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 is 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

MARCH 2025

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

 

Link to X post

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?