Prayer of Surrender

The Suscipe — from the Latin word meaning "take" or "receive" — was composed by St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) as the culminating prayer of his Spiritual Exercises, placed at the end of the Fourth Week as the response of a soul that has encountered Christ fully and wishes to surrender everything in return. Ignatius considered it the most perfect prayer a creature could offer to the Creator, a total giving back to God of everything that came from him in the first place — freedom, memory, understanding, and will. The version presented here is a somewhat paraphrased adaptation; the more literal Ignatian text begins "Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will." It is a demanding prayer — its simplicity is deceptive, as true surrender of the will is considered by spiritual directors one of the highest and most difficult acts of the interior life. St. Francis Xavier, a close companion of Ignatius, is said to have prayed the Suscipe daily until his death.