Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Totus Tuus Sum

Last weekend the chorus I sing in had it's annual winter concert. The song we finished with was Totus Tuus by Henryk Mikołaj Góreck. It is a beautiful piece about dedication to the Virgin Mary. Translated it means, "I am totally yours, Maria." And having sung it hundreds of times…I have spent a lot time thinking about what it means to give yourself totally to someone. It is giving your entire body and spirit to someone else, to do what they wish with it. That is a very powerful concept. And I have been wrestling with that concept, if not on such a deep level. Recently, I have been going through a bit of vocation crisis, as it were. Most of my friends are deciding what to do with their lives right now, looking at colleges, learning what they want to do in life. But I am at a loss. Most of my life I have had a very strong sense of purpose, I knew what I wanted to do, and how I was going to achieve it. I am not really sure what I want to do with my life, and this is making me a little uneasy. I feel like I need guidance. So I guess I will just, as my mom says, Offer it up, and hope by giving myself totally to the world good will come from it.

3 comments:

A Thinker said...

Hint:give youself up to the world, but giving the world a swift kick to the backside sometimes helps.

Michelle said...

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, hec aliud quidquam ultra posco.

Receive Lord, all my liberty. Take my memory, my understanding and my entire will. Whatsoever I have or hold, you have given me. I give it all back to you and surrender it wholly to be governed by your will. Give me only your love and your grace and I am rich enough and ask for nothing more.

St. Ignatius of Loyola - from the very end of the Spiritual Exercises

Michelle said...

P.S. Ignatius would have liked that Totus Tuus Sum