purgatory and Hell made us afraid not to. A couple of years after my First Communion, my family left the Catholic Church and the memorized words were forgotten.
Seventeen years later, as a graduate student, I visited a very traditional United Methodist Church. During the service, the congregation stood and, in unison, recited the Apostles’ Creed. Though the words were printed in the bulletin, I was surprised to realize that I didn’t need them, I still remembered. I couldn’t have said a rosary if my life had depended on it, but somehow the Creed had stuck with me.
It had meant nothing to my young child’s mind, but as a 23-year-old, on my own for the first time in my life, those words came alive in a new way. The rote recitation I hated in childhood gave way to a full understanding that I was not just spitting out words; I was declaring aloud what — and in Whom — I believe. That Methodist Church became my home and we recited the Creed each Sunday; in all that time, it never became an empty recitation for me, it was — and still is — always profound and meaningful to say those words.
When we left that church for a church of a denomination where the Creed was not part of the weekly service, I missed it, so I made this small poster and hung it on the wall in my office. Every day I am reminded of what I believe and once in a while at dinner or Sunday lunch, our family recites the Apostles’ Creed together. I want it to stick in the minds of my girls just like it did in mine.
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth …
poster design, ©2006 bethgsanders
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