A couple of years ago I heard a prayer on Sarah MacKenzie’s podcast that stopped me mid-listen.
It wasn’t long. It wasn’t complicated. But every line felt like it was written for exactly where I was — a mom, a business owner, someone trying to hold a lot together while quietly white-knuckling things I had no real control over.
It was the Litany of Trust, written by Sr. Faustine Maria Pia of the Sisters of Life. And I haven’t been able to put it down since.
If you’ve never prayed it before, I’d encourage you to look it up and read it in full. But in the meantime, I want to share why it’s become such an anchor for me — and why I think it might be exactly what you need too.
“From the false security that I have what it takes…”
This is where it starts for me. The false security.
I didn’t realize how much of my sense of stability was built on things that weren’t actually stable — my business revenue, my productivity, my ability to plan and execute and make things happen. I told myself I trusted God. But underneath that, I was quietly trusting my own capacity to keep everything running.
Running a business has a way of exposing that. The months where things slow down, where a launch doesn’t land the way you hoped, where the income you were counting on doesn’t come through — those moments have a way of showing you exactly where your security was really rooted.
For me, it was rooted in my business more than I wanted to admit.
The Litany of Trust names this gently but directly. It doesn’t shame you for reaching for false security — it just invites you to release it. To let it go and reach for something that actually holds.
“From anxiety about the future…”
I am a planner. I like to know what’s coming. And building a business means living with a level of uncertainty that does not come naturally to me.
What will next month look like? Will this be sustainable long-term? Am I making the right decisions? What if it all falls apart?
These questions aren’t wrong — they’re just not mine to carry alone. And the Litany of Trust is a prayer that keeps handing them back to God, line by line, in a rhythm that eventually starts to feel like breathing.
From anxiety about the future… deliver me, Jesus.
There’s something about naming the thing out loud — anxiety about the future, specifically — that loosens its grip a little. You’re not pretending it isn’t there. You’re just choosing not to let it be the loudest voice in the room.
“That not knowing what tomorrow brings is an invitation to lean on you…”
This one hits differently as a mom.
Because as a mom, you are responsible for small people who didn’t ask to be here and are counting on you completely. The weight of that is real. And the not-knowing — about their futures, about whether you’re doing it right, about all the things you can’t protect them from — can quietly become its own kind of anxiety if you let it.
What I’ve found is that the Litany of Trust doesn’t resolve the not-knowing. It doesn’t promise you clarity or a clear view of the road ahead. It just reorients you to the One who does know — and invites you to trust that His vision is bigger and better than yours.
Which leads to the line that might be my favorite of all.
“That your plan is better than anything else…”
This is the heart of it for me.
A few years ago I was in a season where my business felt fragile and my confidence felt lower than it had in a long time. I had been measuring myself against my business — its growth, its revenue, its momentum — and when those things wavered, so did my sense of worth.
And I realized somewhere in that season that I had made my business into something it was never meant to be. Not just a livelihood, but a measure of my value. Not just a calling, but an idol.
Surrendering that was a process, not a moment. It didn’t happen all at once. But the Litany of Trust was part of how I got there — praying it slowly, letting the words do their work, returning to it on the hard days when the old anxieties crept back.
That your plans are better than anything I could plan for myself… I trust in you.
I don’t have to have it all figured out. I don’t have to engineer the perfect outcome. I just have to stay faithful to what I’ve been given today and trust that God is doing something I can’t fully see yet.
That’s a hard thing to believe when things are uncertain. But it’s also the most freeing thing I’ve ever learned.
Why This Prayer Works for Moms and Business Owners Specifically
Most prayers of surrender are beautiful but abstract. The Litany of Trust is specific. It names the actual fears — false security, anxiety, the need for control, the fear that trusting God will somehow leave you worse off. It doesn’t skip over the hard parts.
And that specificity is what makes it so useful for women who are carrying a lot.
Because we are carrying a lot. We’re making decisions about our families and our businesses and our futures, often simultaneously, often without a clear roadmap. We need a prayer that meets us in the middle of that — not one that asks us to pretend we’re not there.
The Litany of Trust does that. It acknowledges the weight and then, line by line, helps you set it down.
How to Start Praying It
If you’ve never prayed the Litany of Trust before, here’s what I’d suggest:
Find the full text. A quick search will bring it up easily. The Sisters of Life have it on their website, and it’s also widely available in Catholic prayer resources.
Read it slowly the first time. Don’t rush through it. Let the lines land. Notice which ones stop you — those are usually the ones you need most.
Come back to it regularly. I find it most useful when I’m in a season of uncertainty or when I notice anxiety creeping in. It’s also a beautiful addition to a morning quiet time — it takes only a few minutes to pray in full.
Don’t worry about praying it perfectly. This isn’t a prayer you perform. It’s a prayer you mean, imperfectly, on the days when trust is hard. That’s exactly when it does its best work.
The Litany of Trust hasn’t made my life simpler or my business more predictable. What it’s done is quieter and more lasting than that.
It’s helped me stop gripping so tightly. It’s helped me remember that my worth isn’t tied to my output. It’s helped me return, again and again, to the foundational truth that God’s plan for my life is better than anything I could design for myself — even on the days when I can’t see it yet.
If you’re a mom or a business owner carrying more than you’d like to admit, I think it might do the same for you.
