Suggested Reflections
Acts 1:12-14; Psalm 27:1,4,7-8; Peter 4:13-16; John 17:1-11A
In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles devoted themselves to prayer after the ascension of Jesus into Heaven. How can we, like the apostles, more fully devote ourselves to prayer? What are some of your favorite prayers?
In the second reading from Peter, we are told to rejoice even when we experience pain and suffering. How does your faith help you in times of suffering? What is one example of a time when you turned to God for guidance when you felt like all was lost?
In the Gospel reading, Jesus prays for the current and future disciples, all those who believe in him. How can we act as an example of Christ in our day-to-day lives so that others may see why we believe?
Born in 1515 in Florence, he showed the impulsiveness and spontaneity of his character from the time he was a boy. In fact one incident almost cost him his life. Seeing a donkey loaded with fruit for market, the little boy had barely formed the thought of jumping on the donkey's back before he had done it. The donkey, surprised, lost his footing, and donkey, fruit, and boy tumbled into the cellar with the boy winding up on the bottom! Miraculously he was unhurt. His father was not successful financially and at eighteen Philip was sent to work with an older cousin who was a successful businessman.
During this time, Philip found a favorite place to pray up in the fissure of a mountain that had been turned into a chapel. We don't know anything specific about his conversion but during these hours of prayer he decided to leave worldly success behind and dedicate his life to God.
After thanking his cousin, he went to Rome in 1533 where he was the live-in tutor of the sons of a fellow Florentine. He studied philosophy and theology until he thought his studies were interfering with his prayer life. He then stopped his studies, threw away his books, and lived as a kind of hermit.
Philip was known to be spontaneous and unpredictable, charming and humorous. He understood that it wasn't enough to tell young people not to do something-you had to give them something to do in its place. He said some of the most devout people were those who had come to him at night. When others complained, Philip answered, "They can chop wood on my back so long as they do not sin."
Night was his special time of prayer. After dark he would go out in the streets, sometimes to churches, but most often into the catacombs of St. Sebastiano to pray. During one of these times of prayer he felt a globe of light enter his mouth and sink into his heart. This experience gave him so much energy to serve God that he went out to work at the hospital of the incurables and starting speaking to others about God, everyone from beggars to bankers.
In 1548 Philip formed a confraternity with other laymen to minister to pilgrims who came to Rome without food or shelter. The spiritual director of the confraternity convinced Philip that he could do even more work as a priest. After receiving instruction from this priest, Philip was ordained in 1551.
At his new home, the church of San Girolamo, he learned to love to hear confessions. Young men especially found in him the wisdom and direction they needed to grow spiritually. But Philip began to realize that these young men needed something more than absolution; they needed guidance during their daily lives. So Philip began to ask the young men to come by in the early afternoon when they would discuss spiritual readings and then stay for prayer in the evening. The numbers of the men who attended these meetings grew rapidly. In order to handle the growth, Philip and a fellow pries
Humility was the most important virtue he tried to teach others and to learn himself.
Philip preferred spiritual mortification to physical mortification. When one man asked Philip if he could wear a hair shirt, Philip gave him permission - if he wore the hair shirt outside his clothes! The man obeyed and found humility in the jokes and name-calling he received.
Philip did not escape this spiritual mortification himself. As with others, his own humbling held humor. There are stories of him wearing ridiculous clothes or walking around with half his beard shaved off. The greater his reputation for holiness the sillier he wanted to seem. When some people came from Poland to see the great saint, they found him listening to another priest read to him from joke books.
Philip was very serious about prayer, spending hours in prayer. He was so easily carried away that he refused to preach in public and could not celebrate Mass with others around. But he when asked how to pray his answer was, "Be humble and obedient and the Holy Spirit will teach you."
FEAST DAY, MAY 26
Philip died in 1595 after a long illness at the age of eighty years. His Feast Day is May 26 and he is a patron of Rome.