This prayer is from the 19th Century Jesuit Giovanni Pieter Pinamonti, S.JIt was written for his short book of meditations on humility.
His book is entitled, The Art Of Knowing Ourselves it also called, The Looking-Glass Which Does Not Deceive.
By Fr. John Peter Pinamonti, S.J.
“Prayer to the Eternal Father for the gift of humility."
O Father of Heaven and Primal Origin of all
good, Thine is the being and all the good I possess.
Thou hast given it to me, and Thou preservest it
to me. In Thee I live and move and have my
being. Every moment I am sustained by Thy omnipotence,
and without Thee I have not even the
possibility of existing. It is, therefore, just and right
that I should give to Thee all the glory, and as Thou
art my first beginning, so should I return to Thee as
my last end. I acknowledge myself as nothing in
Thy presence, and I humble myself under Thy
power as though I were not. 'My substance is as
nothing before Thee.' I am exceedingly sorry that I,
so miserable a thing, have presumed to sin against
Thee, and that having no power of my own to
employ in offending Thee, my wicked will has borrowed
it from Thee, to use Thy gift against so bountiful
a Benefactor. But thou hast not, therefore,
ceased to be my Father, and though I have made
myself more vile than the dirt which is trodden
under foot, ' Thou art our Father, and we are as
clay.'7 Show Thyself then a Father to me by Thy
7 Isaias Ixiv. 8.
The Points of consideration for his book are
I. On the nothing we are of ourselves in the order of nature.
II. On the nothing we are of ourselves in the order of grace.
III. On the miserable state of original sin.
IV. On actual sin.
V. Hell is a great motive for humiliation.
VI. Our good works are a cause for humility.
VII. On the nothing that we are in comparison with the Saints and with God.
Read the full length of his book (here)
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