In this space, we examine the unique charism of St. Philip Neri (1515-1595) and all who came in contact with him both in the course of his life and in the generations that followed.

This group includes the good bishop St. Francis de Sales in addition to the prodigious church historian Cesare Baronius as well as luminaries such as John Henry Newman and Frederick William Faber the hymnodist (both also of the Oratory), all of whom we shall marshal for the uses of our times.

This "joyful saint" known colloquially as "Good little Phil" by lay members as they gathered in droves around him in his "little oratory" was a man who firmly believed that the promises of Christ were in fact so uplifting that every waking moment was an excuse to share the "Good News" in his own little way with every single person he came in contact with.

As more an icon than a man, he was just as easy to spot him walking and chatting casually on the streets as he was standing (and even levitating) prominently upon the high altar.  He was a cheerful eccentric, it has been said, but his charm left a deep impression upon all he met.

Known for his playful sense of wit and deep love for silence and a love for the Holy Eucharist, this "Third Apostle of Rome" (after Sts. Peter and Paul) left an outsized impact upon the working out of a true Christian humanism from the troubled onstart of the modern world and its love of earthly vanities.

It is the basis of Neri's applied anthropology in his "spiritual exercises" and the rudiments of Christian cultivation that interest us.  Ranging from questions of eloquence and its place, to Scriptural study illuminated by the lives of the saints and the edifying history of the Church to the art of meditation and musical appreciation as material for everyday contemplation, we extract much food for thought from this founding saint of the Oratory.

"Let us aim for joy, rather than respectability", St. Philip once wrote. "Let us make fools of ourselves from time to time, and thus see ourselves, for a moment, as the all-wise God sees us." 

St. Philip Neri, heart inflamed by the Pentecost of the Holy Ghost, Ora pro nobis.