PRAYER TO BECOME LESS

 

PRAYER TO BECOME LESS

Lord, who sees my thirst to be well named,

deliver me from this vain lordly pride;

let not my heart, through all this passing day,

seek any honor but the one of loving You.

If another is exalted, let it not wound me;

if another shines, let me not be afraid;

for self-love is a shadow burned away,

and Your truth is silence giving life.

Make me small, yet not with somber grief;

humble, yet not cast down or made untrue;

for firmer is the bending ear of wheat

than the proud tree broken by its height.

Jesus, meek and humble, I turn to You.

Strip from me every vain presumption;

for greater honor crowns the humble soul

than a hundred crowns bestowed on error.