Sample Chapters

In this book,
    you will learn

the entire story of Christmas,
   from Matthew and Luke,
      by heart.

You will hear and feel the rhythms,
   imagine the scenes,
      and renew your memories.

Every day, you’ll learn a little more,
   and renew only those memories
      that you’d otherwise forget.

After the season of Advent,
   and the season of Christmas,
      you’ll know the whole story.

But your memories of Christmas
   will have only begun.

How to Use This Book

Keeping the Seasons of Christmas

I love the seasons of Christmas. We have a whole season of Advent to prepare for Christmas, then a whole Christmas season to celebrate. Instead of trying to compress it all into one single crazy day, we wisely spread the experience over months.

In theory.

In real life, you do the long drive to the relatives for Thanksgiving, come home, and barely have time to dig out the ornaments before you crash into the Annual Frantic Last-Minute Gift Scavenger Hunt. Where did December go?

Suddenly, it’s Christmas. Blink. Done! Welcome to December 26th, the worst day of the year. If we’re lucky, we limp along until the New Year’s party, poking the holiday embers to spark a little leftover cheer. More often, we have to go right back to work. It’s all over.

Rituals Make It Real

Solution? The seasons. We need concrete, special rituals to keep the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Christmas is simply too much for one day.

True, we already seem to have plenty of traditions. We exchange gifts, of course, as well as lectures about not focusing on the gifts so much. The tree, the decorations, the food, the music, the parties — even the embarrassing sweaters — they all help make Christmas real. They lift our thoughts out of the usual workday ruts.

And yet, they aren’t quite enough. Since you’re reading this, you want more. You want this year to be different.

A Daily Christmas Verse

This book offers you an exciting new Advent and Christmas ritual: a daily Christmas verse. Every day, you’ll learn a new verse of the Christmas story.

These verses will add up. By the end of the seasons, you’ll know every Christmas verse we have in the Gospels.

Learning one verse every day doesn’t take long. We’re talking fifteen minutes or so, spread throughout the day.

It may not seem like much. But this small effort has powerful leverage. The words of the Gospel are potent. They’re like strong magnets, attracting thoughts and feelings that would otherwise rush by. Bit by bit, you will think differently. More and more of your thoughts will rise above the rut.

Do You Need This Book to Learn These Verses?

Strictly speaking, no. You can get out your own Bible and work your way through Luke, chapter 2, and then Matthew, chapter 2. One verse a day. If you’re really short on Christmas cash, just keep reading as much of this as you can for free, then grab your Bible and get to work.

However, for a few dollars, this book can save you tons of time and make this project much easier, with:

• Bible rhythms
• memory lessons
• a dedicated project “space”

Bible Rhythms

Most Bibles typeset the verses as prose text. Instead, I show you how to find the hidden rhythms in the Bible verses. In the original languages, these texts are more like poetry than prose. We can’t recapture all that poetry in English, but we can capture more than you think.

This book shows the verses as poetry. Poetry is so much easier to remember. And although you can speak your own version with rhythm, seeing the rhythms laid out on the page adds another layer of memory assistance.

Also, most contemporary translations are designed to be read, not spoken. But you need to speak these verses to hear and feel the rhythms. I’ve used an older translation, from a century that was much more attuned to the sound of the spoken Bible.

This insight about rhythm is extremely rare in books and articles about remembering the Bible. Rhythm makes a huge difference.

Here’s the first verse, so you can see what I mean:

Memory Lessons

Over the first couple weeks, I include a short daily lesson on how to memorize Scripture. These lessons are based on my own research, experience, and (mainly) mistakes. I’ve learned plenty, through years of memorizing tens of thousands of words, including the entire Gospel of Mark.

There’s a lot of memory advice out there. I’ve tried most of it. Sadly, much of this advice actually makes memorizing harder.

If this book saves you from even one standard mistake, it will pay for itself many times over.

For instance, have you heard about “mnemonics” and “memory palaces”? You’ll find out why these are usually a bad idea. (Trust me.)

Again, which do you think is easier, learning the words perfectly, or getting them “almost” right? Note that I said easier, not better. The answer may surprise you.

A Dedicated “Space” For This Project

This short book is entirely dedicated to this project. Unlike your entire Bible, you’ll only open this book when you’re in this special “place” of memorizing the Christmas stories. You keep your place marked, and you see today’s date for today’s work.

