Saint Philip Neri's Food for the Soul 2Q2025

Philip Romolo Neri, aka 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

Saint Philip Neri's Food for the Soul 1Q2025


Saint Philip Neri's Food for the Soul 4Q2024

The Power of Prayer: The Paraphrase and Compendium of the Gospel.

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

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 2Q2025.

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.

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

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

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

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

Maxims For April 2025

19. The sick man must not fear when he is tempted to lose confidence; for if he has sinned, Christ has suffered and paid for him.

The Ultimate Reparation was paid in full: Tetelestai!

18. A sick man should make God a present of his will; and if it turns out that he has to suffer for a long time, he must submit to the Divine Will.

O Death, Where Is Thy Sting? The Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

17. In visiting the dying we should not say many words to them, but rather help them by praying for them.

O Death, Where Is Thy Sting? The Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

16. In trying to get rid of bad habits, it is of the greatest importance not to put off going to confession after a fall, and also to keep to the same confessor.

15. One of the very best means of obtaining humility, is sincere and frequent confession.

14. When we go to confession, we should accuse ourselves of our worst sins first, and of those things which we are most ashamed of, because by this means we put the devil to greater confusion, and reap more fruit from our confession.

13 We must avoid lies as we would a pestilence.

12. We must not trust in ourselves, but take the advice of our spiritual father, and recommend ourselves to everybody’s prayers.

11. The stench of impurity before God and the angels is so great, that no stench in the world can equal it.

10. In temptation we ought not to say, “I will do,” “I will say,” for it is a species of presumption and self-confidence; we ought rather to say with humility, “I know what I ought to do, but I do not know what I shall do.”

9. It is a most useful thing to say often, and from the heart, “Lord, do not put any confidence in me, for I am sure to fall if Thou dost not help me;” or, “O my Lord, look for nothing but evil from me.”
more fruit from our confession.

8. When a person puts himself in an occasion of sin, saying, “I shall not fall, I shall not commit it,” it is an almost infallible sign that he will fall, and with all the greater damage to his soul.

7. We should be less alarmed for one who is tempted in the flesh, and who resists by avoiding the occasions, than for one who is not tempted and is not careful to avoid the occasions.

6. In the warfare of the flesh, only cowards gain the victory; that is to say, those who fly.

5. Never say, “What great things the Saints do,” but, “What great things God does in His Saints.”

4. When sensual thoughts come into the mind, we ought immediately to make use of our minds, and fix them instantaneously upon something or other, no matter what.

3. As soon as a man feels that he is tempted, he should fly to God, and devoutly utter that ejaculation which the fathers of the desert so much esteemed: Deus in adjutorium meum intende; Domine ad adjuvandum me festina: or that verse, cor mundum crea in me Deus.

Deus in adjutorium meum intende; Domine ad adjuvandum me festina" translates to "O God, make haste to help me; O Lord, make haste to help me,"  the opening verse of Psalm 69

Cor mundum crea in me, Deus: et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis. Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew an upright spirit within me. The distribution of Ashes marks the beginning of Lent, accompanied by the Miserere sung to the famous setting by Allegri

2. Let a man who desires the first place take the last.

1. To acquire and preserve the virtue of chastity, we have need of a good and experienced confessor.