Giving Yourself - Receiving Love and Grace

Last week interfaith ministry had its first Interfaith Life Community meeting. It has been a dream of mine this year to have interfaith reflection group for students that meets to learn and grow spiritually. I decided to start the program by calling on the namesake of our school St. Ignatius of Loyola. I used his Prayer of Personal Dedication to start our meeting and focus our discussion.

Here is the prayer:

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.

The prayer proved to be perfect for our first meeting as it lead to a beautiful discussion of personal struggle to both offer God our liberty and accept God’s love and grace. It is hard to fully give yourself to God or the greater sense of purpose you believe in. While each one of us who strives to grow in our spirituality believe in giving ourselves in some way to something greater than ourselves it is overwhelming to conceive of completely surrendering. It is only in welcoming and openly receiving the love and grace of God that we are able to give ourselves completely. Although we may have reservations about giving up all we have there is hope in the great love offered by God. As Saint Ignatius reminds us God does not ask us to go forth alone, but with God’s love ever present in the work we do. 

-Elaina Jo