Humility - something which can be very hard to strive for as a blogger. It would seem at first glance to be at cross-purposes with blogging, where the goal is to communicate to as vast an audience as possible what you believe to be important. Either of those two areas can be pitfalls to humility, either in an inordinate desire for a greater audience or in a selfish belief in the importance of one's views. It is a fine line we tread between hoping to help others in any way we can and delving into self-importance.
In that sense, I'd like to refer all of us to a prayer I originally got from Fr. Daren Zehnle's blog which he posted for an entirely different purpose. The Litany of Humility was originally composed by Servant of God Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (d. 1960):
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.It is a prayer, I believe, we need to keep on our lips all the more these days when the exaltation of the self is so widely praised. Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.
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.
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…
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