A friend sent this link to a very interesting article on the prayer life of Clarence Thomas.
In the course of it, there is a litany from Cardinal Merry del Val, that struck my friend as a hard teaching:
Litany of Humility
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
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...
My friend noted that to take it seriously seemed to invite despair. But I pointed out that it was a detailed version of St. John of the Cross' todo y nada. That is, the litany does not prohibit one from accepting such graces as come to one, but asks God to grant us the freedom from fear or desire of these things, because such fear and/or desire was distracting from the "one thing necessary." It isn't that the objects mentioned are not legitimate things to desire or to fear, but rather that in either desire or fear of them we may find ourselves doing things that are not part of our particular vocation--going out of our way to seek or avoid things.
But this seems to be an interesting point and I'd love to hear what others think of the article and especially of the Litany.
I sought the Litany of Humility when Justice Thomas talked about it in an interview and find it remarkable. Remarkable enough that I printed it out and pasted it on my wall, like he did.
We, many of us, Americans, are so blessed with riches, education, and freedom (for the most part) -- it becomes easy to lose ourselves to our culture and I think this Litany does a great job of reminding us where we should be.
I haven't made it though Justice Thomas' book yet, but did see that he left the seminary and the Catholic Faith due to comments other seminarians made about Martin Luther King's death... I hope he came back to the faith and didn't let one (or a few) dark-siders scare him off forever.
The Litany of Humility has been kicking around St. Blog's for a while, and everyone seems to pretend that everyone knows who Cardinal Merry del Val was.
As a Spanish nobleman who served as Vatican Secretary of State under Pope St. Pius X and as Secretary of the Holy Office under Popes Benedict XV and Pius XI, he had perhaps more reason than most bloggers to pray for humility.
(But then, most people don't need a reason to need humility.)