Praised be Jesus and Mary. Now and forever. 
Today is the memorial of St. Philip Neri, who was born in Florence in 1515. At that time, when he was young, some of the citizens were struggling to free themselves of the rule of the Medici family. And they succeeded in establishing a republic when Philip was 11, only to see Medici rule restored three years later after a long siege. Against that historical background, Philip grew up unusually virtuous. He was nicknamed Good People because it seemed impossible to get him angry, even though he was a very lively child. The worst thing anyone could remember that he ever did was that once he gave one of his sisters a little shove. Because she was interrupting the Psalms that he liked to pray and that he was praying with his other sister.
He frequented the Dominican friary of San Marco. And though not an outstanding student, he did learn Latin well, thanks to an extraordinary mental deafness and a formidable memory. Around the age of 17, he went to Cassino to work with a cousin in business. But through long hours of prayer at Monte Cassino and at the split mountain at Gaeta, he perceived that the designs of providence were different. So in 1533, he moved to Rome and adopted the habit of a hermit. He arrived with no money, but soon made the acquaintance of the Florentine head of the customs office, who gave him room and board in exchange for teaching his two sons. The two sons grew up to be very good priests. And so this is how he lived for 17 years as a layman, a teacher to these two sons, and speaking to people about dedicating time to prayer and speaking to people about God.
He spent three of those years studying philosophy and theology, though he actually spent much more time in prayer than in study. He was really a mystic, and when he decided that study would no longer help him, he sold his books and gave the money to the poor. His preferred devotion was nocturnal visits to the seven most important churches in Rome. He began to frequent hospitals to serve the sick. Later, he would send many of his spiritual children to these training grounds to learn charity. He would sometimes spend the night in the catacombs of St. Sebastian to pray. And it was there, on Pentecost 1544, that he had the experience to which the introit and the prayer, the collect, at the beginning of Mass refer. He saw a globe of fire, which entered his mouth and lodged in his breast. It expanded his heart, setting him so aflame with love that he felt physically hot. It even literally expanded his heart, arching and breaking two of his ribs to make room for the bigger heart. But this never caused him physical pain.
He spoke to all sorts of people about spiritual things. He met St. Ignatius of Loyola, and found the first Italian vocations for him, but he did not personally intend to become a religious, much less a priest, out of humility. But when, in 1548, he joined his confessor to found the Confraternity of Pilgrims and Convalescents, to take care of pilgrims coming to Rome, who would be coming especially for the 1550 Jubilee, and also people convalescing for other reasons. When he joined his confessor in founding that, he took the first step toward his specific mission in life, the institution of the oratory.
The Confraternity adopted the 40 hours devotion, 40 hours of adoration in a particular church. On the first Sunday of the month, St. Philip spent the whole day in church, and occasionally, during the day, he would give a brief talk to those present. Sometimes young men would come to make fun of him, but they usually left converted. In 1551, he finally agreed to be ordained a priest.
After ordination, he moved in with his confessor, who lived in a home for priests next to San Girolamo della Carità. He became known as a confessor. He usually heard confessions until a little before noon, and then celebrated Mass. In this way, he gathered around himself a group of young men and boys, whom he guided on the path to sanctity. Besides the confessions, he also gave spiritual talks to the group, and they went on walking pilgrimages together. Some of the other priests who lived there were bothered by all the noise the group made, and the two sacristans were annoyed at him because Philip said Mass late, went into ecstasy, and trembled all over while saying it, and actually left tooth marks on the rim of the chalice. So they decided to make his life impossible by giving him the dirtiest vestments they could, locking the sacristy when he had to go to vest, or moving him from altar to altar.
One day while he was celebrating Mass, St. Philip fixed his eyes on the crucifix and sighed, O good Jesus, why don't you listen to me? You see how long I have been begging you to give me patience. Why then don't you hear me, and why is my soul troubled by thoughts of anger and impatience? Patience, Philip, Christ answered him, I will give it to you soon, and on one condition, that if your heart truly desires it, you earn it by conquering these temptations. 
He did try to do his best to avoid going into ecstasy during Mass. He had a book of funny stories, and he would read some before Mass to distract himself.
In 1557, when life was difficult for him in Rome, and he was considering how much good St. Francis Xavier was doing, he thought that he should go to India. He spoke with the Cistercian Prior of Tre Fontane, who told him that he had had a vision of St. John the Evangelist, who said that St. Philip's India was Rome. Hundreds of St. Philip's sayings are preserved. Putting his hand to his forehead, he was accustomed to say, holiness lies in the space of three fingers, meaning that it depends essentially on the humility of the intelligence. Of Our Lady, he said, know my children and believe me, for I know that there is no more powerful means of obtaining graces from God than Our Most Holy Lady. He called Mary, my love, my consolation, my mama.
Many saints came to him for counsel, or were friends of his, including St. Charles Borromeo and St. Camillus de Lellis, and St. Felix of Cantalice, not to mention many cardinals and some popes. In 1575, he founded the Congregation of the Oratory. This was named for the events that St. Philip organized, which alternated preaching with music. The music drove people to the Oratory, and gave them time to think about what the preacher had said. By this time, his sanctity had become more widely recognized. He was perhaps the most popular man in Rome, and he became concerned that this would lead to pride. So he tried to appear crazy to hurt his reputation. He tried wearing strange clothing. He put his clothes on inside out. He wore a large blue cushion on his head, or big white shoes on his head. He tried shaving half his beard and going out that way to dance in the streets, but nothing worked. People still thought that he was a saint.
He spent the last three years of his life in almost continual prayer. In 1592, he was freed of a serious illness by the Blessed Virgin, who appeared to him and carried him through the air in the presence of doctors. He finally died after a last illness on May 26, 1595, after having burned his readings and received extreme unction from Cesare Cardinal Baronio and viaticum from Federico Cardinal Borromeo. 
Praised be Jesus and Mary. Now and forever.