During Lent, the Litany of Humility helps Christians recognize how they can be more like Jesus
The Litany of Humility is a popular prayer during Lent. Here's why, and here's why people pray a series of petitions against the sin of pride during this season.
The Litany of Humility, a popular Lenten prayer, is a way to help Christians imitate the life of Jesus Christ, a representative from the Christian prayer app Hallow told Fox News Digital.
A "litany" is a prayer that consists of a list of petitions.
Typically, a litany is led by someone — and someone else handles the responses, which stay the same throughout the prayer.
For the Litany of Humility, the responses are "Deliver me, Jesus" and "Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it."
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"As we seek to imitate Jesus this Lent – as we seek to imitate His total submission, His perfect act of humility – we can turn to one of the most important prayers we have: the Litany of Humility," Kevin Cotter, Hallow's head of content, told Fox News Digital.
While the prayer is "intense," it can prove spiritually fruitful for "beginning a path to surrender" during the liturgical season of Lent, he said.
"As part of the Litany of Humility, we can also pray a number of petitions that invite God to break into our lives in a truly transformative way," said Cotter.
It is unclear when the Litany of Humility was first written, but it is credited to Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, who served as secretary of state to Pope St. Pius X during the early 20th century, said the Catholic website Aleteia.
The Litany of Humility is a way for Christians to "ask Jesus to deliver us from the various desires and fears that hold us back from being humble and replace them with renewed desires focused on Him and others rather than ourselves," says Hallow's website.
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The litany consists of three parts: asking Jesus "to deliver you from the desire for people to see you in a particular way or light," "to deliver you from the fears that prevent you from living life with compassion for God, others, and yourself," and finally "to guide you toward loving your neighbors before yourself," said Hallow.
In total, it takes about five minutes to pray the entire litany.
"Humility is a virtue we deeply admire, but it is also one of the most challenging virtues to practice genuinely," said Hallow's website.
"Sometimes our pride gets in the way — other times, stubbornness."
While the Litany of Humility can be prayed any day of the year for any reason, many people find that the prayer is particularly helpful during Lent, the 40-day liturgical season that helps prepare Christians for the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday, said Hallow.
Lent, which has three "pillars" of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, is a season of penance. The Litany of Humility helps drive this point, said Hallow.
The Litany of Humility "helps us acknowledge where we fall short as human beings," Hallow added.
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Humans, said the team at Hallow, have a desire to be universally loved, be popular, successful — something the Litany of Humility reminds us are not Christlike.
The Litany of Humility "helps us ask for deliverance, grace and forgiveness to love Jesus more fully, despite our human desires."
The prayer is "a great way to continue working on understanding our human desires and asking for the grace to desire what Jesus does," said Hallow.
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