Lent Reflections 2026: The Litany of Humility 1

On our  parish News Sheets this Lent, we're going to look through the “Litany of Humility.”

A litany is a form of prayer with a repeated responsive petition and in the Book of Common Prayer, there is a litany that is “to be sung or said after Morning Prayer, upon Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.”

The Litany of Humility, at least in this form, was written by Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, the Secretary of State to Pope Pius X, in the early Twentieth Century. C. S. Lewis found this prayer particularly helpful, and many people use it as part of their daily prayer life, especially during Lent.

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

From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being honoured, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being humiliated, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, deliver me, O Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I go unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
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.

The Litany of Humility is divided into three sections, each of which we'll sub-divide into two, so this week we'll look at the first four petitions. But before we think about them, we need to note that the Litany starts with asking Jesus to hear us, and addresses him as the one who is meek and humble of heart. As we pray this prayer for humility we should remember that we are asking to become more Christ-like. Jesus is the model we are to emulate, so if we want to become more like him, a good starting place is to read the gospels to see how his humility showed in his words and deeds. But more than being a model for us, Jesus also gives us his Holy Spirit to change us into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18).

This first section of petitions are for Jesus to deliver us from various desires. When we ask to be freed from desire, we are not asking for it in the same way that Eastern spiritualities like Buddhism do, that seek to overcome material desires and personal wants. Nor are we wanting to be nonchalent about everything. The things being desired are all good things, but we are asking Jesus to deliver us from seeing them as being the aim and focus of our lives.

We all want to be loved and honoured, but desiring them as the aim of our lives can have dreadful consequences; think of dictators past and present – their desire to be loved and honoured leads to oppressive and coercive regimes, where all opposition is quashed and silenced to give the impression of universal approval. Even in democracies, out of a desire for being honoured, extolled and esteemed, politicians can choose to do what is popular rather than what is right.

Not many of us will be in the position of politicians and rulers, but none of us are immune from the desire for honour, popularity and love, and aiming to achieve those desires can lead us to ignore what is right. Jesus reminds us that adultery starts with lust (Matthew 5:27-28) – the mis-directed desire for being loved. And in lots of other, seemingly minor, ways our desire to be honoured affects how we behave. But perhaps the main way it affects us brings us back to the purpose of the Litany – to become more humble.

This is because desiring to be esteemed, loved, extolled and honoured necessarily involves airbrushing our lives, covering up those parts of us that would make people detest, despise, denounce and decry us. We are all too aware of our faults, and we are all too ready to expose the faults of others, so we try to hide them from each other. In short, we lack the humility to be honest with each other. But we cannot fool God. He knows our desires and he knows the actions that spring from those desires, to him all hearts are open and all desires known. He sees the depths of our hearts, but amazingly he still loves us. And because of that love, because he doesn't reject us because of our faults, we can have confidence to ask him to deliver us from those desires.

Betrayal and how to deal with it

Here's my article for February (and my second inspired by The Traitors!!):

Photo by Lance Reis on Unsplash

Again this year we seem to be in the grip of 'Traitors-mania': Celebrity Traitors before Christmas was widely praised and the latest series of the normal format started last month.  As the title suggests, it is all about trust and treachery and although “it's only a gameshow” it involves real people trusting other people and often being really betrayed.

Betrayal is doubly cruel because it not only means that someone has harmed you in some way, but that the person was someone you trusted.  We hear this double pain in the words Shakespeare gives Julius Caesar as he is being assassinated: “Et tu, Brute?”  Caesar would have expected his enemies to want to kill him but not his friend Brutus.  If we love and trust people we risk not only being let down by them, but also being betrayed by them.  Therefore Tennessee Williams said that “We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.”  This is a potential solution, but it's not a world I would like to live in!  So, how can we cope with betrayal, whether that's in a small matter or in a significant matter?

In this season of Lent, our attention is turned towards the events of Jesus' final week before his crucifixion and betrayal is a common theme.  We might initially think of Judas' actions, but Peter also denied knowing Jesus (Matthew 26:69-75) and the rest of the disciples abandoned Jesus when he was arrested (Matthew 26:47-56).  Even the actions of Jesus' opponents in accomplishing his death are also cast as betrayal (Acts 7:52). 

The opposition to Jesus can be quite puzzling if we just see him as being a kind and gentle person who tried to encourage people to love each other.  But when we see Jesus' mission as bringing in the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom that challenges all earthly power and rule, the opposition of those holding earthly power becomes more understandable.  This shouldn't be a surprise if we pay attention to what we heard as we celebrated his birth at Christmas.  Simeon prophesied that “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against” (Luke 2:34). John tells us why this opposition was also a betrayal, using perhaps the most tragic words ever written: “though the world was made through [Jesus], the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:10-11).

Jesus responded to this betrayal on the cross, saying “‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).  He forgave them not just with words but by dying so they could be forgiven.

Jesus' words of forgiveness apply not only to those who crucified him and to those who deserted him; they apply to each of us too, because we also do not receive him when we sin.  The good news is that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). It's only by accepting the forgiveness Jesus offers for our betrayal of him that we can have the strength to forgive those who betray us.