Why Memorize?

People have mixed feelings about memorizing, especially memorizing Bible verses. Perhaps you or a friend had bad experiences as a child, cramming random pearls of wisdom that went down like sand.

On the other hand, most of us seem to have an ongoing disappointment with our memories. You can read a whole article about “Remembering the Reason for the Season,” and sometime before your next meal, it’ll slide off your mental worktable into the garbage disposal of your subconscious, leaving only a few greasy stains of guilt. What’s not working here?

It’s actually pretty simple. We only remember what we think about. But the reverse is also true. We can only think about what we remember.

When you learn the verses by heart, you will accomplish two things.

First, the process of remembering requires many short reviews. These are built-in times for thinking about these verses. Instead of just reading that article and murmuring, “I want to think more about Christmas this year,” you’ve set up a schedule for doing this. You’ll actually think about these things regularly.

Second, you’ll be able to think new thoughts. You’ve probably heard these verses many times, and already have a vague “sense” of what they mean. But this sense is largely cliches. It’s not going to inspire any new thoughts. What will? The minute details of the actual words, which are much easier to keep thinking about once you’ve memorized them. I can’t predict which verses will spark your imagination. You’ll find out.

Why Only One Verse a Day?

Some people assume that memorizing is difficult. Others may be surprised that we’re only learning one verse a day. Can’t we do more?

Eventually, yes. But you are training a new skill. Your mind is extremely susceptible to the patterns you set right from the beginning. If you tried to start out memorizing two or five or ten verses a day, you would inevitably start to rush, and feel burdened and overwhelmed. The whole experience would sour.

Instead, focus on getting this one verse right. It’s like push-ups. Ten push-ups with correct form do much more for your body than twenty sloppy attempts.

Also, memorizing requires review. By only adding one new verse a day, your daily review doesn’t grow too quickly.

Besides, we’re doing this at the busiest time of the entire year. We need to keep your daily commitment short and doable.

When you complete this project, if you want to learn more, you can try learning two new verses a day. And then three. And so on.

But for now, stick to one. Master the art.

Why You Can Memorize

On the other hand, you may be wondering whether you can really memorize even one new verse a day. Perhaps you’re constantly reminded of your “bad memory” as your car keys vanish and critical mail evaporates.

Guess what? I promise that your memory is excellent. How do I know? Because you can read.

Think about it. If your memory were actually broken, would you be decoding these squiggles into words, linking them to sounds, snapping them into phrases and sentences, making the impossible leap into kaleidoscopes of meaning — all at hundreds of words per minute?

I don’t care if you take reading for granted. I don’t care how they graded you in school. You can read. Your memory is amazing. Period.

Whatever “memory” problems you have are due to technique and habit. These are precisely what you’ll learn about in this book.

Even the most amazing tool will fail if you don’t know how to use it. You’re going to learn how to remember these verses.

Your Daily Routine

You’ll only need to spend about fifteen minutes a day on this project.

Even better, you’ll spread this time in bits throughout the day. Every day, you will:

• Read the day’s lesson. For the first couple of weeks, every day includes a short lesson about memory techniques.

• Repeat the verses you’ve already learned as a single story.

• Learn your new verse.

• Throughout the day, repeat your new verse three or four times. If you’re having trouble with any older verses, repeat these too. You’ll be surprised at how easily you can fit these short reviews into the crevices of your day.

• At the end of the day, repeat all your verses again, including your new verse.

Some people prefer to learn new material at the end of the day, and sleep on it. You can read the lesson and learn your new verses at the end of the day, then review them throughout the next day.

The Christmas Stories

I keep saying “verses”, but the Gospels are a series of stories. Stories are much easier to think about and remember than individual verses.

Have you tried to learn individual Bible verses in the past, and been frustrated? Learning the Bible as short, rhythmic stories is incredibly more natural and interesting.

No Wacky Memory Tricks Required

If you’ve used other memory books, you know there’s a wide variety of memory tricks out there. Good news: for this project, you don’t need any wacky memory tricks.

You won’t need to imagine any crazy pictures or funky memory sentences.

Instead, you’ll learn how to speak these verses so that the verses themselves become a memorable experience. You’ll unlock their power with rhythm, expression, and imagination.

