Credo 44: We look for the resurrection of the dead ...

The end of the Creed – the symbol of our Faith – reflects the end towards which our faith is oriented: the resurrection of the dead.

Since we believe in the resurrection of Christ from the dead, we firmly believe that the righteous will live for ever through sharing in His resurrection. This has been a central aspect of Christian faith from the beginning. But isn’t this a little far off to consider at the moment?

Christ will raise us up on the last day; but in a sense we are all risen with Christ. By the virtue of the Holy Spirit, Christian life is already a participation in the death and Resurrection of Christ now on earth. We are united to Christ by baptism, and so we already participate in the heavenly life of the risen Christ, but this life remains ‘hidden with Christ in God’. We have already been raised by the Father to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. As we are nourished with His Body in the Eucharist, we already belong to the Body of Christ. When we rise on the last day, we will also appear with Him in glory.

While we wait for that day, the body and soul of the believer already participate in the dignity of belonging to Christ. This dignity demands that both our own bodies and the bodies of all other human beings should be treated with respect. Through the justification we have celebrated in the Creed, we declare that we have been won for Christ. Our whole being and nature has been united with the Godhead. In these last days, we await the consummation of that glory.

Creed 43: '... for the forgiveness of sins'

This part of the creed — the forgiveness of sins — is quite often misunderstood or overemphasized. Indeed, this part of the creed is for some people the centre of gravity of their faith. When a fellow-monk one day repeated to Martin Luther these words of the Creed, 'I believe in the forgiveness of sins', Luther says that he saw the Scripture in an entirely new light 'and straightaway I felt as if I were born anew ...'

In fact, the need for a redeemer does not imply a sort of perverse ‘making one guilty’. First of all, it is important to note that the ‘forgiveness of sins’ occurs in the literary structure of the creed between ‘the baptism’ we acknowledge and ‘the resurrection’ we look for. In a sense, though important, the forgiveness of sins is ‘only’ a part of Christ’s mission because finiteness cannot be reduced to sinfulness. Sinfulness belongs to our frailty but this latter is larger that the former.

Secondly, it is interesting to note that for Aquinas, the three intentions of the Incarnation are “to preach the truth, to liberate from sins, and to have access through Christ to God" (ST IIIa q.40 a.1). Therefore, salvation cannot be reduced simply to the forgiveness of our sins. In a sense, we have to avoid the reaction of the prodigal son “I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Lk 15:21). This kind of making guilty is not what we confess by saying “we acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins”. To feel sinful does not consist in a false humility or a way projecting guilt on ourselves rather than on others, in order to preserve them! Yet, to recognize our sins and to repent is absolutely necessary. Indeed, when we confess our sins, we discover that we are responsible and to consider oneself as guilty implies that we can discover the path of freedom by taking responsibility on oneself and growing in maturity and compassion.

Between our baptism and our death, we discover our frailty and we make mistakes, which turn us away from God’s love. Similarly, the Hebrews after the event of the exodus and their liberation (baptism) were in the desert (our sinful existence), hoping to enter the promised land (resurrection). In a way, in our earthly life, we are on the way to Mount Sinai, in the wilderness: looking back to God as liberator, and looking forward to the future, to a promise not completely fulfilled, to see God face to face.

Church fathers have developed this view and most of them have underlined the similarities between the wandering in the wilderness and the typological sign of the life of the Church awaiting the promised land. Therefore, in our lives, we are confronted with a dialectic between redemption as hope and redemption as a memory. Like the people of Israel in the desert, we remain a people that has been redeemed but that still awaits its redemption. On this path, we have to accept not only our sinful existence and our dependence on God but also the forgiveness given through baptism which sets us free.

Credo 42: 'We acknowledge one baptism ...'

The literary theorist Terry Eagleton began his memoir “The Gatekeeper” with a vivid description of performing just that role, as a prepubescent altar boy, in a convent of enclosed Carmelites close to where he then lived. We might conceive of baptism then as passing through a gate, into a new territory, with novel language and customs, into, in fact, a new life, our becoming caught up into the Trinitarian life of God.

