THE MAXIMS AND SAYINGS OF ST PHILIP NERI

PREFACE.

The following pages are a translation of the Ricordi e Detti di San Filippo Neri, published at Turin. Their purpose cannot be better described than in the words of the Italian editor: “It was the aim and study of the holy father, Philip Neri, to introduce among Christians a daily spiritual repast. His children, who have drunk of the spirit of their holy father, have always sought to cultivate this custom of a spiritual repast among devout persons; and among the plans which they have tried, and the practices they have introduced, one, gentle reader, is a collection of the sayings and doings of the Saint, distributed into the number of the days of the year, to the end that every one might have each day, either a maxim to meditate upon, or a virtue to copy. The method of using these sayings and doings, is to read only one of them each day, and that the one set apart for the current day, (for to read more would not be food but curiosity,) and then to regulate the actions of the day by that maxim or example. I am sure that by doing this you will reap an abundant harvest, especially if to the maxim or example you add some particular devotion to the Saint who was the author of it. I think it useless to make any long commendation of this practice; but it is well you should know that by the daily suggestion of such truths, the fruit which the saint obtained in Rome was immense; and so also will it be in your soul if you practise it in a true spirit of devotion. Farewell.”

F.W. FABER.

St. Wilfrid’s,

Feast of St. Bridget, 1847.

JANUARY.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

9. God has no need of men.

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

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

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

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

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

15. Obedience is a short cut to perfection.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

FEBRUARY.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

17. We must die at last.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

28. We must first 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.

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.

MARCH.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

18. Let them also avoid nourishing their bodies delicately.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

30. In order to begin well, and to finish better, it is quite necessary to hear mass every day, unless there be some lawful hindrance in the way.

APRIL.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.”

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.”

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

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

13 We must avoid lies as we would a pestilence.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

20. Let the sick man enter into the Side of Jesus and His most holy Wounds; let him not be afraid, but combat manfully, and he will come forth victorious.

21. The true way to advance in holy virtues, is to persevere in a holy cheerfulness.

22. The cheerful are much easier to guide in the spiritual life than the melancholy.

23. Those who wish to enter upon the religious life, should first of all mortify themselves for a long time, and particularly mortify their will in things to which they have the greatest repugnance.

24. Excessive sadness seldom springs from any other source than pride.

25. Charity and cheerfulness, or charity and humility, should be our motto.

26. It is very necessary to be cheerful, but we must not on that account give in to a buffooning spirit.

27. Buffoonery incapacitates a person from receiving any additional spirituality from God.

28. Nay more, it roots up the little a man may have already acquired.

29. At table, especially where there are guests, we ought to eat every kind of food, and not say, “I like this,” and “I do not like that.”

30. Human language cannot express the beauty of a soul which dies in a state of grace.

MAY.

1. If a man finds it very hard to forgive injuries, let him look at a crucifix, and think that Christ has shed all His Blood for him, and not only forgave his enemies, but prayed the Eternal Father to forgive them also.

2. Let him remember also that when he says the Pater Noster every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling down vengeance upon them.

3. Men are generally the carpenters of their own crosses.

4. Let us concentrate ourselves so completely in the divine love, and enter so far into the living fountain of wisdom, through the wounded Side of our Incarnate God, that we may deny ourselves and our self-love, and so be unable to find our way out of that Wound again.

5. We must not give up praying and asking, because we do not get what we ask all at once.

6. He who is unable to spend a long time together in prayer, should often lift up his mind to God by ejaculations.

7. We must often remember what Christ said, that not he who begins, but he that perseveres to the end, shall be saved.

8. We ought to abhor every kind of affectation, whether in talking, dressing, or anything else.

9. When a scrupulous person has once made up his mind that he has not consented to a temptation, he must not reason the matter over again to see whether he has really consented or not, for the same temptations often return by making this sort of reflections.

10. If those who are molested by scruples wish to know whether they have consented to a suggestion or not, especially in thoughts, they should see whether, during the temptation, they have always had a lively love to the virtue opposed to the vice in respect of which they were tempted, and hatred to that same vice, and this is mostly a good proof that they have not consented.

11. The scrupulous should remit themselves always and in everything to the judgment of their confessor, and accustom themselves to have a contempt for their own scruples.

12. Scruples are an infirmity which will make a truce with a man, but very rarely peace; humility alone comes off conqueror over them.

