CHASTITY, especially when lived in celibacy, can be difficult. Some people have regarded it as an impossible virtue, especially these days when the world is so soaked with all sorts of impure elements. Wherever you turn, they say, even in a crowd and especially when...
LET’S count the endless sad possibilities we can fall into if we dare to simply be by ourselves instead of being with God always. This obsession of saying, “Without you…” need not only be expressed when thinking of missing a loved one or of being...
IT’S painful to learn that even now, despite the progress we have in the area of culture, knowledge and technology, we still can witness massive cases of primitive misunderstanding and barbaric brutality in some parts of the world. In the US, for example, this brutality is...
An excerpt of the homily of the Most Rev. Romulo G. Valles, D.D., Archbishop of Davao and CBCP President during the 61st Foundation Anniversary and Parochial Fiesta Celebration of Our Lady of Assumption Parish, F. Torres St., Davao City, August 15, 2020. (Part 1 of...
Today, September 13, is National Catechists’ Day, the culmination of the National Catechetical Week. In all churches, we offer prayers and material contribution for our catechists. In this time of the pandemic, when there are no face to face classes, our catechists are challenged like our...
SOMETIME ago, I wrote an article about the close relationship between faith and works, citing that famous passage from the Letter of St. James: “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.” (2,18) And yet, in...
"Frontliners" used to refer to soldiers in the frontlines of battle. The word now refers to physicians or medical doctors fighting to save people from deadly Covid-19. Why do they go into gardening? Why is gardening a spiritual path to God? Because it is an essay,...
ONE good and positive aspect of any crisis we may be having, like what we have these days with this COVID pandemic, is that it is actually a good occasion to see how we are as a person, a child of God, a citizen, a...
I REMEMBER a TV commercial sometime ago that had this punchline: “Kanino ka ba babangon?” (For whom do you get up in the morning?) I imagine it was supposed to highlight the motivation one has in getting up so early in the morning, do some...
EVERYONE should have a healthy self-esteem. If we don’t have it yet, then let’s develop it and help everyone else to have it. A healthy self-esteem is important since only then can we have a good understanding of things and work properly as well. Without this...