In the early church, Christians became Christians through a lengthy and profoundly humbling process of public initiation, the catechumenate. Catechumens would be instructed, tested, and observed until they were judged worthy to join the congregation in celebrating the mystery of Christ’s presence among us – something which typically took several years. They would listen to the scriptures being read and commented on, but would leave before the liturgy of the Eucharist commenced, returning for a blessing at or after communion. The practice of reciting the Lord’s Prayer in silence until the final line, still sometimes found among the Benedictines, is supposed to reflect this early restriction of the central Christian rite to those who were members of Christ’s body.

Accordingly, Baptism is the rite of initiation that imprints the fundamental pattern of Christian life on the believer, who must therefore acknowledge a fundamental dependence upon others. We are baptised into a believing community. Not only individuals but the church as a whole is thus defined as a community whose way of living is henceforth a (continual) journey from slavery to freedom, from death to life, from self-centredness to a generous love in the way of the living Lord Jesus, as guided by the Holy Spirit. Learning to live out the promise of our baptism is the work of a lifetime; nevertheless, to be Christian just is to have received this sacrament, the one all Christian churches agree is necessary. Baptism is birth into Christian life, incorporation into the life of the Triune God through Christ, and as such overrides all the scandalous divisions human sin has incorporated into Christ’s church: “we acknowledge one baptism”.

Matthew’s Gospel (which St Dominic always carried with him) concludes with the Dominical command to the eleven disciples, some or all doubting or hesitant, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Mt 28:19). One does not have to be a convinced believer, or even a believer at all to baptise (Can. 861, §2), providing that the intention of the baptiser is to confer the sacrament on the recipient (because the minister of the sacrament is, in fact, Christ himself), using the Trinitarian formula with the intention of doing what the church does.

This usage is critical, as emphasised by two recent canonical decisions. The first was internal: in a somewhat over-enthusiastic effort to render church language more gender-inclusive and so supposedly intelligible to our contemporaries, an Australian priest a few years ago baptised in the name of “the Creator, the Saviour, and the Sanctifier”. These ‘baptisms’ were ruled invalid and had to be repeated. Why so? Essentially because such terminology disregards a longstanding church tradition, dating back to the Fathers, of the normative theological priority of biblical terms and their inherent biblical meaning. While it is true that such designations can be truly applied to God, that truth is limited only to God conceived as acting towards us, and does not adequately designate who God is in himself: that is, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. If one is to be incorporated into the Trinity as the Trinity is, then one must be baptised in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Similarly, externally, in 2001, the Vatican declared that the baptism of the Mormon church was invalid, because there was no real invocation of the Trinity: for the Mormons, the “Father”, “Son” and “Holy Spirit” are not three persons in which one divinity subsists, but three gods who form a divinity. Such divergence in doctrine implies that the Mormon minister does not have the intention, when baptizing, of doing what the church does when it confers baptism.

The ‘one baptism’ we acknowledge creates a radical equality among all the faithful, of whatever communion, of whatever status (although ministry in the church should, of course, always be conceived in terms of service rather than of privilege and power). All of the baptised are equal in the sight of the Lord, all are equally responsible for the body of Christ, and equally responsible to him; whether male or female, slave or free, Jew or Greek, pope or laity (cf 1 Cor 12:13). That is our glory, and our challenge.

"Time to take a different path"

Recently, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and Cardinal Keith O'Brien wrote an open letter on behalf of the bishops of England, Wales and Scotland. They said:

"The Catholic faith lets us see the radiant glory of human life from its beginning to its end. When we know that every person whatever their age, race or condition carries the image of God, we see their infinite value and dignity. Whether we have this vision of faith or not, cherishing life is the central value of every society that wants to flourish.

