Prayers for Humility
Humility is not self-hatred. It is accuracy — seeing yourself as you actually are before God, without inflation or contempt.
These prayers ask for that clarity, and several ask specifically for freedom from the desire to be admired.
22 prayers
- A Prayer for a Troubled Marriage
A contemporary pastoral prayer for marital difficulty. It follows the biblical pattern of asking God to change the one praying first…
- Acts of Rejection
A litany of renunciation, pairing each rejected vice with the opposing virtue. It follows the classical Christian doctrine of agere contra…
- Behold, Lord, an Empty Vessel (Martin Luther)
From Luther's writings on prayer and faith, and one of the clearest statements of the Reformation's central conviction: we come to God…
- David's Prayer: Who Am I, O Lord God
David sits before the Lord after being told his house will endure, and can only ask, 'Who am I, O Lord GOD? and what is my house?' It is…
- Ezra's Confession
Ezra kneels at the evening sacrifice, ashamed to lift his face, and confesses the sins of the whole people as his own. It is the model of…
- Job's Final Answer
After the whirlwind, Job stops arguing: 'I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.' Six verses of…
- Let Me Know Myself, Let Me Know You (St. Augustine)
A prayer drawn from Augustine's Soliloquies, written shortly after his conversion while waiting for baptism. Its double request —…
- Litany of Humility (Cardinal Merry del Val)
Composed by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), Secretary of State to Pope St. Pius X, who prayed it every day after Mass. It was…
- Luther's Sacristy Prayer
Martin Luther's prayer, framed in the sacristy of the Castle Church in Wittenberg and prayed by Lutheran pastors before preaching. It is…
- Prayer Before Communion (St. John Chrysostom)
The prayer said aloud by all communicants immediately before receiving in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, joined to the hymn 'Of…
- Prayer for Humility (St. Philip Neri)
St. Philip Neri, the sixteenth-century 'Apostle of Rome', prayed some version of this every morning; his biographers record the words as…
- Prayer of Humble Access
Composed by Thomas Cranmer for the 1548 Order of Communion, this is the best-known prayer of the English Reformation and is still said…
- Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian
The Lenten prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306–373), prayed with prostrations at nearly every weekday service of Great Lent in the…
- Prayer of the Desert Fathers
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers record that when Abba Macarius was asked how to pray, he taught these few sentences and warned against…
- Prayer to Overcome Evil Passions and to Become a Saint
A prayer that turns the whole logic of deliverance toward its proper end. The Christian tradition has always taught that the passions are…
- Psalm 123 — Unto Thee Lift I Up Mine Eyes
A short Song of Ascents, the prayer of servants watching their master's hand, prayed by the contemptuously treated and the overlooked. Part…
- Psalm 131 — A Quieted Soul
One of the fifteen Songs of Ascents sung by pilgrims going up to Jerusalem, and among the shortest psalms. Teresa of Ávila and John of the…
- Psalm 86 — Bow Down Thine Ear, O Lord, Hear Me
A plain, unadorned cry of a poor and needy servant, weaving together lines from across the psalter. Its request for an 'undivided heart'…
- The Centurion's Prayer: Lord, I Am Not Worthy
'Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only.' The Church has put this soldier's sentence on the…
- The Chaplet of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Devotion to the Sacred Heart was given its modern shape through the apparitions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial…
- The Collect for Purity
Translated by Thomas Cranmer for the 1549 Book of Common Prayer from a Latin collect used in the Sarum rite, where the priest prayed it…
- The Publican's Prayer
From the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9–14), where Jesus says it was the publican, not the religious man, who…