Memorizing Prayers

[matthewdknight]

Through repetition, I have committed most of the Mass to memory and am working on the Rosary. But the Latin prayers? The Nicene Creed? I didn’t have the benefit of growing up with them and they don’t seem to stay in my memory, but I’d love to be able to recite them at will. What, then, are your techniques for memorizing prayers?

Pax Christi!

 

[Just_One_Touch]

I don’t have any special techniques, I simply repeat lines over and over, and gradually add on words until the whole prayer is memorized. That seems to work rather well though.

 

[Padraig1972]

My technique is to make the words mine and use them in daily prayers and repeat them over and over again until they became as normal as going to sleep or eating.

But at the same time knowing how important and sacred they are, to be used for the right situations and its right places.

As for Latin, i just learned Agnus Dei and will work on Sanctus and Gloria gradually.
Nicene creed i learned in like four weeks.

My advice for long prayers is to first learn parts of it, when the parts are familiar and memorized, add the next part and suddenly you are there.

It is what i will do, for Learning Te Deum and some other prayers that are not used in the mass so regulary.

 

[marica_mandic]

Through repetition, I have committed most of the Mass to memory and am working on the Rosary. But the Latin prayers? The Nicene Creed? I didn’t have the benefit of growing up with them and they don’t seem to stay in my memory, but I’d love to be able to recite them at will. What, then, are your techniques for memorizing prayers?

Pax Christi!

Repeat is for me the best technics.
Every next day repeat what I have lerned the day before.

 

[Dempsey1919]

I have never tried to memorise any prayers. I learned my prayers through actually praying them. If you pray a certain prayer every day, eventually you will remember it by heart.

To learn the latin prayers, it would help if you attended the EF Mass. I learned the most basic Catholic prayers in Latin by attending the Latin Mass. I think every Roman Catholic should know the basic prayers in Latin.

 

[Padraig1972]

I have never tried to memorise any prayers. I learned my prayers through actually praying them. If you pray a certain prayer every day, eventually you will remember it by heart.

To learn the latin prayers, it would help if you attended the EF Mass. I learned the most basic Catholic prayers in Latin by attending the Latin Mass. I think every Roman Catholic should know the basic prayers in Latin.

You are right, im getting there.

As for learning by heart, indeed. Just remember that some prayers are longer than others and needs more practice. And people are different and not everyone adapts it quickly.

 

[marica_mandic]

Through repetition, I have committed most of the Mass to memory and am working on the Rosary. But the Latin prayers? The Nicene Creed? I didn’t have the benefit of growing up with them and they don’t seem to stay in my memory, but I’d love to be able to recite them at will. What, then, are your techniques for memorizing prayers?

Pax Christi!

That is hard for me.Yesterday I have seen one grandmother which knows one very long worship without reading.
I admire her.
I thing that in her head is no fear of losing memory.

 

[puzzleannie]

T What, then, are your techniques for memorizing prayers?

Pax Christi!

we tell the parents to teach the prayers to children by praying, not by memorizing, as if they were spelling words. our textbook publisher gives a free family prayerbook, which even has the traditional prayers in both English and Latin (we give a Spanish language book to families who need it). We give every child who registers for CCD a rosary and the prayerbook to the parents and urge them to pray together daily. Most children in these families who follow the advice know the prayers by the end of the first year. The children in families who attend Mass regularly (about half) know the Latin responses because we use it in the Mass.

If you want specifically to learn the Mass prayers in Latin find an EF parish and get the missal they recommend.

 

[matthewdknight]

I have never tried to memorise any prayers. I learned my prayers through actually praying them. If you pray a certain prayer every day, eventually you will remember it by heart.

To learn the latin prayers, it would help if you attended the EF Mass. I learned the most basic Catholic prayers in Latin by attending the Latin Mass. I think every Roman Catholic should know the basic prayers in Latin.

How do you “actually pray them” unless you have them committed to memory? I mean, it seems to me that if you’re just reading them from a pamphlet or something, you won’t really be doing yourself any good. I’ve tried this approach and I find that I focus too much on reading the words, rather than allowing myself to feel them and get in touch with their meaning.

I absolutely agree with the necessity of knowing Latin prayers! Unfortunately, my local parish doesn’t have Latin mass and driving any farther isn’t really an option.

Thanks for your help, everyone! I do find that I’m making fewer “mistakes” at Mass now, although I’m still utterly lost with regard to the Nicene Creed.

 

[Coelorum]

I was looking for the Latin version of the St. Michael’s Prayer… I taught my children to pray their prayers in English and Latin. What I did was have them write or type their prayers down. They would say the prayer they were learning each evening and morning. In no time they would learn the prayer, then they would start on the next. The rosary prayers were easier. They were said repeatedly during the rosary. Eventually, we would learn the prayers and only then was it possible to actually pray them properly.