Handings On of the Creed and Lord's Prayer

The Handings On are rites within the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults by which the Church entrusts ancient texts to the elect. The Creed recalls the wonderful deeds of God and expresses the faith into which they will be baptized; the Lord's Prayer teaches the children of God how to pray in the words of Christ. The rites are celebrated after a suitable formation rather than used as an initial doctrinal quiz.^[1]

Older English editions often called them the Presentations of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. The revised United States translation uses Handing On to render traditio more precisely: the Church transmits a living inheritance, not merely displays a text. This is the same ritual family under a revised title, not a newly invented sacrament or an oral-performance ceremony detached from initiation.

The rites ordinarily belong to the period of Purification and Enlightenment, after the Rite of Election and before the Easter Vigil. The Creed is normally handed on first and the Lord's Prayer later, with readings, homily, invitation, and prayer over the elect arranged by the ritual book. Pastoral adaptations and exceptional timing require the permissions and conditions stated there.

Because the elect are still catechumens, the rites do not presume Eucharistic communion or sacramental absolution. They prepare for Baptism, Confirmation, and first Eucharist. A parish should distinguish candidates already baptized from the elect: baptized Christians entering full communion have a different sacramental status even when some formation is shared.

Christian antiquity paired the handing on of the symbol with a later redditio, or giving back, in which those preparing for baptism professed the faith. Contemporary ritual forms preserve the logic of reception, interior appropriation, and profession without reducing it to memorization. The Creed given by the Church becomes the neophyte's baptismal confession, and the Lord's Prayer becomes the prayer of one reborn in Christ.^[2]

These rites are sacramentals within the initiation process, not independent sacraments and not conditions that create validity by themselves. Omitting one through a lawful pastoral provision does not erase a later valid Baptism. Their importance is ecclesial and catechetical: initiation joins a person to the faith, worship, and prayer of the Church rather than only recording an individual decision.