By FR. JAMES ALTMAN
Dear family, on such feast days such as the Annunciation, we proclaim the Gloria in Latin: Gloria in excelsis Deo — Glory to God in the highest. We can imagine that Our Blessed Mother, in the midst of the glory of God’s Holy Archangel Gabriel, surely had a magnificent sense of these very words. No wonder her soul proclaimed the greatness of the Lord, and her spirit rejoiced in God, her Savior.
For the Feast of the Annunciation and following, let us meditate on a just one small portion of the Gloria, the three mini-prayers right in the middle:
Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis:
You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostrum:
You take away the sins of the world, hear our prayer.
Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis:
You are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.
Notice that the first part of two of them is an acknowledgment that Jesus does indeed take away the sins of the world. But we, by joining in this song of prayer, are asking Him twice to take away our sins: miserere nobis. Yes, His Act of Atonement on Calvary was for the forgiveness of sins, but we are not forgiven of those sins until we repent. So in addition to the Gloria being a song of praise to Our Father, it also is a beautiful prayer for forgiveness: have mercy on us, have mercy on us.
Now notice that in the middle of those two times we pray: have mercy on us, but the middle one is different. We pray not miserere nobis. Rather, we pray: suscipe deprecationem nostram. In English we say: receive our prayer.
While pondering this phrase this morning, I looked up and found different translations of the Gloria. As to this particular petition sandwiched between two “have mercy on us” petitions, one of the translations stated it slightly differently than just “receive our prayer.” One translated it as: “accept our entreaty / apology.”
Dear family, this makes perfect sense. If we are going pray to our Lord — “have mercy on us” — we surely ought to begin that prayer with an apology. As a Catholic would better state it: with words of repentance. In simplest personal terms: Lord Jesus, I am sorry for my sins. In essence we pray: accept and receive my repentance — suscipe deprecationem nostrum — and then we pray, have mercy on us — miserere nobis.
Let us conclude by pondering now just one word in that prayer for mercy: Suscipe, or “receive.” In the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, there is a prayer entitled The Suscipe. It is a prayer that is a morning offering — and these are its words:
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.
I do not know what first inspired St. Ignatius of Loyola to write these words as a prayer for his order. But maybe he partly was inspired by the words of the Psalm proclaimed on the Feast of the Annunciation.
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not; then said I, “Behold I come.”
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!”
Or maybe he partly was inspired by the words of the second reading on the Feast of the Assumption, a passage from the Letter to the Hebrews:
“Brothers and sisters: It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins. For this reason, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.’ Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God’.”
Or maybe — for this Feast of the Annunciation — we might conclude he was partly inspired by the words of Our Blessed Mother herself, Mary’s own suscipe, as we heard in today’s Gospel:
Ecce ancilla Domini; Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Surely St. Ignatius also was inspired by the prayer that Jesus Himself taught us:
Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
And finally, surely he was inspired by the prayer that Jesus fervently affirmed during His agony in Gethsemane:
“He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will’” (Matt. 26:39).
Suscipe — 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.
We are called to start each and every day with our own morning offering, our own Suscipe. Can you imagine how the world would be changed if everyone did? As we ponder the Feast of the Annunciation, let us take Our Blessed Mother’s words and offer our own suscipe as she did: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Start today and pray the Suscipe as a novena for nine days.
Dear family, let us pray our own Suscipe. It is a profound way to prepare for the Triduum.
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