13. Even in bodily indispositions spiritual remedies are the most helpful.

14. As much love as we give to creatures, just so much we steal from the Creator.

15. Penitents ought never to force their confessor to give them leave to do anything against his inclination.

16. He who has the slightest taint of avarice about him, will never make the least advance in virtue.

17. Avarice is the pest of the soul.

18. Experience shows that men given to carnal sins are converted sooner than those who are given to avarice.

19. He who wishes for goods will never have devotion.

20. All sins are highly displeasing to God, but above all sensuality and avarice, which are very difficult to cure.

21. We must always pray God not to let the spirit of avarice domineer over us, but that we may live detached from the affections of this world,

22. If we find nothing in the world to please us, we ought to be pleased by this very not finding anything to please us.

23. He who wishes to attain to perfection must have no attachment to anything.

24. It is a good thing to leave the world and our possessions to serve God, but it is not enough.

25. The greatness of our love of God must be tested by the desire we have of suffering for His love.

26. Let us strive after purity of heart, for the Holy Spirit dwells in candid and simple minds.

27. The Holy Spirit is the master of prayer, and causes us to abide in continual peace and cheerfulness, which is a foretaste of Paradise.

28. If we wish the Holy Spirit to teach us how to pray, we must practise humility and obedience.

29. The fruit we ought to get from prayer, is to do what is pleasing to the Lord.

30. A virtuous life consists in mortifying vices, sins, bad thoughts, and evil affections, and in exercising ourselves in the acquisition of holy virtues.

31. Let us be humble and keep ourselves down:- Obedience! Humility! Detachment!

JUNE.

1. The love which our Blessed Lady had for God was so great, that she suffered keenly through her desire of union with Him; hence the Eternal Father, to console her, sent her His only and beloved Son.

2. If you wish to come where I am going, that is, to glory, you must come this road, that is, through thorns.

3. Before communion, we ought to exercise ourselves in many acts of virtue.

4. Prayer and communion are not to be made or desired for the sake of the devotion we feel in them, for that is seeking self, and not God; but we must be frequent in both the one and the other in order to become humble, obedient, gentle, and patient.

5. When we see these virtues in a man, then we know that he has really gathered the fruit of prayer and of communion.

6. Our sweet Jesus, through the excess of His love and liberality, has left Himself to us in the Most Holy Sacrament.

7. Let all go to the Eucharistic Table with a great desire for that Sacred Food. Sitientes! Sitientes!

8. To feel any displeasure because we are refused the Communion, is a sign of hardiness, pride, and a want of mortification.

9. Those who are going to Communion should prepare themselves for more temptations than usual, for the Lord will not have us stand idle.

10. It is a good thing, during the week that follows our communion-day, to do something more than usual; for example, to say five Our Fathers and Hail Maries with our arms extended, or an extra rosary.

11. It is not a good thing to load ourselves with many spiritual exercises; it is better to undertake a little, and go on with it: for if the devil can persuade us to omit an exercise once, he will easily get us to omit it the second time, and the third, until at last all our pious practices will melt away.

12. We must take care of little faults: for he who once begins to go backward, and to make light of such defects, brings a sort of grossness over his conscience, and then goes wrong altogether.

13. The servant of God ought to seek knowledge, but never to show it or make a parade of it.

14. Let us always go to confession with sincerity, and take this as our rule - Never out of human respect to conceal anything from our confessor, however inconsiderable it may be.

15. He who conceals a grave sin in confession, is completely in the devil’s hands.

16. Penitents should not generally change their confessors, nor confessors be forward to receive the penitents of others, a few particular cases excepted.

17. When a person who has been living a spiritual life for a long time falls into a serious fault, there is no better way of raising him up again than by exhorting him to manifest his fall to any pious friend with whom he has a particular intimacy: and God will reconduct him to his first estate for the sake of his humility.

18. For young men to make sure of persevering, it is absolutely necessary that they should avoid wicked companions, and be familiar with good ones.

19. In the spiritual life there are three degrees: the first may be called the animal life; this is the life of those who run after sensible devotion, which God generally gives to beginners, to allure them onwards by that sweetness to the spiritual life, just as an animal is drawn on by a sensible object.

20. The second degree may be called the human life; this is the life of those who do not experience any sensible sweetness, but by the help of virtue combat their own passions.

21. The third degree may be called the angelic life; this is the life which they come to, who, having been exercised for a long time in the taming of their own passions, receive from God a quiet, tranquil, and almost angelic life, even in this world, feeling no trouble or repugnance in anything.

22. Of these three degrees it is well to persevere in the second, because the Lord will grant the third in His own good time.

23. We must not be too ready to trust young men who have great devotion; we must wait till their wings are grown, and then see what sort of a flight they make.

24. Outward mortifications are a great help towards the acquisition of interior mortification and the other virtues.

25. He who cannot put up with the loss of his honour, can never make any advance in spiritual things.

26. It is generally better to give the body rather too much food than rather too little; for the too much can be easily subtracted, but when a man has injured his constitution by the too little, it is not so easy to get right again.

27. The devil has a crafty custom of sometimes urging spiritual persons to penances and mortifications, in order that by going indiscreet lengths in this way, they may so weaken themselves as to be unable to attend to good works of greater importance; or be so intimidated by the sickliness they have brought upon themselves as to abandon their customary devotions, and at last turn their backs on the service of God.