A Powerhouse Prayer: Litany of Humility

"To be taken with love for a soul, God doesn't look on its greatness but on the greatness of its humility."- St. John of the Cross

I just want to share a very moving and powerful prayer with you. It's a prayer that cultivates humility and practices self-denial. The Litany of Humility was composed by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val who served as the Secretary of State for Pope Pius X.
 
To be humble is to realize how weak we are, how helpless we are to change the course of our lives in our own power. We need to allow God to work in us and through us. We need to remember that God is God and we are not. Yes, we are imperfect, flawed and inadequate but if we come before Him, He will give us the grace to become more virtuous and loving. God doesn't demand us to be perfect but He simply ask us to accept His guidance so we can learn from our mistakes and grow in perfection. 

So if you are struggling with pride, self-centerdness, just remember this prayer:

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

From the desire of being esteemed,

 deliver me, Jesus. (Repeat after each following line)

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 …

That others may be loved more than I, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. (Repeat after each following line)

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…

Amen.

The Road Rage Within Myself

Since I moved down south, I had no choice but to drive everywhere. It was a major adjustment on my end especially that I was so used of taking a public transportation. I rarely see people walk here unless you are on the tourist route.

Anyhow, I notice something about myself whenever I'm behind the wheel. A perfect example was today. It's Saturday morning and I had to go to work. On regular days, it will only take 20 minutes for me to get there. I am very familiar with which side roads to take, the traffic volume and even the co-drivers alongside. Today was different though because it's the weekend. I expected it to be less traffic and less chaotic. But guess what? It took 40 minutes to get to my destination because there was a heavy congestion along the highway. I wasn't having it and it made me very furious that I started screaming inside my car. I wanted to honk at everybody. What I finally figured out at the end wasn't the traffic, it was me, I became very impatient when there's no need to.

Long lines at the grocery, Netflix not loading, waiting for the train to arrive, taking turns in entering intersection are few things that drives us bananas. Although they are all situations where we can absolutely use a little extra patience. I understand that with time at premium, we are so used to having what we need immediately. We also resort in looking for shortcuts. (Hence, same-day delivery is now an option. Lol!) I think that most of us get so easily annoyed by the inconveniences of life. We just want to achieve our goals and see immediate results. With life full of dings and pings, how can we practice the virtue of patience?

Meditate (Pray)
As my road rage incident today, I took a step back, breathe and prayed. I offered that feeling of anger to God that He may be able to channel it differently. I think it is very important that we pause in moments of desolation and gather ourselves back again. Any form of meditation can help us calm our minds and bodies. Try to set a daily time to decompress.

Practice Gratitude
Take some time to notice and reflect upon the things you're thankful for. Appreciate every good thing in life and recognizing even the smallest blessing you've received. When we become grateful, we experience positive emotions and we can express compassion and kindness to the people around us and to the situation we are in.

Stop Resisting 
When we encounter unplanned inconveniences, let's take it calmly. Sure enough we can't control our  reaction but we can choose how to respond to the situation. Most often than not, it is our reaction to things that causes greater dose of stress in life. So let it all flow.

Embrace the Uncomfortable
When we experience something out of our comfort zone, there's a huge tendency that we become impatient. We always want to be in control of the situation but that's not always the case. We need to become comfortable with the uncomfortable in order to cultivate more patience.

As Saadi Shirazi said, "Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy." Therefore, let's thrive to become better individuals because the more we exercise patience, the greater it becomes.

How do you deal with change?

A Greek philosopher once said that change is the only constant in life. He might be right because if you are to look back a year or two ago, your circumstances are probably different than your current situation now.

I know many of us have a love-hate relationship with change. When certain things are going great, we all want it to stay the same. We do our best to keep going, enjoying every moment of it. But life doesn't roll that way, sometimes it will go downhill. Change is unavoidable no matter how hard we try. 

A failed relationship, career transition, big move, death of a loved one are few things we cannot control, and most definitely will affect our entire being. Some people can cope well with it, but some will struggle. 

In my own personal view, all has changed about me except for one thing, my faith. It has been stronger than ever. I must admit that my life hasn't always been high. I have difficult moments, I struggled understanding my situation I’m in but my faith has seen me through it all, the good and the bad.

Indeed, I am grateful to my parents who pushed me to delve deeper to my faith. I used to complain a lot about going to early masses, the litany of long prayers before eating, before driving, etc. I never understood it before, I wish I could have skipped it. As I grew older, I realized that putting God first before anything else felt like I was off to a good start. There is a sense of comfort that no matter what was thrown at me, I am capable of overcoming it. God helps me navigate tough decisions and He grants me peace of mind. I must admit, Jesus mattered more today than He did yesterday. So, whatever comes my way, the curve balls, unexpected twists and turns, I know I can do it through Christ who strengthens me.

So how about you? How do you deal with change?