The Wonder of Being Finite

Suscipe, Domine, universam meam libertatem. Accipe memoriam, intellectum, atque voluntatem omnem. Quidquid habeo vel possideo mihi largitus es; id tibi totum restituo, ac tuae prorsus voluntati trado gubernandum. Amorem tui solum cum gratia tua mihi dones, et dives sum satis, nec aliud quidquam ultra posco.

It struck me the other day that there's a rather significant mistranslation in most versions of St. Ignatius of Loyola's Suscipe. In the NAC Manual of Prayers, in John Foley, S.J.'s otherwise faithfully translated guitar version "Take, Lord, Receive," and in every other English versions I'd seen, they always end "Give me only your love and your grace, and that will be enough." But that's not what St. Ignatius wrote! It is not "amorem tuum," "Your love," i.e. God's love for me, but "amorem tui," with an objective genitive: "love of You."

That is, "Give me only love for You, with Your grace, and I am rich enough, nor will I seek anything else." That's a very significant difference. I return to God everything He has given me, and all I ask in return is the grace to love Him; and it is loving Him that will get me through every trial that comes my way.