Wisdom of Saint Philip Neri

"The fruit we ought to get from prayer is to do what is pleasing to the Lord."

--Saint Philip Neri, Maxims and Counsels.

Here the great Saint of joy cuts away all the emotionalism (not emotion) of our time and his. It is easy to give up our daily fidelity to prayer (or never to develop it) if we think prayer is meant to make me feel a certain way, or if having or not having a certain feeling is a sign of God's presence or absence. This is rubbish.

Prayer is our personal time with the Lord. It is intimate not because it feels a certain way, but because it draws us as close as possible to the One Who has lived my soul "unto death, and death on the cross." There, meditating with Him and in His presence on the mysteries of His life, I come to know Him better and to know myself as He sees me. Then, I grow to love Him more and more. And the fruit of knowing and loving Him, is (as the Baltimore Catechism teaches) to serve Him better and better. Thus, Father Philip that the fruit of prayer is to do what is pleasing to the Lord.

The same truth is taught from a slightly different angle by Saint Jean-Marie Vianney, when Msgr. Convert records him having taught,

"God loves us more than the best of fathers and more tenderly than the most devoted of mothers. We have only to abandon ourselves to His will with the heart of a child."

- Fr. D.B. Thompson