The New Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change,
which is pretty much everyone, since I’m clearly not you, God.
At least not last time I checked.

And while you’re at it God, please give me the courage to change what I need to change about myself, which is frankly a lot, since, once again, I’m not you, which means I’m not perfect. 
It’s better for me to focus on changing myself than to worry about changing other people, 
who, as you’ll no doubt remember me saying, I can’t change anyway.

Finally give me the wisdom to just shut up whenever I think that I’m clearly smarter than everyone else
in the room, that no one knows what they’re talking about except me,
or that I alone have all the answers.

Basically God, grant me the wisdom to remember that I’m not you.

Amen

Fr. James Martin SJ