Aphorisms, quotations from the sayings, famous phrases of San Filippo Neri, a Catholic priest of Florentine origin who dedicated a large part of his life to the evangelization of Rome, bringing many street children closer to the church making them have fun and sing.
Famous phrases from the writings
Children, be merry, be merry.
- I want you not to sin, but to be happy.
- I don't want scruples, I don't want melancholies. Scruples and melancholy, far from my home.
- Paradise! Paradise! Wait to win in small things if you want to win in big things.
- It is not time to sleep, because Heaven is not made for armchairs.
- Inner Christian rejoicing is a gift of God, derived from good conscience, through the contempt for earthly things, combined with the contemplation of the heavenly ... Sin is opposed to our rejoicing; on the contrary, whoever is a servant of sin cannot even taste it: ambition is chiefly opposed to it: meaning is an enemy, and vanity and deduction are very much an enemy. Our rejoicing runs great danger and is often lost by dealing with worldly things, with the consortium of the ambitious, with the delight of shows.
- To those who complained when young people made a fuss he said: Leave them, my dear, grumble as much as they want. You follow your business, and be cheerfully, because I want nothing else from you except that you do not sin. And to the boys who made too much noise he said: Stand still, if you can.
- Obedience, Humility, Detachment.
- Perfection does not consist in external things, such as crying and other similar things, and tears are not a sign that man is in God's grace.
- Holiness is all in three fingers of space, and he touched his forehead, that is, in mortifying the rational, that is, contrasting himself, his own love, his own judgment.
Recommended readings- Phrases of St. Dominic of Guzman: biography
- Phrases of Santa Gemma Galgani: quotes and aphorisms
- Phrases of Saint Anthony of Padua: quotes, aphorisms
- Phrases of San Filippo Neri: famous aphorisms from the writings
- Phrases of San Camillo de Lellis: quotes and thoughts
- We must desire to do great things for the service of God, and not be satisfied with a mediocre goodness, but have a desire (if it were possible) to pass in saintliness and love also St. Peter and St. Paul: which, although l man is not to achieve, one must desire with all this, to do at least with desire what we cannot with works.
- It is not arrogant to desire to pass any saint into holiness: because the desire to be holy is the desire to want to love and honor God above all things: and this desire, if it were possible, should be extended infinitely, because God is worthy of infinite honor.
- Whoever wants something other than Christ, does not know what he wants. Whoever asks for something other than Christ, does not know what he is asking for. Those who work and not for Christ do not know what to do.
- The soul that gives itself entirely to God is all of God.
- When you buy love of God there is no more true and shorter road than to detach yourself from the love of the things of the world that are still small and of little moment and from the love of yourself, loving in us the will and service of God, that our satisfaction and will.
- How is it possible that a man who believes in God could love anything other than God?
- How much love is placed in creatures, so much is taken away from God.
- The greatness of God's love is recognized by the greatness of man's desire to suffer for his sake.
- To those who truly love God, nothing greater can be displeasing than having an opportunity to suffer for Him.
- True servants of God have life in patience and death in desire.
- Whoever does not often rise to life with the thought in Heaven, greatly dangers of not going up after death.
- The man who does not pray is an animal without reason.
- The enemy of our health is no longer saddened, and nothing tries to prevent prayer anymore.
- There is no better thing for man than prayer, and without it one cannot last long in the life of the spirit.
- To make a good prayer, the soul first must deeply humble itself and know itself unworthy to stand before such majesty, what is the majesty of God, and
show God her need and powerlessness, and humiliate throwing herself in God, whom God will teach her to pray.
- Everyone would like to stay on Mount Tabor to see Christ transfigured: few would like to accompany Christ on Mount Calvary.
- Throw yourself in God, throw yourself in God, and know that if he wants something from you, he will make you good in everything he wants to work for you.
- We must have great trust in God, who is what he has always been: and we must not be dismayed by what happens otherwise.
