St. Philip Neri said.....

[Denise]

"Beginners in religion ought to exercise themselves principally in meditation on the Four Last Things."

[Denise]

"He who does not go down into hell while he is alive, runs a great risk of going there after he is dead."

[Denise]

"The greatest help to perseverance in the spiritual life is the habit of prayer, especially under the direction of our confessor."

[Denise]

"There is nothing the devil fears so much, or so much tries to hinder, as prayer."

[Denise]

"An excellent method of preserving ourselves from relapsing into serious faults, is to say every evening, 'Tomorrow I may be dead.' "

[Denise]

"A man without prayer is an animal without the use of reason."

[Denise]

"The religious state is indeed the highest, but it is not suitable for all."

[Denise]

"A most excellent means of learning how to pray, is to acknowledge ourselves unworthy of such a benefit, and to put ourselves entirely into the hands of the Lord."

[Denise]

"The true preparation for prayer consists in the exercise of mortification; for he who wishes to give himself up to prayer without mortification, is like a bird wishing to fly before it is fledged."

[Denise]

"We can never arrive at the contemplative life, if we do not first exercise ourselves laboriously in the active life."

[Denise]

"We must exercise the spirit which God gives us in prayer, and follow that; so that, when, for example, it inclines us to meditate on the Passion, we must not wish to meditate on some other mystery."

[Denise]

"When a person goes to communion, he ought to follow the same spirit he had in prayer, and not be casting about for new meditations."

[Denise]

"We must never pray for a favor for anyone, except conditionally, saying, 'If it please God,' or the like."

[Denise]

"When a spiritual person feels a great calmness of mind in asking anything of God, it is a good sign that God either has granted it, or will do so shortly."

[Denise]

"A man ought never to think he has done any good, or rest contented with any degree of perfection he may have attained, because Christ has given us the type of our perfection, in putting before us the perfection of the Eternal Father. Be ye perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect."