Scripture Memory System for your Bible

The Scripture Memory System for your Bible is a method of memorizing Scripture in situ developed by Katie of Bible Notetaking with Katie. I modified Katie's system to fit my Bibles; feel free to make a copy this it is a helpful starting point for you: Scripture Memory System for your Bible - Google Slides

See this video for an overview of Katie's system:

This system uses colored post-it flags to move Scripture passages you are studying through an analog spaced repetition framework. Passages are initially reviewed daily and then passed to lower frequencies as they are mastered: every other day, weekly, monthly, biannual, annual1.

Other common systems such as Charlotte Mason use flash cars or print-outs. There are also of course many digital solutions available. But the in situ approach to memorizing Scripture directly in your Bible offers several key advantages:

  1. The visual location on the page is an aid to memory.
  2. The passage is presented in context, in relation to surrounding passages.
  3. A Bible is arguably more portable than a box of 3x5 cards, and because it is used for activities other than Scripture memory (reading, taking to church, etc.) it provides more opportunities to review.

Finally, why might one choose to memorize Scripture? Many great saints have done so and we can follow their example. Gregory the Great read the Song of Songs until he knew it by heart.2 St. Patrick "was a homo unius libri (a man of one book): he had read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested that book."3 St. Anthony "knew both Testaments by heart. He knew the Bible in two ways: first, by study, whereby he had committed the Scriptures to memory and sought out their meaning; and second, by the light of the Holy Spirit, which he had merited by his prayerful and penitential life."4

Scripture hidden in our hearts is a consolation in times of trial. For Corrie Ten Boom's father under Nazi oppression "the Bible lay at home on its shelf, but much of it was stored in his heart."5 The same was true for Silvester Krčméry under communist oppression in Slovakia: "Memorizing texts from the New Testament proved to be an excellent preparation for critical times and imprisonment. The most beautiful and important texts which mankind has from God contain a priceless treasure which 'moth and decay cannot destroy, and thieves break in and steal'".6 And it is in our own day for Navy SEALs: "We think of Psalm 23 as the Psalm of the SEALs. It is repeated at all of our religious services, all funerals. Too many funerals. I know it by heart. And I clung to its message, that even in death I would not be abandoned."7

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Created: 2025-04-01-Tue
Updated: 2025-04-11-Fri

  1. This is similar to other common spaced repetition algorithms, for example see here: How long should spaced repetition intervals be? – Learning Rabbit Hole ↩

  2. In the Eye of the Storm, 77 ↩

  3. The Confession of St. Patrick, 31-32 ↩

  4. The 35 Doctors of the Church, 323 ↩

  5. The Hiding Place, 149 ↩

  6. Live Not by Lies, 153, 192, cf. Mt-06 ↩

  7. Lone Survivor, 266 ↩