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| Trip Advisor: Cathedral Notre Dame d'Amien |
In the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius we find a prayer commonly called the Suscipe. It is a prayer of surrender, asking God to receive all of my self. It begins, "Take Lord, receive..."
Older Catholics might be familiar with the daily prayer of self-gift called A Morning Offering. Folks in AA often pray what is called a Third Step Prayer: "O God, I offer myself..."
But when I stumbled on this photograph of the bound hands of Jesus found in the Cathedral of Notre Dame d'Amien, France, I thought to write/pray my own. There's nothing wrong with praying memorized prayers or prayers found in books, but I want to be sure that I feel something, so here I've composed my own surrender-prayer, focusing on the hands of Jesus as we imagine them to be in the Gospel scenes.
I surrender all my anxious fears and enervating fantasies, all my past with its wounds, mistakes and wrong turns. I surrender my health concerns and the days of my aging, my relationships and anything about my life that I hope will be strengthened or healed:
I place it all in Christ's swaddled hands at Bethlehem,
Christ's work-a-day hands at Nazareth,
Christ's shivering hands at the River Jordan,
Christ's weathered hands in the temptation-desert,
Christ's gift-bearing hands at the Cana wedding,
Christ's silencing hand over the tumultuous sea.
I surrender any knowledge I possess, my skills, abilities, accomplishments and any exercise or insistence of my will that may secretly seek to control today or tomorrow:
I place it all in the hands of Christ raising up the little girl,
the hands of Christ calling the apostles ashore,
the hands of Christ touching the funeral bier,
the hands of Christ taking hold of Peter's mother-in-law,
the hands of Christ giving sight to the blind man,
the hands of Christ opening the deaf man's ears; loosing his tongue,
the hands of Christ summing Lazarus from the stone tomb.
I surrender anything I own or do that I unconsciously think identifies me, any power or notoriety I possess, my disappointments and every poisonous resentment:
I surrender it all to the child-gathering hands of Christ,
the bread-breaking, wine-passing hands of Christ,
the foot-washing hands of the teaching Christ,
the rope-bound hands of the imprisoned Christ,
the cross carrying hands of the condemned Christ,
the nail-gashed hands of the Good Friday Christ,
the Thomas-touched hands of the Easter Christ,
the radiant hands of the cosmic Christ.
Father Stephen P. Morris
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I surrender all my anxious fears and enervating fantasies, all my past with its wounds, mistakes and wrong turns. I surrender my health concerns and the days of my aging, my relationships and anything about my life that I hope will be strengthened or healed:
I place it all in Christ's swaddled hands at Bethlehem,
Christ's work-a-day hands at Nazareth,
Christ's shivering hands at the River Jordan,
Christ's weathered hands in the temptation-desert,
Christ's gift-bearing hands at the Cana wedding,
Christ's silencing hand over the tumultuous sea.
I surrender any knowledge I possess, my skills, abilities, accomplishments and any exercise or insistence of my will that may secretly seek to control today or tomorrow:
I place it all in the hands of Christ raising up the little girl,
the hands of Christ calling the apostles ashore,
the hands of Christ touching the funeral bier,
the hands of Christ taking hold of Peter's mother-in-law,
the hands of Christ giving sight to the blind man,
the hands of Christ opening the deaf man's ears; loosing his tongue,
the hands of Christ summing Lazarus from the stone tomb.
I surrender anything I own or do that I unconsciously think identifies me, any power or notoriety I possess, my disappointments and every poisonous resentment:
I surrender it all to the child-gathering hands of Christ,
the bread-breaking, wine-passing hands of Christ,
the foot-washing hands of the teaching Christ,
the rope-bound hands of the imprisoned Christ,
the cross carrying hands of the condemned Christ,
the nail-gashed hands of the Good Friday Christ,
the Thomas-touched hands of the Easter Christ,
the radiant hands of the cosmic Christ.
Father Stephen P. Morris
