St. Thomas More (1478–1535), Lord Chancellor of England, husband, father and martyr, was beheaded for refusing to betray his conscience, “the king’s good servant, but God’s first.” While he waited in the Tower of London for his trial, he wrote a prayer in the margins of his prayer book that has become a classic: “Give me Thy grace, good Lord, to set the world at naught.” Below is that prayer in a public-domain edition, prayers to St. Thomas More for lawyers, judges and politicians and for a good conscience, the truth about the “prayer for good humor,” Scripture, and his story.
St. Thomas More’s prayer from the Tower
Written in 1534 in the margins of the Book of Hours he kept in the Tower, this prayer is often called A Godly Meditation. In the edition of Father T. E. Bridgett, The Wisdom and Wit of Blessed Thomas More (1892), with More’s spelling lightly modernized:
Give me Thy grace, good Lord, to set the world at naught; to set my mind fast upon Thee; and not to hang upon the blast of men’s mouths.
To be content to be solitary; not to long for worldly company; little and little utterly to cast off the world, and rid my mind of all the business thereof; not to long to hear of any worldly things, but that the hearing of worldly phantasies may be to me displeasant.
Gladly to be thinking of God; piteously to call for His help; to lean unto the comfort of God; busily to labour to love Him.
To know mine own vility and wretchedness; to humble and meeken myself under the mighty hand of God. To bewail my sins past; for the purging of them patiently to suffer adversity; gladly to bear my purgatory here; to be joyful of tribulations; to walk the narrow way that leadeth to life.
To bear the cross with Christ; to have the last things in remembrance; to have ever afore mine eye my death that is ever at hand; to make death no stranger to me; to foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell; to pray for pardon before the Judge come.
To have continually in mind that passion that Christ suffered for me; for His benefits uncessantly to give Him thanks.
To buy the time again, that I before have lost; to abstain from vain confabulations; to eschew light, foolish mirth; and gladness; recreations not necessary to cut off; of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life, and all, to set the loss at right naught for the winning of Christ.
To think my most enemies my best friends; for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favour as they did him with their malice and hatred.
These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasure of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all upon one heap.
The prayer is best prayed slowly, one line at a time. Each line asks for a grace More was preparing to need: freedom from the opinions of others, peace in solitude, patience in suffering, and love even for his enemies.
A prayer to St. Thomas More
Written for this page:
St. Thomas More, faithful husband, loving father and honest servant of your country,
you chose to lose everything rather than act against your conscience.
Pray for me, that I may be loyal to God before all else,
cheerful in trial and honest in all my work.
Obtain for me the grace I ask: (name your intention). Amen.
A prayer for lawyers and judges
St. Thomas More, patron of lawyers,
you served justice with skill and integrity
and refused every bribe.
Pray for all lawyers, judges and those who work in the courts.
Give them wisdom, honesty and courage,
a love for truth and a care for the poor and the powerless. Amen.
This prayer was written for this page.
A prayer for politicians and public servants
In 2000 Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed St. Thomas More the patron of statesmen and politicians.
St. Thomas More, statesman and martyr,
pray for all who hold public office, especially (name).
Help them to serve the common good, to defend the dignity of every human life,
and to follow their conscience even when it costs them. Amen.
This prayer was written for this page.
A prayer for a good conscience
Lord, through the prayers of St. Thomas More,
give me a conscience formed by your truth
and the courage to follow it.
When I am pressed to do what I know is wrong,
make me gentle but firm, and keep me faithful to you. Amen.
This prayer was written for this page.
“Nothing can come but that God wills”
From the Tower, More wrote to his daughter Margaret: “Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes these words in its teaching on divine providence (CCC 313), alongside St. Paul:
And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.
The “prayer for good humor”
A popular prayer beginning “Grant me, O Lord, a good digestion, and also something to digest” is often attributed to St. Thomas More. It suits his famous wit, but it is not found in his writings and its origin is uncertain. His authentic prayer is the meditation above.
The life of St. Thomas More
Thomas More was born in London on February 7, 1478, the son of a lawyer and judge, Sir John More. As a boy he served in the household of Cardinal John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and then studied at Oxford before training in law. For several years he lived near the London Charterhouse and shared in the prayer of the Carthusian monks, discerning a vocation to religious life, but he concluded that God was calling him to marriage.
He married Jane Colt in 1505 and they had four children; after her early death he married Alice Middleton. His home in Chelsea was famous for its learning, prayer and laughter, and he gave his daughters the same education as his son. A friend of Erasmus, he wrote Utopia (1516) and many other works.
More rose in the service of King Henry VIII: he became a judge, Speaker of the House of Commons and, in 1529, Lord Chancellor of England. When the king sought to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and to make himself head of the Church in England, More resigned his office in 1532. In 1534 he refused to swear the oath that went with the Act of Succession, because it required him to reject the authority of the Pope, and he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for fifteen months.
At his trial on July 1, 1535, he was convicted of treason on false testimony. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on July 6, 1535, declaring that he died “the king’s good servant, but God’s first.” His friend St. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, had been executed two weeks earlier for the same cause. Thomas More was beatified in 1886 and canonized, with John Fisher, by Pope Pius XI on May 19, 1935.
Feast day and patronage
- Feast day: June 22, together with St. John Fisher. A novena can run from June 13 to 21.
- Patron of: lawyers, judges, statesmen and politicians, and civil servants.
- Symbols: the chain of office of the Lord Chancellor, an axe, and a book.
Frequently asked questions
What is St. Thomas More the patron saint of?
Lawyers, judges, statesmen and politicians. Pope St. John Paul II named him patron of statesmen and politicians in 2000.
Why was St. Thomas More executed?
Because he would not swear an oath that rejected the authority of the Pope over the Church in England and approved Henry VIII’s break with Rome. He was convicted of treason on false evidence.
What were St. Thomas More’s last words?
According to the accounts of his execution, he said that he died “the king’s good servant, but God’s first.”
Did St. Thomas More write the prayer for good humor?
No. The “prayer for good humor” is often attributed to him, but it does not appear in his writings.
More prayers
- St. Thomas Becket
- Faith of Our Fathers
- St. Ignatius of Loyola prayer
- Prayers to popular saints
- Patron saints of professions
- Prayers of the faithful for justice
- Catholic prayer for strength
- Saint feast days
Texts and sources
- A Godly Meditation: T. E. Bridgett, The Wisdom and Wit of Blessed Thomas More (London: Burns and Oates, 1892), Meditations and Prayers Composed in the Tower, public domain (archive.org).
- Letter to Margaret Roper: quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 313.
- Scripture: Romans 8:28, Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner), public domain.
- The other prayers were written for this page.