Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that

‘they may indeed look, but not perceive,
     and may indeed listen, but not understand;
 so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”

And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

When I prayed the 19th annotation of the Spiritual Exercises in 2022, I became familiar with the Suscipe prayer. And quite frankly, I edited it when I first prayed and changed the phrase, “It is enough for me,” to “It is everything for me.” But then I thought about it further and I now see my arrogance in this rewrite. Am I really having a semantic beef with Saint Ignatius? And if so, how can I know if the Lord’s enough far surpasses my concept of everything? 

Another tenet of Ignatian prayer is to practice spiritual indifference, to disrupt the norms and reject societal conventions with reckless abandon to God’s will for us. Just like the seed in today’s parable, Jesus reminds us that we have to be on solid and fertile ground. He will give us everything we need if we offer up our temporal gifts and burdens. He is bound by nothing on this earth. That is most definitely enough.

—Ellen M. Walker, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Xavier University in Louisiana — the only Catholic HBCU in the US — and a lector at Saint Anthony of Padua in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,

Take and receive my freedom that I have too often been using to decide who I want to be, so that I become the person you want me to be. 

Take, Lord, and receive my memory, Take and receive my sense of my past and its meaning, and my sense of who I am. Take and receive my joys that I cling to and the wounds that still linger, so as to live in hope. Take, Lord, and receive my understanding, Take and receive my ability to imagine possibilities and my ability to be attentive and to generate insights and hypotheses and to find evidence to determine their truth. 

Take, Lord, and receive my entire will, Take and receive my love for my family members and friends, my love for your creation, all my likes and dislikes, all my desires, and my ability to make choices, and the feelings that tend to support or undermine my choices. 

Take, Lord, and receive, all that I have and possess, because, in surrendering all to you, it will be purified and made whole and be mine in the best possible way because you and I will share what is rightfully precious to me. You have given all to me. To you, O Lord, I return it. All is yours. Dispose of it wholly according to your will. 

Give me only the grace to love you, and to love all else in you, and that is enough for me. Amen. 

—Ignatian Suscipe prayer based on André des Freux, SJ’s, Latin translation and was adapted and expanded by Brian O. McDermott, SJ, Martina O’Shea, and Barton Geger, SJ