Why memorize prayers?

Almost 45 years ago, when I was in fourth grade, Sister Mary Enos had us memorize William Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Children's Hour." A few weeks ago this poem came up in a casual conversation with a friend, and I found myself spontaneously reciting: "Between the dark and the daylight/When the night is beginning to lower/Comes a pause in the day's occupations/That is known as the children's hour." I was amazed and pleased with myself and later wondered if grade school children are still memorizing poetry. We now know that our brains are wired to memorize best when we are young, but it is never too late to take on this rewarding task.

I have always wished that I had memorized more as a child. When I read about people who have endured long imprisonments without benefit of books or newspapers, I am struck by how they were able to recall what they had earlier memorized and how these memories kept them sane. I also marvel at stage actors and opera singers who master endless lines of dialogue and libretto. Many people have told me that in the midst of serious life crises, when it was impossible to think or pray on their own, they found themselves murmuring prayers put into their memory banks long ago, and it brought God near. In eras before the printing press, memorization of scripture was the norm. By committing a passage to memory, one absorbed the words and their meaning into one's very being.

Memorizing prayers may seem to some like an antiquated practice, rightfully left behind in a post-Vatican II church. After all, memorization so easily deteriorates into empty repetition. Communicating with God through rote prayers leads to vacant hearts and heads. Just cast an eye on any Sunday congregation saying the Creed and notice the abstract, glazed expressions. But in spite of abuses, human memory is a marvelous thing. As Christians we are invited to reflect on the role of memory in our lives as disciples of Jesus. Memories of religious experience can sustain us on the journey of life. We can pray for the healing of memories that are fiLled with hurt or anger. Memory helps maintain and enhance our identities as Christians.

And we need to revisit the practice of memorizing prayers--or pay fresh attention to prayers we have already memorized--like the Our Father, the Hail Mary, or the short trinitarian prayer: "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen."

Also high on my list are the Morning Offering, a simple prayer in which one consecrates the day to God with a generous heart, and the beautiful 13th-century hymn "Come Holy Spirit." For new prayers to memorize, I cannot think of a better place to begin than the psalms--a lifetime project that encompasses a smorgasboard of praise, joy, lament, and sorrow. The ability of memory is part of what makes us such blessed creatures: "When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place--what is humanity that you should be mindful of us? Who are we that you should care for us? You have made us barely less than God, and crowned us with glory and honor" (Psalm 8:3-5).

By ELIZABETH DREYER, professor of religious studies at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. Her most recent book is The Cross in Christian Tradition: From Paul to Bonaventure (Paulist).