Catechism: Amen

1061 The Creed, like the last book of the Bible,644 ends with the Hebrew word amen. This word frequently concludes prayers in the New Testament. the Church likewise ends her prayers with “Amen.”

1062 In Hebrew, amen comes from the same root as the word “believe.” This root expresses solidity, trustworthiness, faithfulness. and so we can understand why “Amen” may express both God’s faithfulness towards us and our trust in him.

1063 In the book of the prophet Isaiah, we find the expression “God of truth” (literally “God of the Amen”), that is, the God who is faithful to his promises: “He who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth [amen].”645 Our Lord often used the word “Amen,” sometimes repeated,646 to emphasize the trustworthiness of his teaching, his authority founded on God’s truth.

1064 Thus the Creed’s final “Amen” repeats and confirms its first words: “I believe.” To believe is to say “Amen” to God’s words, promises and commandments; to entrust oneself completely to him who is the “Amen” of infinite love and perfect faithfulness. the Christian’s everyday life will then be the “Amen” to the “I believe” of our baptismal profession of faith:

May your Creed be for you as a mirror. Look at yourself in it, to see if you believe everything you say you believe. and rejoice in your faith each day.647

1065 Jesus Christ himself is the “Amen.”648 He is the definitive “Amen” of the Father’s love for us. He takes up and completes our “Amen” to the Father: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God”:649

Through him, with him, in him,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor is yours,
almighty Father,
God, for ever and ever.
AMEN.

644 Cf. Revelation 22:21.

645 Isaiah 65:16.

646 Cf. Matthew 6:2,16; John 5:19.

647 St. Augustine, Sermo 58, 11, 13: PL 38, 399.

648 Revelation 3:14.

649 2 Corinthians 1:20.

Excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church are provided courtesy of www.intratex.com
Catechism of the Catholic Church: text - IntraText CT. (2012). Retrieved January 7th, 2012, from: http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM

Revelation 22:21
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21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Isaiah 65:16
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16 In which he that is blessed upon the earth, shall be blessed in God, amen: and he that sweareth in the earth, shall swear by God, amen: because the former distresses are forgotten, and because they are hid from my eyes.

Matthew 6:2,16
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2 Therefore when thou dost an almsdeed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.

16 And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.

John 5:19
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19 Then Jesus answered, and said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you, the Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in like manner.

Revelation 3:14
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14 And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God:

2 Corinthians 1:20
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20 For all the promises of God are in him, It is; therefore also by him, amen to God, unto our glory.