Monday, December 30, 2024

Saint Philip Neri's Food for the Soul 1Q2025


Philip Romolo Neri, sometimes referred to as the Second Apostle of Rome after Saint Peter, was an Italian Catholic priest who founded the Congregation of the Oratory, a society of secular clergy dedicated to pastoral care and charitable work. Neri's spiritual mission emphasized personal holiness and direct service to others, particularly through the education of young people and care for the poor and sick. His work played a significant role in the Counter-Reformation



As prescribed by Saint Neri, I posted one maxim per day starting with the one for September 27, 2024. This page shall contain Saint Philip Neri's Maxim of the Day for 1Q2025.


Power of Prayer

Just like there are levels of worship, there are levels of prayer:

Purgative Way
1. Vocal Prayer
2. Mental Prayer
3. Affective Prayer
4. Acquired Recollection
Bridge: Dark Night of the Senses
Illuminative Way
5. Infused Contemplation
6. Prayer of Quiet
Bridge: Dark Night of the Soul
Unitive Way
7. Simple Union
8. Conforming Union
9. Transforming Union

How to Pray: the Ladder of Monks

Lectio Divina, “Divine Reading”, refers to an approach to prayer and scripture reading practiced by monastics since the early Church.

In the 11th century, a Carthusian prior named Guigo formalized how to pray in a letter written to a fellow religious. This letter is known as The Ladder of Monks and describes a four-runged ladder to Heaven, each rung being one of the four steps in his method of prayerful scripture reading:


Lectio (reading): An attentive, slow, repetitious recitation of a short passage of scripture.

“looking on Holy Scripture with all one’s will and wit”

Meditatio (meditation): An effort to understand the passage and apply it to my own life.

“a studious searching with the mind to know what was before concealed”

Oratio (prayer): Engaging or talking with God about the passage.

“a devout desiring of the heart to get what is good and avoid what is evil”

Contemplatio (contemplation): Allowing oneself to be absorbed in the words of God as the Holy Spirit draws us into His presence through scripture.

“the lifting up of the heart to God tasting somewhat of the heavenly sweetness”



Father Mark-Mary's Rosary in a Year Podcast applies the lectio divina in several episodes 

Maxims For MARCH 2025


29. The devil generally makes use of the weaker sex when he wishes to cause us to fall.

28. In the matter of purity there is no greater danger than the not fearing the danger: when a man does not distrust himself, and is without fear, it is all over with him.





27. To be without pity for other men’s falls, is an evident sign that we shall fall ourselves shortly.


26. One of the most efficacious means of keeping ourselves chaste, is to have compassion for those who fall through their frailty, and never to boast in the least of being free, but with all humility to acknowledge that whatever we have is from the mercy of God.

25. Our sweet Christ, the Word Incarnate, has given Himself to us for everything that was necessary for us, even to the hard and ignominious death upon the cross.


24. We ought to fear and fly temptations of the flesh, even in sickness, and in old age itself, aye, and so long as we can open and shut our eyelids, for the spirit of incontinence gives no truce either to place, time, or person.



Sin of incontinence, or sins committed because of a lack of self-control,  include the sins of wrath, lust, and gluttony, but not fraud, which is considered an even worse sin than these.


23. We must never trust ourselves, for it is the devil’s way first to get us to feel secure, and then to make us fall.

22. In order to preserve their purity, young men should frequent the Sacraments, and especially confession.

21. When fathers have given their sons a good education, and put everything clearly and distinctly in train for them, the sons who succeed them, and continue to follow the road marked out for them, will have the advantage of seeing their family persevere in holy ways, and in the fear of God.

20. Young men should be very careful to avoid idleness.

19. It is God’s custom to interweave human life with a trouble and a consolation, at least, of an interior sort, alternately.

18. Let them also avoid nourishing their bodies delicately.

17. If young men would preserve their purity, let them avoid bad company.

16. If young men wish to protect themselves from all danger of impurity, let them never retire to their own rooms immediately after dinner, either to read or write, or do anything else; but let them remain in conversation, because at that time the devil is wont to assault us with more than usual vehemence, and this is that demon which is called in Scripture the noonday demon, and from which holy David prayed to be delivered.

