The Litany of Humility

IAbout this prayer

This is the Litany of Humility as it was printed in English in 1880, in the Little Manual of Novices, a guide for young religious translated from the French. The book places it among its “Maxims of the Novitiate” and, in its chapter on humility, tells the novice to recite it. Because that printing is dated and long out of copyright, it is the text we give. Twenty-four petitions: nine against desires, eight against fears, and seven asking for the grace to wish good for others.

The version EWTN prints today, under the name of Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, is close to this one but differs in a number of small ways. Among them: it opens “O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, Hear me,” answers “Deliver me, O Jesus” and “Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it,” reads “extolled” where the 1880 text has “sought,” has no petition against “the desire of being considered,” and ends “provided that I may become as holy as I should.” The 1880 printing names no author, so we treat the cardinal’s authorship as a traditional attribution and do not reprint the later wording. Pray whichever one you have.

Humility is not thinking little of yourself. It is the truth: everything you have was given. The Catechism teaches that all true prayer rests on humility (CCC 2559). Notice the grammar of the litany. It asks to be freed “from the desire” and “from the fear,” not from being loved or honoured. It is the craving and the dread that enslave. Our Lady sang the same truth: “he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid” (Luke 1:48, Douay-Rheims).

For a woman these are not abstractions. The desire to be consulted and approved, the fear of being forgotten or ridiculed: they come with the unseen work of a home, with being passed over at work or in a parish, with the comparisons that follow every mother and every single woman. The last petition keeps the goal high: “provided I am as holy as I can be.” Humility is not a lowered standard. It is the same standard with the vanity taken out. One caution. The printing we give was made for novices in religious life. The litany asks God to free you from craving and dread; it never asks you to accept abuse or contempt as His will, or to stay where you or your children are harmed. If you are in danger at home, call 911, or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (or text START to 88788).

IIWhen to pray it

• Slowly, aloud, one petition at a time; it takes about three minutes.
• In Lent, and on the days you are passed over or misjudged.
• Before a gathering where you want to be admired, or a meeting where you want to win.
• At your evening examen, or before confession: which desire is ruling me, and which fear?