In Lumen gentium, the Church calls upon all of us to strive for holiness. Holiness is acheived through responding to God's grace in knowing, loving and serving Him, as many of us remember from our Baltimore Catechism. Pope Paul VI, in his Encyclical Letter on the Church (Ecclesiam Suam), reiterates this call and restates it in terms of awareness, renewal and dialogue. Awareness is the recognition that God has a plan for all of us and that He has given his Church to us as an instrument of His grace. Renewal is the conforming of our lives to His plan for our salvation. Dialogue is the necessary fruit of the holiness that is born out of this renewal. A life that is fashioned out of fidelity is fruitful.
In our present time there is a misconception that Catholicity is eviquivalent to ethnicity, in other words, it's something that we are just born into. While the Catholic faith was something that we may not have actively chosen, those of us who were, by the grace of God, baptized as infants have a great privilege. We get to reclaim our heritage for ourselves. We can look back into history and discover the roots of fidelity that led up to our participation in God's salvation for humanity. It is fidelity that keeps us together. Fidelity goes beyond birthright. Borrowed from the first word of the Creed, "I believe," the term "Credo" encapsulates the assent of faith that is essential to holiness. "Credo" Catholics light up the world in holy lives filled with Christ's everlasting joy, and that is what this blog celebrates. We need more "Credo" Catholics, so let's all be inspired together.