The Catholic Church offers to participate with others in working for this timely change of heart and mind. We hope and pray for the sake of our common humanity, and the lives at stake, that the next 40 years will tell a very different story. The time to take a different path is now."

On Saturday 27 October, the Oxford University Pro-life Society organized a peaceful act of witness on Oxford's busiest shopping street to raise awareness about the tragedy of abortion in our society and to encourage people to re-examine the issues. They were joined by six Dominican students. Below are some photos from this occasion:

Credo 41 - We believe in [one] ... apostolic Church

It all began with the resurrection of Christ. The apostles, called by name by Jesus himself, were those who bore witness in public to the life and mission of the Lord:

‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life -- the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us -- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.’ (1 John 1:1-3).

They joined in Christ’s mission of preaching the Good News, and thus commissioned, were made pillars of the newly-born Church.

When we say that we believe that the Church is apostolic, we mean that we believe that it still participates in the same mission of Christ, through the apostles and bishops - their successors.

Even though by the laying on of hands (the apostolic succession) bishops are particularly responsible for preaching the truth about Jesus Christ and his redemptive mission, all the baptized share in various ways in the apostolic mission of the Church by virtue of the common baptism. We never stop being on the mission, until the Lord returns!

Creed 40: ... catholic...

To profess that the Church is 'catholic' is to say something about the very essence of the Church. When we say this in the Creed, we are not using the word as a title, or a proper noun. We are saying something about the nature of the Church; we are speaking of a spiritual reality rather than something geographical or statistical. The word 'katholikos' in classical Greek was used by philosophers to indicate a universal proposition. Thus, when this idea is applied to the Church, then, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, "The translation of catholic is 'including the whole'; it signifies 'relating to the whole'. It is a way of expressing the fact that the Church belongs to the whole world, to all cultures and every age."

Why is the Church universal? Speaking of the Church, St Augustine explained: "You unite together the inhabitants of the cities, the different peoples, nay the whole human race, by belief in our common origin, so that human beings are not satisfied in being joined together, but become in some sort brothers." This belief in the fraternity of all humankind is thus rooted in the reality of God's fatherhood over all. Moreover, because of the universal salvation that Christ alone won for all creation, so "God has willed that the Church founded by him be the instrument for the salvation of all humanity (see Acts 17:30-31)." So, the Church's duty as 'catholic' is to gather all people in the Spirit of love, to reconcile the world in Christ and to bring all into communion with the Father.

This belief flows into three aspects of the Church's life. Firstly, the Church has an intrinsically missionary orientation as she seeks to serve humanity by proclaiming the Gospel, by word and deed, to all people. As the Second Vatican Council says: "Though God in ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the Gospel to find that faith without which it is impossible to please Him (Heb. 11:6), yet a necessity lies upon the Church (1 Cor. 9:16), and at the same time a sacred duty, to preach the Gospel. And hence missionary activity today as always retains its power and necessity." Such activity is an expression of the Church's faith in the catholicity of the Gospel.

Secondly, when the psalmist says in Psalm 87:5, "Zion shall be called 'Mother' for all shall be her children", these words have been seen in the light of Christ to refer to the Church who has been constituted by Christ as 'mother' of all peoples. As such, Vatican II also teaches that "In virtue of her mission and nature [the Church] is bound to no particular form of human culture, nor to any political, economic or social system." Rather, in the universality and diversity of the Church, she expresses more clearly her motherhood over all people. As Pope Benedict has said: "[The Church should] bring the whole wealth of human existence, in all its languages, to God - and should be thereby herself a power for reconciliation among people." So, the Church's diversity and expanse is a mark of her catholicity.

Thirdly, in the work of reconciliation that the Church is engaged in, by the Christian unity that she constantly strives for, and by the peace among all people that she mediates, the Church becomes an ever clearer sign of universal salvation in Christ under the one God and Father of us all (see Ephesians 4:6). For the sign she displays through such activity is ultimately one of charity, and such charity is itself a mark of the Church's intimate union with God. It is this same communion with the living God that she offers to all humankind by virtue of her being catholic.

Credo 39 - We believe in [one] holy ... Church

If one were to consider the Church as a merely human institution, it would be hard to assert that it is holy, for all too often we encounter signs of the sinfulness of its members. Moreover, it would make little sense to profess belief in a human institution. However this article of the Creed does just those things, so it must challenge us to go beyond this limited view of the Church. Rather, it invites us to make a declaration of faith in the very nature of the Church, which the Scriptures refer to as Christ's Mystical Body (see Col 1:24), the Bride of Christ, called to be "holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:27), and a "holy people" consecrated to God (see 1 Pet 2:9). What does it mean, then, to say that the Church is holy?

With faith, we profess this because Jesus Christ, her Head, is holy. Where Jesus has gone, we hope to follow (see Preface of the Ascension), but as yet we are clearly still very much engaged in fighting the good fight against sin. For this reason, the Church on earth is also called the Church Militant. In this struggle, God's holy Church is our refuge, our help and our inspiration, for in the Church, we have the abiding Presence of Christ, and through the Church Jesus continues to feed and teach sinners, and he persists in his mission to call those who are tired and burdened to himself.

This is the mystery of the Church which clasps both sinners and saints to her bosom. When we profess the Church to be holy, we do not ignore the sinfulness of her members, but rather we joyfully proclaim that God has given her the gift of the sacraments through which her members are sanctified. In spite of human sinfulness, and indeed, because of it, God provides the means for holiness in the Church and this has been eloquently attested to in the life of her saints. As Cardinal Ratzinger said, "the Church is the institution sanctified by [Christ] forever, an institution in which the holiness of the Lord becomes present among men." Indeed, the holy Church transcends the sinfulness of her individual members and so in the Mass we ask the Lord to "look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church".

However, the final fulfillment of the promise of holiness given to the Church belongs only to the saints in heaven, whom we call the Church Triumphant, for they, by God's grace, are victorious over sin and death. That is the end towards which we all strive; as St Thomas Aquinas explains: "to be a glorious Church, with neither spot nor wrinkle, is the ultimate end to which we are brought by the Passion of Christ. Hence, this will be the case only in the heavenly homeland, not here on the way of pilgrimage, where 'if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves'..." (Summa theologiae III 8,3). As such, each of us in the Church is called to strive for holiness, to reform and to renewal in the Spirit, but at the same time, we should not be too surprised that sin exists in the Church. We need only examine our own lives as Christians to realize how we are still very much in the process of becoming sanctified.

Baptism is just the first step of this journey. As we undertake Life's pilgrimage, we have the witness of the saints who have gone before us and we have the Church, our Mother and Teacher, whom Christ has endowed with "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places... [so] that we should be holy and blameless before him" (Eph 1:3-4).

* * * * *

If you are interested in more on this fascinating topic, you may want to read Memory and Reconciliation: the Church and the faults of the past.

Quodlibet 6 - Vows and Sacraments

'Why is religious profession a sacramental and not a Sacrament? Similarly, a priest is eternally a priest...is a religious eternally a religious and why...is it because the vows are eternal and it is a realization of God's call, or is there some other reason?’

The simple answer to the first question is: because the Church has discerned that profession is not a sacrament. But this in itself can tell us a lot. The seven sacraments that have been defined by the Church deal with stages in our life as Christians, which, in a sense are not unconnected with the biological and psychological stages of our life. Our Baptism is the beginning of our Christian lives, Confirmation marks Christian maturity, the Eucharist nourishes us on our journey. When we are weakened in body or soul we receive strength and healing through Anointing of the Sick and Confession. All humans are made to seek God in communion with one another, and need to be guided and lead. For this we have Marriage and Holy Orders. The Church’s discernment is that these are the seven special gifts of Christ to the Church, by which the Church becomes more perfectly Christ-like, and that have permanent value in the Church.

Sacramentals, on the other hand, ‘bear a resemblance to the sacraments’ (CCC, 1667). Religious profession is a particular means of living out our baptism in such a way that we become conformed to Christ, but (and this may be shocking for religious amongst us) is not necessary for the survival of the Church in the way that sacraments are. It is a sobering thought that religious will continue to exist as long as they are useful to the Church in their prayer, witness and ministry. It is nevertheless a ‘gift from [the] Lord’ so that the Church can ‘show forth Christ and acknowledge her to be the Saviour’s bride’ (CCC, 926).

Credo 38 - We believe in one [...] Church

Belief is necessary. The word of the LORD from the mouth of the prophet Isaiah demonstrates this. During the reign of king Ahaz of Judah, Israel and Damascus were trying to attack the House of David. Isaiah says that his 'heart and his people's hearts shook like forest trees shaking in the wind' (Isaiah 7:2). The LORD told Isaiah to go and tell the king of Judah to be calm, for the attack was not going to happen. However, there was a condition. Ahaz had to believe and trust in the word of YHWH before the attack could come to nothing. 'Lord Yahweh says this...if you will not take your stand on me you will not stand firm' (Isaiah 7:9). The RSV puts it: 'If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established'. Even though God had made a promise to David that his house was not going to pass away, here, we see, the fulfilment of that promise depended on the king believing. If the king had not believed, the words of God would have come to nought. This is the power that we have.

Paul understood this principle. Addresing the Hebrews, he says, 'for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him' (Hebrews 11:6). What I want to highlight here, is that, in the kingdom of God one of the pre-requisites for getting things done is believing.

In our modern world it might seem an irrational thing. It seems very difficult for modern man to function on the level of belief. But belief is basic to human existence. When a farmer sowers his seeds, he does so with the belief that the seeds will grow and produce fruit. There is an element of belief operating here in this basic physical phenomenon. Now, since creation reflects the glory of God, the ways of God, why then when it comes to matters relating to God do we find believing to be such a bizarre notion?

When God asks us to believe he is not asking us to do anything beyond ourselves. It is well within our power to do so. So, saying ... oh ... I just cannot bring my self to believe, as if to say, I am too sophisticated to do such a thing, is not putting forward a sound justification for not exercising belief. The question in life is always: what do you choose to believe? Just as a farmer chooses to believe that his seeds will grow, so too you can choose to believe, to put your trust in the Word of God and see if it will not do what it promises.

Whatever God asks us to believe we have the power to choose to do and it is necessary to do so. One such thing is to believe that the Church is the single community of all the saints.

Credo 37 - He has spoken through the Prophets

Perhaps we should start our exploration of God’s speaking through the prophets by asking what the word ‘Prophets’ might mean. Some clues can perhaps be found by looking at the origin of the word. In modern usage, anyone who makes predictions about the future is labelled a prophet. Our English ‘prophet’ comes from the Greek word prophētēs, which in turn comes from the Greek verb ‘to say beforehand’. Anyone who says something about an event beforehand is someone who makes a prediction about the future. But does this give us a full enough account of its meaning for us?

In the Old Testament, both Abraham and Moses are described as prophets, and so some insight as to what a prophet is might be gained by looking at what they did. In Abraham’s case, we meet a man who was spoken to by God, and who also spoke directly to God. Through his interactions with God, Abraham receives word of God’s desire to enter into Covenant with him. God reveals his promise to give him land, and to make him the father of many nations (cf. Gen 15:18-17:4). In Moses we have an a man to whom is revealed God’s desire to free the people of Israel from slavery, and who leads them out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, to defeat of Amalek (cf. Ex 14:21-15, 17:11-12). Through Moses, God also gave the Law to the people of Israel, acted as Judge of that Law, and who spoke with authority about future events (Deut 34:9-12; Ex: 18). By looking at Abraham and Moses we get a picture of prophets as ones who proclaim and interpret God’s message, who intercede on behalf of the people, and who are given insight into future events.