Learn Through Advent, Christmas, or Any Time

I’ve arranged this book so that you can learn these verses during the 2012 Advent season, the 2012 Christmas season, or at any time.

Each day has two dates.

• Use the first date to learn the verses through the Advent season. Use this if you start with Day 1 on Dec 2, 2012.

• Use the second date to learn the verses through the Christmas season. Use this if you start with Day 1 on Dec 26, 2012. (For instance, if you just got this book as a Christmas gift.)

You can also start on some other day, and ignore the dates entirely. Simply start with “Day 1”, and work through one lesson a day.

An Exhortation to Party

For many Christians, Christmas seems to boil down to that one crazy day we talked about.

Some stretch the season backwards, with cookies and parties all through December.

Others try to keep the season of Advent, preparing instead of partying.

Keeping Advent is vital. But what about keeping Christmas? When’s the last time you went to a Christmas party after December 25th? But what’s all this preparation for, if Christmas only lasts one day?

I’m Catholic, so for me, Christmas actually lasts eight whole days. We call it the “Octave of Christmas.” Eight days! And our Christmas season doesn’t end until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, on Jan 13, 2013.

If we want to be selectively traditional, we can even keep celebrating Christmas until February 2. This is the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also called “Candlemas”. It works for Pope Benedict — he doesn’t take down the Vatican Nativity scene until February 2.

Many other Christians have similar traditions on the books. How long does your Christmas season last?

This year, let’s give Christmas the weeks it deserves. Learning these verses is a great start. But as you say them every day, I hope you’re moved to find other ways to celebrate too. Christmas comes but once a year — let’s make it last.

---

Day 1

Advent Track: Sun, Dec 2, 2012 First Sunday of Advent

Christmas Track: Wed, Dec 26, 2012 2nd day of Christmas

Lk 2:1

Jesus Is Born: Angels and Shepherds

Augustus declares the enrolling

And it came to pass
    that in those days
there went out a decree
    from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world
    should be enrolled.

---

Speaking Out the Verses

Congratulations! You're about to start memorizing the Christmas stories from Matthew and Luke.

(You didn't skip "How to Use This Book", did you? It's short, and you need it.)

Today, you'll begin to learn how to speak out the Gospel, so that you take it in and experience it.

Learn the Gospel: The Basics

Every time you say a verse, you want to:

• Speak out: Speak loudly and slowly, with rhythm and expression.

• Take it in: As you speak, see the words as they are written, hear the words you say, and feel the rhythms and the shapes of the words on your tongue.

• Experience: Let the words lead you to imagine the scene in this story.

Seem like a lot to remember? Don't worry, we're going to go over all this in detail. You'll always see critical points more than once.

Let's look at the first step: speaking out.

Speak Out

You're used to reading silently. But in ancient times, they were used to reading out loud. Words were spoken. And the first step to learning these stories by heart is to read the verses out loud.

Loudly

How loud? Loud enough to hear yourself.

Don't mumble. When you mumble, the words only happen inside your head.

You need to be loud enough to hear your own words, as if someone else were talking to you. This activates a whole different set of mental processes, which leads to stronger memories.

One key to remembering is to activate as many different kinds of learning as possible. Each kind of learning has its own set of mental connections. The more connections you make, the stronger your memories.

Slowly

Don't rush! When you're first learning new verses, speak slowly. Not painfully slow, but a little slower than you usually talk.

In normal speech, we slur past common words. Here, you want to pronounce every word.

Rhythm

As I mentioned earlier, these verses have been typeset like a poem, instead of the usual prose paragraphs.

And it came to pass
    that in those days
there went out a decree
    from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world
    should be enrolled.

You're looking at one of the best-kept secrets about the Bible. The Bible has rhythm.

Oral Culture

The Bible was written in an oral culture, a culture that largely depended on the spoken word. Human speech has a natural, loose rhythm. In an oral culture, speakers make these rhythms even stronger.

They organize their thoughts into words and phrases that play off each other, back and forth, rising and falling. Their audiences expect these rhythms, listen for them, and remember them.

In our culture, we associate rhythm with entertainment: nursery rhymes, popular music, rap. Advertising jingles.

Our serious work avoids rhythms. Doctors don't want to sound like Dr. Seuss.

