St. Philip Neri said.....

[Denise]

"Prayer and communion are not to be made or desired for the sake of the devotion we feel in them, for that is seeking self, and not God; but we must be frequent in both the one and the other in order to become humble, obedient, gentle, and patient."

[Denise]

"When we see these virtues--humility, obedience, gentleness, and patience--in a man, then we know that he has really gathered the fruit of prayer and of communion."

[Denise]

"Our sweet Jesus, through the excess of His love and liberality, has left Himself to us in the Most Holy Sacrament."

[Denise]

"Let all go to the Eucharistic Table with a great desire for that Sacred Food. Sitientes! Sitientes! (Thirsting)"

[Denise]

"To feel any displeasure because we are refused the Communion, is a sign of hardiness, pride, and a want of mortification."

[Denise]

"Those who are going to Communion should prepare themselves for more temptations than usual, for the Lord will not have us stand idle."

[Denise]

"It is a good thing, during the week that follows our communion-day, to do something more than usual; for example, to say five Our Fathers and Hail Mary's with our arms extended, or an extra rosary."

[Denise]

"It is not a good thing to load ourselves with many spiritual exercises; it is better to undertake a little, and go on with it: for if the devil can persuade us to omit an exercise once, he will easily get us to omit it the second time, and the third, until at last all our pious practices will melt away."

[Denise]

"We must take care of little faults: for he who once begins to go backward, and to make light of such defects, brings a sort of grossness over his conscience, and then goes wrong altogether."

[Denise]

"The servant of God ought to seek knowledge, but never to show it or make a parade of it."

[Denise]

Let us always go to confession with sincerity, and take this as our rule - Never out of human respect to conceal anything from our confessor, however inconsiderable it may be.

[Denise]

"He who conceals a grave sin in confession, is completely in the devil's hands."

[Denise]

"Penitents should not generally change their confessors, nor confessors be forward to receive the penitents of others, a few particular cases excepted."

[Denise]

"When a person who has been living a spiritual life for a long time falls into a serious fault, there is no better way of raising him up again than by exhorting him to manifest his fall to any pious friend with whom he has a particular intimacy: and God will reconduct him to his first estate for the sake of his humility."

[Denise]

"For young men to make sure of persevering, it is absolutely necessary that they should avoid wicked companions, and be familiar with good ones."