Episodes
Monday May 16, 2016
School of St. Philip Neri - On the Love of God
Monday May 16, 2016
Monday May 16, 2016
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Peter's Square Wednesday, 7 November 2012
The Year of Faith. The desire for God.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The journey of reflection that we are making together during this Year of Faith leads us to meditate today on a fascinating aspect of the human and the Christian experience: man carries within himself a mysterious desire for God. In a very significant way, the Catechism of the Catholic Church opens precisely with the following consideration: “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for” (n. 27).
A statement like this, that even today in many cultural contexts seems quite acceptable, even obvious, might, however, be taken as a provocation in the West’s secularized culture. Many of our contemporaries might actually object that they have no such desire for God. For large sectors of society he is no longer the one longed for or desired but rather a reality that leaves them indifferent, one on which there is no need even to comment. In reality, what we have defined as “the desire for God” has not entirely disappeared and it still appears today, in many ways, in the heart of man. Human desire always tends to certain concrete goods, often anything but spiritual, and yet it has to face the question of what is truly “the” good, and thus is confronted with something other than itself, something man cannot build but he is called to recognize. What can really satisfy man’s desire?
In my first Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, I sought to analyze how such dynamism can be found in the experience of human love, an experience that in our age is more easily perceived as a moment of ecstasy, of leaving oneself, like a place in which man feels overcome by a desire that surpasses him. Through love, a man and a woman experience in a new way, thanks to each other, the greatness and beauty of life and of what is real. If what is experienced is not a mere illusion, if I truly want the good of the other as a means for my own good, then I must be willing not to be self-centred, to place myself at the other’s service, even to the point of self-denial. The answer to the question on the meaning of the experience of love then passes through the purification and healing of the will, required in loving the other. We must cultivate, encourage, and also correct ourselves, so that this good can truly be loved.
Thus the initial ecstasy becomes a pilgrimage, “an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God” (Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, n. 6). Through this journey one will be able to deepen gradually one’s knowledge of that love, initially experienced. And the mystery that it represents will become more and more defined: in fact, not even the beloved is capable of satisfying the desire that dwells in the human heart. In fact, the more authentic one’s love for the other is, the more it reveals the question of its origin and its destiny, of the possibility that it may endure for ever. Therefore, the human experience of love has in itself a dynamism that refers beyond the self, it is the experience of a good that leads to being drawn out and finding oneself before the mystery that encompasses the whole of existence.
One could make similar observation about other human experiences as well, such as friendship, encountering beauty, loving knowledge: every good experienced by man projects him toward the mystery that surrounds the human being; every desire that springs up in the human heart echoes a fundamental desire that is never fully satisfied. Undoubtedly by such a deep desire, hidden, even enigmatic, one cannot arrive directly at faith. Men and women, after all, know well what does not satisfy them, but they cannot imagine or define what the happiness they long for in their hearts would be like. One cannot know God based on human desire alone. From this point of view he remains a mystery: man is the seeker of the Absolute, seeking with small and hesitant steps. And yet, already the experience of desire, of a “restless heart” as St Augustine called it, is very meaningful. It tells us that man is, deep down, a religious being (cf. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 28), a “beggar of God”. We can say with the words of Pascal: “Man infinitely surpasses man” (Pensées, ed. Chevalier 438; ed. Brunschvicg 434). Eyes recognize things when they are illuminated. From this comes a desire to know the light itself, what makes the things of the world shine and with them ignites the sense of beauty.
We must therefore maintain that it is possible also in this age, seemingly so blocked to the transcendent dimension, to begin a journey toward the true religious meaning of life, that shows how the gift of faith is not senseless, is not irrational. It would be very useful, to that end, to foster a kind of pedagogy of desire, both for the journey of one who does not yet believe and for the one who has already received the gift of faith. It should be a pedagogy that covers at least two aspects. In the first place, to discover or rediscover the taste of the authentic joy of life. Not all satisfactions have the same effect on us: some leave a positive after-taste, able to calm the soul and make us more active and generous. Others, however, after the initial delight, seem to disappoint the expectations that they had awakened and sometimes leave behind them a sense of bitterness, dissatisfaction or emptiness. Instilling in someone from a young age the taste for true joy, in every area of life – family, friendship, solidarity with those who suffer, self-renunciation for the sake of the other, love of knowledge, art, the beauty of nature — all this means exercising the inner taste and producing antibodies that can fight the trivialization and the dulling widespread today. Adults too need to rediscover this joy, to desire authenticity, to purify themselves of the mediocrity that might infest them. It will then become easier to drop or reject everything that although attractive proves to be, in fact, insipid, a source of indifference and not of freedom. And this will bring out that desire for God of which we are speaking.
A second aspect that goes hand in hand with the preceding one is never to be content with what you have achieved. It is precisely the truest joy that unleashes in us the healthy restlessness that leads us to be more demanding — to want a higher good, a deeper good — and at the same time to perceive ever more clearly that no finite thing can fill our heart. In this way we will learn to strive, unarmed, for the good that we cannot build or attain by our own power; and we will learn to not be discouraged by the difficulty or the obstacles that come from our sin.
In this regard, we must not forget that the dynamism of desire is always open to redemption. Even when it strays from the path, when it follows artificial paradises and seems to lose the capacity of yearning for the true good. Even in the abyss of sin, that ember is never fully extinguished in man. It allows him to recognize the true good, to savour it, and thus to start out again on a path of ascent; God, by the gift of his grace, never denies man his help. We all, moreover, need to set out on the path of purification and healing of desire. We are pilgrims, heading for the heavenly homeland, toward that full and eternal good that nothing will be able to take away from us. This is not, then, about suffocating the longing that dwells in the heart of man, but about freeing it, so that it can reach its true height. When in desire one opens the window to God, this is already a sign of the presence of faith in the soul, faith that is a grace of God. St Augustine always says: “so God, by deferring our hope, stretched our desire; by the desiring, stretches the mind; by stretching, makes it more capacious” (Commentary on the First Letter of John, 4,6: PL 35, 2009).
On this pilgrimage, let us feel like brothers and sisters of all men, travelling companions even of those who do not believe, of those who are seeking, of those who are sincerely wondering about the dynamism of their own aspiration for the true and the good. Let us pray, in this Year of Faith, that God may show his face to all those who seek him with a sincere heart. Thank you.
Saturday Apr 30, 2016
Saturday Apr 30, 2016
Wednesday Mar 30, 2016
School of St. Philip Neri - Stability
Wednesday Mar 30, 2016
Wednesday Mar 30, 2016
On Stability in the Oratory
Selections from Blessed John Henry Newman’s Oratory Papers,
(Chapter Address, January/February 1856)
The Congregation is to be the home of the Oratorian. The Italians, I believe, have no word for home – nor is it an idea which readily enters in the mind of a foreigner, at least not so readily as into the mind of an Englishman, It is remarkable then that the Oratorian Fathers should have gone out of their way to express the idea by the metaphorical word nido or nest… The Congregation, according to St. Philip’s institution, is never to be so large that the members do not know each other. They are to be “bound together by that body of love, which daily intercourse creates, and thereby all are to know the ways of each, and feel a reverence for ‘countenances of familiar friends.’” Familiar faces, exciting reverence, daily intercourse,knowledge of each other’s ways, mutual love, what is this but a description of home?
St. Philip himself affords us an instance of that attachment to his home or nest, which was a characteristic of his Congregation after him.For thirty years and more he lived in one small room at St. Girolamo, and he did not quit Rome for more than sixty years… We know how unwilling he was to leave his old familiar abode, when the Congregation was placed in the Chiesa Nuova; the command of the Pope was necessary to move him, and when he moved, he seemed by his way of moving to take a good humoured vengeance on his spiritual children who had brought the Pope upon him.
Another remark may be made. As the Oratory is the home of the individual Father, so the town in which it is placed is the home of theOratory. A Congregation is a sort of native body in a town. It is not a body of foreign priests but at least in great measure, it is, as it were, the growth and fruit of a place…. The Oratory is thus emphatically a local institution; it acts on and is influenced by the town in which it is found, it is the representative of no distant of foreign interest, but lives among and is contented with its own people.
(Remarks on the Oratorian Vocation, 18 August 1856)
Our perfection is not wrought out either by the sacrifice of human affection or personal attachments. On the contrary, a love for each other, a love of the Oratory as a home, is one of the chief characteristics,bonds, and duties of its Fathers.
First of all, their vocation is to a fixed place, and, I may say, to a particular body. Regulars may consider themselves wanderers upon the face of the earth; such is not a Father of the Oratory. In spite of that detachment, which St. Philip esteemed so highly, he bids us, in his rule, “bind ourselves more closely to each other in love,” by “daily intercourse,” and “daily knowledge of one another’s way,” and even by the very look of “familiar countenances.” Accordingly, each house is said to be a “family,” and the Superior is “the Father.”
This is the reason, says the Rule, why the community must not be large; for then this distinct knowledge and loving intimacy of one with another cannot be. Brockie enlarges on this point. “The type of the Italian Oratory,” he says, “according to the mind of St. Philip, was a sort of holy family, having its own private house, and made up of just so many brothers as might be able to know and love each other well. The custom of years, known faces, similarity of character, all that creates human love, becomes that bond of union and perseverance which the founders of Orders and Religions place in the vow of absolute and perpetual obedience. Accordingly, it is a local, nay a domestic institution.”
Residence has inconsequence ever been enforced as a cardinal point in the Oratory…. And this residence, I say, is treated, not simply as a duty, but as a necessary bond of the community in the absence of vows, promoting as it does, a triple attachment, to the place and neighborhood,to the Fathers, and to one’s own room.… St. Philip himself was a remarkable instance of this attachment [to one’s own room]. St. Girolamo wash is old long-possessed nido or nest,in which he had experienced summers heat and winter’s cold, the jealousy and spite of enemies, and the throng and affection of generations of happy penitents. An attachment like this became a tradition of the Oratory; and the word nido is the term expressing it.
(Letter to the Oratorian Fathers, 31 August 1856)
One of the sure signs of the presence of the Spirit of God is peace. The Saints have gone through many fierce trials; I do not read that they were restless; or if they were ever so, I do not find that it came into the idea or definition of their saintliness. No two saints can be so different from each other as St. Philip and St. Ignatius – one so unassuming, the other so imperial. They are both indifferent ways inexpressibly calm – the calmness of St. Philip too the form of cheerfulness, that of St. Ignatius the form of majesty. What we do calmly, has weight.… The first element in St. Philip’s spirit is rest and peace.
(Chapter Address, 27 September 1856)
It is the saying of holy men that, if we wish to be perfect,we have nothing more to do than to perform the ordinary duties of the day well.I think this is an instruction which may be of great practical use to persons like ourselves who make a profession of aiming at perfection. It is easy to have vague ideas what perfection is, which serve well enough to talk about it,when we do not intend to aim at it – but as soon as a person really desires and sets about seeking it himself, he is dissatisfied with an thing but what is tangible and clear, and constitutes some sort of direction towards the practice of it.
He then is perfect who does the work of the day perfectly –and we need not go beyond this to seek for perfection. We are perfect, if we do perfectly our duties as members of the Oratory. I insist on this, because I think it will simplify our views, and fix our exertions on a definite aim. If you ask me what you are to do in order to be perfect, I say – first – Do not lie in bed beyond the due time of rising – give your first thoughts to God –make a good meditation – say or hear Mass and communicate with devotion – made a good thanksgiving – say carefully all the prayers which you are bound to say– say the Office attentively, do the work of the day, whatever it is,diligently and for God – make a good visit to the Blessed Sacrament. Say theAngelus devoutly – eat and drink to God’s glory – say the Rosary well, be recollected – keep out bad thoughts. Make your evening meditation well –examine yourself duly. Go do bed in due time, and you are already perfect.
Prayer to St. PhilipNeri
Look down from heaven, Holy Father, from the loftiness of that mountain to the lowliness of this valley; from that harbor of quietness and tranquility to this calamitous sea. And now that the darkness of this world hinders no more those kindly eyes of thine from looking clearly into all things, look down and visit, O most diligent keeper, this vineyard which thy right hand planted with so much labor, anxiety and peril. To thee then we fly;from thee we seek for aid; to thee we give our whole selves unreservedly. Thee we adopt as our patron and defender; undertake the cause of our salvation,protect thy clients. To thee we appeal as our leader; rule thine army fighting against the assaults of the devil. To thee, kindest of pilots, we give up the rudder of our lives; steer this little ship of thine, and, placed as thou art on high, keep us off all the rocks of evil desires, that with thee for our pilot and guide, we may safely come to the port of eternal bliss. Amen.
Friday Mar 25, 2016
School of St. Philip Neri - Enduring Tribulation
Friday Mar 25, 2016
Friday Mar 25, 2016
From The School of St. Philip Neri, “Of Tribulations, Persecutions, Adversities, and the Passions of the Soul”
The present Lesson on Tribulations being exceedingly important, it is necessary that we should attentively lend our heart, rather than our ear, to the advice and maxims given by our holy Master on the subject. He supplies a noble introduction to this Lesson by saying, “Nothing can be more glorious for a Christian than to suffer for Christ. There cannot be a greater distress to one who truly loves God than the not having opportunities to suffer for Him. The greatness of a man’s love for God may be known by the greatness of his desire to suffer for the love of Him. Nor is there a more clear and certain proof of the love of God than adversity.” Tarugi justly said that the hand of the Lord is most lavish in granting gifts and abundant spirituality when heavy tribulations approach and are impending over us.
But to return to the holy Master. He says that nothing more easily produces contempt of the world, and more unites the soul to God than the being troubled and afflicted; and, to induce us to seek this union, he says, “We must seek Christ where Christ is not, that is, in crosses and tribulations, in which He is not now, for He is in glory.”
This truth was well known and practiced in the holy School of Saint Philip. The great disciple Fr. Giovenale greatly valued tribulations, and looked at them with a very different eye from that of the world. He esteemed them so much, that, recognizing in them a certain sign of predestination, he said that tribulations are a pledge that a man is in the grace of God. And, for this reason, he used to recommend himself with particular confidence to the prayers of the afflicted, as the persons most beloved and favored by God.
If, to the eyes of the worldly, afflicted persons seem to wear a sad and distressed countenance, those who look upon them with the eyes of Saint Philip, will see their faces shining like those of angels. We learn this by the following example, given by Cardinal Frederick Borromeo.
A person fell into such a heavy affliction that few could be worse. It lasted long, and at the end of seven or eight days, Father Philip said that he saw his face completely changed, so that it seemed to be that of another person, and he said to him, “See, you have never before had that face: thank God very much for the tribulation; and I will thank Him too, for I see your face shining like that of an angel.”
The holy Master so much desired to impress this truth on the hearts of his people, that even after his death he wished to teach it, for when, on his flight to heaven, he appeared to a nun in the monastery of Saint Martha, he showed her a field full of thorns, saying to her, “If you would come where I am, you must pass through this;” meaning through tribulations.
If, then, tribulations are such necessary and ineffable blessings to the soul, how can we ever bare to complain of them? We should be most careful not to say that we cannot bear the adversity, for the holy Father reproves this, telling us to say, in such cases, that we are unworthy that the Lord should visit us with such blessings.
One tribulation alone ought to trouble us, and that is what the holy Master thus expresses: “The greatest tribulation which a servant of God can have is the being without tribulation, and they may justly be called unhappy who are not admitted into this school.”
The holy Master taught these doctrines not only in word, but in practice, for whatever has been related of his suffering falls far short of the truth, since they were for the most part concealed, as the Saint himself confessed to Domenico Migliacci, to whom, when speaking of his persecutions in San Girolamo, he said, “O Domenico, if you did but know wat I have suffered in that place.”
Since, then, according to the holy instructions and example of our Saint, we are disposed to bear afflictions with patience, let us know that patience is acquired by suffering tribulation, for when Saint Philip was imploring patience before the Crucified One, he heard an interior voice say to him, “Ask me not for patience, for know that I have given it to thee; but I would have thee acquire it by these means.”
In times of persecution, insult, unkindness, and other tribulations, the person should humble himself, imitating the holy Father, who on such occasions used to say, “Was I humble, God would not send me this. This tribulation is sent me, as God is willing to make me humble and patient; and when I have derived the fruit which God intends, and have been well mortified, the persecution will cease, When God sees that I am humble, He will remove this Cross from me.”
The holy Father, to exhort us to bear adversity with patience, tells us not to lose courage, for God is wont to weave human life of alternate sorrows and consolations, at least interior ones. We should never seek to fly from a cross, for we shall surely find a greater, and there cannot be a better thing than to make a virtue out of necessity; whereas men, for the most part, make their own crosses. Saint Philip also confirmed this instruction by his example, for when entreated by his people to leave the church of San Girolamo, where he had received affronts and insults, he relied that he could not do so on any account, that he might not fly from the cross which God had sent him in that place.
Fr. Giovanni Matteo Ancina says of those crosses which we suffer without fault, “The cross which we endure without fault is most precious, and the arms of Christ are a red cross on a white field, that is the cross accompanied by innocence.”
But though the holy Father teaches us that the great advantage that we may derive from tribulations, which make the Christian happy, are the most certain indication of the love of God, he nevertheless counsels us not to ask tribulations from God in the presumption that we shall be able to bear them, but desires us to use great caution in this, adding that man does no small thing who bears what God daily sends him.
Prayer to St. Philip Neri
Look down from heaven, Holy Father, from the loftiness of that mountain to the lowliness of this valley; from that harbor of quietness and tranquility to this calamitous sea. And now that the darkness of this world hinders no more those kindly eyes of thine from looking clearly into all things, look down and visit, O most diligent keeper, this vineyard which thy right hand planted with so much labor, anxiety and peril. To thee then we fly; from thee we seek for aid; to thee we give our whole selves unreservedly. Thee we adopt as our patron and defender; undertake the cause of our salvation, protect thy clients. To thee we appeal as our leader; rule thine army fighting against the assaults of the devil. To thee, kindest of pilots, we give up the rudder of our lives; steer this little ship of thine, and, placed as thou art on high, keep us off all the rocks of evil desires, that with thee for our pilot and guide, we may safely come to the port of eternal bliss. Amen.
Friday Mar 25, 2016
Sunday Sep 13, 2015
School of St. Philip Neri - Lovers of Solitude and Silence
Sunday Sep 13, 2015
Sunday Sep 13, 2015
The great benefit which the soul derives from retirement and the virtue of silence is clearly shown by the desire which David implored them of God: "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth"' and by the admonition of Saint James the Apostle, that he must not esteem himself religious who does not bridle the tongue. "If any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain."
