The Audacity of Praying the Suscipe

Editor’s note: Throughout July, we’re hosting 31 Days with St. Ignatius, a month-long celebration of Ignatian spirituality. In addition to the calendar of Ignatian articles found here, posts on dotMagis this month will explore the theme of “The Audacity of Ignatian Spirituality.”

Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer—the “Our Father”—we say the words found in Matthew’s Gospel: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” For many of us, saying those words can become rather thoughtless, because we say them so often. But the sentiment they express is quite profound.

That sentiment is expressed in a similarly audacious way in St. Ignatius’s Suscipe (soo-she-pay) prayer. The name of the prayer is taken from the Latin word that means “take up.” For you grammarians out there, it’s an imperative present; that’s the case we use when we’re issuing a command (“Stop!”) or expressing a need (“Help!”). It’s meant to elicit a response from the person to whom we’re speaking. In Ignatius’s context, it was a verb used in the Mass and calls to mind the Eucharistic Prayer that God might accept the gifts that will be “taken up” and transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ.

Ignatius includes the Suscipe during the Contemplation to Attain Love at the conclusion of the Spiritual Exercises. He urges us to call to mind all the good that God has done and the Lord’s great desire to give himself to us. Our suscipe is therefore our heartfelt response to one who loves us totally and completely. “Suscipe, Domine…” “Take up, Lord, all my liberty. Accept my memory, understanding, and my entire will.” The first imperative verb, suscipe, is our saying to God, “Take me up and transform me!” The second imperative verb, accipe, has us imagining that we are handing over everything that makes our character what it is: the memories of our past; the way we understand the world we live in; the very way we make judgments about what to do with our lives.

What an audacious prayer! We’re handing over to God all the control of our lives. We’re saying to God, “I hope that you will completely transform everything about me so that I can be a perfect instrument of your grace in the world. I want nothing of my selfishness, my short-sightedness, my biases, or my limitations. I want only your love and grace and know that you’ll take care of the rest.”

Can you make that prayer today? Do you feel a desire to be able to make that prayer? If we are following what Ignatius suggests, then the very desire to be able to pray it is a sign of God’s grace already at work in us.

We conclude our 15th-annual 31 Days with St. Ignatius by looking with Gretchen Crowder at Three Ways St. Ignatius Was a Leader.

How have you experienced the audacity of Ignatian spirituality? Share your answer with the hashtag #31DayswithIgnatius on your favorite social media channels.