O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Make my heart like Yours.
R: Deliver me, O Lord.
From self-will,
From the desire of being esteemed,
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 desire to be understood,
From the desire to be visited,
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 suspected,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being abandoned,
From the fear of being refused,
R: Lord, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be loved more than I,
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 go 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,
R: Lord, I want to rejoice.
At being unknown and poor,
At being deprived of the natural perfections of body and mind,
When people do not think of me,
When they assign to me the meanest tasks,
When they do not even deign to make use of me,
When they never ask my opinion,
When they leave me at the lowest place,
When they never compliment me,
When they blame me in season and out of season,
Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice’s sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
from the book “The Power of Silence” by Robert Cardinal Sarah and Nicolas Diat