Thought for the Day – 26 May
St Philip Neri was one of those rare religious geniuses who leave the familiar paths and create something entirely new. He is the kind of saint that you simply cannot put into a category, for what he did was completely unique and totally unprecedented. His personality and “heart brimming with love” were most attractive to all – his friends were saints and highly creative men but the people of the streets loved him just as much as he loved them, from beggars to cardinals, he was a friend.
He too is the patron saint of joy countered with great humility and with this in mind, he could become a powerful intercessor for people who have periods of depression. We pray to St Valentine and St Raphael – so that these saints may find us romantic partners who will love us. But we might do well to pray to St Philip Neri that he inspires us with the ability to cherish others and to be filled with the joy of love… Perhaps most acutely for our selfie age, he could become an intercessor for people who agonise over how they look, who spend all their free time finding flattering selfies to post on Facebook and find that narcissism is beginning to rule their lives and indeed, is this not exactly true of the age of relativism, when it is only “I’ that count?
St Philip Neri pray for us!
AnaStpaul 