During the past 10 years memorization has had a resurgence in Religious Education circles because of the importance of helping students hand on the faith. It is very difficult to hand on our faith if we do not know what it means to be Catholic and what we believe as Catholics.
St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of 4 ways to help students memorize material:
1) Use a picture or image of the idea;
2) Organize material in a logical order;
3) Choose to memorize something important;
4) Repeat and reflect on the subject often.
These are 4 great ways to focus in the classroom on helping our studnets grow in their knowledge of the faith and retain it. Dr. Barbara Minczewski wrote a good article in the Feb. 2008 Catechist Magazine entitled, Spreading the Word: Catechetical Methodologies. In it she says: “For without knowing basic Catholic teaching, prayers, and practices on which to build a lifelong relationship with God and others, children can lose sight of their call to be people of God and to bring about the reign of God in this age and time.”
Together let us seek the assistance of the Holy Spirit as we empower our studnets to memorize their faith so they may be the very instruments of hope and God’s love in the world around them!
Catechesis in the Third Millennium 
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