Recently, a post floated around social media networks by Glennon Doyle Melton who blogs at Momastery called, “Give me Gratitude or give me debt.”  The awareness she came to reminded me of the Suscipe or the Take, Lord, prayer.  In my recent post on dotMagis, I shared my reflections on Melton’s article, and my version of the Take, Lord, prayer that I found myself praying the morning I read her blog.

 Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. All that I have and call my own, you have given it all to me.
Take, Lord, all that I have and possess. Thank you for what you’ve given to me: our home, our clothes, our food, our water, our “stuff,” our jobs, my kids’ education, our education, my memories, my family, my friends, and all that I understand. Give me a heart of gratitude, Lord, for all you have given me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything that I have and possess is yours. Give me eyes that understand that. Lord, keep me from holding on too tightly to anything or anyone. Help me detach from all these things I have and possess.
Everything is yours. Do with it what you will.
Show me how to live and love, Lord. Show me how to spend my money and how to care for my home and my family. Show me how to be unattached from stuff and trends. Help me be indifferent to all that I call my own. Take all that I have, and use it as you see fit.
Give me only your love and your grace; that is enough for me.
I am enough, Lord, because you love me. The trends and things do not define me, nor does my job, nor do my roles as wife or mother. You are what defines me. Who I am in you is who I am, Lord. Give me new eyes.
Amen.

To read the rest of my reflection, head on over to dotMagis to check it out…

Becky Eldredge

Becky is an Ignatian-trained spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and writer. She is the author of the Busy Lives and Restless Souls (March 2017, Loyola Press) and The Inner Chapel (April 2020, Loyola Press). She helps others create space to connect faith and everyday life through facilitating retreats and days of reflection, through writing, and through spiritual direction. With nearly twenty years of ministry experience within the Catholic Church, Becky seeks to help others discover God at work in the every day moments of people’s lives by utilizing St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and the many gifts that our Catholic faith and Ignatian Spirituality provide.