Credo and the Perfect Tense

For your revision, recite the opening of St John's Gospel, and then write out the imperfect tense of a verb of your choice...


Today we are going to move on to the Creed, and the perfect tense.


Here's the Creed (nb you really should know this by heart!):

Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem,

I believe in one God, the Father almighty,

factorem coeli et terrae,

maker of heaven and of earth,

visibilium omnium, et invisibilium.

of all things visible, and invisible.

Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum,

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,

Filium Dei unigenitum.

Son of God only begotten.

Et ex Patre natum ante omni saecula.

And of the Father born before all ages.

Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero.

God from God, light from light, true God from true God.

Genitum, non factum, consubstantialem Patri,

Begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father,

per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos homines,

by whom all things were made. Who for us men,

et propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis.

and for our salvation descended from the heavens.

Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto

And was incarnate by the Holy Spirit

ex Maria Virgine. Et homo factus est.

of the Virgin Mary. And was made man.

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato,

Crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate,

passus, et sepultus est.

suffered, and was buried.

Et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas.

And he rose on the third day, in accord with the Scriptures.

Et ascendit in caelum, sedet ad dexteram Patris.

And he ascended into heaven, he sits at right hand of Father.

Et iterum venturus est cum gloria,

And again he is going to come with glory,

judicare vivos et mortuos,

to judge the living and the dead,

cujus regni non erit finis.

of whose kingdom there will be no end.

Et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum, et vivificantem,

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and lifegiver,

qui ex Patre Filioque procedit.

who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

Qui cum Patre, et Filio simul adoratur

Who with the Father, and the Son together is adored

et conglorificatur, qui locutus est per Prophetas.

and glorified, who spoke through the Prophets.

Et unam, sanctam, catholicam, et apostolicam Ecclesiam.

And in one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum.

I confess one baptism for remission of sins.

Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum.

And I expect the resurrection of dead.

Et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.

And everlasting life to come. Amen.

--

Most of the vocabulary here is easy to grasp, I think, with the fairly literal translation underneath.  One point of interest is filioque.  I don't mean because of the controversy it represents, but linguistically.  The point being that -que is a suffix added to filio, and means and.  The other famous example, of course is SPQR Senatus Populusque Romanus (The Roman Senate and People).

So let us continue our study of the Latin verb.  Here are some of the verbs found in the Creed:

Credo, expecto, sedet, procedit: are all regular verbs in the present tense; the first two in the first person (I believe, I expect) and the remaining two in the third person (he is sitting, he proceeds).  So these should look like familiar forms to you by now.

Confiteor is an oddity.  It is the first person singular present tense of a deponent verb; that is verb which has a passive form, but an active meaning (in this case, I confess).  For a more usual use of the passive form, we have:

adoratur, conglorificatur, each of which is the third person present in the passive voice: ie he is adored, he is glorified with, (as opposed to the active, which would be adorat: he adores, glorificat, he glorifies).  We may come onto the passive voice more fully eventually...

facta sunt, erit finis, locutus est are tenses made with an auxiliary verb (to be) similar to the English forms: they were made, it will finish, it was spoken. 

judicare is an infinitive: to judge.

resurrexit, ascendit

Resurrexit is the third person singular of the perfect tense of resurgere: to rise again

Here is the complete perfect tense:

resurrexi - I rose again
resurrexisti - you rose again (singular)
resurrexit - he, she or it rose again
resurreximus- we rose again
resurrexistis - you rose again (plural)
resurrexerunt - they rose again

Likewise ascendit, from ascendere - to ascend.

ascendi - I ascended

ascendisti -  you ascended (singular)

ascendit - he, she or it  ascended

ascendimus -  we ascended 

ascendistis -  you ascended (plural)

ascenderunt -  they ascended


In fact, these endings,   -i, -isti, -it, -imus, -istis, -erunt are the same for the perfect tense (active voice)  of the regular verbs of all conjugations.

So that's your homework for this week: to learn these and find other examples in the liturgy, if you can.