Our whole little family is afflicted with a wretched virus involving coughs, fevers, daggers in the throat, and fatigue. No fun. This week I’ve been at the mercy of illness. What better prayer to pray than the Litany of Humility?
|
O JESUS! meek and humble of heart, |
Hear me. |
|
|
|
|
FROM the desire of being esteemed, |
Deliver me, Jesus. |
|
From the desire of being loved, |
“ |
|
From the desire of being extolled, |
“ |
|
From the desire of being honored, |
“ |
|
From the desire of being praised, |
“ |
|
From the desire of being preferred, |
“ |
|
From the desire of being consulted, |
“ |
|
From the desire of being approved, |
“ |
|
|
|
|
FROM the fear of being humiliated, |
“ |
|
From the fear of being despised, |
“ |
|
From the fear of being rebuked, |
“ |
|
From the fear of being calumniated, |
“ |
|
From the fear of being forgotten, |
“ |
|
From the fear of being ridiculed, |
“ |
|
From the fear of being wronged, |
“ |
|
From the fear of being suspected, |
“ |
|
|
|
|
THAT others may be loved more |
Jesus, grant me the |
|
That others may be esteemed more |
“ |
|
That, in the opinion of the world, |
“ |
|
That others may be chosen and I set |
“ |
|
That others may be praised and I |
“ |
|
That others may be preferred to me |
“ |
|
That others may become holier than I, |
“ |
—by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930),
Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X
Humility and charity are at the heart of every virtue.
Let yourself decrease so that Christ may increase!
I could not agree more. As soon as I saw the title I said to myself “the toughest prayer I ever pray is the Litany of Humility” I love this site! You are truly gifted….keep it up! You are inspiring! Erin
Erin, it’s amazing – the timing of your comment is just perfect. I’m working on tomorrow’s post right now and I was just starting to feel discouraged when I read your note. Thank you thank you thank you for your kind words! God bless you!
Thank you- Humility is the hardest! I hope to save this prayer and mean it when I pray it. God Bless you!
Absolutely spot-on, one of the toughest prayers to pray:
I pray it, and did so with a special intensity in my last year of seminary in preparation for ordination – and it was amazing how our Lord wonderfully answered me, and I learned the great lesson that Our Lord always listens to us!
So be forewarned – pray it only if you mean it; our Lord *always* answers our prayers!
Haha thank you Father! My soul truly desires humility, but of course my fallen nature would rather not acquire it since it requires forgetting myself for the sake of Christ. Thank you for your comment! God bless!
Thank you for this prayer, it is so beautiful. I will pray it everyday and hopefully in sincere desire. God Bless you.
Years ago, I earnestly prayed this litany. I was shocked at the answers.
Every part hit home and continues to this day.
The cure for having to actually pray this prayer is the gift of Humility.
I am proud of my humility.
HA! I love it! Have you heard that song, “Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way? I can’t wait to look in the mirror ’cause I get better lookin’ each day!…”
I am happy to see that someone caught my comment correctly. The first sentence is true, and the second is meant as a joke. Being humbled by God is never fun or funny unless I accept it and go with it as His will. We can stomp our feet and pitch a fit, or we can be happy just knowing He loves us enough to guide us in the right decisions.
The day I was humbled turned out to be the happiest day of my life because I saw God’s hand in it so clearly. I believed right then and there He was active in my life and loved me. I have been a happy person for a long time, but this changed me forever. I have been even more happy since that day.
I embrace humility now and seek it. It is the key to my happiness.
I cannot wait to pray this prayer tonight!
🙂 that sounds like an oxymoron, ‘proud of my humility’ ?
Have a nice day.
It was. You would be surprised at how many people never got it.
Most Never noticed when I would say it to a single person or a group.
It just went over their heads. Human Nature to me is the most interesting subject to study.
I prayed this prayer last night and I will continue to pray it
every night.
