The Value of Repetition and Memory Work

Repetitio est mater studiororum. “Repetition is the mother of learning.” This popular Latin saying may be one that you have heard before, but even if you haven’t, it makes sense. The more you study something, the better you know it. We currently live in a world where repetition and memory no longer play much of a role in education. With the increased efficiency of search engines and the greater volume of information at our fingertips, it has become much more natural to let repetition and memory fall by the wayside in education. Why bother to learn times tables when you can just use a calculator? Why bother to memorize quotes or references when you can just look them up later? To be sure, it is not that these things are evil in themselves. In fact, they can be great tools and God be praised for them. Nevertheless, convenience can supersede the rigorous and deep learning that repetition and memory promote if we’re not too careful.

Here at Zion, one of the most encouraging things I noticed right away was the love that you all have for Holy Scripture, for our confessions, and for our liturgy and hymnody. Our kids here from the time they’re young are already engaged in memorizing Scripture and when they begin confirmation they start to memorize the Small Catechism. This is a wonderful thing. Memory work is about more than just digesting information. When you work at committing Scripture and hymnody to memory through repetition it does a number of things. The first thing it causes you to do is slow down. Practically speaking, when you’re just reading something through once, you may not stop to pause and think about what you’re actually reading. However, when you work at committing something to memory, you do have to pause and slow down. Secondly, and this point follows from the first, when you commit Scripture, the catechism, or hymnody to memory, not only does it force you to slow down, but it encourages meditation upon the meaning of whatever you’re singing or reading. I’m sure you all can recall hymns or Bible verses that you’ve meditated upon countless times and at various points in your life. The more you meditate upon these passages and hymns, the better you understand their meaning, and the more you grow in the wisdom of God and your faith is strengthened. Thirdly, by committing these holy things to memory, you make them your own. That is, the language of Scripture, hymnody, and the catechism now becomes part of your everyday language. It’s an easily observable phenomenon that what you surround yourselves with and what you take in when it comes to books, movies, music, becomes part of you. Maybe you know someone who’s well versed in movie quotes, or poetry, song lyrics, etc., and makes those part of their everyday speech. Of course, it’s not bad to quote movies or songs, but how much more wonderful is it when God’s own Word becomes enmeshed with your speech! God even commands this in Deuteronomy as the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land. He first gives them their confession and His commandments, then He commands that the confession and commandments be taught to all generations, that they become the vernacular by which the Israelites deal with one another. This is how it should be among us as well! “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Finally, memorizing Scripture, hymns, and the catechism not only gives expression to our faith, but it also provides us with words to cling to in times of trouble or distress. Even if other faculties fail, these things we can write on our hearts. When my grandmother was suffering from dementia, I still remember even when all other memories and many other faculties had been taken away, she could still recognize and even recite parts of the Lord’s Prayer and our liturgy, she recognized familiar Scripture passages, and even could recognize some hymns. All these reasons and more show us the value of learning these things by heart.

In the face of objections from the world and maybe even fellow Christians such as, “When you memorize things you don’t really think about the meaning,” or “Well, it’s just vain repetition to sing the same hymns, say the same prayers, and read the same Scripture texts,” I encourage you to instead consider that when you learn things by heart, you are actually learning and understanding them even better than if you hadn’t. Repetition and memory never fall out of style. Learning these holy things by heart is a discipline for both young and old. This is why our kids at Zion learn Scripture and the catechism, why I’m teaching hymns every month to the co-op students and LCMS-U students each month, why we repeat hymns throughout the church year, and why I now encourage you all to continue making the language of Scripture, the catechism, and our liturgy and hymnody the vernacular by which we love God, love one another, and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). To Him be all glory,honor, and worship, now and forever.

Your Servant in Christ, Vicar Dunsmore