15. Without prayer a man will not persevere long in spirituality; we must have recourse to this most powerful means of salvation every day.

14. We may ask a spiritual alms even corporally, by going first to the church of one Saint, and then to the church of another, to make our petition.

13. The best remedy for dryness of spirit, is to picture ourselves as beggars in the presence of God and the Saints, and like a beggar, to go first to one saint, then to another, to ask a spiritual alms of them with the same earnestness as a poor fellow in the streets would ask an alms of us.

12. If in times of dryness in prayer we make acts of humility, self-knowledge, protestations of our own inability to help ourselves, and petitions for God’s assistance, all this is real and substantial prayer.


11. We must not leave off our prayers be cause of distractions and restlessness of mind, although it seems useless to go on with them. He who perseveres for the whole of his accustomed time, gently recalling his mind to the subject of his prayer, merits greatly.

10. We must pray incessantly for the gift of perseverance.


9. Let women remain indoors, and look after their families, and not be desirous of going into public.

8. A diligent charity in ministering to the sick, is a compendious way to the acquisition of perfect virtue.

1 Corinthians 13:13




7. The wisdom of the Scriptures is learned rather by prayer than by study.


If you have never read the Bible, but want to know what is in it, take one minute and read the Our Father: it's a paraphrase


And if you want more detail, just read the Rosary. It's a compendium.

6. It is good for a man to go from prayer rather with an appetite and desire to return to it, than satiated and weary.

5. To leave our prayer when we are called to do some act of charity for our neighbor, is not really a quitting of prayer, but leaving Christ for Christ, that is, depriving ourselves of spiritual sweetnesses in order to gain souls.


4. The sweetness which some experience in prayer, is milk which our Lord gives as a relish to those who are just beginning to serve Him.


3. A man ought never to think he has done any good, or rest contented with any degree of perfection he may have attained, because Christ has given us the type of our perfection, in putting before us the perfection of the Eternal Father. Be ye perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.

2. When a spiritual person feels a great calmness of mind in asking anything of God, it is a good sign that God either has granted it, or will do so shortly.



1. We must never pray for a favor for anyone, except conditionally, saying, “If it please God,” or the like.

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. - C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce


February 2025

29. When a person goes to communion, he ought to follow the same spirit he had in prayer, and not be casting about for new meditations.


28. We must exercise the spirit which God gives us in prayer, and follow that; so that, when, for example, it inclines us to meditate on the Passion, we must not wish to meditate on some other mystery.






27. We can never arrive at the contemplative life, if we do not first exercise ourselves laboriously in the active life.

Where A contemplative life is a way of living that involves deep thought and connection to God or the highest principles of truth and beauty.

26. The true preparation for prayer consists in the exercise of mortification; for he who wishes to give himself up to prayer without mortification, is like a bird wishing to fly before it is fledged.





25. A most excellent means of learning how to pray is to acknowledge ourselves unworthy of such a benefit, and to put ourselves entirely into the hands of the Lord.

24. The religious state is indeed the highest, but it is not suitable for all.

23. A man without prayer is an animal without the use of reason.

22. An excellent method of preserving ourselves from relapsing into serious faults, is to say every evening, “To-morrow I may be dead.”





21. There is nothing the devil fears so much, or so much tries to hinder, as prayer





20. The greatest help to perseverance in the spiritual life is the habit of prayer, especially under the direction of our confessor.

Those who scoff at the power of prayer- like the scientists at the New York Times, reject Sacred Scripture and deny the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Not only did Jesus teach his disciples how to pray the pater noster (Our Father,) Jesus himself as a child, learned to pray from his earthly father.

19. He who does not go down into hell while he is alive, runs a great risk of going there after he is dead.




18. Beginners in religion ought to exercise themselves principally in meditation on the Four Last Things.

Where The Four Last Things are death, judgment, heaven, and hell




17. We must die at last

"the day is closer than when we first believed" Romans 13:11 
.


