prayer of detachment

Below is the Prayer of Detachment that I learned at WCC this past weekend...and is something I'd like to start each day off with. It sounds like a lot to work on, but what it comes down to is humbling ourselves and remembering that our worth comes from God and not from people around us. When we want to be loved by people or praised or preferred, it's because we feel good that people value us. When we don't want to be forgotten or wronged, again it's because we feel good when people value us.

Things are getting a little intense with the situation with the church group, yet not too many people are even aware of it. R experienced some spiritual warfare last night and his wife called me asking me to pray for him, for her, for myself, and for the others who are involved...yet do not know it. It's a very sticky situation and possibly goes deeper than just how a fellowship group is run. I'm concerned about each individual but am confident that the battle has already been won. "When the enemy presses in hard, do not fear. The battle belongs to the Lord....and we sing glory, honor, power and strength to the Lord."

Prayer of Detachment
Deliver me, O Jesus
    from the desire of being loved [by people],
    from the desire of being extolled,
    from the desire of being praised,
    from the desire of being preferred,
    from the desire of being consulted,
    from the desire of being approved,
    from the desire of being popular.

Deliver me, O Jesus
    from the fear of being humiliated,
    from the fear of being despised,
    from the fear of suffering rebukes,
    from the fear of being forgotten,
    from the fear of being wronged,
    from the fear of being ridiculed,
    from the fear that others may be loved more than I.

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire
    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 become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should.

                                   -John of the Cross (1542-1591)