Scripture Meditation: Memorizing Scripture: The Monastic Tradition

The Rule of St. Benedict required monks to memorize the entire Psalter (150 Psalms) within their first year. This was not merely an intellectual exercise but a way of internalizing Scripture so deeply that it became the monk's native language. The Psalms then provided a vocabulary for prayer at all times -- in joy and sorrow, in health and sickness, in solitude and community.

John Cassian reported that the Egyptian monks could recite entire books of the Bible from memory. This enabled a form of meditation that continued while the hands were busy with manual labor: "While working with their hands, they ruminate on the sacred text, chewing it over as cattle chew the cud."

Practical application: Begin memorizing one Psalm per month. Start with Psalm 23 if it is not already memorized, then move to Psalm 1, then Psalm 139. Write the Psalm on cards and review it during spare moments. The monastic tradition teaches that memorized Scripture becomes available to the Holy Spirit for use in situations where a Bible is not at hand -- in the middle of the night, in moments of crisis, in the flow of conversation.