10 Lessons from Saint Philip

Colleen Mallette describes how Saint Philip teaches us how to be open to God's desire to use us to proclaim His Word. 

Today is the Feast of St. Philip. He was one of Jesus’ apostles, but we know very little of him. He was a follower of John the Baptist before becoming a follower of Jesus. He was part of the group of twelve during all of Jesus’ public ministry and was in the Upper Room with them when the Holy Spirit descended on all of them on Pentecost.   

There are a few other mentions of St. Philip in John’s Gospel and Acts of the Apostles that show he was a man of great faith.

With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. ... And many paralyzed and crippled people were cured. And there was great joy in that city. (Acts 8:6-8)  

My favorite story about St. Philip; however, is later in chapter eight, when he converts an Ethiopian eunuch just by his words (Acts 8: 26-40). There are several good reasons to love this story and learn from his behavior as a loyal follower of Jesus:  

1. St. Philip showed an openness to God when he listened to the angel who spoke to him. 
2. He showed trusting obedience by immediately doing the odd thing the angel told him to do: go south on the road that leads into the desert. “So he got up and set out.” (27)
3. He again obeyed the angel when told to approach a foreign chariot that was an upper-class Ethiopian, not from Philip’s background or social status. 
4. Philip didn’t waste time arguing, debating, or questioning the angel. “So Philip ran up to him.” (30)  
5. He showed courage and boldness to interrupt and inquire to the riders in the chariot about what they were reading. 
6. When the foreign man asked Philip to explain the Scriptures, he humbly agreed and showed no prejudice to join the man in his chariot. 
7. St. Philip then allowed the Holy Spirit to guide his words in explaining the passage from Isaiah to him and “proclaimed Jesus to him.” (35) 
8. Philips’ words were so powerful they converted the man to believe in Jesus Christ. 
9. He didn’t hesitate to encourage the man to then be baptized right then and there as they approached some water, despite not being Jewish. 
10. This experience gave great joy to the man, as those mentioned above who had been ministered to by St. Philip, “he continued on his way rejoicing.” (39) 

So, the lessons we can learn from St. Philip include being open to God’s voice and the Spirit’s guidance, love, and faith in Jesus as our Messiah, plus trust, obedience, courage, boldness, humility, zeal, and action as God’s messenger and servant. 

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We can follow St. Philip’s example of listening to opportunities to witness to our faith. #CatholicMom

We can follow St. Philip’s example of listening to opportunities to witness to our faith, hearing the promptings of the Holy Spirit when to speak up and with what words, then following it up with acting in confidence of God’s power to work in their heart by inviting them to join the faith.  

Copyright 2023 Colleen Mallette
Images: (top, bottom) Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; (center) Spinello Aretino, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons