“Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own. You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.” Suscipe, St. Ignatius of Loyola
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28:30
The Lord tells us to take His yoke upon our shoulders to receive rest and peace. St. Ignatius gives us this prayer as a way to teach and guide us to surrender to Jesus all our burdens and gifts, everything we carry. We turn over to the Lord our liberties, memories, understanding,
and entire will, We give to Him all our our burdens, stresses, worries and fears. But, not just the tough and bad things, we also give to Him all our blessings and joys, achievements and victories. “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.”
We pray to turn over all the good things and joys of our lives to Jesus to do with as He chooses. Is this generosity to God to give Him these treasures? All that is His anyway. Everything we have is the Lord’s to give and take away. “All that I have and own, You have given to me..”
I can almost hear St. Joseph praying this Suscipe prayer. He gave up his pride to take Mary as his wife while she was pregnant, he gave up all his property and achievements of life to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt to protect them. He gave up himself in humility to be husband of the Immaculata and father to the Sacred Heart, God Himself.
“Everything is yours; do with it what you will.” Total surrender of life, treasures and even our will to God. Probably some of the most difficult things to give up. These are all the things we value most – our life, none desire death if we’re honest. And, all our treasures? No way, I worked hard to get my stuff! Our will, I would argue is probably the knot that ties all things together. When we pray, we say the words, “ Thy Will be done..” but what most are saying is, “Thy Will be done when it benefits me and doesn’t get in the way of my happiness.”
“Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.”
My will and my pride are probably my greatest treasures. So intertwined. So many instances in my life that I’ve glance to God and told Him “I can handle this.” And, one time in particular I remember that my prayer was not “Thy Will be done.” It was almost as if I prayed the Lord’s Prayer as “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come….on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day…”
I have grown a lot in the years since that “prayer” rose from my heart and have so much further to go. God used these situations to break down my pride so I would surrender and give my will Over to Him. And, when I surrendered all to Him, Jesus gave Himself in return.
So often we see that though the Lord asks for everything, He gives so much more in return. “A woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table.” This story from Matthew 26:11, shows us a woman who gave a treasure of great value to bless Jesus. The story shows the reaction of the disciples, probably one we have everyday when asked to surrender our treasures. And it goes on to show Jesus’ joy and love for the woman’s gift.
“Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.”
Follow St. Joseph’s example, “All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it.”