The Litany of Humility
"O Jesus meek and humble of heart! Jesus, hear me." Twenty-four petitions — and the hardest of them is the last one.
The full text is below, in one block you can copy or print. The Litany of Humility asks Christ to take away two things a man carries everywhere: the appetite to be thought well of, and the dread of being thought little of. It ends by asking for something almost no one wants — the grace to desire that other men be preferred to him.
The Litany of Humility — full text (1880)
Text as printed in the Little Manual of Novices, "translated from the French of the fifth edition" (New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co., 1880; copyright 1879), pages 132–134 — scanned at the Internet Archive. Nine petitions against desires, eight against fears, and seven asking for the grace to wish what a proud man dreads. Published in 1880, the text is in the public domain; spelling and punctuation are lightly regularised from the scan.
The wording most Catholics know today
The version printed on most Catholic websites and in most modern prayer books is a later English wording, traditionally attributed to Cardinal Merry del Val. It opens "O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, / Hear me," answers "Deliver me, O Jesus," and ends "That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, / Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it."
We print the 1880 text above because its printing is dated and its copyright long expired, and we could not establish the same for the later wording. EWTN prints that version in full under Merry del Val's name. The two are close, petition for petition; pray whichever one you have.
What humility is — and what it is not
Humility is not a low opinion of yourself. It is the truth about yourself held without flinching: that everything you have was given, and that you cannot save yourself. The Catechism puts it at the root of the whole life of prayer: "humility is the foundation of prayer," because "Man is a beggar before God" (CCC 2559). The same paragraph defines prayer itself as "the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God" — and then asks whether we pray "from the height of our pride and will" or from a humble heart.
So this litany is not self-hatred with a Catholic accent. Read the grammar of it: every line in the first two sets begins "From the desire" or "From the fear." What it asks Christ to remove is the craving and the dread — not being loved, not being honored, not being consulted. A man can be loved and praised and still be free, if he does not need it to stand up straight. Freedom is what the prayer is after.
The Catechism names the sin the litany is aimed at. "Envy represents a form of sadness and therefore a refusal of charity," it teaches, and "Envy often comes from pride; the baptized person should train himself to live in humility" (CCC 2540). That last phrase — train himself — is why a litany exists. Humility is drilled, not felt.
Why this prayer is hard for men
Because almost everything a man is measured by runs the other way. He is ranked at work, compared in his trade, scored by what he earns and what he can carry. He is told to build a reputation and then defend it. The first nine petitions ask him to hand over the appetite that ranking feeds on; the next eight ask him to stop managing what people think of him; the last seven ask him to want another man to get the thing he wanted.
Notice that the litany never asks to be bad at anything. The final petition keeps its grip on the goal: "That others may be more holy than I, 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.
How to pray it daily
Aloud, slowly, one line at a time, with the response after each petition. Prayed at a pace you can mean, it takes about three minutes.
- Put it where you already stop. Add it to a morning offering before the house is awake, or pray it in the truck before you walk into work.
- Pray it one petition at a time. Take the line that stings and stay there a breath longer. That line is the diagnosis.
- Pray it before a meeting you want to win. The petitions about being consulted, approved and preferred are not abstractions on a Tuesday morning.
- Pray it in Lent, and on days you were passed over. The day you did not get the credit is the day the last seven petitions stop being theoretical.
- Bring it to confession. Pride hides. Walk the petitions as questions the way you would walk an examination of conscience: which desire is running me, and which fear?
A short read of the petitions
"From the desire of being esteemed" — the appetite under most of the rest. Esteem is good; needing it is a leash.
"From the desire of being consulted" — the one that catches competent men. To be asked is pleasant; to need to be asked is a small tyranny over everyone around you.
"From the fear of being rebuffed" — of being turned down, brushed off, told no. A man who cannot take a refusal ends up managing everyone around him so that he never hears one.
"From the fear of being forgotten" — the fear that makes men loud. Most of what we do for our families will be forgotten by everyone except God, which is the only place it needed to land.
"That others may grow in the opinion of the world and I diminish" — the line closest to John the Baptist's "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). The litany asks for it in the one arena where a man least wants it: public opinion.
"Jesus, grant me the grace to wish" — note what is actually being asked. Not that you already want this. That He would make you want it. Which means you may pray this litany honestly on a day you do not mean a word of it. That is the point of asking for grace.
Pride is one of the seven capital sins (CCC 1866).
Where it came from
The Litany of Humility is traditionally attributed to Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, who served as Secretary of State to Pope St. Pius X (1903–1914). EWTN prints it under his name, and so do most Catholic publishers; FOCUS calls it "a prayer traditionally attributed to Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val."
Treat that as a traditional attribution rather than a documented one. The text above was printed in English in 1880, translated from the French, and Wikipedia's article on the litany calls that 1880 version very similar to the one attributed to Merry del Val. The same article prints an earlier "Litany to Obtain Holy Humility" published in 1867. The 1880 printing gives no author for it. Nothing in the prayer depends on the answer. It is a private devotion, and its authority is the doctrine underneath it, not a name on the title page.
The Priest of Your Home — 30 days, free. One three-minute letter each morning, one order for tonight, one prayer. Humility is not a mood; it is a habit built in the house where you are the one who leads.
Start the 30 days →Frequently asked questions
What is the Litany of Humility?
A Catholic prayer that begins "O Jesus meek and humble of heart! Jesus, hear me." In the 1880 English printing given on this page it runs to 24 petitions: nine ask deliverance from the desire to be esteemed, loved, sought, honored, praised, preferred, consulted, approved and considered; eight ask deliverance from the fear of being humbled, despised, rebuffed, calumniated, forgotten, ridiculed, wronged and suspected; seven ask for the grace to wish that others be preferred instead.
Who wrote the Litany of Humility?
It is traditionally attributed to Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, who was Secretary of State to Pope St. Pius X (1903–1914), and most Catholic publishers print it under his name. That attribution is traditional rather than documented: a very similar English litany was printed in the Little Manual of Novices in 1880, translated from the French, and Wikipedia's article on the litany also prints an earlier "Litany to Obtain Holy Humility" published in 1867. The 1880 printing gives no author for it.
Does the Litany of Humility mean I should not want to be loved?
No. Every petition in the first half begins "From the desire" or "From the fear" — what it asks to be freed from is the craving and the dread, not the good itself. A man can be loved, praised and consulted without needing any of it to hold himself together. That freedom is what the prayer asks for.
How do you pray the Litany of Humility?
Slowly, aloud, one petition at a time, with the response after each line: "Deliver me, Jesus" in the first two sets and "Jesus, grant me the grace to wish" in the last. Praying it takes about three minutes. Many men pray it daily in Lent, on a First Friday, or as part of a morning offering.
What does the Church teach about humility and envy?
The Catechism says "humility is the foundation of prayer" and that "Man is a beggar before God" (CCC 2559). On envy it teaches that "Envy represents a form of sadness and therefore a refusal of charity" and that "Envy often comes from pride; the baptized person should train himself to live in humility" (CCC 2540).