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MicheleB
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| Posted: May 24 2012 at 1:03pm | IP Logged
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Maybe this question has been answered a million times in different ways. If it has, please be patient with me! I was raised Baptist. Southern Baptist. I had the Bible knocked into my skull - and I will be eternally grateful for my parents and Sunday School teachers for doing so! 
But,
I am obviously doing something a bit different now. We have used the Seton Religion series, and besides the odd comments ("We sure do sin a lot on Sundays...) I'm happy with it. I have already tracked down 3 of the 4 Clarence Elwell books I found recommended here. (Eternally grateful for that rec!) For Bible we have used various children's Bibles. Ddalmost8 has been reading out of the Seton Reading Comp. for 3rd grade (Life of Jesus Bible Stories), and dd11 has been reading and narrating Benziger's Old and New Testament Bible History. We TRY to read Psalms for the day at our evening prayers, and we go to church. It sounds pretty good on the computer screen. (What a weird sentence!) But I know when I was 11 I was reading straight out of the Bible and memorizing as many verses as possible to get gold stars!
I had a conversation the other day with a friend who suggested I was still hung up on the idea that if you cannot quote backwards and forwards with the chapter and verse (Street Address) that you don't know the the Bible. 
Is she right? Should I resist the urge to hand my daughter the Ignatius Study Bible with those incredible notes?
When and how do you tackle the epistles with your children?
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: May 24 2012 at 2:21pm | IP Logged
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I, too, was raised Southern Baptist and performed in Bible Drill and the like.
And I do think your friend might have a point. So much scripture is repeated in the liturgy and in the readings, there is some element of its being absorbed without the rote memorization. I'm married to a cradle Catholic, and while I seem to "know my Bible" better than he does, I'm often impressed with the amount of scripture he can quote without effort because he absorbed it through the mass. He doesn't know the references so well, but it is there for him to draw from.
So, in some ways, I think that the liturgy does replace *some* of the need for scripture reading. I'm afraid I sound like I'm discounting scripture, but I'm NOT!!! I just mean, well, the liturgy was created during a time when people were illiterate. And even illiterate people were able to learn their faith and practice it.
We do memorize scripture, but we are focusing on the passages from the liturgy of the hours as a part of our prayer time rather than lots of random verses.
Not that I won't pull those or even choose to do that down the road, but I personally feel like the liturgy itself provides such opportunity and context for scripture. I think, perhaps, it is a different sort of "knowing." For all of my study growing up, I did not know nearly so well the intimate details of Christ's Passion as I do now, his final words, etc... I also did not know the Psalms so well as I do now, though I've made little formal effort to study them more.
Now, whether or not your eleven year old should be reading from the Bible, I don't see why she shouldn't! You might consider a daily missal in addition to a Bible so that perhaps she could read scripture following the liturgical year as an option.
But I choose not to fret so much about whether my children can quote Bible verses in the same way I was able. I'm not sure that it is the best measure for how well one "knows" scripture.
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jawgee
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| Posted: May 24 2012 at 3:10pm | IP Logged
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My brother is Baptist, and he and I have lots of theological debates. It's quite surprising to me that in the one year he has been going to a church, he can out-quote me on the Bible, and I've been in a church (the Catholic Church) for almost 15 years!!
So, that said, I do think it is important to learn the Bible. A simple way we've been doing this is by choosing one reading from the upcoming Sunday's mass. I check my Magnificat the week before, I choose a passage, and we use it in our memory work for the week. I've only been doing this since January, and it's amazing to me even how many more connections I am making. We've learned about 20 passages so far and the kids are able to quote them back with ease.
I set up a Scripture Memory System as recommended on Simply Charlotte Mason. I actually keep all of our memory work in that box. It's a quick and easy system, and by doing it this way we ensure that the passages are not forgotten after the first week.
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stacykay
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| Posted: May 24 2012 at 3:27pm | IP Logged
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Michele,
I am glad you asked this question, because it is prodding me into getting moving on our Bible study.
We have not done a lot of scripture memorization, and I do wish we did more. In reading assorted apologetics, I decided to study books of the Bible,and concentrate on sections that address and support our beliefs (like John chapter 6 for the Eucharist.) We review them, and maybe try to memorize a certain verse, but I got the feeling that hearing the words of the whole passage, in context, was what was really important.
We are now using the "regular" Bible (my Ignatius study Bible and the Navarre study Bible.) We finished up the Children's Bible last year, when my youngest was in first grade. We "graduated" to my Bible this year. 
In Christ,
Stacy in MI
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: May 24 2012 at 7:00pm | IP Logged
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jawgee wrote:
My brother is Baptist, and he and I have lots of theological debates. It's quite surprising to me that in the one year he has been going to a church, he can out-quote me on the Bible, and I've been in a church (the Catholic Church) for almost 15 years!!
So, that said, I do think it is important to learn the Bible. A simple way we've been doing this is by choosing one reading from the upcoming Sunday's mass. I check my Magnificat the week before, I choose a passage, and we use it in our memory work for the week. I've only been doing this since January, and it's amazing to me even how many more connections I am making. We've learned about 20 passages so far and the kids are able to quote them back with ease.
I set up a Scripture Memory System as recommended on Simply Charlotte Mason. I actually keep all of our memory work in that box. It's a quick and easy system, and by doing it this way we ensure that the passages are not forgotten after the first week. |
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What a good idea! I've looked at her system often, and I have plans to set it up in binder form for our poetry memory work this Fall as well as scripture eventually. I'm afraid of using an actual box, though, because little ones dump things like that around here 
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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jawgee
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| Posted: May 24 2012 at 7:14pm | IP Logged
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CrunchyMom wrote:
| I'm afraid of using an actual box, though, because little ones dump things like that around here |
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I have to be very careful. The 2YO, especially, thinks the box looks fun to play with.
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Monica
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Barbara C.
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| Posted: May 24 2012 at 10:32pm | IP Logged
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I personally am not really into rote memorization. I know a lot of families do routine memory work of poems, speeches, or Bible verses. That's just not us.
But the biggest point I could see for Catholics memorizing certain Bible verses by Chapter and verse is when it comes to apologetics. Being able to defend tenants of the faith from a Biblical standpoint is really important, especially when you are attacked by sola scriptura folks.
While I don't think it is necessary to memorize chapter and verse for everything in the Bible (as opposed to the Catholic way of more knowing the gist and context than actual location), I think that certain verses might be useful to have memorized.
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Barbara C.
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| Posted: May 24 2012 at 10:41pm | IP Logged
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On an interesting side note, I got my degree in Religious Studies at a state university in the Bible belt. When I took Judaic Traditions, my room mate and I were the only Catholics in the class. The professor was an Episcopalian who had studied at a Jewish seminary.
It was his custom to pass out the exam and leave the room. Well, once he asked us to give an example of a certain type of syllogism using two specific Old Testament verses, but he only listed the chapter and verse numbers on the exam. My roomie and I started to panic waiting for him to come back. Then we had to remind him that "we're Catholic" and to tell us what the text of the verses were. He chuckled and gave us the text.
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Barbara
Mom to "spirited" dd(9), "spunky" dd (6), "sincere" dd (3), "sweet" dd (2), and baby girl #5 born 8/1/12!!
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Aagot
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| Posted: May 24 2012 at 10:45pm | IP Logged
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That is too funny, Barbara!
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knowloveserve
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| Posted: May 25 2012 at 10:13am | IP Logged
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jawgee wrote:
My brother is Baptist, and he and I have lots of theological debates. It's quite surprising to me that in the one year he has been going to a church, he can out-quote me on the Bible, and I've been in a church (the Catholic Church) for almost 15 years!!
So, that said, I do think it is important to learn the Bible. A simple way we've been doing this is by choosing one reading from the upcoming Sunday's mass. I check my Magnificat the week before, I choose a passage, and we use it in our memory work for the week. I've only been doing this since January, and it's amazing to me even how many more connections I am making. We've learned about 20 passages so far and the kids are able to quote them back with ease.
I set up a Scripture Memory System as recommended on Simply Charlotte Mason. I actually keep all of our memory work in that box. It's a quick and easy system, and by doing it this way we ensure that the passages are not forgotten after the first week. |
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I love this! Thank you. I don't think kids are ever too young to learn basic apologetics and I'm going to incorporate this into a morning basket routine for us next fall using very "Catholic" texts.
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: May 25 2012 at 5:10pm | IP Logged
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I needed this laugh today! That is great! And sounds just like I am having a conversation with a friend of mine who is Catholic, but had left for several years. Because I am involved in CGS (more specific Scripture experience, but not necessarily "memorizing" it - he assumes I know which passages to which he refers. I think I know three passages by heart:
Genesis 1:1
1 Corinthians 15:28
John 66:6
and John 14:6
I can pull up others if I TRY. I know BOOKS though - where to find certain parables, certain topics, the books listed in order. So there is a familiarity, but it doesn't mean I have things memorized ;)
Barbara C. wrote:
On an interesting side note, I got my degree in Religious Studies at a state university in the Bible belt. When I took Judaic Traditions, my room mate and I were the only Catholics in the class. The professor was an Episcopalian who had studied at a Jewish seminary.
It was his custom to pass out the exam and leave the room. Well, once he asked us to give an example of a certain type of syllogism using two specific Old Testament verses, but he only listed the chapter and verse numbers on the exam. My roomie and I started to panic waiting for him to come back. Then we had to remind him that "we're Catholic" and to tell us what the text of the verses were. He chuckled and gave us the text.
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: chapters, verses, and such...