16. There is nothing good in this world: Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas.

“Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas” is a Latin phrase that means "vanity of vanities, all is vanity". It appears in the Bible in the book of Ecclesiastes. The phrase is often used to remind people that worldly possessions and pursuits are ultimately empty

15. When a man is in an occasion of sin, let him look what he is doing, get himself out of the occasion, and avoid the sin.

14. Let a man always think that he has God before his eyes.

13. Let a man frequent the holy Sacraments, go to sermons, and be often reading the Lives of Saints.

12. There is nothing more to the purpose for exciting a spirit of prayer, than the reading of spiritual books.

If you have never read the Bible, but want to know what is in it, take one minute and read the Our Father: it's a paraphrase


And if you want more detail, just read the Rosary. It's a compendium.


11. Every one ought to give in readily to the opinion of another, and to argue in favor of another and against himself, and take things in good part.

10. We must always remember that God does everything well, although we may not see the reason of what He does.

9. We must accept the adversities which God sends us without reasoning too much upon them, and we must take for granted that it is the best thing which could happen to us.

8. When a man is freed from a temptation or any other distress, let him take great care to show fitting gratitude to God for the benefit he has received.

7. Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and makes us persevere in a good life; wherefore the servant of God ought always to be in good spirits.

Scientifically, empirically and anecdotally, Catholics are a happier lot.





6. Tears are no sign that a man is in the grace of God, neither must we infer that one who weeps when he speaks of holy and devout things necessarily leads a holy life.





5. Perfection does not consist in such outward things as shedding tears and the like, but in true and solid virtues.


4. He who always acts under obedience, may rest assured that he will not have to give an account of his actions to God.

3. A man should force himself to be obedient, even in little things which appear of no moment; because he will thus render the practice of obedience in great matters easy to himself.


2. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is actually necessary, because there is no better means of obtaining God’s graces than through His most holy mother.


Dispelling Myths About Mary, Mother of God
Many so-called Christians poke fun at Catholics' veneration, some would say infatuation with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.



1. He who wishes to be wise without the true Wisdom, or saved without the Savior, is not well, but sick - is not wise, but a fool



January 2025

31. To mortify one passion, no matter how small, is a greater help in the spiritual life than many abstinences, fasts, and disciplines


30. A man who leads a common life under obedience, is more to be esteemed than one who does great penance after his own will.

29. In dealing with our neighbour, we must assume as much pleasantness of manner as we can, and by this affability win him to the way of virtue.

You can catch more flies with sugar than a barrel of vinegar. Saint Francis de Sales.






28. In order to be perfect, we must not only obey and honor our superiors; we must honor our equals and inferiors also.

27. It is not enough to see that God wishes the good we aim at, but that He wishes it through our instrumentality, in our manner and in our time; and we come to discern all this by true obedience.

If you  believe in the power of prayer


26. When tribulations, infirmities, and contradictions come, we must not run away in a fright, but vanquish them like men.

25. The most beautiful prayer we can make, is to say to God, “As Thou knowest and willest, O Lord, so do with me.”

Choosing to believe the New York Times or Padre Pio, largely determines whose will is more important; yours or God's? As C. S. Lewis writes: "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. 


24. The good works which we do of our own will, are not so meritorious as those that are done under obedience.


23. Our Blessed Lady ought to be our love and our consolation.

Those who scoff at the power of prayer- like the scientists at the New York Times, reject Sacred Scripture and deny the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob


22. In order to be really obedient, it is not enough to do what obedience commands, we must do it without reasoning upon it.





21. Obedience is the true holocaust which we sacrifice to God on the altar of our hearts.

Note: The Rosary is a portable temple




20. Let persons in the world sanctify themselves in their own houses, for neither the court, professions, or labour, are any hindrance to the service of God.





19. When the devil has failed in making a man fall, he puts forward all his energies to create distrust between the penitent and the confessor, and so by little and little he gains his end at last.





18. Before a man chooses his confessor, he ought to think well about it, and pray about it also; but when he has once chosen, he ought not to change, except for most urgent reasons, but put the utmost confidence in his director.

17. There is nothing which gives greater security to our actions, or more effectually cuts the snares the devil lays for us, than to follow another person’s will, rather than our own, in doing good.

