Catholic Review of: Memorize the Faith!

Catholics are often accused (justly!) of not memorizing anything other than the Our Father and the Hail Mary.  We stumble over the Ten Commandments and can't even list the the Five Precepts of the Church; the minimum requirements for being Catholic!  This may be the result of a backlash against the heavy memorization that was part of the Baltimore Catechism, but it puts us at an acute disadvantage when we are trying to justify our beliefs.  Name the Holy Days of Obligation?  There's not an app for that... yet.

What Kevin Vost does to alleviate this serious deficiency is to provide us with a fresh take on a very old memorization system that was originally created by St. Thomas Aquinas.  He gives us an imaginary house full of rooms.  Each room has a certain number of locations and in each location some activity is happening that will remind us of the data we're trying to remember.  

For example:  Imagine yourself walking up to a house with a giant "one" on the front door.  You walk through the door, turn around and look at the sunny day through the window to the right.  Under you there is a carpet cursing at you.  You turn to the left and see and picture hanging on the wall with your parents depicted...  These first four locations are linked to the first four Ten Commandments.  We have the "one" true God, a beautiful "sun"day, cursing, and parents.  There are six other spots in this room to finish off the list.

The really cool thing about this method is that you will not only be able to name an entire list of things, you will be able be able to list them in order, backwards and forwards.  When you complete the book you will know the Works of Mercy, the Beatitudes, the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, the books of the Bible, Church history, some Bible verses and much, much more.  As Dr. Vost says on the back cover, "Even saints can't live by truths they can't remember."  

I first started this method in 2006 when Memorize the Faith! was first released and three years later I still remember what I learned. You don't have to have an incredible memory for this to work, you only have to be willing to devote a small amount of time to learning.  This is a fun system and is great for all ages.