This is not the first time I’ve posted this, but it’s worth reposting.  What follows is the Litany of Humility, composed by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X, according to ewtn.com.

A quick comment – for me, this is simply a devastating exercise.  How many of these deliverances am I truly ready – eager, even! – to accept?  To what extent is this a list of the things I really seem to want, rather than to forego?  To walk by without reaching out for the glitter and the gold?

It’s important to note that Cardinal Merry del Val – by my reading, at least – is not debasing love itself, nor is he suggesting, I don’t think, that we should want to be calumniated and ridiculed.  But it is from fear of these latter instances that we ought to seek deliverance.  It is away from desire – sometimes even a greedy or envious desire – that we should want to be delivered from the former instances.

The whole prayer is really a working out of Jesus’ instructions to the rich young man:  Sell everything you have, even your emotional and social and professional riches, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow.  Read it slowly, and you will almost feel yourself becoming poor in these ways:

 

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart,     Hear me!

From the desire of being esteemed,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being extolled,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being honored,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being praised,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being preferred to others,      Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being consulted,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being approved,     Deliver me, Jesus.

 

From the fear of being humiliated,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being despised,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of suffering rebukes,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being calumniated,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being forgotten,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being ridiculed,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being wronged,     Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being suspected,     Deliver me, Jesus.

 

That others may be loved more than I,     Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I,     Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,     Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be chosen and I set aside,     Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be praised and I unnoticed,      Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be preferred to me in everything,     Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may become holier than I, provided that I become as holy as I should,     Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

 

Amen.