Let us therefore esteem silence to be a most important thing. The mother of silence is retirement, and Saint Philip, who had to pass his life in the midst of Rome, which seemed opposed to retirement, which is generally only to be found in the deserts, was warned by God, by a special revelation, that he should live like a hermit there. The Saint obeyed, as did also his companions, of whom F. Pietro Consolini said, that the first Fathers of the Congregation were stayers at home, and that F. Cesare Baronius said to himself, "Stay at home Cesare," that he might not be unlike the holy Master, who was most careful to stay at home, either in the church or in his cell, and never left the house unless constrained to do so on works of charity.
Though, according to Tarugi, a spiritual man should, like Saint Catherine of Siena, form in his heart a cell, in which to retire frequently when in the midst of worldly occupations; and though, if a man cannot retire into himself and there find that peace which the Holy Spirit gives good consciences, he will never derive it from persons or places; still we should delight in retirement as far as becomes our state, since St. Philip, from his youth up, as far as he could, lived in solitude. His life was esteemed eremitical, and he was always most addicted to retirement.
Let us mortify ourselves sometimes by imitating the Saint who separated himself from intercourse with men and avoided conversations however innocent.
Silence is connected to retirement, and this, so far as it was in accordance with the Institute, was especially loved by Saint Philip during his whole life. We should love it, like F. Flaminio Ricci, devoting at least some hours of the day to its observance.
Amongst other innumerable good effects which this silence produced in Saint Philip, we are told that it greatly assisted him in the contemplation of divine things.
To produce another example, F. Alessandro Fedeli greatly loved retirement, prayer and contemplation, in which he found his delight and his advantage. Brother Battista Flores says of him, "The affection which he bore the exercises of the Oratory made him a friend of silence and solitude, a lover of home and of his room and he disliked to go far from his nest; also that Cardinal Antoniano, who was most familiar with the congregation, used to call him the "Silent one."
Monday Jun 15, 2015
The School of St. Philip Neri - On Perseverance
Monday Jun 15, 2015
Monday Jun 15, 2015
We continue during this 500th anniversary of St. Philip Neri's birth to consider his life and teachings. In the most gentle and thoughtful fashion, Philip sought to revitalize the faith of Catholics that had grown slack from neglect and from lack of guidance. He had the capacity to present the fullness of the spiritual traditions of the Church in the most appealing manner. Rooted in experience and common sense, Philip's teaching was both accessible and practical.
Such is the topic at hand: Perseverance. Having begun the spiritual life or even appearing to have made great strides is of little consequence. The important thing is to persevere to the end of one's life. This means to be measured in one's thinking and action, making use of discretion and understanding that spiritual development and growth does not take place in a day. It is a great labor we undertake and those lacking wisdom and prudence will often quit the course.
Beyond this, the path must not be taken alone but rather with a trusted guide and Confessor. The most important of these guides who nurtures us and educates us in the mysteries of the faith is Mary, the Mother of God.
Our food for the journey must be the grace of the Sacraments, in particular frequent confession and daily Mass whenever there is no impediment to such discipline.
While never relinquishing our resolutions, Philip counsels moderation in the spiritual disciplines we take upon ourselves; always sure never to overestimate our strength. It is better to attend to those practices well tried and that will bear fruit for us in time.
Finally, it is love of the virtues pursued that bring us to the desired end. We must hold on in the struggle and in the midst of failures; not seeking consolation for ourselves but rather to please God who alone can bring us to a happy end.
Sunday May 10, 2015
St. Philip Neri on Chastity
Sunday May 10, 2015
Sunday May 10, 2015
Once again St. Philip Neri proves to be the best of spiritual guides; particularly regarding his teachings on the struggle for chastity. Philip sought to maintain purity throughout the whole course of his life (at times through rather rigorous means) and kept unsullied the gift of his virginity. Despite his rigor, Philip did not suffer from scrupulosity; nor did he have a negative view of the human person or sexuality. Rather, he humbly understood the power of human desire and relentless nature of temptations that arise from the appetites. If he gave himself no leeway in maintaining strict mental and physical discipline and seemed not merely reserved in his relationships with members of the opposite sex but one might say severe, it was because he knew that no matter what age or how pure of heart one might be that the devil will never miss an opportunity to stir the bodily appetites which are a part of the human experience.
"To thee, O holy and Virgin Father, to whom the noxious vice of impurity was so displeasing, I thine unworthy servant commend myself, imploring they powerful help. Behold, the enemy assails me; already he begins to increase the number of his burning goads and piercing shafts; I accuse him to thee, I invoke thy miraculous name, Philip, Philip! Now is the time to give the aid of thy powerful patronage to my soul, which is in danger of falling into the hands of the filthy enemy. Defend it, holy Father, for thou canst do so."
Giuseppe Crispano
The School of Saint Philip Neri
Sunday Mar 15, 2015
On Exterior and Interior Mortification
Sunday Mar 15, 2015
Sunday Mar 15, 2015
Last night the Secular Oratorians gathered to discuss St. Philip Neri's teaching on mortification and how it can be applied to our daily lives and adapted to various stations of life. Along with the podcast, you will find below a selection from Bacci's biography of Philip on the mortifications that he used to exercise his spiritual children as well as a description of Philip's specific approach both to Exterior and Interior mortification. These have been provided so that you may more easily follow along with the discussion.
OF THE MORTIFICATIONS WITH WHICH PHILIP EXERCISED HIS SPIRITUAL CHILDREN.
Philip, as we have many times remarked already, was as anxious for the spiritual advancement of those beneath his care, as he was for his own; and one of the most constant exercises in which he occupied them was that of mortification. It would fill a whole book if I were to enumerate the different acts of mortification in which he tried them; it will be enough to mention a few of his most ordinary devices in that way. He used repeatedly to send his penitents, even though they were noble and distinguished persons, to ask alms at the church doors, where there was the greatest concourse of people, neither did he allow them to have their faces covered as the Sacconi have, so that they might not he known. He made them sweep the steps and street in front of the churches, and then carry the sweepings away. He ordered them to beg at sermons, a thing which was not usual in those times, and was considered disgraceful. When he built the rooms at San Girolamo, he made his penitents carry a good part of the materials, like common masons’ labourers. At other times he sent them to private houses to beg morsels of bread for the love of God; and he once ordered one of his spiritual children, who had got a new coat on, and took a vain pleasure in his fine clothes, to go to the door of Santa Maria Maggiore to ask alms, forbidding him to eat any thing that day but what was given him out of charity; and he then sent others on purpose to tease and mock him. Sometimes he sent them to the choir of the Dominicans to hear compline, and ordered them to he at full length, like corpses, on some benches, until the Salve Regina was finished. He had also a great many pairs of spectacles, although he very seldom used any at all; and he would sometimes put one pair on one person, another on another, especially if they were boys, and order them to go and do several things with the spectacles on. The inventions of this sort which he hit upon were almost numberless; but the end of all of them was to keep his spiritual children humble, and make them regardless of what others said or thought of them.
He made Father Francesco Bozzi lie flat on his face in church, in front of his confessional, in the morning while his penitents came to confession, and he kept him there for a considerable space of time. Another morning he did the same to Giovan Battista Ligera, a priest who was given to low spirits and scrupulosity. Anna Borromeo, who was also plagued by scruples, having confessed to the Saint one morning, came back presently afterwards to confess over again. Philip mortified her publicly in the church in the presence of several persons, by driving her away without hearing her confession, and reproaching her in a loud tone of voice. The lady, without changing countenance, turned modestly away, and left the church without making an answer in self-defence.
Another time he sent a young man to ring a bell through the Campo di Fiore and the street de’ Giubbonari, most populous places, in the most inhabited part of Rome; the artisans, attracted by the unusual sound, took him for a madman, and hissed him. Another time he sent one of his penitents through Rome with a great box lid fastened to his shoulders, on which was written in great letters, “For having eaten curds and whey!”
One day Philip went with several of his penitents to visit Cardinal Alessandrino, and before taking leave he said to the cardinal, “Monsignore, I wish you would give me something for these children of mine.” The cardinal, who understood the Saint thoroughly, knew very well that he was seeking an opportunity to mortify them; upon which he went immediately to a cupboard, and took out a large cake, and gave it to him. Philip thanked him, saying, “This is just what I wanted;” and as soon as they got out of the palace he broke the cake into several pieces, and gave a piece to each of them, ordering them all to begin eating, and so they went through the streets of Rome all munching the cake together, as if they were keeping time one with the other.
One of his penitents wishing to leave off the toupee, as was usual in those times, the Saint would not only not allow him to do so, but commanded him to have it trimmed; and to mortify him still further, he told him to go to Fra. Felice, the Capuchin, and that he would have the charity to dress his hair for him. The good penitent went accordingly, and Fra. Felice, who was in league with the Saint, instead of trimming him, shaved the whole of his head, which he bore with the most patient good humour. Another of his penitents, called Alberto Legnajuolo, asked the Saint’s leave to wear a hair shirt; the Saint said, “By all means, but on condition you wear it outside your gown.” The penitent readily obeyed, and wore it in this way till his death, so that people nicknamed him Berto of the hair shirt.
One of the most influential people at court had a dog, which he petted immensely, caressing it in the most extraordinary way, as he had quite a passion for animals. It happened that one morning a gentleman brought this dog with him to San Girolamo, and Philip beginning to caress it, the dog took such a fancy to him that it would not leave his rooms, although the Saint sent it back to its master time after time. At first the master of the animal was very much displeased at this, so he petted the dog more than ever to hinder it from running away, and even kept it tied for some days. At last, seeing that it always ran off to San Girolamo as soon as it was let loose, although Philip had nothing to give it but a bit of bread, he was quite struck with the animal’s attachment to the Saint, and said laughingly, in allusion to some of his gentlemen who by Philip’s persuasion had left the court in order to serve God more perfectly, “Father Philip is not content with taking men from me, but he must needs take even my animals away.” The holy father made great use of this dog in mortifying his spiritual children. Although it was very large, he made some of his penitents, even men of rank, carry it in their arms through the streets; he set others to wash and comb it; and others to lead it tied with a chain or cord through Rome, when he himself went out walking, so that it served to mortify Philip himself, as well as those who led it, for the dog was always trying to get ahead, and dragging his leaders after him, so that they looked like so many blind men led by a dog. The various mortifications in which this dog played its part, lasted for fourteen years; and they were so burdensome that Cardinal Tarugi used to call the animal, “The cruel scourge of human minds;” it would never leave Philip, and died in his room at last.
For the same end, that is, to serve as an occasion for mortifications, he left a cat at San Girolamo, when he went to live at the Vallicella; and for six years together he sent some of his people every day to look after her, and also to go to the shambles to buy meat for her; and when they came back, even though cardinals, prelates, or nobles, wore present, he always asked after the cat, whether they had made her comfortable, how she was, if she had eaten cheerfully, with many other minute questions, as if it had been a matter of the greatest importance.
When Cesaro Baronius first fell into his hands, he set to work training him in a disregard and contempt of himself and men’s opinion of him; and for this purpose he used often to send him to the public-house with a bottle large enough to hold more than six mugs full, and then he bade him ask for half a pint of wine to put into this huge bottle, but that first of all they were to wash the bottle out, and then he was to insist upon going into the cellar to see it drawn himself, and sometimes he was to ask them to give him change for a tester, and sometimes for a gold crown; and when Baronius began to put into execution all these precautions, the publicans, thinking he was making game of them, abused him lustily, and often threatened to give him a sound thrashing. When Baronius was a priest, and lived at S. Giovanni de’ Fiorentini, Philip used often to make him carry the cross before the dead bodies through the streets, by way of mortification.
He made several go about with a berretta of white cloth upon their heads, and others with a huge hat and a cord passing under the chin after the antique fashion. On others he put a large rosary, like a hermit’s, round their neck, and made them go to Church in that costume; and on others he put beards of taffety and gold lace. He often made F. Pietro Consolini wear purple taffety with threads of gold round his hat, and made him walk about Rome with it; and he repeatedly sent Giuliano Magaluffi into the refectory during supper, with a monkey shouldering a gun and with a berretta on its head, commanding him to walk about the refectory in that way. Thus he gave one mortification to one person, and another to another, as he judged expedient, continually repeating, “My children, mortify yourselves in little things, that you may the more easily be able to mortify yourselves in great ones afterwards.”
Neither can we in this matter think it less than wonderful that Philip never laid a mortification on any one, however extravagant it might be, without its being willingly accepted, or without its producing the fruit in the penitent’s soul at which the Saint was aiming. In fact, he knew who were capable of bearing such burdens and who were not. There were some who were thirty or forty years with him, and yet he never gave them one single mortification, in deed or word; others had scarcely come under him before he began to impose the most extravagant things upon them. But he had not only the gift of discerning those who were capable of submitting to mortifications, but also the nature of the mortifications to which they would submit, and in what degree of virtue they were at the time: and so he dealt with them as they could bear it, mortifying them or not as he thought best. To some he gave very severe mortifications, to others moderate ones, to others very little ones, according as he saw good for them, making it a great point that they should submit with alacrity.
As members of the Secular Oratory and students of the “School of St. Philip Neri”, we find in our holy Patron the greatest of spiritual guides. Though living in the midst of the city of Rome, St. Philip embodied the ascetic discipline of the Desert Fathers and shared their understanding of the human person and the need to control the appetites and transform the passions. Having studied the writings of St. John Cassian and St. John Climacus and put into practice their teachings from his youth, Philip became an adept spiritual guide for his disciples and remains so for those who look to his example and seek his counsel today.
Exterior mortification, the chastening of the body through fasting, vigils, and other bodily penances, is absolutely necessary for making progress in holiness. We must control our appetites and humble the body. This Philip did throughout the entirety of his life, even into old age. He warned that we must not pamper the body and to those who questioned the practice, Philip reminded in no uncertain terms: “Heaven is not for cowards!”
However, while exterior mortification is necessary, Philip also counseled that it should be practiced discreetly and only with the permission of one’s Confessor. One should not trust in private judgment in this regard for danger of falling into pride or injuring one’s health.
Furthermore, as necessary as such exterior mortification may be they are only a prelude to and of secondary importance to interior mortification which involves the subjugating of the will and understanding. Often the most difficult mortifications involve remaining silent when criticized and not making excuses when judged harshly, accepting work that is repugnant to us, and not seeking the praise of others or avoiding seeming the fool in their eyes.
On Exterior Mortification:
Bodily mortification is greatly needed by everyone who desires to make progress in perfection. Saint Philip, therefore, speaking of this mortification, says that exterior mortifications greatly assist in the acquisition of such as are interior and other virtues, and that without mortification we can do nothing. Therefore, let him who desires to be a faithful follower of the Saint know what he ought to practice, according to the examples and instructions of the holy Master.
He must not feed his body delicately, if he would imitate Saint Philip, who sharply chastised his, disciplining himself almost every day . . .
We must never easily indulge in the use of delicacies, either on account of age or from any other cause, but be incited by the example of our holy Master, who, notwithstanding his decrepid age, so augmented his abstinences and macerated still more his worn out body that, in the last years of his life, it had become so shriveled that nothing seemed left but skin and bone; but when someone said that he should consider his decrepitude, the holy man replied, “Paradise is not made for cowards.”
We must try to conceal our penances, after the example of our holy Master, who changed the conversation when anyone spoke to him of his rigorous disciplines, which they thought too severe, and turned it into another channel.
We must, as the holy Master admonishes us, beware of taking disciplines, or doing similar things, without the permission of our Confessor; for whoever does this on his own judgment should know that, according to the opinion of the holy Master, he will injure his constitution or become proud, thinking that he has done some great thing; and he subjoins this maxim, that true perfection consists in captivating our own will and acting according to that of our superiors. He was thus wont to tell his people that he made no account of abstinences, fasts or anything else performed in self-will; but that they must be careful to mortify their reason even in little things, if they hoped to overcome in greater things, and make progress in the path of virtue. . . . These bodily penances must be made with discretion, since the holy Master warns us that the devil sometimes cunningly incites spiritual men to penance and to bodily austerities, to the end that, by performing them indiscreetly, they may weaken themselves in such a way that either they can no longer attend to works of greater profit, or else that, terrified by the illnesses that they incur, they may abandon their accustomed exercises and turn their backs on the service of God.
But although these bodily mortifications are commended and inculcated, the holy Master, nevertheless in order to show the far greater advantage of interior mortification, said that we must not attach ourselves to the means as to forget the end, which is charity, the love of God, and the mortification of the understanding : and that it avails far more to mortify a passion, however small it may be, than to use many abstinences, fasts, and disciplines: and he more highly esteemed those persons who, attending moderately to the mortification of the body, used all diligence in mortifying their will and their understanding, even in little things, than those who gave themselves up entirely to corporeal rigors and austerities.
On Interior mortification:
The holy Master was accustomed to say: “The sanctity of a man lies within the space of three fingers;” and when he said this he touched his forehead, and then added in explanation, “The most important thing of all is to mortify the understanding (razionale)” – a word very familiar with him.
This razionale is to be mortified in small things, if we desire to overcome in greater, and to make progress in the way of virtue. The Saint frequently repeated, “My sons, mortify yourselves in little things, that you may hereafter be able to mortify yourselves in greater.” By the mortification of the razionale Saint Philip means, as the good disciple Alessandro Fideli explains it, that a man must contend against himself and conquer his own affections, subjugate his passions, and never do his own will, excepting under obedience. Baronius used to say, in reference to this subject, “Nothing is so pleasing to God as the renunciation of our own will.” On other occasions the holy Master explained the point in question by saying, “A man must not reason too much; he must not reason anything: he must not play the prudent. . . . .
The holy Master so highly valued this virtue of mortification that he always had on his lips the sentence of Saint Bernard: “to despise the world; to despise no one, to despise oneself, to despise being despised.”
When a person is accused of what he has not done, he must mortify himself by making no reply or excuse. The holy Master was extremely displeased when anyone excused himself, for he said that anyone who really desired to become a Saint ought (excepting in some few cases) never excuse himself, but always to acknowledge himself to have been in fault, although he should be unjustly blamed; and he used to call self-excusing persons, “My Lady Eve.”
If we must sometimes be employed in business repugnant to our own will and which seems contrary to human prudence, we should endeavor to mortify ourselves. Likewise, in conversation, a person may have a fitting exercise of mortification either by not telling anything which would result in his own praise, or by feigning ignorance of what he knows. The more mortifications such as these are multiplied and repeated and touch us to the quick, the great should be our cheerfulness of heart in receiving them.
We should the more sedulously seek to acquire interior mortification, as Saint Philip says, “When anyone can break his own will, and renounce the desires of his soul, he is in a good degree of virtue, and the not doing of this is the origin of many temptations.” In that case, a person will be easily offended and break up a friendship, and will seldom be cheerful, but generally melancholy and disturbed at what happens to him. So taught the Master by word and deed, for it is recorded of him, that, by the exercise of mortification, he had gained the entire mastery over his natural passions; and he had disciples so truly mortified, that they relished the fruit of mortification.