What is the deposit of faith?

The deposit of faith is the complete body of divine revelation entrusted by Christ to the apostles and handed on to the Church. It comes to us through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition (CCC 84).

What the deposit contains. God revealed Himself through His words and saving deeds, reaching their fullness in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh (Heb 1:1-2). The apostles received Christ's teaching, witnessed His death and Resurrection, and were guided by the Holy Spirit into the truth (Jn 16:13). They handed on what they had received through preaching, worship, example, institutions, and inspired writings. St. Paul therefore commanded Christians to hold to the traditions taught "either by an oral statement or by a letter" (2 Thess 2:15).

Scripture and Tradition. Sacred Scripture is the inspired written word of God. Sacred Tradition is the living transmission of the apostolic faith in the Church. They flow from the same divine source and form one sacred deposit, rather than two competing sets of revelation (CCC 80-82, 97). Capital T Tradition should be distinguished from changeable customs, disciplines, and devotional practices. Such customs can help transmit the faith, but they do not all carry the authority of apostolic Tradition (CCC 83).

The role of the Magisterium. Christ entrusted the authentic interpretation of the deposit to the Church's living teaching office, exercised by the bishops in communion with the pope (CCC 85). The Magisterium is not above the word of God. It serves revelation by listening to it, guarding it, and explaining it faithfully (CCC 86). Dogmas define truths contained in revelation or necessarily connected with it. They protect the faith from distortion and give Catholics a clear rule for belief (CCC 88).

Development without new revelation. Public revelation is complete in Christ, and Christians do not await another public revelation before His return (CCC 66). The Church can grow in her understanding of what has been handed down through prayer, study, preaching, controversy, and the contemplation of believers (CCC 94). Authentic doctrinal development makes the original faith clearer. It does not reverse revealed truth. Private revelations, even when approved, add nothing to the deposit and never demand the faith owed to Scripture and Tradition (CCC 67).

Read Scripture within the faith of the Church, learn the Creed, and receive the sacraments. These are ordinary ways the apostolic deposit becomes living faith rather than information kept at a distance.