They who have been exercised in the service of God for a long time, may in their prayers imagine all sorts of insults offered to them, such as blows, wounds, and the like, and so in order to imitate Christ by their charity, may accustom their hearts beforehand to forgive real injuries when they come.
Philip NeriAt communion we ought to ask for the remedy of the vice to which we feel ourselves most inclined.
Philip NeriIt is an old custom of the servants of God to have some little prayer ready and to be frequently darting them up to heaven during the day, lifting their minds to God out of the mire of this world.
Philip NeriThere is nothing more dangerous in the spiritual life, than to wish to rule ourselves after our own way of thinking.
Philip NeriIn this life there is no purgatory; it is either hell or paradise; for to him who serves God truly, every trouble and infirmity turns into consolations, and through all kinds of trouble he has a paradise within himself even in this world: and he who does not serve God truly, and gives himself up to sensuality, has one hell in this world, and another in the next.
Philip Neri