the crucified orator 742 man who delights in them into the pains of hell. He [David] calls them also the “snares of death” because whoever is entangled by them, does not easily avoid grave sin, which brings death to the soul. In such a way did the ever-prudent king free himself from their bonds, as he teaches us clearly in these words: “My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for [H]e will pluck my feet out of the net” (Ps 25:15). For the mind continually raised to the Lord is impenetrable to the suggestions of the enemy. Useful for this consideration is what Philip Neri, the very holy priest and founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, related about himself. Every day he continually repeated the declaration that he would expand the wound in the side of Christ our Lord, unless He place His bound hands upon his head. The head is the seat of thoughts. Thus Philip desired that his head continually remain in the hands of Christ, so that the accomplice of hell might not agitate his imagination with filthy images and poison his soul with pernicious thoughts. Miserable and falling sinner, in no other way will you preserve your soul free from dangerous fall, if you — along with the psalmist — will not nag the Son of God with this request and unceasing supplication: “Into your hands,” Lord, “I commend my spirit” (cf. Ps 31:6). To You I want to dedicate my thoughts. I do not wish to have or allow any other thoughts, except those that come from You or are about You or for You, O Jesus! To You I commend my spirit! Let us pass from the thought to the soul itself. The hellish thief plots to ambush it so very carefully and cleverly, that Peter, the Leader and Father of the Church, considered it necessary to admonish us so that we be earnestly guarded from and cleverly escape him: Brothers, “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour” (1 Pet 5:8). He could not more explicitly show us our danger than by ascribing the lion’s raging and roaring to the devil, and [saying] that we would be his prey, if we are not prudently and alertly vigilant. By roaring, the lion confines the prey which he desires to seize. The demon acts similarly to capture our soul.
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