The Litany of Trust is a modern Catholic litany composed around 2010 by Sister Faustina Maria Pia, SV, of the Sisters of Life — the religious community founded in 1991 by Cardinal John O'Connor of New York to serve pregnant women in crisis and to witness to the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death. The litany emerged from Sister Faustina Maria Pia's own interior struggle with trust — specifically, the cluster of fears that hover under the surface of contemporary Catholic life: the fear of being unloved, of being abandoned, of being a disappointment, of being unable to forgive oneself, of being incapable of love. The litany names each of these fears in turn ('From the fear of being forgotten…' / 'From the fear of being unloved…' / 'From the fear that I am unloveable…') and asks for deliverance with the response 'Deliver me, Jesus.' The second movement of the litany — and the part for which it is best known — names twenty truths about Jesus that the praying believer is asked to entrust herself to: 'That You are continually holding me in existence… That You love me… That You see me… That You see the past, the present, and the future, and know what I need… That You will provide for me… That You are gentle and humble of heart…' To each, the response is 'Jesus, I trust in You.' The litany has spread virally through Catholic young adult ministry, women's groups, and social media — it is one of the most-shared Catholic prayers of the 2010s and 2020s. The Sisters of Life publish it freely on their website (sistersoflife.org) for personal and parish use, encouraging its reproduction in bulletins, retreat programs, and small-group settings. The litany is appropriate for: anxiety and the cluster of contemporary mental-health struggles that present as fear of unworthiness; recovery from spiritual scrupulosity (the over-conscientious moral self-judgment that can occlude the experience of God's mercy); the early days of a difficult diagnosis (when fear of the future is the first crisis to address); grief, when the absence of a loved one feels like the absence of God; financial hardship when scarcity-thinking has taken over; and any moment when the believer notices she has been operating from fear rather than from faith.
8 min
Duration
1 day
Commitment
Beginner-Friendly
Level
Sister Faustina Maria Pia, SV (Sisters of Life — author)
Patron Saint
Pray the litany slowly. The text is short — about five hundred words — but its movement matters. The traditional structure: (1) make the Sign of the Cross; (2) read aloud the opening 'From the belief that I have to earn Your love…'; (3) pray the long sequence of 'From the fear of…' invocations — these name the specific patterns of mistrust that govern adult interior life. Do not rush past the one that lands on a given day; (4) pray the second movement, the long sequence of 'That You…' truths about Jesus, with the response 'Jesus, I trust in You.' This is the heart of the prayer — the deliberate, articulated act of trust that the praying believer makes against the felt evidence of her own fear. (5) close in silence, allowing the truths just named to settle. The Litany of Trust is appropriately prayed: at the start of a difficult day; at the threshold of a hard conversation; in the chapel before a long shift in caregiving; at the bedside of someone in the NICU or in hospice; during anxiety attacks (Catholic counselors and spiritual directors regularly recommend the litany as a 'grounding prayer' for clients with anxiety disorders, since each line orients the heart away from the catastrophic projection and toward the unchanging being of Jesus); during financial crisis ('That You will provide for me' is the line for the family whose hours have been cut); during grief ('That You see the past, the present, and the future, and know what I need' is the line for the family of someone in their last week of cancer treatment). The Sisters of Life have built a small but durable culture around this litany — they pray it daily in community at the conclusion of evening prayer, and they encourage anyone who has received the prayer to give it to someone else who needs it. Many parish young-adult groups pray it weekly in small groups. The litany pairs particularly well with the Divine Mercy Chaplet — both prayers articulate the same posture of trust in Jesus, the chaplet through repetition of the trust act, the litany through specification of what trust looks like in detail.
From the belief that I have to earn Your love, deliver me, Jesus. From the fear that I am unlovable, deliver me, Jesus. From the false security that I have what it takes, deliver me, Jesus. From the fear that trusting You will leave me more destitute, deliver me, Jesus. From all suspicion of Your words and promises, deliver me, Jesus. From the rebellion against childlike dependency on You, deliver me, Jesus. From refusals and reluctances in accepting Your will, deliver me, Jesus. From anxiety about the future, deliver me, Jesus. From resentment or excessive preoccupation with the past, deliver me, Jesus. From restless self-seeking in the present moment, deliver me, Jesus. From disbelief in Your love and presence, deliver me, Jesus. From the fear of being asked to give more than I have, deliver me, Jesus. From the belief that my life has no meaning or worth, deliver me, Jesus. From the fear of what love demands, deliver me, Jesus. From discouragement, deliver me, Jesus. That You are continually holding me in existence, Jesus, I trust in You. That You love me, Jesus, I trust in You. That You see me, Jesus, I trust in You. That You hear me, Jesus, I trust in You. That You know me, Jesus, I trust in You. That You see the past, the present, and the future, and know what I need, Jesus, I trust in You. That You will provide for me, Jesus, I trust in You. That You will rescue me, Jesus, I trust in You. That You are gentle and humble of heart, Jesus, I trust in You. That You are eternally faithful, Jesus, I trust in You. That all things are passing, and Your love alone abides, Jesus, I trust in You. That You bring real good out of every situation, Jesus, I trust in You. That You will teach me to trust You, Jesus, I trust in You. That You are my Lord and my God, Jesus, I trust in You. That I am Your beloved one, Jesus, I trust in You. Amen.
Coordinate sustained prayer for someone you love. Volunteers fill 30-minute slots covering days or weeks; the family receives a spiritual bouquet at the end.
Invite a small group to pray this with you. Everyone gets the same prayer text, the same rhythm, the same intention.