- I want nothing but your most holy will, O my Jesus.
- When the soul is resigned to the hands of God, and is satisfied with the divine approval, it is in good hands, and it is very sure that it has a good role to play.
- It is an excellent remedy, in the time of tribulations and aridity of spirit, to imagine oneself to be like a beggar, in the presence of God and the Saints, and as such go now to this Saint, now to that other to ask them for alms spiritual, with that affection and truth from which the poor usually ask. And this is done at times corporally, now going to the Church of this Saint, and now to the Church of that other to ask for this holy alms.
- The real preparation for prayer is to practice mortification: because wanting to give to prayer without this is as if a bird had wanted
start flying before putting feathers.
- Do not take on too many devotions, but take on few, and persevere in them. Not so many devotions, but so much devotion.
- Children, be humble, be low: be humble, be low.
- Humble yourselves always, and lower yourselves in your and others' eyes, so that you may become great in the eyes of God.
- God has always sought in the hearts of men the spirit of humility, and a feeling of low self. There is nothing that displeases God more than being inflated with one's own esteem.
- It is not enough just to honor your superiors, but you still have to honor your equals and your inferiors, and try to be the first to honor.
- About vainglory he said: There are three sorts of vainglory. The first is Mistress and it is when this goes before the work and the work is done for the purpose of vainglory. The second is the Companion and occurs when man does not do the work for the purpose of vainglory, but in doing so he feels complacency. The third is Serva and occurs when vainglory arises when doing the work, but the person immediately represses it.
- To purchase the gift of humility, four things are necessary: spernere mundum, spernere nullum, spernare seipsum, spernare se sperni: that is, to despise the world, not to despise anyone, to despise oneself, not to account for being despised. And he added, compared to the last degree: I have not arrived at this: I would like to arrive at this.
- Any kind of honor was firmly escaped: My children, take my words well, rather I would pray that God would send me death, or rather a thunderbolt, than the thought of such dignity. I long for the spirit and virtue of the Cardinals and Popes, but not their greatness already.
- Children, humiliate your mind, subject your judgment.
- The whole importance of the Christian life consists in mortifying the rational.
- It is much more beneficial to mortify one's own passion for a child than it is, than many abstinences, fasts and disciplines.
- External mortifications greatly help in the purchase of internal mortification and other virtues.
- Good obedience is when you obey without speech and keep for sure what is commanded is the best thing you can do.
- Obedience is the true holocaust that sacrifices itself to God on the altar of our heart, and we must strive to obey even in small things, and which seem to be no moment, since in this way the person makes himself easy to be obedient in major things.
- It is better to obey the sacristan and the porter when they call than to stay in the room to pray.
- Whoever wants to be obeyed a lot, commands little.
- My children, be devoted to Our Lady: be devoted to Mary.
The Blessed Virgin loves those who call her Virgin and Mother of God, and who name before her the most holy name of Jesus, who has the strength to soften the heart.
- Know, children, and believe me, that I know: there is no more powerful means of obtaining graces from God than the Blessed Virgin.
- Mary called my love, my consolation, my mother.
- The frequent confession of sins is the cause of great good for our soul, because it purifies, heals and firm it in the service of God.
- In confessing, man accuses himself before the most serious sins and of which he is most ashamed: because in this way the demon is more confused and to draw more fruit from the confession. The temptations of the devil, a superb and dark spirit, are not overcome better than with the humility of the heart, and by simply and clearly manifesting the sins and temptations to the confessor without a blanket.
- The real custody of chastity is humility: and yet when you feel someone's fall, you have to move with compassion, and not with disdain: because having no mercy in such cases is a manifest sign of having to fall quickly.
- He gave these advice to young people: flee bad company, do not gently nourish the body, abhor idleness, pray, attend the sacraments
often, and particularly confession.
- Against temptations of faith he invited us to say: I believe, I believe, or that the Creed was recited.
