Does your church use the Apostles' Creed?

[Tuxedo_Mark]

I don’t think I’d EVER heard the Apostles’ Creed used at Mass (at ANY Catholic church that I’d ever been to) until…around sometime last year, I guess. We have a priest that comes by sometimes to fill in, and, every time that he’s there (there might have been one exception, but I’m not sure), he has us recite the Apostles’ Creed instead of the Nicene Creed (including today). I just think it’s kind of interesting that he’d do that. Personal preference, I guess.

 

[TarkanAttila]

They’re both valid. The Nicene Creed is just… fuller. I don’t know why anyone uses the Apostle’s Creed.

 

[Water_of_Life]

They’re both valid. The Nicene Creed is just… fuller. I don’t know why anyone uses the Apostle’s Creed.

It’s customary to use the Apostles Creed at the beginning of the Rosary, I suppose.

I have a rather funny, if slightly horrifying, story about the Creed. At my home parish, we usually recite the Apostles Creed (it depends on who is ministering). I always have my eyes closed and head bowed during the creed, so I became rather alarmed when everyone stopped saying the Creed. I’m a revert, so I thought perhaps I’d done something wrong. No, it appears that the projector had just stopped working. When everyone went silent, our priest just laughed and said “I guess we don’t know what we believe anymore”. I feel like I’m the only one who finds Fathers jokes funny! It was quite awkward.

 

[MarianCatholic]

We pray the Rosary before every weekday mass during October and as part of the Rosary we do pray the Apostle Creed.
Also it’s a part of the liturgy at Baptisms where the priest say the apostle Creed and the church answers ‘Yes, We Believe’ after all of the 3 parts (The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit)
So I voted occasionally

Yours in Jesus and Mary
-MarianCatholic

 

[seagal]

You could go to any parish in my diocese and you’ll hear the Apostle’s creed said at Mass. I’m under the impression that this is customary in Canada.

 

[Qaletaqa]

Every Sunday we say the Apostles Creed, thought it was standard as other Churches in my area that i have gone to also say it

 

[Phemie]

Seagal is right, in most English parishes in Canada you will hear the Apostles Creed.

The 1975 Canadian GIRM explained that although the Nicene Creed was the Mass Creed, Canada had been granted an indult to use the Apostles Creed at all Masses, rather than just at Masses with children. While it was suggested that the Nicene Creed was more appropriate at Christmas and the Annunciation we rarely used it even on those feasts.

I asked “Why?” from people who should have known but they could only surmise that it was because it was easier to learn. I found that rather strange since in French Canadian parishes we routinely used the Nicene Creed.

The implementation of the new translation of the Roman Missal in 2011 came with permission for English parishes everywhere to use either the Nicene or the Apostles Creed and that’s why people outside Canada may be hearing it at Mass for the first time in decades.

 

[Nelka]

Every Mass I have ever been to in different churches have said the Nicene Creed.

 

[sw85]

They’re both valid. The Nicene Creed is just… fuller. I don’t know why anyone uses the Apostle’s Creed.

The Nicene Creed is definitely the norm at every parish I’ve been to. At my last parish the Apostle’s Creed was used once, at an evening Mass in which a large number of children (students at the parish school) were in attendance.

It’s technically appropriate to substitute the Apostle’s Creed for the Nicene Creed, especially in Masses celebrated for children. I suppose its brevity makes it easier for them to follow along, and they are more likely to have had their Catholic education follow the pattern it lays out.

 

[SMHW]

I don’t think I’d EVER heard the Apostles’ Creed used at Mass (at ANY Catholic church that I’d ever been to) until…around sometime last year, I guess. We have a priest that comes by sometimes to fill in, and, every time that he’s there (there might have been one exception, but I’m not sure), he has us recite the Apostles’ Creed instead of the Nicene Creed (including today). I just think it’s kind of interesting that he’d do that. Personal preference, I guess.

My parish always used to use the Nicene Creed (well, except for the occasional Mass for Children.)

But when when we began using the new translation a couple of years ago we switched to using the Apostles’ Creed at Mass and have done so ever since. I think I have heard the Nicene Creed used at my parish on one occasion since then.

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

Our pastor switches from the Nicene to the Apostles’ Creed during Lent and Advent, not sure why.

 

[christofirst]

Mostly Nicene, but one of our priests seems to prefer the Apostles Creed, and often uses it. I think the older parishioners might prefer it too, since they all know it from their youth, unlike the new revision of the Nicene Creed used at Mass. I know this is true for my octogenarian mom, who does not like changes!

