How to Pray – True Humility Is the Foundation of Prayer (Do You Have It)?

If you really want to learn how to pray, you always need to start with uniting your heart to God’s. The virtue of humility gives our hearts the right disposition for a relationship of love with God.

But too many Catholics misunderstand this important virtue. Most people think of humility as a refusal to acknowledge anything good about yourself. But humility doesn’t mean despising yourself, deriding yourself, or putting yourself down.

What is the Virtue of Humility . . . Really?

The virtue of humility is defined as the virtue of not thinking higher of yourself than you ought. It opposes the vice (and capital sin) of pride.

There are two dimensions of humility, both of which are important for Catholic prayer.

True humility means having an accurate self-concept. It means knowing who you are – with all your strengths and all your weaknesses. It means acknowledging your incredible dignity and worth as a human person, created and loved by God. It also means acknowledging the incredible worth and dignity of every other human person. It means recognizing your gifts, talents, and abilities, but also recognizing your limitations and your weaknesses. A truly humble disposition would mean seeing the gifts, talents, and abilities in others and how they complement your own. And humility means recognizing that God is God – and that you’re not.

Humility Teaches Us How to Pray

What does this dimension of humility teach us about prayer? Recognizing that our talents and abilities are all gifts from God gives us hearts of gratitude. It also gives us an attitude of service. God gave us our gifts, talents, and abilities for a reason. He gave us a mission and equipped us for that mission. So when we pray, our focus should be on seeking God’s will for how he wants us to serve.

The other dimension of humility is more closely connected to the virtue of charity, which is the theological virtue that empowers us to love as Christ loved. To love completely selflessly, we need to put other people before ourselves. This dimension of humility calls us not to think so much about ourselves. It calls us out of our self-centeredness. Self-centeredness means seeing the world as if it exists to serve us. Humility and charity both call us to consider instead how we can serve others and ultimately how we can serve God.

That’s why the virtue of humility is an important foundation for Catholic prayer. Working on the virtue of humility is not easy. But it’s also not the same thing as humiliation. Humility can actually be a load off your mind and heart. Living honestly is always lighter than living a lie. Then you can bring your true self to God as you learn how to pray.

Brought to you by Jeffrey S. Arrowood at From the Abbey, dedicated to helping you rediscover the JOY of learning and living your faith so you can grow in intimacy with God.