‘The Prophets’ also refers to a series of books in the Old Testament written by prophetic writers. Of these, perhaps the most famous are what have been termed the Greater Prophets, namely the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, although there are a number of other prophetic works, termed the minor prophets. These books provide us with revelations related through prophecy, whose purpose was to provide the people of Israel with a deeper and clearer understanding of the will of God, and foretell the unfolding of Salvation. For Christians, these writings are of immense value, since they proclaim the unfolding of God’s promise, a promise brought to its fulfilment in Christ.

Credo 36 - With the Father and the Son He is worshipped and glorified...

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Thus He is intimately part of the eternal Triune Godhead. As such He is rightfully and necessarily worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son. This worship is proper to the Holy Spirit because of His role in the action of the Triune Creator. The Second Vatican Council taught that the Holy Spirit was sent for the continued sanctification of the Church, and thus, all those who believe have access through Christ in one Spirit to the Father. This is the Spirit of Life, a ‘fountain of water springing up to life eternal’. To those dead in sin, the Father brings life through Him, until He brings life to their mortal bodies in Christ. (Lumen Gentium, 4).

The Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful, as in a temple. ‘With sighs too deep for words’, the Holy Spirit prays on their behalf, and bears witness to their adoptive sonship. By the power of the Gospel he makes the Church keep the freshness of youth. Eternally, he renews her and leads her to perfect union with her Spouse. The Spirit and the Bride both say to Jesus the Lord, ‘Come’. (Lumen Gentium 4).

The Spirit is due equal worship with the Father and the Son because of His equality with them as the third person of the Triune God. He is the Advocate which the Father has bestowed on the Church through Christ to lead her and guide her towards the glory of eternal life.

The photograph above is of an alabaster statue of the Blessed Trinity, thought to have been carved at Bristol about 1400, and now to be found in the Black Abbey, Kilkenny, the only one of their pre-Reformation churches still used by the Irish Dominicans

Credo 35: ... and the Son ...

This phrase is misleadingly simple. The controversy it generated – usually referred to by its Latin form, Filioque – occasioned the first great schism in Christianity between the churches of the Latin West, which accepted its inclusion in the creed, and the churches of the (largely) Greek East, which did not. What was disputed concerned who God has revealed Himself to be.

The New Testament texts that speak of the relationship between the Spirit and the Son are concerned with God’s act of revelation in the Word incarnate; even John 15:26 “When comes the Paraclete whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, which from the Father proceeds, that one will testify about me.” This of course is the reference par excellence in favour of the procession of the Spirit from the Father alone; but the word “alone” is not found in this text; rather what it deals with is the temporal mission of the Paraclete. The Latin Fathers appealed frequently to two other texts in John: 16:14-15 “That one [the Spirit of Truth] me will glorify, because of mine he will receive and will announce [it] to you. All things which has the Father mine are. Therefore I said that of mine he receives and will announce [it] to you”, and 20:22 “And this having said he breathed on [them] and says to them receive [the] Spirit Holy”. If we are sons able to call God ‘Father’ that is because we have received the Spirit of his Son. Hilary of Poitiers thought that ‘of mine he will receive’ (Jn 16:14) might have the same meaning as ‘proceeds from the Father’ (De Trin. VIII, 20), while Augustine and Anselm believed that the breathing on the disciples (Jn 20:22) implied the procession of the Spirit from the Son.

The source of Latin reflection on the mystery of the Trinity was largely Augustine who developed his teaching by a rigorous exegesis of scripture. Here he is quoting himself (Tr. In Joh. Evang.99, 8-9) “I had been teaching from the evidence of the holy scriptures that the Holy Spirit proceeds from them both. I then went on to say: So if the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, why did the Son say He proceeds from the Father (Jn 15:26)? Why indeed, do you suppose, unless it was the way he was accustomed to refer even what was his very own to him from whom he had his very self? For example, that other thing he said, My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me (Jn 7:16). If in this case we can accept that it is his teaching, which he says however is not his but the Father’s, how much more should we accept in our case that the Holy Spirit proceeds also from him, seeing that he said He proceeds from the Father without also saying ‘He does not proceed from me’?”

The doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son began to be proclaimed as official church teaching in the church of Spain. It was regarded as a necessary counter to a kind of Arianism prevalent among the ruling Visigoths, which regarded the Holy Spirit as a creature of the Son just as it regarded the Son as a creature of the Father. The aim of the church there was to safeguard the consubstantiality of the Word incarnate with the Father. The Spanish church’s doctrine was shared by the churches of France and England, where by the late eighth century the term Filioque is found in the creed recited at Mass each Sunday, and where moreover it was assumed that the word had always been part of the creed of Nicaea. Things rapidly became polemical, for political as well as theological reasons. In 1014 the Roman church, under pressure from the Bavarian emperor, introduced the Frankish creed, containing the Filioque, into the Mass. When the definitive break with Constantinople occurred exactly forty years later the difference over the Filioque was one of the central points of dispute.

The fundamental Orthodox objection seems to be that it is a mistake to think of the persons of the Trinity as constituted by the relationships of their origins: their distinctness as hypostases is prior to their relationships; somehow, both the distinctness and the unity of the three hypostases are derived from the first person, the Father, who is the sole beginning and the only cause of divinity, which he communicates wholly to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the inter-personal relationships of the three are richer and more dynamic than just considering their relationship in terms of origin allows – summed up in the Greek term perichoresis – in terms of which modern Orthodox theologians explain statements of the Greek Fathers that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son. Aquinas decided that we can also say this, with suitable qualifications: it is a way of stating, he says, what Augustine held, that the Son receives from the Father the power of being joint origin or ‘breather forth’ of the Holy Spirit; further, he saw it as a gesture of goodwill towards the Greek position. The concern in the West is that to omit the Filioque is to play down the fact that to name the Holy Spirit is to name not only the Father but also the Son, for the Spirit is necessarily constituted within their relationship and so related to both. The one God is the Father begetting the Son in the love of the Spirit and the Son loving the Father in the same Spirit in whom he is lovingly begotten. The Son and Spirit are both ‘God of God’ and the point of the doctrine of the Filioque is to remind us of this teaching.

Dominican Study Week in Dubrovnik

At the beginning of September three Dominican students from Blackfriars, Oxford travelled to the Croatian city of Dubrovnik to take part in the tenth Dominican Study Week. The theme this year was 'Dominican Spirituality in the modern world', and during the course of the week talks were given on topics relating to the way in which Dominicans live out their Christian vocation today. The Study Week is an important opportunity for Dominican students from different European countries to come together and share their experiences. This year students from England, Croatia, Poland and Spain took part.



To reflect the international character of the Study Week, we sang the Divine Office and the Mass in Latin each day, although the talks were given in English, Italian and Croatian, with a simultaneous translation service.

During the week we were guests of the community of friars at the beautiful 14th-century Dominican priory which clings to the walls of the old city. With its rich religious and cultural history, Dubrovnik is a true gem of a city nestled on the Adriatic coast in the extreme south of Croatia; the Dominican priory is just minutes from the beach and enjoys fantastic views of the sea. Although the city suffered heavy damage during the Balkan conflict some sixteen years ago today the city has been fully restored to its original splendour and tourists throng to the city. Bernard Shaw was surely right when he wrote that “those who seek paradise on earth should come to Dubrovnik and see Dubrovnik”.

On one day during the visit we were all taken on an excursion to three of the nearby islands of the coast of Croatia. We sailed on a replica of a sixteenth century ship. Although we fought bravely to fight off an unseasonably cold wind, wrapping ourselves in blankets, we were cheered on board by a hearty fish lunch with wine to the accompaniment of the accordion and Croatian folk songs.


