YES, in a certain sense, we need to die in order to live, and live not just some ordinary life, but rather the very fullness of life, which is none other than living the life of God. This is no gratuitous affirmation. This is based...
WHEN Christ asked Peter about who should earthly kings require census tax, from the subjects or from the foreigners, obviously the answer which Peter gave was from foreigners. Christ was somehow insinuating that being the son of God, he should be exempted from that tax....
WE know that for miracles and some extraordinary divine interventions to take place for our very difficult if not impossible situations we can encounter in our life, we need to have a strong faith. This is validated many times in the gospel where Christ would...
THE feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (cfr. Mk 9,2-10) should make us understand that like Christ we too are meant to be transfigured to the supernatural life with God. That is what God wants for us. For that end, God has given us...
I grew up with my siblings and neighbors playing syatong and tagu-anay (Hide and Seek) in the 1970s. When slambooks were the in thing we were familiar with “simplicity is beauty” as one’s motto in life. In our innocent minds, we have learned and recognized...
Honoring someone is a gesture of gratitude and remembering. We bring to memory our grateful appreciation of what a person has achieved or did during his or her lifetime. Even secular and cause-oriented or religious groups are honored because of certain individuals whose lives transcend...
(An excerpt from the Homily of Most Rev. Romulo G. Valles, D.D., Archbishop of Davao, August 2, 2021 during the live streamed mass in St. Francis Xavier College Seminary, Cat. Grande, Davao City.) My brothers and sisters this is the chapel, the church of St. Francis...
THAT beautiful story of the Canaanite woman who importuned and practically nagged Christ for the favor of driving a demon that tormented her daughter (cfr. Mt 15,21-28) teaches us the great lesson to ever strengthen our faith especially when we are faced with difficulties and...
More than 365 days have passed since the March 22, 2020 lockdown. We have had time to think about the things we did and did not do but should have done. COVID-19 has jolted me. I have more time to read Bible passages and watch TV,...
This should be, to my mind, the summary of the two historic and unprecedented documents in contemporary Christian-Moslem relations. One is titled, Human Fraternity For World Peace and Living Together, the other is the Encyclical Letter, Fratelli Tutti. The first is the joint statement signed...