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Summary
- Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector ends with the tax collector’s prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and the words “he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:13–14).
- The Prayer of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, said at the weekday services of Great Lent, asks for “the spirit of continence, of meekness, of patience, and of love”; it is quoted from Hapgood’s 1906 Orthodox service book.
- The Litany of Humility, often credited to Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, was already printed in the Little Manual of Novices (New York, 1880).
- The 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers has prayers “For the gift of Humility” and “Against Pride”; the 1928 Book of Common Prayer prays against “pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy” in its Litany.
- Short prayers cover being praised, being corrected, apologizing, arguing, comparing oneself with others, unnoticed work, learning and a people humbling itself (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (2 Chronicles 7:14; Proverbs 11:2; 12:1; Micah 6:8; Matthew 11:29; Luke 18:13–14; John 13:14–15; Romans 12:3; 1 Corinthians 4:7; Philippians 2:3, 5–7; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5–6). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The First Hour, Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, p. 41. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- Zheltov, Mikhail, priest. “Молитва Ефрема Сирина” (The Prayer of Ephrem the Syrian). Азбука веры, from the Православная энциклопедия (Orthodox Encyclopedia). https://azbyka.ru/efrema-sirina-molitva
- Little Manual of Novices, by the author of Golden Sands, translated from the French of the fifth edition. New York: D. & J. Sadlier, 1880. Litany of Humility, pp. 132–134. https://archive.org/details/littlemanualofno00sylv
- “Litany of humility.” Wikipedia (history of the text and its attribution to Rafael Merry del Val). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litany_of_humility
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. “For the gift of Humility,” p. 168; “Against Pride,” p. 295; “Jesus, meek and humble of heart,” p. 346. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. The Litany, p. 54. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
