Friday, July 01, 2005

Litany of humility

Here is an excerpt from the Litany of Humility (yes, it's a Catholic thing):
From the fear of being forgotten,
Deliver me, Jesus.
and
That others may be praised and I unnoticed,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
I think a significant portion of my fight against pride is the fight against wanting to be noticed, to be praised, and not be forgotten. Since my physical attributes and personality are not very noticeable (especially to strangers), I feel like I want to show myself as such a genius and deep thinker. Because of this, I have at times battled with the idea of having an online journal. Am I doing this to be recognized as a deep thinker and a concise writer?

That's why this litany really speaks to me. I realize my main struggle with pride is not that I think too highly of myself, but that I think too highly of what people think about me. I want Jesus to give me such a confidence that I can be unnoticed and forgotten, and that I can still know I have worth.

In the end, I have still decided to share my thoughts online, because I do see how it has encouraged people, and it is a good thing to accept compliments. I will leave it to Jesus to deliver me and grant me the grace to know my place in His Kingdom, which is somewhere in between worthless and not too important.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home