Prayers for Humility/Charity

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waanju

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Hi everyone. I know this is a little silly in light of people’s pressing needs, but I’m really struggling with pride/vanity. It seems like the closer I try to get to God, the harder it becomes to focus on Him and to be humble and have a good heart towards others. I constantly judge people, feel pleased that I’m “better” than them, ect. When I’m praying the rosary, I’m more focused on “oh how pious am I? I’m so awesome” than the mysteries. When I’m in mass, I’m more focused on myself and finding fault in others (ooh look at her in short shorts! wow, really the ukelele? ha she said ‘and also with you’ ooh I look so pretty and feminine in this dress ect) than the Eucharist. I try really hard to stop this, but I feel like every day I become more and more PROUD, even as I try to make myself better and get closer to God. I don’t know why praying more is making it HARDER rather than easier, but it is. Can you guys please pray that God will change my heart and help me to stop being so vain and to REALLY love others for their own merit, rather than just so I can think of myself as a good person? I feel like I can’t tell anyone I know in person this, because they all think of me as sweet and nice and selfless (two friends even said that the way I act is part of what attracted them to Catholicism, so I’m afraid if they see that I’m the opposite, they’ll think EVERYONE is a hypocrite) and also because I’m afraid some people would think I’m being holier-than-thou by trying to stop being holier-than-thou. Every time I open the Bible, I see all the times Jesus spoke against hypocrisy and the pharisees and stuff and it makes my stomach hurt because I’m JUST LIKE THEM and I feel like I can’t stop… and then I get pleased that I realized that and feel proud at reading the Bible in the first place. I know that’s just me trying to justify myself… but I keep doing it. Anyways, thanks for the prayers, sorry for rambling.
 
Yeah, waanju, I can totally relate. Years ago, I went to a therapist–who happened to be a former priest–who told me that I was “intellectually arrogant”. Until then, I thought that everyone around me was stupid and just not worth my time. I felt superior, the “Ubermensch”, if you will. I just never thought that this was seriously wrong and sinful. Anyway, it didn’t quite hit home until much later, when I tried going back to school for a post-baccalaureate program and did so poorly that I was humiliated at the whole experience. Boy, was I brought down a notch or two or a million! It was then that I saw the Lord’s hand in all this. He needed me to change my ways. I’m still working on this aspect of my life. You seem to be stuck in a loop–the “holier-than-thou” scenario. I found this prayer that will benefit both of us.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Pattern of humility, Who didst empty Thyself of Thy glory, and take upon the form of a servant, root out of us all pride and conceit of heart, that, owing ourselves miserable and guilty sinners, we may willingly bear contempt and reproaches for Thy sake, and glorying in nothing but Thee, may esteem ourselves lowly in Thy sight. Not unto us, O Lord, but to Thy name be the praise, for Thy loving mercy and for Thy truth’s sake. Amen.
 
The Litany of Humility
Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930),
Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X

Read more: ewtn.com/devotionals/prayers/humility.htm
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.
Click to expand...
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 to others…
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 suffering rebukes …
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 …
Click to expand...
That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
Click to expand...
That others may be esteemed more than I …
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease …
That others may be chosen and I set aside …
That others may be praised and I unnoticed …
That others may be preferred to me in everything…
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…
Click to expand...
 
How beautiful, mkdl…I haven’t seen that in a long time. Thank you for taking the time to offer it.
 
Hello, waanju! You sound like a good person who’s trying to be even better, but have run into snags along the way. Please read about Satan. There are threads here on CAF wherein people have recounted things that have occurred that appear to be the work of the devil.

I firmly believe that he is alive and well and determined to go after us whenever he (and his legions) can. You recognize a weakness and wish to overcome it, but he intervenes. The prayers so far printed in posts are beautiful ones and there are many others.

Ask that Jesus will help you to focus upon the sacrifice of the Mass, and while you participate, keep your eyes upon the priest, your reading, or the person speaking at the altar. Don’t permit your eyes to wander. You won’t even notice people if you focus upon the Sacrifice of the Mass. Spend time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament–as much time as you can be there. Pray, ask questions, read your prayers, ask the questions from an examination of conscience and discuss each one (in your mind) with Jesus–what specific steps you can take to avoid the errors you’ve been making. The answers won’t come all at once, and you may get none during your first visitations in adoration, but they WILL come, gradually. What is more important than the answers for you is the change within your heart that will slowly engulf you. And you won’t realize until after it occurs that you needed to be changed in those ways.

Greet God as soon as you awaken. Thank Him for giving you another day in which to live for Him and ask Him to guide your every thought and deed that day, then at the end of the day, thank Him for the wonders you received that day and ask Him to keep you safe through the night. Establish this intimacy with Him and you’ll find that your days will be filled with more thoughts of Him and you’ll become more charitable of others when you notice things about them. Don’t worry a lot about this matter. As your faith strengthens and you get the devil on the run, you’ll no longer have this problem. Blessings to you, waanju.

O holy St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our safeguard against the malice and snares of the devil, and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the Divine Power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
 
Angels and Saints, please join us in praying for waanju.
 
Mother Mary, I commend waanju to you. Please help him to love others for the love of God and help him to focus on his own shortcomings and not the shortcomings of others. May he know that God resists the proud and does not look favorably on them at all. Waanju truly sees that he is proud and wants to change; please ask Our Lord to finish the good work He has already begun in him. Mother Mary, may waanju imitate your humily and live recollected in God. Amen.
 
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