16. They who really wish to advance in the ways of God, must give themselves up into the hands of their superiors always and in everything; and they who are not living under obedience must subject themselves of their own accord to a learned and discreet confessor, whom they must obey in the place of God, disclosing to him with perfect freedom and simplicity the affairs of their soul, and they should never come to any resolution without his advice.

15. Obedience is a short cut to perfection.

14. The name of Jesus, pronounced with reverence and affection, has a kind of power to soften the heart.


13. Men should often renew their good resolutions, and not lose heart because they are tempted against them.

12. A man should keep himself down, and not busy himself in mirabilibus super se.

This phrase comes from Psalm 131:1 in the Vulgate Bible, where the Psalmist says "Non est exaltatum cor meum, neque oculi mei superbios, neque ambulavi in mirabilibus super me" which means "My heart is not haughty, nor are my eyes lofty, nor do I walk in proud things too wonderful for me."


11. He who wishes to be perfectly obeyed, should give but few orders.



10. If God be with us, there is no one else left to fear.





9. God has no need of men
Why NPR's CEO Katherine Maher says that Truth is hazardous to progressive goals?

8. Spiritual persons ought to be equally ready to experience sweetness and consolation in the things of God, or to suffer and keep their ground in drynesses of spirit and devotion, and for as long as God pleases, without their making any complaint about it.

7. Let no one wear a mask, otherwise he will do ill; and if he has one, let him burn


 



6. He who wishes for anything but Christ, does not know what he wishes; he who asks for anything but Christ, does not know what he is asking; he who works, and not for Christ, does not know what he is doing.

5. It is well to choose some one good devotion, and to stick to it, and never to abandon it.





4. Happy is the youth, because he has time before him to do good.

3. We must not be behind time in doing good; for death will not be behind his time.

LORD, let me know my end, the number of my days,that I may learn how frail I am.
To be sure, you establish the expanse of my days; indeed, my life is as nothing before you.
Every man is but a breath. Psalm 39

2. Nulla dies sine linea: Do not let a day pass without doing some good.



Nulla dies sine linea is a Latin phrase meaning "no day without a line". The idea was originated by Pliny the Elder (Natural History, XXXV, 84), where the idea applies to the Greek painter Apelles, who did not go a day without drawing at least one line. The phrase itself is attested for the first time in the Proverbiorum libellus by Polydore Vergil (1470-1555).


1. WELL! when shall we have a mind to begin to do good?





Sunday, December 29, 2024

The Feast of the Holy Family

While the family is the single most important institution on earth, the family is also in far more desperate straits today than it ever was in the history of the world - Peter Kreeft


The Feast of the Holy Family celebrates the human family unit, as well as the ultimate family unit: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

The feast is usually celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas. If Christmas is a Sunday, then the feast is celebrated on December 30.

The devotion to the Holy Family was born in Bethlehem along with baby Jesus. The shepherds went to adore the Child, and at the same time, they gave honor to His family. Later, in a similar way, the three wise men came from the East to adore and give honor to the newborn King with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh that would be safeguarded by His family.



The Feast of the Holy Family is not just about the Holy Family, but about our own families too. The main purpose of the Feast is to present the Holy Family as the model for all Christian families, and for domestic life in general. Our family life becomes sanctified when we live the life of the Church within our homes. This is called the "domestic church.” St. John Chrysostom urged all Christians to make each home a "family church," and in doing so, this sanctifies the family unit.



The Church affirms that the family is the original cell of society, that the families' communion of persons closely resembles the persons of the Holy Trinity.



Antonin Gaudi called God's Architect was so inspired by the notion, he designed the Holy Family (Sagrada Familia) Cathedral in Barcelona, Spain.Pope St. John Paul II said, “The future of humanity passes by way of the family.” "The family is the foundation of co-existence and a remedy against social fragmentation. Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child’s development and emotional maturity". – Pope Francis Humanum Conference, November 17, 2014.




