Memory verses & resources

The canonical memory verse for each lesson, quoted in RSV-2CE (The Great Adventure Catholic Bible). Sessions 2–12 inherit their verse from this master list.

The canonical memory verse for each lesson. Source: the curriculum's own suggestion per lesson, taken from the St. Paul Center study guides — the leader and participant guides were confirmed identical. Translation: quoted in RSV-2CE (The Great Adventure Catholic Bible), the Bible we use; verified against NABRE (Vatican) and the Straubinger (Spanish) tradition per STYLE-GUIDE.md §4 and the project Scripture-citation standard. Sessions 2–12 inherit their verse from this list.

At a glance

#	Lesson	Reference	Companion
1	A Biblical Introduction to Mary	2 Timothy 3:16–17	+ Luke 1:42
2	Handmaid of the Lord	Luke 1:46–48	—
3	Wedding at Cana, Garden in Eden	John 2:5	—
4	The New Eve	Genesis 3:15	—
5	The Ark of the New Covenant	Luke 1:35	—
6	Born of a Virgin	Matthew 28:20	+ Galatians 4:4
7	The Promised Mother	Matthew 1:23	—
8	Mother Crowned in Glory	Luke 1:43	—
9	Full of Grace	Luke 1:28	—
10	All Holy	Ephesians 1:3–4	—
11	The Assumption	Revelation 11:19	—
12	Always a Mother	1 Corinthians 15:55–57	—

The verses (RSV-2CE)

Lesson 1 — A Biblical Introduction to Mary

"All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." — 2 Timothy 3:16–17

Companion (kept): "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." — Luke 1:42

Lesson 2 — Handmaid of the Lord

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed." — Luke 1:46–48

Lesson 3 — Wedding at Cana, Garden in Eden

"His mother said to the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you.'" — John 2:5

Lesson 4 — The New Eve

"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." — Genesis 3:15

Lesson 5 — The Ark of the New Covenant

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." — Luke 1:35

Lesson 6 — Born of a Virgin

"I am with you always, to the close of the age." — Matthew 28:20

Companion (kept): "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law." — Galatians 4:4

Facilitator note — why Matthew 28:20 for "Born of a Virgin"? It's the Emmanuel bracket of Matthew's Gospel: Matthew opens with the virgin birth as "God with us" (Matt 1:23) and closes with "I am with you always" (28:20). The Incarnation in Mary's womb is what makes Christ's abiding presence possible — an allusive but deliberate Matthean theology of presence. Galatians 4:4 is added as the tighter literal statement of the Incarnation through a woman.

Lesson 7 — The Promised Mother

"'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel' (which means, God with us)." — Matthew 1:23

Lesson 8 — Mother Crowned in Glory

"And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" — Luke 1:43

Lesson 9 — Full of Grace

"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" — Luke 1:28

Lesson 10 — All Holy

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him." — Ephesians 1:3–4

Lesson 11 — The Assumption

"Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail." — Revelation 11:19

Lesson 12 — Always a Mother

"'O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." — 1 Corinthians 15:55–57

Spanish-tradition notes (Straubinger cross-check)

For the bilingual community, three places where comparing the Spanish (Straubinger, Vulgate-rooted) is worth teaching — handled honestly:

• Genesis 3:15 (Lesson 4) — build the apologetic on "the woman," not the pronoun. Contrary to the common assumption, Straubinger's text reads the masculine ("éste te aplastará la cabeza" — he shall crush), agreeing with RSV-2CE ("he") and the Hebrew — not the Vulgate's "ipsa / she." The Marian sense rests on the woman and her enmity with Satan (15a), preserved in every translation, plus Christ as her seed — exactly as Lumen Gentium 55 and CCC 410–411 frame it. The "she shall crush" reading is a beautiful, Church-sanctioned traditional reading (art, Tota pulchra), but even the Latin-tradition Straubinger prints the masculine. Teach the stronger, defensible case.
• Luke 1:46–48 (Lesson 2) — "esclava / pequeñez." Straubinger's "la pequeñez de su esclava" (the littleness of his slave/bondwoman, Vulgate ancilla) is more radically self-emptying than the softer English "low estate of his handmaiden." A clean Warrior/Disciple point: Mary's greatness is grounded in total servitude to God.
• Luke 1:28 (Lesson 9) — our English already holds the fuller reading. "Llena de gracia" = RSV-2CE "full of grace"; the flattening to "favored one" is NABRE's, not ours. Reassure the men our Bible keeps "full of grace." (Note: Straubinger's footnote is cautious — it does not derive the Immaculate Conception from the grammar alone, so cite him for the wording, not as proof of the doctrine.)

Verify before publishing

⚠️ RSV-2CE is not freely online, so the three verses where one word carries doctrinal weight should be eyeballed against a physical Great Adventure Catholic Bible: Luke 1:28 ("full of grace"), Genesis 3:15 ("he… bruise," "seed"), and 2 Timothy 3:16 ("profitable," "man of God… complete"). All 12 NABRE readings and the Straubinger Spanish readings were verified online; the RSV-2CE wording is from scholarly knowledge.