Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Every year, around the end of July I again shake my head that it is here again: the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. A year has passed already?

This is the partron saint of our parish and having been in it for 8 years, I have learned a lot about St. Ignatius, from many homilies of the resident priests over the years.

One of my favorites is this prayer, written by the saint. It says it all.

Dedication to Jesus
Lord Jesus Christ, take all my freedom, my memory, my understanding, and my will. All that I have and cherish you have given me. I surrender it all to be guided by your will.


Your grace and your love and wealth are enough for me. Give me these, Lord Jesus, and I ask for nothing more. Amen.

5 comments:

Leonie said...

Wow, what a powerful prayer. And very timely for me. I helped run CAFE at our parish last Wed night and the theme is 'Catholics lisyenin to God." We talked about how we sometimes want to pray that x or y will happen when we should pray instead for God's will. This prayer exemplifies that, doesn't it?

How cool to live in a Jesuit parish! And dedicated to St Ignatius. Ours is a Franciscan parish - Our Lady of the Rosary.

Cindy said...

Hi Leonie-
Oh, yes it is a powerful prayer, I love to be reminded of it. It is one of those that is so poignant and I wish I could retain it, remember it at the front of my mind and heart every second of the day. But it gets lost and I need the reminders.

Yes, I love our connection to St. Ignatius and the Jesuits. Unfortunately our Jesuit priests had to leave last year. Not enough vocation, and the Jesuits had to cut back in an area of work, and it was in their parish work. We love our new priests, but miss our prior ones. We are now part of the dioceese officially.

I love the Franciscans, too! My first contact with them was going to conferences at the University of Steubenville... where Scott Hahn and others hang out. I love their spirituality.

Leonie said...

So, where did your Jesuits go?

I, too, wish I could retain the spirit of this prayer. Jhave to go back for more cancer tests and am back to worrying - instead of remembering to trust and to pray that God's will be done.

Sad about the lack of vocations, too.

Anonymous said...

Hi Cindy,
I don't know if you know this, but you've been given an award...=) Check it out here:

http://miceandmoonbeams.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-first-blogger-award-ever.html

Marie said...

I love the St. Louis Jesuits version of this prayer, Take Lord, Receive.

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