The day before we returned home we were able to attend the ordination to the priesthood of our Dominican brother Mihael Mario Tolj in the Cathedral of Saint Mark on the island of Korčula some sixty miles from Dubrovnik. The ordination was followed by a substantial meal for about a hundred people hosted by the thriving community of Dominican sisters whose motherhouse is on the island. There was much laughter and singing at this celebration and it was a chance to experience what we had reflected on during the week - the joy of Dominican life.

We had much opportunity during this Study Week to reflect with other friars on the way the Dominican charism is lived in our respective countries, and we came away from Croatia with a deeper appreciation of the fraternal bonds that we share in St Dominic, love for our common mission, and gratitude for the hospitality we received from our Croatian brothers and sisters.

Credo 34 ...who proceeds from the Father...

‘The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters’ (Gn. 1.2).

‘But when the Counsellor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me’ (Jn 15.26).

‘God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God’ (1 Cor. 2.11-12).

There are many allusions to the Spirit of God in the scriptures. It is through the teaching of Christ and the experience of St Paul and the other Apostles in the early church that the Counsellor, the Advocate, the Paraclete is known as the third Person of the Trinity. That is, the Trinity is revealed to us by its missions, by the fact that the Son and the Spirit are sent from God, the Father: the Son from the Father and the Spirit of God whom the Son sends from the Father.

But these Persons do not begin to exist when they are sent in these missions, for then God would have some parts that are not eternal and we would have divided God. The Father, Son and Spirit are eternally related, for God is simply one.

The language we received from Jesus helps us to understand these relations. The first is clear: the Son is begotten by the Father. That is, the Son finds his eternal origin in the Father as the names suggest. But the Spirit too, as the Spirit of God is eternally generated in God, a generation which Jesus calls procession.

When we say that the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life proceeds from the Father, we are simply stating the revelation that the Holy Spirit sent by God is simply God from all eternity. God sends himself into the world to dwell in humanity. It is in the light of this astonishing thought that we must continue to address St Paul’s question to ourselves: ‘do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?’ (1 Cor. 3.16).

Credo 33: ... the giver of life ...

Only God gives life. Creatures can nurture or manipulate his gift, but the gift is always his. When we confess that the Spirit is the ‘giver of life’, we recognise that the Spirit is God, like the Son and the Father. The Spirit gives life, just as the Father and the Son give life.

In the beginning of Genesis, the world is welter and waste. In the expressive Hebrew phrase, it is tohu wabohu, a kind of futile chaos. The Spirit of God ‘hovers’ over the surface of the waters, like an eagle fluttering over its young. This Spirit miraculously and incomprehensibly helps bring forth life from the sterile salt-waste (1.2). This creation happens not just once, but again and again, constantly. In his hymn to the glory of creation, the psalmist sings about the Spirit’s presence in the gift of new life and nurture

You take back your Spirit and living things die,
returning to the dust from which they came.
You send forth your Spirit, they are created
and you renew the face of the earth (104. 30)

The continued existence, the passing away, and the origination of all beings are conditioned by God’s Spirit. The Spirit is like a hand, providing for all things and upholding them. Or it is like God’s breath, animating things and renewing them.

One of the main meanings of the doctrine of the Trinity is that it is the same God who makes the universe, who comes among us as a man, and who is continually present to the world. Creation and redemption are a single act, proceeding from a single God. Likewise, the same Spirit which is involved in making the world, is also involved in remaking it. The Spirit gives life in the first place, and also gives new life.

When St Paul calls the Spirit ‘the giver of life’ he means primarily this re-creation. The Spirit comes to those who are spiritually dead, through sin, and raises them to the new life of faith, hope and charity.

The coming to us of the Spirit is the deepest and most unanalysable meaning of conversion. We do not know what the Spirit is; we cannot grasp it. We do not know where he comes from or where he is going. But we know that we are sharing again in this new life of the Spirit when we have his gifts. The writers of the New Testament say that his face is seen especially in the readiness to love and to forgive.