Ignatian Prayer for Generosity

I stumbled upon this prayer yesterday. It really touched me as I read it, and I thought about it all day today. Ignatius has such a way to dig into that deeper part of our soul.

2/22/12

Ignatian Prayer for Generosity

Lord, teach me to be generous,
to serve you as you deserve,
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labour and not to look for any reward,
save that of knowing that I do your holy will.

The brief but elegant prayer that we have is notable in several ways. Studying its composition, one comes to realise that it is almost entirely made up of one-syllable words, a remarkable stylistic feature which, even unconsciously, gives the prayer a powerful compactness.. Moreover, the ten-fold repetition of infinitives in the prayer creates a regular rhythmic effect, like waves; and so also does the pattern shown in lines 3-6, stressing a and not b, c and notd, e and not f, g and not h.

’ Its aspirations are expressed simply, modestly and discreetly, rather than ostentatiously or emotionally, spelling out what generosity involves in real practice. This low key approach may strengthen the prayer’s being considered Ignatian, as also does its being a prayer for total generosity. I once had it misquoted to me as including the clause ‘to fight and not to feel the wounds’, but I corrected this firmly as ‘to fight and not to heed the wounds’.