Four Marks of the Church

Alex Owings
Coach Oliver
Church History (3)
28 February 2012
The Four Marks Of The Church One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, these four words are the foundation of the Catholic Church. They are what the Church calls the “Four Marks.” The First Council of Constantinople established them in 381. These words were fist used in the Nicene Creed, and are still used to this day when we say “I believe in one holy, catholic, apostolic Church.” With the Holy Spirit helping to guide the Church it can carry out these four marks. The fist mark of the Church is One describes, and it describes unity. The Church tells us it is one because of three things. The reasons are that it is a source to the Trinity, also because Jesus is the founder of the church, and the last is because the Holy Spirit is its soul. It mainly tells us about the unity of the Body of Christ. This means that our Church is together as one, and not many divided communities. The second mark is Holy. This describes to us that since God created the Church it is truly holy. The term means universal, and this shows that the Church does not have to be in a specific place, or exclude a race or culture. Jesus is the source to holiness. The third mark is Catholic. It is catholic because Jesus is always present in the church. The last mark of the church is apostolic. Jesus is the soul founder of the church, and he gave all of the power in the church to his apostles to be bishops, and he had Peter be the leader called the Pope when he left. Also the church has Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture. (1) One, is a mark of the church that can have a connection to many events. An event that relates to this mark of is Pentecost. It relates to this mark for various reasons. One reason is that since through this mark it says we are all united, and Pentecost shows how the Holy Spirit helped to unify people. Pentecost is like this, because when the Apostles were in the room, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. This allowed them to be able to preach in different languages. They could unite everyone because they can now speak all languages, and everyone could now hear about the stories of Jesus. Another reason is that this mark tells us that the Holy Spirit guides us to fulfill this mark, just like at Pentecost where the Holy Spirit guided the Apostles to have the courage to go out and baptize. (2) The second mark of the Church is holy, and I feel that it has a strong connection to Peter. I feel this way, because Peter is the one of the holiest men to ever live. Jesus gave him the key to heaven, and personally appointed him to serve as the pope. Peter was also was the only Apostle who walked on water, because he believed in Jesus, but when he stopped he started to sink. This shows that he was one of the holiest men because no other man has walked on water. In my opinion Peter is the perfect example of holy, because he is the foundation of our church, and our Church would not be where it is today, if it wasn’t for Peter. (3)

The third mark of the Church is catholic. I feel that Mary is a good example of this mark. Mary is a good example because she is the mother of God and a major image in our Catholic Church today. This mark connects to Mary, because she knew that Jesus was the son of God, and she would do what ever God asked of her. She never sinned and was taken body and soul into heaven. This shows that she is the role model of all Catholics, and we need to try to live a life like hers. We always need to remember that Jesus is always with us, and we need to act as closely as we can to him, like Mary did. (3) The fourth and final mark of the church is Apostolic. I think that Paul is a good example of this. He was a once a sinner, because he persecuted Jews, then one day he had a major conversion. He went blind, and his sight was later returned, but right after that he began to preach the word of God. He is a good example of Apostolic, because he had a conversion and later became an Apostle, and he also took missionary journeys to preach about Jesus, and spread Catholicism. Paul also wrote seven epistles that are in the New Testament. Paul was a great Apostle, and Scripture writer, which is why I feel he connects with the Apostolic Mark. (3) At Providence the mark that I feel mostly everyday is one. I feel this because I think that at Providence we are never separated, there is always a family atmosphere about the place. Whenever we have all school masses, I feel that is when we truly have unity among us. We all do not know each other, but it just feels like were at home. All the people at Providence are so welcoming to one another. There is a special bond between everyone here that makes you feel as one, like we are all unified. Unity is all around Providence; it happens everyday, because there is always someone there to pick you up no matter what. It is truly a second family, because we are all united. The four marks of the Church are the foundation of our church. We need to try to live them out so we can become better people. Many other religions say these marks in the Creed, but only the Catholic Church reflect on what they actually mean. The Church is one and all the people in it function as a whole. These four marks have been passed down since Jesus’ time and continue to this day.