Recently I started reading a new book called Memorize the Faith! (and Most Anything Else): Using the Methods of the Great Catholic Medieval Memory Masters - by Dr. Kevin Vost, PSY.D. Originally, I was intrigued by the book’s description which states: “By the time you finish this book, you will have memorized dozens of key teachings of the Church, along with hundreds of precepts, traditions, theological terms, Scripture verses, and other elements of the Faith that every good Catholic needs to know by heart.” I was doubtful, since I have always had difficulty memorizing information. From multiplication tables in elementary school to people’s names today, it always seems to take so much effort for me to recall important information. I finally decided that my memory needs all the help it can get, so I purchased the book.

It took me a little while to get through the introduction and figure out Dr. Vost’s method, but soon I was hooked! It is all based on techniques used by St. Thomas Aquinas and other great scholars. By presenting the information in an organized fashion, combined with visual cues and crazy word associations, I soon found that I really could remember it all!

This weekend, a group of friends and I found ourselves in a debate about whether envy is considered one of the “deadly”, “mortal” or “capital” sins. Someone asked, “Well, what ARE the seven deadly sins?” Suddenly, an image of a living room popped into my head and I found myself saying: “The seven capital sins are: pride, greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth!” Another person asked, “WHY is envy one of the grave sins?” and we talked about these sins being contradictory to the seven virtues. When the group wondered, “What are the seven virtues?” The image of a dining room popped into my head and I answered excitedly, “The seven virtues are: prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith, hope, and love (or charity)!” It was amazing! I had tested the methods learned in Memorize the Faith in a real-life situation - and it worked!

You may be asking yourself, “What does a living room or dining room have to do with virtues or deadly sins?” These images are all part of the technique taught in the book. Go check it out for yourself! In the mean time, I am ready to tackle memorizing the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament. Maybe by tomorrow I’ll have them memorized - backwards and forewords!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Catholic Books, Catholic Apologetics, Memorize the Faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.