St Philip Neri is the patron saint of joy and happiness. One of his famous quotes:
"Let us aim for joy, rather than respectability.
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 played pranks and made people laugh in order to combat pride or hero worship. Of course, laughter in a church is not expected, but outside the church Christians should laugh more than anyone else.
Jesus said "Follow me". And we should follow happily and willingly. But we can take ourselves so seriously that we find trouble following Him in humility. We should laugh from sheer joy that God made us and He loves us in spite the idiots we are. That should make us very happy. (Universalis app)
Do we see ourselves or each other as God sees us? The love of God makes us do great things according to St Philip Neri. However, we do tend to muddle up our relationship with God and others because we try too hard to be those whom we really are not.
