Praying with Surrender

More than ever I find myself in the hands of God.
This is what I have wanted all my life from my youth.
But now there is a difference;
the initiative is entirely with God.
It is indeed a profound spiritual experience
to know and feel myself so totally in God’s hands.
— Pedro Arrupe, SJ

In considering all of the prayer requests this week and praying through them at staff meeting, I was struck by the multiple difficult, even desperate, places many of our community find themselves in. They are totally in God’s hands.

For many, it wasn't their choice to surrender this. For the last couple of days I've been thinking about this prayer above by Pedro Arrupe, SJ, written after his stroke in 1981, and these additional words: "I give it all back to you, I surrender it wholly to be governed by Your will." There is a difference between choosing to give up a little luxury, and having something so essential stripped from you that you are completely at the mercy and faithfulness of God. It pushes you into the depths, forces you to look at what it means to commend yourself entirely into God's hands. We have many in our church who are in this place of acute dependence and need.

This is what we profess to desire, to want God like air. Theory is one thing, the practice, it turns out, is something else again. Let us all pray for one another to have faith to surrender ourselves to the hands of our faithful God.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation