Maxims of St. Philip Neri

The following maxims are from the January collection of maxims and sayings written by St. Philip Neri as a yearly spiritual guide. I am sharing the ones that I feel will benefit us the most. As you can see, St. Philip Neri stresses the virtue of obedience.

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

- 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.

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

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

- Obedience is a short cut to perfection.

- 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.

- 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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