Spiritual Disciplines - part 4
SCRIPTURE MEMORIZATION
One of the fundamental human freedoms we have is the ability to put our minds where we want.
Every student who has daydreamed through a tedious class knows this.
Into the space made by fasting, silence and solitude we can introduce a fourth spiritual discipline, the memorization of Scripture.
St. Dominic, the founder of the Order to which I belong, was known to have carried the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistles of St. Paul with him where ever he went, and so well had he studied them, he had memorized nearly every passage.
We don't have to memorize huge swaths of chapters (though it wouldn't hurt), but what's to prevent us from memorizing simple phrases and sentences that we can keep before our mind each day?
Joshua 1:8 says that we should "meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, so that we may act in accordance with all that is written in it."
If fasting opens a space in our life for another's will to be done, then memorizing Scripture will make that Other's will more concrete.
It would seem that memorizing some passages of scripture is important, because whatever we study forms our mind, and our mind, in turn forms our life.
I'm a big college sports fan, and I have to be careful not to go overboard.
I know that's happening when I begin memorizing statistics of my favorite team (Go Ducks!).
What information do you seek out regularly? Statistics from the stock market? The latest celebrity gossip in People? How do the facts and soundbites you immerse yourself in shape you?
Our soul is re-formed as we meditate and chew over even a sentence of God's word during our day.
That meditation can become a dialogue between us and God throughout the day, and just as we grow in love as we grow in knowledge of someone, we grow in love of God as we submerge ourself in His word.
Just as we long to hear the voice of someone we love, we can begin to long to hear the voice of God in scripture.
As our projects mount, as our labors and tasks surround us, as our entertainment and doodling while away the time, we may forget the upshot of our lives.
It is to love and evoke love, no matter where we may be, from classroom to the workplace, the kitchen table, the nursing home.
It is to receive with an open heart the gift of Christ's once-and-for-all redemptive act.
Moreover, it is to refocus our lives so that Christ is at the center – for we cannot love as we are commanded by Christ without Christ's help.
If heaven is seeing God face-to-face and abiding in his presence eternally, shouldn't we seek him in this life?
If we have little or no interest in God on a daily basis, what makes us think that we're fit for heaven?
Do we think heaven is simply a reward for being good?
Could any of us ever be good enough to earn eternal happiness?
We do not earn salvation.
It's not a reward for being good, nor is it a reward for not being too bad.
The saints are those who long to see God in this life, who are channels of God's love for others, who lay down their life in acts of service to others, who make God an integral part of their daily experience.
They are consecrated; set apart by God's grace and their own free will to do what he asks of them.
When the saint dies, heaven is the fulfillment of what they lived on earth.
So what are your future plans?
What do they include?
Is heaven in your future?
It's not automatic, you know.
If we don't want to spend time with God in our lifetime, in prayer, reflection, reading of scripture, reaching out to him in the distressing disguise of the people around us, what makes us think we want to spend eternity with him?
Labels: scripture, spirituality
posted by Fr. Mike, O.P. @ 3:21 PM
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9 Comments:
And how many of you were raised memorizing the "Roman road to salvation"
Romans 3:23
Romans 6:23
Romans 5:8
And you call yourself Catholic?
Elaine:
I'm afraid it was an insider joke - if you are a former evangelical.
The "Roman Road to salvation" is a tool of the Navigators, a well-knowledge evangelical para-church organization that specializes in formation through Scripture memory. Many evangelicals like myself grew up with their Scripture memory system (No Bible, no breakfast!), Bible memory games at mealtime, etc.
The "Roman Road" was a set of verses from the Epistle to the Romans that was supposed to be a particularly succinct summary of the basic kerygma, and could be memorized in order to use while witnessing.
But I've always been tickled by the fact that such a classicly Protestant approach is called the "Roman road".
Sorry about the typos. I was writing in a hurry. If God intended me to be able to spell, he wouldn't have create Spellcheck!
Fr. Mike,
Great post. I actually just started trying to dive deeper into the scriptures recently as a discipline.
