Who Doesn't Love St. Philip Neri?

I've lately been wanting to read a Russell Kirk biography. Why? Because I long for a replacement hero now that William F. Buckley has fallen in my eyes after reading his son's painful expose.

Oh I know, saints are our heroes, after Christ, but often we need a model of a model, if you catch my drift. Or a model of a model of a model. For greater accessibility you know.

I seem to take it as a knock on Buckley's piety that he suffered at the end without the peace that transcends all understanding, nevermind that I continually fall into the same trap.

Today, in the Word Among Us, I read a quote from St. Philip Neri:

"Sympathy with those who have fallen is the best way of not falling yourself."

Suggesting that rather than throw WFB overboard, I should pray for him and have greater sympathy for him and the trial at the end of his life.