Prayer:Suscipe
Stored: Suscipe
| Suscipe | |
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| Author | Unknown |
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| Language | English |
| Approval | None |
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| Added on | 2026-08-13 |
The Suscipe (from the Latin suscipe, meaning "receive" or "take") is one of the most celebrated and spiritually profound prayers in the Catholic tradition. Composed by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), it stands as the crowning act of surrender within his celebrated Spiritual Exercises. The prayer distills the Ignatian spiritual vision into a few short but transformative lines: a complete and loving gift of self to God.
This prayer is sometimes called the Prayer of Total Oblation or the Offering of St. Ignatius, and it continues to form the spiritual heart of Jesuit spirituality, Ignatian retreats, and the daily prayer of countless Catholics around the world. Its brevity conceals extraordinary theological depth, encapsulating the movement from self-possession to God-possession that lies at the center of Christian mystical life.
St. Ignatius composed the Suscipe as part of the Contemplatio ad Amorem — the "Contemplation to Attain the Love of God" — which appears in the final week of the Spiritual Exercises. It is presented not merely as a vocal prayer to be recited, but as a disposition of the heart to be lived continuously in union with divine love and grace.
The Prayer
- Suscipe
- Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
- my memory, my understanding,
- and my entire will,
- all that I have and possess.
- Thou hast given all to me.
- To Thee, O Lord, I return it.
- All is Thine, dispose of it wholly
- according to Thy will.
- Give me Thy love and Thy grace,
- for this is sufficient for me.
Latin original:
- Suscipe, Domine, universam meam libertatem.
- Accipe memoriam, intellectum atque voluntatem omnem.
- Quidquid habeo vel possideo mihi largitus es;
- id tibi totum restituo ac tuae prorsus voluntati trado gubernandum.
- Amorem tui solum cum gratia tua mihi dones,
- et dives sum satis, nec aliud quidquam ultra posco.
History and Background
St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) underwent a dramatic conversion following a cannonball wound sustained at the Battle of Pamplona in 1521. During his long convalescence at the castle of Loyola, he read the lives of the saints and the life of Christ, and began his interior transformation. After a period of intense prayer and penance at Manresa, he compiled the foundational notes that would become the Spiritual Exercises, completed in their essential form around 1522–1524 and formally approved by Pope Paul III in 1548.
The Suscipe appears in the Contemplatio ad Amorem, the culminating meditation of the Fourth Week of the Spiritual Exercises. By this point in the retreat, the exercitant has passed through meditations on sin, the life of Christ, His Passion, and His Resurrection. The Contemplatio invites the retreatant to behold all of creation as a gift from God, and the Suscipe is the soul's response: a total, loving, and free return of every gift to the Giver.
The theological structure of the prayer reflects the Ignatian principle that human beings are created to praise, reverence, and serve God, and by this means to save their souls — the so-called Principle and Foundation of the Exercises. The Suscipe enacts this principle in a personal and intimate way, surrendering not only external goods but the three interior faculties of the soul — memory, understanding, and will — which in Scholastic theology constitute the spiritual image of God in the human person. The prayer asks for only two things in return: love and grace, which St. Ignatius presents as entirely sufficient, a bold and beautiful theological statement.
The Suscipe has influenced countless saints and spiritual writers after Ignatius. St. Peter Canisius, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Robert Bellarmine all drew deeply from the Ignatian tradition in which this prayer is central. It remains a cornerstone of Ignatian retreats administered by the Society of Jesus to this day.
How to Pray / Devotional Use
The Suscipe is most properly prayed as a meditative act of surrender rather than a rapid vocal recitation. St. Ignatius himself recommended that the retreatant pause over each phrase — all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my entire will — allowing each faculty of the soul to be consciously and willingly offered to God. This practice transforms the prayer into a contemplative exercise as much as a vocal one.
In the context of the Spiritual Exercises: The Suscipe is prayed during the Contemplatio ad Amorem in the Fourth Week. Directors of Ignatian retreats typically invite the retreatant to offer the prayer aloud or silently before the Blessed Sacrament, after a period of reflection on how God has given all things — creation, redemption, personal gifts, and graces — as an expression of divine love.
As a daily morning offering: Many Jesuits, Ignatian associates, and lay members of the Christian Life Community incorporate the Suscipe into their daily morning prayer, renewing the act of total gift to God at the start of each day. It pairs naturally with the Daily Examen, another practice given by St. Ignatius, which closes the day with a review of how God's love has been present throughout.
Lectio divina with the Suscipe: One fruitful method is to take a single phrase of the prayer and sit with it in silent contemplation for an extended period, allowing the Holy Spirit to draw forth its personal meaning. For example, sitting with the phrase "Give me Thy love and Thy grace, for this is sufficient for me" can lead to a profound act of detachment from worldly consolations.
In communal prayer: The Suscipe is often prayed communally at the close of Ignatian retreats, Jesuit school Masses, and Society of Jesus profession ceremonies. When prayed together, it expresses the communal dimension of Ignatian spirituality — a shared surrender of individual liberty to the greater glory of God, Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam.
It is fitting to pray this prayer kneeling or in a posture of prostration, as an embodied expression of the interior offering it articulates. However, St. Ignatius also taught that bodily posture should follow the interior movement of the soul, so whatever posture best facilitates genuine surrender and love is appropriate.