A marriage is the creation of a family, the very essence of the family. The minimum core of it. It is the thing that in itself constitutes a family and without which we do not have a family, no matter what else we have. A marriage is in essence a man and a woman who promise fidelity and are open to having children. That is the essence of the design created and willed by God the Creator. No one can change thar design.we can only change the names.



Even when a family becomes dysfunctional. It is still a family. It's a dysfunctional family, not a non-family. A bad family can become a good family.  But a good partnership or a good friendship or a good business cannot become a family. There's a little bad in the best of us and a little good in the worst of us. And there's always hope for all of us.

"The Catholic Church is the only institution in the world that still, everywhere and always, teaches the fundamental and universal principle of sexual, marital and family fidelity.

That is why she is scorned, and sneered at by the secular media and hated and feared by the devil: because she dares to stand up to what St. John Paul the Great dared to call our culture of death  and what Pope Benedict XVI called the 'dictatorship of relativism' and  stand for every single human being's intrinsic, inviolable, and inalienable right to life from the moment of Conception to the moment of natural death. Her not to abortion, her no to divorce, her not to the 'sexual revolution" and sexual infidelity, and her no to euthanasia ate all essential parts of that seamless garment of pro-life issues." Peter Kreeft


According to Peter Kreeft, while the family is the single most important institution on earth, the family is also in far more desperate straits today than it ever was in the history of the world. Every society in history that has had a high respect for religion has also had a high respect for family- and vice versa. Half of our families commit suicide by divorcing. That's what a divorce is: the ripping apart of the 'one fresh' created by marriage.


An unhealthy family cannot fulfill its mission in the world. In 1965, 25% of African American children were raised fatherless. Today it is 75% According to Fathers.com children from fatherless homes are more likely to be poor, become involved in drug and alcohol abuse, drop out of school, and suffer from health and emotional problems. Boys are more likely to become involved in crime, and girls are more likely to become pregnant as teens. Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. In 2011, 12 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.



Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse. There is significantly more drug use among children who do not live with their mother and father. A study of 1,977 children age 3 and older living with a residential father or father figure found that children living with married biological parents had significantly fewer externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems than children living with at least one non-biological parent. Children of single-parent homes are more than twice as likely to commit suicide. Data from three waves of the Fragile Families Study (N= 2,111) was used to examine the prevalence and effects of mothers’ relationship changes between birth and age 3 on their children’s well-being. Children born to single mothers show higher levels of aggressive behavior than children born to married mothers. Living in a single-mother household is equivalent to experiencing 5.25 partnership transitions.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life and event organizer, says Pope Francis wants the WMOF (The X World Meeting of Families Celebration took place in Rome starting June 22, through June 26, 2022,) to be lived in local Churches around the world, and points to the holy examples of married couples who have become canonized saints.


Pope Francis says that “Perfect families do not exist. This must not discourage us. Quite the opposite. Love is something we learn; love is something we live; love grows as it is 'forged' by the concrete situations which each particular family experiences. Love is born and constantly develops amid lights and shadows. Love can flourish in men and women who try not to make conflict the last word, but rather a new opportunity. An opportunity to seek help, an opportunity to question how we need to improve, an opportunity to discover the God Who is with us and never abandons us. This is a great legacy that we can give to our children, a very good lesson: we make mistakes, yes; we have problems, yes. But we know that that is not really what counts. We know that mistakes, problems and conflicts are an opportunity to draw closer to others, to draw closer to God.”-- Address to Festival of Families, Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Sept. 27, 2015

Finally, the Holy Father is asking the1.2 billion fellow Catholics around the world to pray for the spiritual health of the family. The father is the spiritual leader of the family and leaders set the tone. There are countless issues Pope Francis could focus on, but he is prioritizing the need to pray for families—to strengthen and encourage them at a time when the future does not seem too bright. The power and reality of intercessory prayer means that brothers and sisters in Christ are lifting up your family’s intentions to the Lord. And with the World Meeting of Families official prayer, you and your family are also invited to intercede for others.






Just how does one live out the Church in the family? The best way is by making Christ the center of family and individual life. Ways to do this include reading scripture regularly, praying daily, attending Mass at least on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, imitating the actions of the Holy Family, going to confession frequently, all done together as a family unit.