I offer this prayer for the virtue of humility and to overcome the deadly sin of pride. May it please you, Lord, to make me a humble instrument of Your grace for the remaining days of my life. You choose me not for what I can give You of my own accord, because without Your Spirit within me I am nothing and my efforts are meaningless in this life.
Prayer for an Increase in the Virtue of Humility
Jesus,
What good is it for me to have power, to possess a lot of money, or to be given great honors, or be envied by others as a model if I do not possess Your Sacred Heart in the marrow of my bones or feel Your divine presence within my own mind, watching over my every thought? You alone give my life meaning, and it is only through Your great mercy that I am even capable of having a sound mind and good thoughts.
May I be conscious of Your eternal presence in the tabernacle of my heart and in the secrecy of my innermost thoughts. If You would completely take Your presence from my life I would destroy myself completely. Surely this is what the saints describe -the life of the damned in hell- a complete and total separation from grace that takes away any ability to have good thoughts or to perform good deeds because this only comes to me by You.
I need you. Please help me obtain the virtue of humility so that I may overcome the sin of pride in my life.
Lord, You know my heart and the many times in my past that I have sought to lie to myself and tell myself that I am good without Your influence. I have lied to myself and told myself that I can commit sins, ever so small, over and over again, and I can hide it from Your omnipotence as if You wouldn’t see. My pride has lied to my heart and destroyed my soul with thoughts and words and deeds and without You my heart is incapable of love.
I renounce the sin of pride in my heart that lied and told me I could pretend I am greater than I truly am, and people would buy it. I renounce the lie that pride told me that I could hide my shame, creating a false image of myself for others to see.
Lord, You know me.
You know my innermost being. You know my very thoughts, the sins of my heart, and the evil thoughts in my mind. You know each act that I have committed, that I am committing as I commit it, and every future act that I will commit until my last breath.
Even my death is at Your mercy. Will I die in friendship with You, my Lord and my God? Or will I turn away from You in a moment of sin and selfish pride? My heart longs to turn away from pride and be in union with Your perfect Heart. Please give me the grace to grow in the virtue of humility so that I might imitate the very life of Christ in my thoughts, and in my words, and in my deeds.
Always, You seek me, with great patience You await my prayers, You anticipate the conversion of my heart, and you give me grace with generosity so that I might be transformed by the renewal of my mind (Romans 12:2).
Please, God, I ask for an increase in the virtue of humility so that I might one day become a saint and succeed in shedding all aspects of my wicked pride. Please, God, You are the only hope of my salvation. You are my Truth and my Life. Please keep alive in my heart the truth that I will one day die. Remind me that I must persevere and be fruitful in my life each and every moment because I do not know when my death will come. Please, Lord, increase in me the desire to grow in the virtue of humility every day and give me the grace to overcome the sin of pride.
I ask all this in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of Holy Spirit, AMEN.
LORD, my heart is not proud; nor are my eyes haughty. I do not busy myself with great matters, with things too sublime for me. Rather, I have stilled my soul, Like a weaned child to its mother, weaned is my soul. Israel, hope in the LORD, now and forever.
Psalm 139: Prayer for the Virtue of Humility
LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
You sift through my travels and my rest;
with all my ways you are familiar.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
LORD, you know it all.
Behind and before you encircle me
and rest your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
far too lofty for me to reach.
Where can I go from your spirit?
From your presence, where can I flee?
If I ascend to the heavens, you are there;
if I lie down in Sheol, there you are.
If I take the wings of dawn
and dwell beyond the sea,
Even there your hand guides me,
your right hand holds me fast.
If I say, “Surely darkness shall hide me,
and night shall be my light”—
Darkness is not dark for you,
and night shines as the day.
Darkness and light are but one.
You formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, because I am wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works!
My very self you know.
My bones are not hidden from you,
When I was being made in secret,
fashioned in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw me unformed;
in your book all are written down;
my days were shaped, before one came to be.
How precious to me are your designs, O God;
how vast the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the sands;
when I complete them, still you are with me.
When you would destroy the wicked, O God,
the bloodthirsty depart from me!
Your foes who conspire a plot against you
are exalted in vain.
Do I not hate, LORD, those who hate you?
Those who rise against you, do I not loathe?
With fierce hatred I hate them,
enemies I count as my own.
Probe me, God, know my heart;
try me, know my thoughts.
See if there is a wicked path in me;
lead me along an ancient path.
Check out More Virtue Prayers and Meditations
More on Humility
Pray the Litany of Humility. And if you’d like to try our 15 minute mental prayer on the virtue of humility, pray: Lord, Give me a Humble Contrite Heart or You Humbled Yourself to be Crucified Because You Love Me.
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