I can't say that I have memorized much of scripture. But there are two passages that I reflect on quite a bit. The first is John 1:35-42, which is the encounter of Andrew and John with Christ. Fr. Giussani would refer to this passage quite often and it was said he meditated on it nearly every day. So in an effort to discern CL's charism more deeply for myself I started reflecting on it. (Figuring, if he saw it as important, who am I to argue.) I had heard many times before that to be ignorant of the scriptures is to be ignorant of Christ. But reflecting on this passage was a concrete verification of the opposite (and of course what that phrase is meant to remind us of): that knowing the scriptures is to grow in knowing Him.
The second is Luke 2:28 (or really the whole story around that verse). There was a time when I was very caught up in the liturgy wars. (Don't worry, Sherry! I'm not taking the blog there.) And in that time, as some do, the whole question of how to receive communion (in the tongue or in the hand) presented itself to me. It was looking at the story of Simeon and noticing after a while what rested between the story of the promise God made him that he would not die before he sees the Messiah and Simeon's announcement of the promise's fulfillment was that simple phrase: "He took him up in his arms...." He was promised he would see Him, but he was given not just that but the chance to hold Him. It became my Eucharistic prayer, what I return to to try and remind me to be aware of who I am encountering when I approach to receive the Eucharist. I mention that only in that it is the first clear example of the scriptures having meaning for my life that I can remember experiencing first hand in that way.
All that to say, if memorization helps draw one in to the scriptures, I'm all for it!
How would you suggest starting with some memorization? Individual random verses? Gospel stories/parables? Psalms?
I know there's no one right answer. Just wondering how others approach it.
Jack: Great story!
Cantatrix:
I do think what is helpful for an individual will vary.
The Navigator system is a pack of cards with individual verses on each card. While it is certainly useful, it can produce a tendency toward a proof-texting attitude because one doesn't memorize the passage in context.
After my conversion in college, I started to memorize in bigger chunks based upon passages that moved me: The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 4/5/6), Romans 12, Isaiah 58. I find that to work better for me but I'm sure that what is possible and really fruitful varies from person to person.
There is a practice in the evangelical world that I have found very nourishing over the years: having and memorizing a "life verse".
A life verse is a Scriptural passage that seems to sum up either God's call in your life or His way of dealing with you or some particularly powerful move of God in your life. It is rather like our discussion below of the Carmelite practice of "Michael of the Incarnation"
Mine is Isaiah 58:10-12. I was blown away by it when I first heard it recited by another student and immediately commited it to memory. I didn't know why it hit me so hard back then and large parts of it were completely obscure but it seemed very urgent at the time that I memorize the whole passage:.
Astonishingly, every bit of that passage has come true in my life.
It ends (the in the New American Standard Version that I originally memorized):
"And those from among you will restore the ancient ruins, you will raise up the age-old foundations and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets in which to dwell."
And just where would a blue-eyed baby Baptist raised in a fundie movement that was only 50 years old find "age old foundations" and ancient ruins"????
Hmmmmm.....
You know, instead of referring to memorization of the Scriptures in Evangelical or Protestant terms, it would be much more helpful and appropriate to refer to it in terms of lectio divina, which is a more Catholic way of describing the process. It goes back to the ancient catechetical schools and the early monastic groups. It involves both reading AND listening to the voice of God via the Scriptures (Old and New Testament). Then one meditates on the passage. After that, one prays. Finally, there is contemplation or rest in God Himself. This is the truly Catholic experience of the Scriptures, which has its roots in ancient Jewish study of Scripture (the ancient catechetical school of Philo in Alexandria was one such place of study), which was passed on to Jesus and the apostles and thus to the Fathers of the Church and to us.
Cradle Catholic here - never heard those verses collectively called the Roman Road.
Child of 60s catechesis, I'm afraid.
But as a bookworm I read the missal and then the missalettes in Mass as a kid, so I may not know the verse references, but I know a lot of what's in the Bible.
Used to know the Roman Canon by heart, too. But haven't heard that one in years.
BTW, when the comments come up, the window always puts the view at the end, instead of at the top so I can read them. Anyone know why it does that?
The psalms were a springboard for me to a love of Scripture. I never specifically tried to memorize verses, but the more you read the Bible, the more it sinks in. Oftentimes an appropriate verse comes to mind when I am praying or pondering a particular situation in my life. Reading the Scripture is what caused me to experience the love, joy and gratitude for Christ that I never experienced before in a lifetime of attending church. The Holy Spirit really began to do a work in me, and I am so thankful!
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