CHRIST was performing so many amazing miracles that the people could not help but exclaim: “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” (Mk 7,37) Eventually through these miracles, among many other things, people were convinced that Christ...
REMEMBER that gospel episode where a Greek woman begged Christ to drive the demon out of her daughter? (cfr. Mk 7,24-30) That is one clear instance when God can test us to see if we really have faith in him or not. There’s always that...
“From one’s heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mk 7, 21-23) With these words, Christ is practically telling us that we have to take good care of...
YES, we have to be wary of our tendency to be stricter and holier than God himself. This happened among many of the Pharisees in the gospel who made laws, and interpreted and applied these laws according to their own understanding, without referring them to...
THAT gospel story of Christ attracting people wherever he went, always asking for favors and miracles, (cfr. Mk 6,53-56) should remind us that we all need to hunger for God always. We have to strongly counter the tendency to be attracted only to worldly things. For...
(An excerpt from the Homily of Most Rev. Romulo G. Valles, D.D., Archbishop of Davao, January 25, 2022 during the live streamed mass of the 39th Parochial Fiesta Celebration of San Pablo Parish, Juna Subdivision, Matina, Davao City) Now we have the gospel reading of this...
Jesus stayed for 30 years in their home in Nazareth and spent three years of his public preaching the Kingdom of Heaven. As Jesus went home every now and then, Mother Mary may somehow have known the perils which Jesus was meeting. The apostles could...
We celebrated last February 2 the world day for consecrated and religious life. Pope Francis invited each one, especially those in the consecrated and religious life to a life of participation. As Pope Francis in his message on the coming synod on synodality in 2023,...
LET’S always remember that our life is not simply a natural, human life. It is also meant to be supernatural since it is supposed to be a life with God, involved in his work of creation and redemption of mankind, and in the over-all providence...
IF we have to be realistic about our Christian life, we should prepare ourselves for possible martyrdom anytime and even for the flimsiest of reasons. What happened to St. John the Baptist, who tried his best to be most faithful to his vocation, (cfr. Mk...