Methods for Memorizing Prayers?

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DisorientingSneeze

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There are a great many prayers I think I’d benefit from comitting to memory. There’s kind of a sweet spot between having to read from a page (entirely different mental process) and something you know so well you could accidentally rattle through it without noticing.

My brain doesn’t function as it once did when I took it’s powers of remembering and memorizing for granted.

Do any of you have methods you use when you’ve made up your mind to memorize a prayer?
 
Read it, read it, read it. Then read it again.
Or, type it so many times on prayer intentions that you remember it. 😉
 
I usually take it sentence by sentence. Memorize one sentence at a time and then move on to the next, all the while also continuing to read the whole prayer every day. Eventually, usually within a week or two, it all falls into place and I have it memorized!
 
I have found that praying along with a recorded version of the prayer helps me the most.
 
Yes a little at a time. Do the same small amount over several days. Sometime you might be trying to memorize a part and get frustrated because you keep forgetting. Then the next morning when you wake up you remember it, so it’s good to set it down if it’s not coming, for it might be sinking in subconsciously. Repetition of the same section over several days is key. Once you get the whole prayer you should go over it a few times a week or daily for several weeks or even months until it is in long term memory. Even then go over it periodically if it’s not something you pray frequently.

Also memory techniques might help. They are helpful with scripture. You can come up with whatever works for you. Some people do the technique where they associate words or phrases with something in their house and then string these associations together while going through their house in their mind. This never worked good for me. Especially for prayers or scripture where I don’t want to be thinking about all these associations. I associate words or phrases based on their letters or look or sound and link these associations together somehow. I usually mix that with just sheer repetition. Once you get it down you won’t even need these associations and you’ll remember the prayer without them. I find these techniques are more helpful with scripture because prayers are said more frequently than scripture verses, and because prayers have more of a natural flow than scripture.
 
I usually say the prayer daily for a long time, like a couple months, then see how much of it I can get through by memory. Usually I can get through 1-2 lines, then I just try to add a line every few days and eventually I get the whole prayer down. It takes time though, especially if the prayer isn’t a repetitive prayer. For example, the final Divine Mercy chaplet prayer “O greatly merciful God, infinite goodness” wasn’t repetitive at all and so took me many weeks to learn all the way through.
 
That’s why the Baltimore Catechism was so popular in grade schools. It came with an easy to remember Q&A format.
 
Regular use should be sufficient. Try to use the same prayer in the same setting or at the same time of day, pychologically this has been shown to aid memory.
 
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