Litany of Humility

by Merry Cardinal del Val, secretary of state to Pope Saint Pius X


from the prayer book for Jesuits, 1963

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 honored, 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.

Charity

"Charity is patient, is kind; charity does not envy, is not pretentious, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, is not self-seeking, is not provoked; thinks no evil, does not rejoice over wickedness, but rejoices with the truth, bears with all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Cor. 13:4-7).

To have Charity is to love God above all things for Himself and be ready to renounce all created things rather than offend Him by serious sin. ( Matt. 22:36-40)



H/t Norm Sutherland

Pray for a Courageous Seminarian

Philip Gerard Johnson  For Healing of Inoperable Brain Cancer

Philip is a seminarian at St. Charles Borromeo seminary in Pennsylvania, and has completed his first year.  He has his own blog called In Caritate Non Ficta, found here.  He has an inoperable brain tumour and is commencing a round of chemotherapy this summer.  He believes that he has been called to be a priest, and so he needs our prayers for the miraculous healing of Our Lord and Saviour to come upon him.

Here is a bit about him written by John Brodeur, a brother in the Lord, on Facebook.

Philip Gerard Johnson is a 25 year-old Catholic man from Virginia. He was also a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy having served various positions since graduating from the US Naval Academy in 2006.

After two years as an officer in the Navy, Philip's life was changed forever when he was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer on October 15, 2008. The average prognosis for such a tumor is 18-24 months.

Despite all that has happened to him, he is determined to respond to the call he has felt to the Priesthood of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He has been encouraged by countless laity, clergy, and even bishops to do so, and with trust that "nothing is impossible for God," he is moving forward to embrace the most noble of vocations. (Update: Philip entered St. Charles Borromeo seminary in the Summer of 2009).

I have never been so awestruck by the Faith and devotion of a single person. Philip really does believe God can work miracles, and he remains content to submit to God's will in all circumstances - even if it means never having the chance to become a priest.

This, my brothers and sisters, is the character of a true man of God: a man who has been called to shepherd, guide, and minister to the world. I ask that you join with me in prayer for Philip Johnson - that God have mercy upon his body, heal it, and allow him to become a Roman Catholic Priest for his own good and for the good of every soul he will minister to. I believe in miracles because I believe in one powerful enough to make them happen. The question is: do you?

In keeping with Philip's own requests, all those who join this group are asked to recite the following intercessory prayer to Fr. Thomas Frederick Price daily:

"Father Thomas Frederick Price, intercede for our brother, Philip Gerard Johnson. Heavenly Father, who desires that the faithful be drawn to the heroic virtues of Your priest, Fr. Thomas Frederick Price, grant Your healing gifts to Your son, Philip Gerard Johnson. We ask this in the Name of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."

Sacred Heart of Jesus, we trust in your love for your son Philip.  Sacred Heart of Jesus fill him with your blood.

Father Sam Johnston Needs Your Prayers

Cancer Diagnosis

I wrote the following at my other blog for Father Sam "Life in the Spirit"

At morning prayer this morning, Wayne Zimmer told us that Father Sam Johnston has been diagnosed with colon cancer.  That is all we know at this moment, but it is sufficient for us to go to prayer about.

As I receive more details I will relay them.

There will be the first gathering of a prayer group at St. Michael's in Ridgetown at 7 pm on April 29, and I hope that we will have the opportunity to pray with him directly at that time.

Please intercede for this holy priest and man of God in your daily prayers. 

Father Sam is a retired priest of the London Diocese.  Although he is in his 80's, he is still a spring chicken, having traveled to a mission in Columbia and to Medjugorge, as a priest/confessor already this year.  Retirement has only given him more time for prayer and to minister individually to those who come to him.  In fact, I think he works harder now than he did with his parish.

I am sure that if God really wants Father Sam to go home, that he will go with a smile on his face, but he has asked God to give him more time here to carry on the work he has been called to.

Father Sam received a prophecy just before he retired in 2005, which is posted here on his site.

One stanza in the prophecy was as follows:

My healing power is resting upon you;
A new fire is burning everywhere.
You may not understand My ways,
But turn to worship and prayer.

 I believe that God's healing power has been on Father Sam.  I have seen it operate in my life and in the life of My Dear Wife, when we have been in his presence.  But, one line says that "My healing power is resting on you."  I am praying that that power is available to Father Sam now, and that he will recover from this illness.

Please join me in praying for this faithful priest of God.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in your love for Father Sam.  Sacred Heart of Jesus, fill him with your blood.

The Morning Offering

Catholic Prayers From and For the Heart

Here is a version of the Morning Offering that I have known and prayed for many years:

O Jesus,
through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer You my joys, works, trials and tribulations
of this day for all the intentions of Your Most Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,
in reparation for my sins,
for the intentions of all my relatives and friends,
and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.

This is a very beautiful prayer, and one which has slowly etched its meaning into my heart.

Our Saviour wants us to give Him every part of our lives.  As I lay on my bed to pray for a friend the other day, I saw a vision that was strange at first, but made sense to me a little while later.  I saw my friend, but in shadows, and I realised my friend was trying to be very small and hide some area of sinfulness from Our Lord, and was quietly crying.   But, in a moment I saw Jesus come to my hiding friend, since we cannot hide from Him.  He reached down and picked my friend up, surrounding my friend in His loving arms.  My friend wept for some time, while Jesus never let go and provided comfort.

 

Our Jesus knows we are sinners, and He even knows that there are some areas in our lives that we find it hard to trust Him with, that we find it hard to let go of.  Because we love Him so, we see our sin as ugly, and disgusting, which they are, even as we are drawn to it.  I say this from my personal experience.

 

One day, I was having a difficult time with Him.  My sin was overwhelming, as was my inability to succeed at the business I was trying to build to provide for my family.  I was alone in the kitchen we had in our offices, and I looked up to the ceiling.  I did not know what I expected to see, but I needed some answers.  I asked Jesus: "Lord, what do You want from me?"  The answer astounded me in its simplicity and totality.  He said as clear as a bell: "Everything."  For some reason the simplicity of that answer, blew away all my doubts, not because I could give Him everything at that moment, but because it gave me a focus for the rest of my life.

 

Dear gentle reader, Our Lord does not just want us to give Him just the beautiful parts of our lives.  He does not want just from us the love we have for your family and friends.  He does not want just the things that we think please Him in our daily walk.  He wants to be the Lord of Everything.  Our trials and tribulations He wants, our struggles to be who we think He wants us to be, so that He can guide us to who He created us to be.  He came to earth to set sinners free, not just in one miraculous moment, but in all of history. 

If you, dear reader, had been the only person on the face of the earth, Jesus loves you so much that He would have come down to earth, and you would have had to nail Him to the cross with your sins.  But, then Dear Child, you would have had to take Him down and place Him in the grave all by yourself, knowing that your sins had killed Him, and then on Easter Sunday you would have had to go to the tomb and find that He had risen.  Then when He appeared to you and showed you the wounds in His hands, feet and side, you would have had to touch them to know just how much He loved you.

We are Resurrection people, and we live for that.  We must not let the devil speak to us about our unworthiness, for it is a thing of the past.  We have been made worthy by the shed Blood of Our Jesus, and no sin new or repeated of ours can take away that worthiness.  The price was too great.

I urge you to take on the Morning Offering as your own special prayer, or one like it.  Give it all to Him, and see what He can do with it, and with you.