Your tips on memorizing

[jesusmademe]

Christus Surrexit!
What are your tips for memorizing hymn texts, bible verses and the texts to the Psalms?
I find that simple repetition becomes vain repetition. Trying to understand the meaning and grammar of the texts help but I am very bad at memorizing texts. Sometimes I find that singing helps but not always. You add a new thing to memorize when you sing. Now you have both the text and the melody. I often use what is called retrieval practice. I also like to make up my own texts in order to understand the language used.

 

[FrancisFan43]

Repetition repetition repetition

Repetition is key

Repetition repetition repetition

 

[jesusmademe]

So vain repetition is good. I am against “repetitom” as many people use it!
Why? It doesn’t work!
Neither did St Thomas use it I think. He talked about meditating on the subject. That seems more healthy

 

[Theban]

He talked about meditating on the subject. That seems more healthy

I just wanted to point out that memorizing texts by repetition is not unhealthy, it’s actually very good for exercising your memory.

I find it very effective to simply repeatedly read a sentence until it sticks, but if that doesn’t work for you I guess you need to find some other way. A tip would be to try reading the text out loud and/or writing it down repeatedly until it’s memorized. That way you are activating more of your brain while memorizing it, and you will learn it faster.

 

[BartholomewB]

@jesusmademe, you’re in good company. Around the year 1600, St. Robert Bellarmine, the archbishop of Padua, published one of the earliest Catholic catechisms. When somebody noticed he had left out the eight beatitudes and asked him why, he answered, “Because nobody can remember more than seven of anything.”

 

[jesusmademe]

Do you really ust repeat a text over and over?
No analysing and no retrieval practice?
Aquinas said this: Redirect Notice
I really like the fourth tip.

 

[Onestepahead]

Don’t try to memorize the entire thing at once, you’ll only get discouraged. Memorise the first phrase and repeat it to yourself often over the course of a few days or a week. When it’s good in your memory, memorise the second phrase or whatever and repeat what you’ve memorized, from the beginning until you’ve got it. Keep going!

My brain is getting old, and this is how I do it!

 

[FrancisFan43]

I don’t think you understand what vain means. Or the context of Jesus talking about vain repetitions. The context of Jesus talking about vain repetitions is in regards to pagans praying to their false gods. Remember, even the angels in heaven repeat “holy holy holy” constantly in heaven towards the Lord.

In a more clear context, vain repititions, would translate to “babbling”. Remember, pagans back than used drugs and than spouted nonsense. Their empty words seem impressive to the simple minded but are meaningless twords God. Video related shows what modern “vain repititions” looks like:

 

[Theban]

Do you really ust repeat a text over and over?

What I like to do is to sit down every once in a while and do a session where I try to memorize whichever text I want to memorize next.
The way I do it is to simply read the first sentence once, then try to repeat it from memory, and if I can’t then I try again. Once the I’ve been successful I do the same with the next sentence, and after three or four sentences I try to repeat everything from memory (from the start of the text). Any failure means I start over again from wherever the failure happened.

No analysing and no retrieval practice?

This comes later, the memorizing itself is for me purely about repetition. The exception is if the text is in a language I don’t know, in those cases I need to know what the sentences mean first, as that makes it much easier to remember the words for some reason.

 

[MikeInVA]

Check out " How to Think Like Aquinas: The Sure Way to Perfect Your Mental Powers" by Kevin Vost.

 

[jesusmademe]

At 8:50 what language do they speak?
It is a real language, right?

 

[TheLittleLady]

Memorization was very important when I was a child, that is one reason that I have a lot of Scripture memorized also poetry, song lyrics, famous speeches, etc.

As an adult, memorization is not as easy as it was when I was a kid. I find that writing the passage out longhand a few times helps me be able to visualize the words.

 

[Convert3]

I’ve mostly given up memorizing texts and prayers. At 63 it’s just gotten too hard. My wife has an uncanny skill for remembering things she’s read, but can’t remember where she left her phone, keys, glasses…

 

[Zach]

Start with something familiar and brief to get the hang of it. John 3:16. The greatest commandment. The new commandment. Some beatitudes. I am statements. Parts of a Psalm you might like.

Find a translation you find is easiest and stick to that for memorizing. Eventually you will get a feel for how the words flow.

In addition to repetition try some memory techniques. Perhaps associating key words with images and stringing them together. Or try linking words based on letters.

Do a little each day throughout the day for several days until you have it down. At night the first day you might not remember it and have to read it, but when you wake up in the morning you might remember. Even when you have a part you down go over it several times a week to get it in long term memory and keep it there.

 

[adamhovey1988]

Some people tell you not to write in Bibles, and that is a bit of superstition as far as I’m concerned, it’s not disrespectful to the word of God to highlight verses to remember them. However, I would not do that with my main Bible, I would probably use that for a devotional, but it’s probably a good idea to do that in study Bibles. That being said, if you just want to write in the margins, find a Bible with large margins to write in, since I write tiny, I could do that with my main Bible if I wanted to, however the paper is not good for writing on, so I would have to use a highlighter which I cannot write small in

 

[Zaccheus]

So vain repetition is good

Vain repetition is not good. But not all repetition is vain.

Why? It doesn’t work!

If it’s not working for you then of course look for another way.
I suggest writing out the passage you want to commit to memory. Then immediately write it out again, and then again. Say it aloud while you write. The more active the learning process, and the more senses you can engage with it, the more likely you’ll remember it.