Reciting the Nicene Creed

[CatholicZ09]

Okay, whenever I’m at Mass and we say the Nicene Creed before the Prayers of the Faithful, I know it like the back of my hand, but when I recite it outside of Mass, by myself, I don’t know it. I don’t get why. Is anyone else like this? I have to study it because I have to recite it to someone and it seems like I don’t know it. It’s just really weird.

 

[ProVobis]

Okay, whenever I’m at Mass and we say the Nicene Creed before the Prayers of the Faithful, I know it like the back of my hand, but when I recite it outside of Mass, by myself, I don’t know it. I don’t get why. Is anyone else like this? I have to study it because I have to recite it to someone and it seems like I don’t know it. It’s just really weird.

We learned the Nicene Creed by learning to sing Credo III in Latin. Very beautiful actually. The Nicene Creed in English is tough to remember especially for someone who’s used to the Apostles Creed. Is this your situation?

 

[CatholicZ09]

We learned the Nicene Creed by learning to sing Credo III in Latin. Very beautiful actually. The Nicene Creed in English is tough to remember especially for someone who’s used to the Apostles Creed. Is this your situation?

Pretty much. I’m going to have to study this throughout the week. I have to recite sometime either on January 17th, January 24th, or January 31st. I’m going to try and get it over with and might do it on the 17th.

 

[thomasf]

Are you male or female?

 

[CatholicZ09]

Are you male or female?

Male

 

[surritter]

I suppose psychologists would be able to put a name on that – something about associating a thing with its surroundings.

I’m good at remembering people’s names, but if I meet someone outside of the usual context of seeing them, I often can’t remember the name!

 

[thecross]

Okay, whenever I’m at Mass and we say the Nicene Creed before the Prayers of the Faithful, I know it like the back of my hand, but when I recite it outside of Mass, by myself, I don’t know it. I don’t get why. Is anyone else like this? I have to study it because I have to recite it to someone and it seems like I don’t know it. It’s just really weird.

silk.net/RelEd/2creeds.htm

Maybe its because you have learned the Apostles Creed as a child and just can’t put a handle on anything else that sounds the same and actually is except for some ‘‘explaining’’ words, read the comparison and see the differences.

 

[CarolAnnSFO]

Okay, whenever I’m at Mass and we say the Nicene Creed before the Prayers of the Faithful, I know it like the back of my hand, but when I recite it outside of Mass, by myself, I don’t know it. I don’t get why. Is anyone else like this? I have to study it because I have to recite it to someone and it seems like I don’t know it. It’s just really weird.

I’ll bet a lot of us are like that – I notice the same thing for myself. I think that when we’re praying this prayer in church, we’re getting a lot of verbal cues from the priest and the rest of the congregation, without even realizing it. That makes it a lot easier to “remember”.

 

[mwscott]

Sometimes I am like that too. It is sort of like trying to sing an entire song on your own, without accompiament and versus trying to sing along with the original recording.

 

[Bluegoat]

I think this is common.

The way I learned it is by singing in plainchant. And since I can sing it, I can now recite it too, rather like a nursery rhyme. Before that if I tried to recite it out of context I always got it garbled with the Apostles Creed.

 

[ahollars]

Okay, whenever I’m at Mass and we say the Nicene Creed before the Prayers of the Faithful, I know it like the back of my hand, but when I recite it outside of Mass, by myself, I don’t know it. I don’t get why. Is anyone else like this? I have to study it because I have to recite it to someone and it seems like I don’t know it. It’s just really weird.

It’s common, but when you think about it, it’s not necessarily a good thing. I teach Confirmation, and I asked the class one day this very thing. How many of them could write the creed if I told them to? I got some stunned faces. I didn’t do that to them, but I did tell them to think about it. Just how close do we pay attention to our faith? Your next step is to study it line by line. Complacency leads to sloth if we are not vigilant. If you can recognize it, then your on the right track. You’ll be fine.

 

[FrCorey]

Okay, whenever I’m at Mass and we say the Nicene Creed before the Prayers of the Faithful, I know it like the back of my hand, but when I recite it outside of Mass, by myself, I don’t know it. I don’t get why. Is anyone else like this? I have to study it because I have to recite it to someone and it seems like I don’t know it. It’s just really weird.

I get that sometimes. I know the words of certain prayers as I sing them. but I get confused if I have to say them out of mass.

 

[Cristiano]

It’s common, but when you think about it, it’s not necessarily a good thing. I teach Confirmation, and I asked the class one day this very thing. How many of them could write the creed if I told them to? I got some stunned faces. I didn’t do that to them, but I did tell them to think about it. Just how close do we pay attention to our faith? Your next step is to study it line by line. Complacency leads to sloth if we are not vigilant. If you can recognize it, then your on the right track. You’ll be fine.

I ask my CCD students to recite the Creed every time at the beginning of class.I told them that we cannot discuss religion if we do not know what we believe in. I also use it as a reference whenever is possible.

 

[CatholicZ09]

Okay, I studied it last night, and by God’s grace I can recite it outside of church!

 

[marytk]

Okay, whenever I’m at Mass and we say the Nicene Creed before the Prayers of the Faithful, I know it like the back of my hand, but when I recite it outside of Mass, by myself, I don’t know it. I don’t get why. Is anyone else like this? I have to study it because I have to recite it to someone and it seems like I don’t know it. It’s just really weird.

This can happen to me. One thing is that when by myself I might stumble into the Apostles Creed

I have the opposite problem with the Magnificat and Zechariah’s canticle. By myself I have them memmorized but when I pray with a group I kind of stumble

(There are some songs like this. I can sing along without the book in Church but if I try to sing on my own I might mix up verses)

 

[Gianna17]

I see priests reading it from a book during Mass, so I don’t feel so bad about not remembering it myself. I always thought it was because most of us say the Apostles’ Creed one or more times a day during the Rosary or Chaplet, but only say the Nicene Creed on weekends.