12. The Benedictus - lite

I've been trying and failing for a while to memorise the Benedictus, which I read as part of morning prayer every day. Having some scripture memorised can be a really handy thing, especially if (like me) you suffer from bad headaches and often struggle to read or even listen to others reading scripture.  If you worship using liturgy then the easiest bits to memorise are the bits that you say regularly anyway (one of the great benefits of liturgical prayer). I've had a few bits memorised for a while, but the Benedictus has eluded me. I think it's because it's quite long but also because it goes in unexpected directions. After finishing my study of Luke's Gospel (see previous blog), which features the Benedictus, the Magnificat and the nunc dimitus (liturgical stalwarts of morning, evening and night prayer) all in one chapter, I felt the urge to have all of them fixed in my 'memory bank'. I already have the nunc dimitus plus most of the Benedictus, but I often get lost or muddled in the middle of the latter. While studying the text as it appears in morning prayer I happened to notice that is made up of 10 verses and that the word Benedictus is made up of 10 letters - to me this seemed a perfect opportunity to create an acrostic to help me in my memory feats. This is the result:

Blessed be the God who frees

Elevated is the Saviour born of David's line

Never shall we fear, for we are promised safety

Ever merciful is God to us as to those who came before us

Delivery was promised first through Abraham

In God's sight we may worship freely

Child of God prepare the way

Through embodying the saving power of forgiveness

Unbounded love will break through

Shining light from God will free and guide

Producing this was an interesting exercise and it helped me to understand better what's in the Benedictus, but it didn't really help with memorising it and I realised that what I had effectively produced was an alternative 'Benedictus lite'! As I don't want to create my own liturgy, this isn't really very helpful. What I've now done instead is to note down the first few words of each verse to use as a prompt, which is more useful for memorisation.

In doing this exercise I realised that the lines I struggle to remember are the ones concerning the history of Israel:

Through his holy prophets God promised of old to save us from our enemies, from the hands of all that hate us,

To show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies,

Free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life

It occurs to me that if anyone were to ask what I thought the oath that God swore to Abraham consisted of, I would suggest it concerned the promise that his descendants would be more in number than the stars of the sky, rather than freedom from enemies - I don't really remember Abraham having significant enemies! Did Zechariah mix up Abraham and Moses, or have a missed this significant point in my Genesis reading?