Receive me, O Lord

Yesterday, you asked God to help you be open to what he wants to teach you. You committed yourself to the "listening" part. What do you do next?

In his book, The Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola offers a vision of how to live, work, and love. By developing a more intimate relationship with God, you move from just listening to acting. At the end of the exercises, Ignatius shares a prayer he called the Suscipe. Drawn from monastic tradition, suscipe is the Latin word for "receive." In this particular prayer, you ask God to receive you. You offer yourself as the Lord's hands and feet on earth.

Suscipe

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,

my memory, my understanding, and my entire will--

all that I have and call my own.

You have given it 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.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

This prayer is sometimes called radical. You can imagine why. If prayed with sincerity, you are making a powerful statement. You are giving yourself totally to God and letting him lead you where you are most needed. With this prayer, you commit yourself to be Christ for others. How will you live this today?

You Are Christ's Hands

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,

no hands but yours, no feet but yours,

Yours are the eyes through which is to look out

Christ's compassion to the world;

Yours are the feet with which he is

to go about doing good;

Yours are the hands with which he is

to bless us now.

St. Teresa of Avila