A Prayer to Deepen Our Union With Christ and His Saving Love

Q U I C K S C A N

Anima Christi
Some afterthoughts
A friendly recommendation

In last month’s E-spiration I recommended a simple way to understand or to describe the Kingdom of God, namely, to see it as the saving presence of God at work in us. I also suggested that Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, truly embodies God’s Kingdom or saving presence among us.

The prayer Anima Christi, which is featured and discussed below, has the Kingdom of God written all over it. The prayer brims with a longing for God’s saving presence in the person of Christ. It’s a heartfelt plea to Christ to transform us with his healing and redemptive love—and to make God’s reign present in us. The prayer is not dry and abstract. It seeks not so much to give us more information about God as to call us to a more intimate union with Christ. The prayer touches us on emotional and mystical levels.

The Anima Christi has been attributed at times to St. Ignatius of Loyola, but historians say that the prayer predates Ignatius by as much as a century and a half. There is a long tradition, however, that it was a favorite prayer of Ignatius’s. And for centuries it has often served as the opening prayer of his Spiritual Exercises. Let’s take a closer look at this familiar prayer.

Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O Good Jesus, hear me.
Within your wounds, hide me.
Let me never be separated from you.
From the malignant enemy, defend me.
In the hour of my death, call me,
And bid me come to you,
That with your saints I may praise you
Forever and ever. Amen.

Although there are many translations of this prayer, the wording here is a quite literal translation of the original Latin. The prayer is open to a variety of interpretations, which is part of its richness. Here is how it inspires me at the moment:

Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Jesus, Risen One, may your soul invade my whole being and make me holy. Breathe your Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, upon me, just as you breathed upon the first disciples after your resurrection. Set me free of sin and fill me with the holiness that fills your own soul.

Body of Christ, save me. I open myself to your love. Embrace me with your healing and transforming power. Jesus, this prayer especially moves me when I say it after receiving your Body and Blood in Holy Communion or after Mass has ended. But I know the prayer is meaningful at any time. For I believe you are always standing at my door knocking (Rev 3:20)—inviting me to open the door and have a heart-to-heart visit with you.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me. You have redeemed us, Jesus, by your blood shed upon the cross. At the Eucharist we receive that Blood in the form of wine. Your burning love is so overwhelming that one feels intoxicated by the intensity of your care. Such love prompted Anthony of Padua to proclaim, “The humanity of Christ is like the grape because it was crushed in the winepress of the Cross so that his blood flowed forth over all the earth…How great is the love of the Bridegroom for his spouse, the Church!”

Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Yes, Jesus, let the water flowing from your side cleanse me, as did the life-giving water that flowed upon my head at Baptism. This saving stream never stops flowing through me—unless I separate myself from your love. You are the Vine, I am the branch. If I remain in you, your abundant life continues flowing into me. As St. Paul attests, “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

Passion of Christ, strengthen me. It is your power, and not my own, that saves me and gives me strength. As the psalmist says, “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build” (127:1). Help me to stay united with you and your passion, which reveals your saving love for me and all your people.

O Good Jesus, hear me. Within your wounds, hide me. There is something so mystical, and dare I say intimate, Jesus, in our hiding in those holy wounds through which we are saved. As Isaiah tells us, it is “by his stripes we were healed” (53:5). Draw us into this most loving mystery—this sacred fountainhead of our salvation!

Let me never be separated from you. Loving Savior, this expresses, perhaps, the most central theme of Anima Christi. Keep reminding me that the best part of prayer is not so much in gaining information about you, O Jesus, as it is in growing into a closer love union with you. So, loving Savior, hold us close to you.

From the malignant enemy, defend me. This line is similar to the closing line of that special prayer that you yourself taught us—the Our Father: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.” We rely on your saving power, O Lord, to set us free of anything that might cause us to be separated from you and your Kingdom of saving love.

In the hour of my death, call me, and bid me come to you, that with your saints I may praise you forever and ever. Amen. Jesus, I need your help to reach my final fulfillment in your Kingdom. Stay with me to the end—until I can join in singing your praises with all those saved by your love.

Some afterthoughts

This is an intensely personal prayer—and a blessing for all who are trying to build a personal union with Christ. This is a wonderful objective for all Christians. In this Year of the Eucharist, I believe the Anima Christi can be a powerful prayer after Communion that can strengthen our love for Christ. Of course, it can also be an effective prayer to animate our love for Christ even outside the context of the Eucharist, as St. Ignatius has demonstrated.

In light of the liturgical changes and the new perspectives brought about by the Second Vatican Council, I would like to make these additional reflections: Vatican II reminds us that the Eucharist, as well as the sacraments in general, is meant to be a communal celebration on the part of the whole Body of Christ. This does not rule out the importance of the individual’s relationship to Christ. I feel a lot of empathy for Catholics who feel the Church has lost something because of certain voices in the Church who so stress a communal style of worship that they seem to belittle those who feel a call, and a need, for a silence at times to foster their personal devotion to Christ.

It’s not an either/or; it’s a both/and. The Church, as well as Christ, calls us to praise and thank God not only as a community gathered in Christ’s name but also as individual persons responsible for our own love relationships with God. Though the gospel calls us all to support and help each other in love, only you, in the end, can make your own decision about embracing Christ more radically. I can’t do it for you. And only I can make similar decisions regarding my own embrace of Christ. Others can help me, but they can’t do it for me.

A friendly recommendation

Because my musings on the lines of the Anima Christi have leaned, like the prayer itself, towards the personal rather than the communal, I would like to draw your attention to an excellent article on the Mass. The article takes a well-rounded look at the Eucharist—and approaches it in such a way that the needs both of the community and of individuals seem to be well met. I recommend that you read the very popular Catholic Update article, written and recently revised by Father Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M.: “A Walk Through the Mass: A Step by Step Explanation.”

As the Year of the Eucharist enters its final weeks, I think you will find this article a most timely—and nurturing—read.

Friar Jim’s Inbox

Readers respond to Friar Jim’s “Catechism Quiz: Annulment.”

Dear Friar Jim: After reading your annulment article I am urged to write about the fact that not all annulments make you fill out a long questionnaire. The formal annulment process does. Some people get turned off by this and never approach the Church when their annulment may actually be a “lack of form” case. I hope you are able to explain the differences in future articles. Thank you. Regina

Dear Regina: Yes, you are correct. “Lack of form” takes place when the marriage is not valid simply because a Catholic person was not married in the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, sometimes the use of annulment gives the impression that the Church is annulling a valid marriage. An annulment only states that the marriage was not valid based on conditions that were missing at the time of the marriage. Friar Jim

Dear Friar Jim: One item that bothers me is the use of the word "annulment." The Church cannot annul a marriage. It can only make a declaration of nullity. I believe that if we would use the words properly, we would avoid many problems. Deacon John

Dear Deacon John: You are right on target. The annulment is just a declaration of nullity of the marriage in the first place. An annulment does not annul a marriage. It simply states that the proof is sufficient to make the declaration that a sacramental marriage never took place. Friar Jim

Send your feedback to friarjack@franciscanmedia.org.

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