But oral cultures depend on spoken rhythm for serious work. Jesus preached in rhythm. The Gospel writers composed with rhythm.

Free the "Verses" Back Into a "Poem"

You want to speak these verses with rhythm.

Almost every Bible translation imprisons these verses into long, solid columns of compressed text. But why do we call them verses? Don't verses mean a poem?

Poems never translate well. Most rhythm, like rhyme, is lost in translation. But with the Bible, we can still find the back-and-forth rhythm of the phrases.

The first modern scholar I know of to unlock these Bible rhythms was Marcel Jousse, a French priest in the early twentieth century. In 1925, his book The Oral Style revealed that beneath the prose of the Gospels, even in translation, the phrases rise and fall with strong rhythms.

Back and Forth Rhythms

Let's look again at our first verse, Luke 2:1. Normally, that verse would look like this:

And it came to pass that in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled.

But I've freed these words into a more natural, back-and-forth rhythm:

And it came to pass
    that in those days
there went out a decree
    from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world
    should be enrolled.

Do you hear how the phrases interlock? The first phrase rises, creating tension. The second phrase falls, resolving the tension.

"And it came to pass ... that in those days."

"There went out a decree ... from Caesar Augustus."

Just as the phrases can combine into couplets, the couplets can combine into larger stanzas. The entire first couplet asks a question: What came to pass? The second couplet gives the answer: the decree of Augustus.

Speak With Rhythm

Every verse in this book has been set with rhythm. As you read, use the layout to help you see and speak these rhythms. You'll see couplets and triplets.

The first line of this couplet rises, creating tension,
    The second line falls and resolves the tension.
   
The first line of this triplet rises, creating tension,
    The middle line begins to fall,
       But only the last line resolves the tension.

Sometimes, you'll see a set of four lines. I'm not sure Jousse would approve of this. He only talked about groups of twos and threes. But sometimes, it seems to me that a line really "introduces" a triplet:

And someone says, in a rising tone,
    "I'm saying something that rises even further,"
       And only now does the tension begin to fall,
          And this third line completes it.

You May Find Better Rhythms

So what rules have I used to break up these verses into groups? Here's the secret method: whatever sounds good.

Meaning, there isn't any secret method. If you find a better rhythm for a cluster of verses, change it! And let me know! I'd love to improve future editions.

Skip the Verse Numbers and Headings

You'll notice that, just now, I didn't include the verse numbers or any headings, such as "Augustus declares the enrolling". Although that information is helpful, I do not think you should memorize it. For me, it's enough to know which book and chapter I'm memorizing from.

If you wanted to know the chapter and verse, the best way would be to say "Luke, chapter two, verse one" before that verse. But even if you shortened this to "Luke two one," it would sound ridiculous, like a computer printout. It would disrupt the story, and kill the rhythm.

Expression (These Words Are Alive)

At first, speaking the Bible with rhythm may seem unnatural. It may even feel a little disrespectful.

Why? Because we in the English-speaking world have this bizarre tradition of the reverential monotone.

Ditch the "Reverential Monotone"

Think about church. Unless you're very lucky, your lector "proclaims" the readings with less expression than your GPS. You'd get more drama from R2D2.

Somehow, we've gotten the idea that the Bible needs a special voice: a dead monotone.

But what's so reverent about a monotone? These words are alive, and so are you. A Bible is just a sacred suitcase to carry those words from Christ to you.

Sadly, the words had to have all the expression and intonation hacked off so they'd fit in the suitcase. Your job is to unpack them, and try to get them back to normal.

The monotone is not normal. The monotone is dead. When our cultural air is thick with the conviction that the Bible is a dead old distant book with nothing to offer, a monotone is the worst possible choice.

The monotone is also the worst possible choice for remembering.

Let the Words Live

Freeing the rhythms helps the words live. But you want to go even farther. You want to tell the story.

Think about telling a story to a friend. Or reading a story to a child. The expression comes naturally. It flows from what's happening in the story.

Now Speak Your Verse

That's all for today! This has been a long first lesson, but don't worry. Before long, you'll be focused on learning verses, not learning how to learn them.

Throughout the rest of the day (or tomorrow, if it's already bedtime), read the verse out loud again every few hours. Don't worry about memorizing it yet. Focus on speaking it well.