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Author: Kevin Vost
"They laughed when I
said I could name all 27 books of the New Testament . . . ...but after I named
them all in order, plus the 46 books of the Old Testament, they begged me to
show them how I did it.”
Yes, I know that memorizing the Faith is no
substitute for living a holy life, but even devout people can’t live by truths
and precepts they don’t remember.
That’s why, over 700 years ago, St.
Thomas Aquinas perfected an easy method for his students to memorize most any
information, but especially the truths taught by Christ and His Church.
As the years passed, our need for this
ancient art of memorization grew, yet somehow our culture largely forgot it .
. . which is why today, when you and I try to remember a list of things, we
have to repeat their names over and over. Or, to remember to call the dentist,
we tie a string on our finger. And we clutch at any means whatsoever to recall
our passwords for ATMs, credit cards, and voicemail, our login names for
Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon, and the host of other names and numbers that clog our
minds and clutter our days.
Now, thanks to the delightful pages of
Memorize the Faith!, you can easily keep all these in mind — and learn the
Faith! — by tapping into the power of the classical memory system that helped
St. Thomas become the Church’s preeminent theologian, and made it easier for
him to become one of its greatest saints.
Here, Catholic scholar Kevin Vost makes
available again Aquinas’s easy-to-learn method — the method Dr. Vost himself
has used for decades to recall names, dates, phone numbers, the first dozen
digits of pi (3.141592653589) and even whether, when his wife called him at
work today, she asked him to bring home ice cream and toffee . . . or was it
truffles and coffee?
Indeed, Dr. Vost will teach you to
remember virtually anything, but he devotes most of his book to showing you
how to improve your memory of Catholic truths so you can live the Faith
better.
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. Memory
is the foundation of wisdom. It makes holiness easier. To grow wiser in the
Faith . . . and holier . . . turn to Memorize the Faith! today.
* * *
Memorize the Faith! will teach you and your
children how to remember anything, but it’s particularly useful to those
involved in religious education: catechists and converts, CCD teachers, RCIA
members, and homeschoolers of all ages.
Here, Dr. Vost and St. Thomas Aquinas
show you easy ways to memorize the following truths and precepts of our Faith,
plus many more:
* The 9 Beatitudes
* The 12 Apostles
* The 7 Virtues
* The 7 Sacraments
* The 4 Last Things
* The 7 Capital Sins
* The 10 Commandments
* The 4 Marks of the Church
* The 14 Stations of the Cross
* The 5 Precepts of the Church
* The 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit
* The 12 Fruits of the Holy Spirit
* The 7 Spiritual Works of Mercy
* The 20 Mysteries of the Rosary
* The 7 Corporal Works of Mercy
* The 10 Holy Days of Obligation
* The 6 Sins Against the Holy Spirit
* The 5 Proofs for the Existence of God
* The 27 Books of the New Testament
* The 46 Books of the Old Testament
* And anything else you want to remember,
from the 14 items on your grocery list to the birthdays of your 7 nephews and
nieces!
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