A Thomistic Litany of Humility
by Dominican friars of the Province of St. Joseph
O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, teach me.
From all pride and its effects, deliver me, Jesus.
From coveting greatness for its own sake or to
excess, etc.
From contempt for God and His law,
From a puffed-up self-image,
From claiming to be a self-made man,
From ingratitude for Gods gifts,
From thinking that I earned Gods gifts by my
effort alone,
From boasting of having what I do not have,
From excusing my faults while judging others,
From wishing to be the sole possessor of the
skills I have,
From setting myself before others,
From all vainglory, deliver me, Jesus.
From craving praise for its own sake, etc.
From looking for flattery,
From withholding glory from God,
From showing off to the harm of my neighbor,
From presumption and false self-confidence,
From boastfulness,
From hypocrisy,
From the excessive need to be fashionable,
From obstinacy and contention,
From unwarranted disobedience,
From all false humility, deliver me, Jesus.
From forfeiting my dignity as a child of God,
etc.
From burying my God-given talents,
From an unreasonable fear of failure,
From avoiding my true vocation,
From despair at my weakness,
In the ways of humility, teach me, Jesus.
To know my limits and my strengths, etc.
To acknowledge the depravity of my past sins,
To acclaim You as the author of all the good I
do,
To put my confidence in God,
To be subject to God and Your Church,
To be subject to others for Your sake,
To revere Your presence in others,
To rejoice in Your gifts in others, even the
unseen,
To do great things by Your help and for Your
glory, strengthen me, Jesus.
To seek greatness in heavenly things and
earthly things, etc.
To do my best even when unnoticed,
To put my share of Gods gifts at Your service,
To be neither puffed up by honor nor downcast
by shame,
To do penance for my sins and those of others,
Above all, to strive to love God with all my
being,
And to love my neighbor as myself,
Let us pray. O God, whose Son manifested a
divine humility through his Incarnation,
suffering, and death, grant, we beseech you, to
imitate his example so that we may know the
truth about ourselves and desire only what is
suitable for our salvation, the good of souls, and
your glory. Grant, through your providential
goodness, that our humiliations may not cast us
down, but be purified into virtue through a
magnanimous charity and thereby prepare us
for eternal joy in heaven.