Wisdom of Saint Philip Neri

"When we find nothing in this world to please us, we ought to be pleased by this very fact of not finding anything pleasing in this world."

--Saint Philip Neri, Maxims and Counsels.

In his love for irony, the Apostle of Joy turns inside out the ennui and dissatisfaction that a soul practicing true devotion can often experience. Saint Philip wants us to realize that, if coming from the right source, this dissatisfaction or lack of finding anything truly pleasing in life is a grace, not a cross. It is a sign that, by the action of grace, by our life of prayer, by our practice of self-denial, by our practice of the works of mercy, we have finally begun to love Heaven more than the Earth, the life to come more than the one that now is. This is a sure sign that our affections have begun to be set on the only place of true satisfaction, because there alone in unrestricted fullness will be the One for Whom our hearts have been made, Who alone can grant us the peace that comes from finally resting without fear of loss in the Ocean of complete satisfaction that God is.

- Fr. D.B. Thompson