Litany of Humility: A Prayer for Becoming a Better Investor
This is a prayer that helps me build family wealth for my clients.
Dear reader,
Working as an investment specialist and a financial advisor leaves you vulnerable to the extremes of the markets. When your investment portfolio is going up, you tend to think you are a genius and the world is full of opportunities. Likewise, when your investment portfolio goes the wrong direction, i.e., down, you tend to feel ashamed and, quite frankly, a bit dumb.
If you understand the real consequences of proper investment stewardship, then you know that your goal is to protect the irreplaceable savings families entrusted to you. First, to protect, and only then, to grow.
Grow in sanctity
Emotion management is crucial for successful investment stewardship. We should reflect on market conditions, but we shouldn’t let them disrupt us.
Here, I am not speaking about being a “stoic” to the market reality. No, I am talking about something much deeper and better.
Stoicism can sound like emotional detachment: the market moves, and you feel nothing.
As a Catholic, I want something better. I want market cycles to train me in virtue–especially humility–so I can serve families with clarity, whether the numbers are green or red. My goal is to use market movements to grow in sanctity.
I should (1) embrace if the markets are going up, (2) reflect on why they are going up, and (3) proceed with the next steps that align with my investment goals: maybe sell some, maybe buy more, maybe stay still. The same process should be followed if the markets are going down.
This way, I am managing my professional responsibility while keeping my emotions in check. I am not letting my emotions make me a God if the portfolio is increasing in value, and I am not letting emotions make me feel like an unlovable God’s bastard, because I am neither of those.
Every investor feels this, whether retail or professional. Financial advisors feel this especially because people entrust us with their wealth for management. That’s why I feel an extreme obligation to advance in my profession and my “sanctity” through markets.
Meditation helps
Last year, I began my work with a simple but powerful prayer. I found it wonderful and it addressed the core of the problem in financial management: the lack of humility.
When you have enough humility, you know how to manage your emotions. You know what is in your control, what is not, and how you can become better to serve others.
My mission at Antešić Family Wealth is to help families and individuals build family wealth. For that, you need a lot of humility.
Because building family wealth isn’t just “make the highest return possible.” It requires a continuous relationship with clients at different stages of life. Some have wealth, and some are just building it. Dealing with people's private matters is much more than a return on invested capital.
To become a better investment steward with humility, I seek external help. A 5-minute meditation before work in the solitude of my office really makes a difference. A prayer called the Litany of Humility is helping me become a better version of myself to better serve my clients.
The text that we pray with today is attributed to Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val (1865-1930). I first heard about it in exorcist Fr. Chad A. Ripperger’s book Deliverance Prayers: For Use by the Laity.
Without further ado, here is the prayer:
Litany of Humility
O Jesus, meek and humble of heart – Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being honored – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being praised – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being approved – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being despised – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged – Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected – Deliver me, O Jesus.
That others may be loved more than I – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I go unnoticed – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
O God, who resist the proud and give grace to the humble: grant us the virtue of true humility, by which Your Only-Begotten Son became an example for Your faithful; that we may never, by our pride, provoke Your wrath, but rather, by our humility, receive the riches of Your grace. Amen!
Dear reader,
Hopefully, this prayer will help you to become a better investor. It does help; give it some time.
Even if you’re not religious–and many families I manage wealth aren’t–the principle is the same: humility is emotional risk management.
To your family,
Dorian Antešić
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