 

[IrishAm]

Nicene is absolutely the norm at all the US parishes to which I have belonged; but once in a great while a priest will use the Apostles Creed. Sometimes it seems related to the liturgy (perhaps it is a very Apostle-themed Sunday), sometimes it seems to be just to change things up (“Wake up, everyone!”), and sometimes I suspect it cuts a few minutes off a Mass! Whatever the reason, it is a nice change on occasion.

 

[OraLabora]

Seagal is right, in most English parishes in Canada you will hear the Apostles Creed.

The 1975 Canadian GIRM explained that although the Nicene Creed was the Mass Creed, Canada had been granted an indult to use the Apostles Creed at all Masses, rather than just at Masses with children. While it was suggested that the Nicene Creed was more appropriate at Christmas and the Annunciation we rarely used it even on those feasts.

I asked “Why?” from people who should have known but they could only surmise that it was because it was easier to learn. I found that rather strange since in French Canadian parishes we routinely used the Nicene Creed.

The implementation of the new translation of the Roman Missal in 2011 came with permission for English parishes everywhere to use either the Nicene or the Apostles Creed and that’s why people outside Canada may be hearing it at Mass for the first time in decades.

In parishes in my part of French Canada the Apostle’s Creed is the norm as well, though once in a great while you might hear the Nicene Creed.

At the abbey with which you’re familiar, the Apostle’s Creed is only used in the summer to lighten the load on the monks a bit and speed up the Mass (homilies tend to be shorter as well).

Anecdote, they chant the Apostle’s Creed in Latin when they do use it. There is no musical arrangement for it, so the choirmaster made up two arrangements: one was a variation on Credo II from the Graduale Romanum, but the other is very unique and he borrowed an old version from “La Messe des fous”, some obscure medieval French Mass that had a troped Apostle’s Creed in Latin; he took out the tropes for the arrangement. It’s nothing like Gregorian chant…

 

[CalCatholic]

Our pastor switches from the Nicene to the Apostles’ Creed during Lent and Advent, not sure why.

My pastor switches to the Apostles’ Creed during the Easter season because of its connection with baptism in the early Church.

 

[grasscutter]

Hopefully, not off topic… something I’ve wanted to know anonymously for a while.

I recite the Creed with my eyes closed because I know that we are meant to bow at the Incarnation. I keep my eyes closed because I’m pretty sure that (even though it’s in the Missal), I might be only one of the few who do this and I don’t want to feel self-conscience.

To anyone whose responded so far, do you also bow at the Incarnation?

 

[christofirst]

Hopefully, not off topic… something I’ve wanted to know anonymously for a while.

I recite the Creed with my eyes closed because I know that we are meant to bow at the Incarnation. I keep my eyes closed because I’m pretty sure that (even though it’s in the Missal), I might be only one of the few who do this and I don’t want to feel self-conscience.

To anyone whose responded so far, do you also bow at the Incarnation?

I do, though I must admit its not much of a bow - more like a lowering of the head.

 

[OraLabora]

Hopefully, not off topic… something I’ve wanted to know anonymously for a while.

I recite the Creed with my eyes closed because I know that we are meant to bow at the Incarnation. I keep my eyes closed because I’m pretty sure that (even though it’s in the Missal), I might be only one of the few who do this and I don’t want to feel self-conscience.

To anyone whose responded so far, do you also bow at the Incarnation?

I do. I go to Mass in a monastery and the monks always bow, as do a few of us in the pews (mostly oblates as it turns out, but a few who aren’t). I don’t feel self-conscious at all though.

Interestingly enough last Sunday for some reason I was distracted while chanting the creed, and did forget to bow. I realized it somewhat further along the creed. Oh well, we’re only human

 

[KD8TZC]

… it appears that the projector had just stopped working…

Projector? Never been in a church that uses a projector for mass… seems kinda odd, but maybe my part of the world is just that way.

To the other poster who asked if I bow at incarnation… yes, I do as do many in my parish.

John

 

[TarkanAttila]

Projector? Never been in a church that uses a projector for mass… seems kinda odd, but maybe my part of the world is just that way.

To the other poster who asked if I bow at incarnation… yes, I do as do many in my parish.

John

I have seen one church in our archdiocese that uses a projector. They mainly used it at the children’s Masses, so we could see what we were supposed to sing. They never used it for the Credo or other parts of the Mass proper.