I was humbled in 1986 and have been recovering from pride ever since. Pride is the most deadly sin of all and the concept of self esteem is just a new age heresy, but society is so far gone that if we do not turn around and practice humility, God is going to force us to, and that is never
pleasant.
I wonder at the idea of self-esteem being “new age heresy.” How could it be so? Proper self-esteem is grounded in God’s love for a person and it’s perfectly acceptable and healthy to acknowledge God’s gifts to you. What are your thoughts?
It depends. How many Self-esteem programs do you know that is Christ-Centered? And how much self-esteem does one need? I am wary of anything pushed today in society, such as Social Justice. It’s not social and it’s not justice. It is an old Marxist concept picked up by even by Catholics these days.
Liberation Theology? Another heresy from Marxism.
As part of my humbling process, I was asked many years ago, “How much theology does mankind really need?” We say the words every Sunday in Mass, and it is all we really need to have for personal worship: “God from God, Light from Light, True God from true God, Begotten, not made, One in Being from the Father, through whom all things are made.”
The rest should be trust and faith in what we just prayed.
I felt let down by that knowledge. I thought I had to know more. I thought i was being cut off in the learning process by that statement. As it turned out, i wasn’t. Over time, God gave me knowledge that was simple and practical.
Since then, all that I have been given was so simple and so down to earth, I slapped my head and said: “I could have had a V-8” Another humbling experience.
Humility and simplicity seem to walk together.
Self Esteem is the reflection of ourselves. It tends to put us in the center.
If we reflect anything, it should be back to God, not ourselves.
This requires a very simplistic life and most of us do not have that freedom
anymore.
I have been saying this prayer for over a year now. It IS difficult, but I need this prayer. I am finding that slowly, slowly I am emptying myself of these desires and fears. But I still have a long way to go to releasing them and becoming completely free In Christ Jesus.
God bless you Katie. Indeed Christ can only fill us if I we empty ourselves.
Funny, when I also saw this title, I said to mayself it’s probably the prayer for humility. It is the hardest one to do because it means setting yourself aside. But it also means being like our Blessed Mother Mary and that is a true humility and role model. St. Joseph too. It’s all so simple really, isn’t it.
I used to pray this prayer regularly. Then, when going through a particularly difficult time in my life, my spiritual director said that if I was praying the litany of humility to stop as I had enough struggles to deal with. My spiritual director also told me that if you focus on God, He will give you what you need when you need it in order to grow. He wants us to grow more than we do, and God knows what we need most and when we need it most. Let us love Him.
Thank you, Katie, for sharing this Litany of Humility. I was wondering where could I find it and lo and behold when I open the website ‘spirit daily’ it pointed me to this. As a mother it is difficult to be humble vis-a-vis her child’s pride. Now I can pray it from the heart.
We have the same illness here; we’ve had a night of cold bath’s and sore throat drops and jello. But the toughest prayer is Thy Will Be Done; when you have a child sick and God takes her. We lost our youngest April 20th 2011 to a superbug in her lungs. She was 11. That to me was the toughest prayer. Jesus I Trust in You and Thy Will be done.
I hope and pray you will continue to inspire the hearts of others so they draw closer to God.
For those with sore throat pain, have you tried to gargle with warm salt water?
After a couple times in a row, it sooth’s the pain.
After that, Advil liquid. Advil keeps it from coming back long enough to sleep.
In the very early stage of sore throat, I gargle with Hydrogen peroxide and if early enough, it stops it before it starts. Nasty, but works.
Thank you! We are all over it now, but I’ll remember your advice in the future.
Beautiful prayer. As I was scrolling down to the end of prayer there was advertisement of horoscope reading ( I am sure not the fault of catholic wife) which is grave sin…. Not a good advertisement for catholic website
Certainly not! I’ll check it and if I see it, I’ll try to edit it out. As of now, I’ve not taken on any advertising through The Catholic Wife. Thank you so much for telling me!
Well, I don’t see it when I refresh my page. If anyone else can see it, let me know!
I have enjoyed this exchange about your prayer and look forward to continuing to read your blog.