Suscipe Me Domine

Suscipe me Domine, secundum eloquim Tuum, et vivam;
​et non confundas me ab expectatione mea. 
“Receive me, Lord, according to Thy word, and I shall live;
and let me not be confounded in my hope”

​Immediately after professing her vows for life, the Sister kneels on the steps of the sanctuary before the Altar and chants the Suscipe me, a Latin verse from Psalm 118, “Receive me, according to Thy word, and I shall live; and let me not be confounded in my hope” (118:16). These words encapsulate the gift of self she has just made to Jesus, her Divine Bridegroom and profess her trust in His gift of self to her. She has promised to live as Christ lived on this earth -- poor, chaste, and obedient -- in order to love as He loved: generously, totally, and sacrificially. He has promised her eternal life.  As he said in the Gospel, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life” (Matt 19:29). 

​ “Receive me,” she cries in the chant, “according to your word.”  It is Jesus who has called her to imitate His ways of life and love; therefore, it is He who will sustain and uphold her in her consecration. “He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it” (1 Thess 5:24). The words of the rite reaffirm this prayer: “May the Lord who has begun this good work in you bring it to completion in the day of the Lord.” Ultimately, her vocation is His work. Yet, day after day, she must do her part to live out this calling in faith, loving a God-man that she has never laid eyes on, speaking heart to heart to Him whose voice she has never heard, being the hands of One whose touch she has never felt. “Receive me… and I shall live…” She shall walk by faith and not sight. “And let me not be confounded in my hope.” She entrusts her whole self to Jesus, knowing that He will not be outdone in generosity. 

​Perpetual profession, the culmination of nearly seven years of prayer, study, formation, and service, is a sign of the unbreakable union of Christ and His Bride, the Church. In a profoundly ecclesial act, the Sister making perpetual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience is consecrated to Christ forever. This consecration, deeply rooted in Baptism, is one of thanks, praise, and adherence to Jesus Christ, the Spouse, who taught by His whole life the perfection of chastity, the richness of poverty and the depth of obedience to the point of dying for us. These vows constitute the essence of the Sister’s religious life imparting stability and higher consecration. They lovingly compel her to live as Christ lived in areas which covers her whole life: possessions, affections, and autonomy. 

​It is this configuration to Christ through perpetual profession, symbolized by the small gold ring she receives bearing the inscription, To Jesus, my heart, my all, forever, that sets the perpetually professed Sister apart as one forever consecrated to Jesus, her Spouse. Thus in perpetual profession each Sister brings to perfection the full gift of herself as a sacrifice offered to God, and her whole existence becomes a continuous worship of God in love. As His Bride, the Sister spends herself seeking and loving God, Who first loved us, and strives to live a life “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).

​On July 1, 2023, Sr. Mary Emmanuel, MSSR made her perpetual profession of vows. Please keep Sister, her family, and our whole community in your prayers. Enjoy the pictures below! 

Perpetual Profession Slideshow