20140822-01Two episodes highlight Philip’s efforts to live fraternity, as he himself describes:

When I was at Naval College I slept in a big room with 200 beds. We had to wake up early, and remain motionless while our Officer spoke. I knew that I could see and love Jesus in the many others who were far from their families and, as soon as we could move, I made my bed and sometimes the beds of some of the others and I said ‘Good morning!’ to all those I met in the corridors.

One evening, when I was saying good night with a big smile to a friend, he said to me, ‘Philip you’re happy, and you can see it is because of God! I think I will come to Mass with you.’ For three years I had been trying to greet everyone and love each person and I experienced the truth of the sentence: where there is no love, put love, and you’ll find love. In fact, while I was in trouble in a final of a fencing tournament, my colleagues began to encourage me, cheering: ‘Good morning Philip! Good morning Philip! ‘And I won the tournament. ”

Putting love where there is no love is also the secret that allowed him to overcome the inevitable difficulties of living the Gospel: “One night two colleagues who sometimes teased me for my way of life, came back to the dorm drunk and they woke me up by hitting me. The next morning, while they were still asleep some friends encouraged me to take revenge. But I thought, I’ll take another kind of revenge, a revenge of love. So I went to the kitchen and I prepared a nice breakfast for them with sandwiches, milk, chocolate, fruit, juice, and I also wrote a note that said: Good morning!

When they woke up, they did not understand why I had done this and they hugged me and said they were sorry. The next day, when I woke up, I found a piece of cake beside my bed, with a note that said: Good morning !! It was the same guy who had hit me. Really love conquers all. ”

Source: www.loppiano.it

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