Letters from Maryland on Ignatian Spirituality

The picture is the pond on campus at St. Thomas University; it is peaceful even when there are students sitting around working with their laptops.
Now, let us continue with our letters from Maryland on Ignatian Spirituality:

#8 LETTERS FROM MARYLAND ON IGNATIAN SPIRITUALITY

“Ignatian Prayers”

A great way to close these letters from Maryland is to turn to the poetry of prayers, some written by Ignatius and some by fellow Jesuits. They occur in various places including the Exercises themselves but a wonderful source book for this material and many other Jesuit prayers is the book, Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits.

It is fitting to use two written by Ignatius today: his prayer for generosity and the Suscipe which is said in repetitions as part of the “Contemplation to Attain the Love of God” used during the fourth week of the Exercises. Here they are:


“Prayer for Generosity”

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
To give and not to count the cost,
To fight and not to heed the wounds,
To toil and not to seek for rest,
To labor and not to ask for reward,
Save that of knowing that I do your will.



“Suscipe”

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.”