AT the beginning of every Holy Mass that we celebrate, we are asked to acknowledge our sins “to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.” I have always found this part of the Mass very meaningful, since I believe it is a necessity that we...
What does it mean to be a mother without an experience of suffering? This includes nine months before a baby is born, sleepless nights of feeding the newborn babe, guidance in adolescence, accompaniment in starting a new career and in establishing one's own family. In...
Excerpt from Archbishop Romulo G. Valles’ homily during the Holy Mass for the 34th Parochial Fiesta Celebration of San Roque Parish and the installation of the new Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Arnold Balaquinto last August 16, 2018 @ Malabog, Davao City. Nindut na batasan gyud atong...
This is a significant statement which many understand. There are several ways of understanding it. The "I" or the ego is the self. Endless and exaggerated reference to it is a sin of selfishness. Psychologists call it egoism and its tendencies egotistic. The sin of pride hides...
THIS is always a challenge for me as it should be for everybody else. Technology, especially at the rate that it is developing nowadays, is slowly but surely charming us into our own dehumanization, let alone, our dechristianization. And the main reason is that it tends...
IT’S good if we can often revisit these words of St. Paul: “It is written, ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’” (1 Cor 2,9) It is...
AM happy to know that the committee on the ongoing formation of the Archdiocese of Cebu is organizing a conference on priestly conduct as part of the celebration of 2018 as the Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons. I believe it is part of...
NOW that Pope Francis has made it a Church doctrine that the death penalty is inadmissible, we have to review the basis for the true value of human life. We cannot exaggerate the value of human life, since it is a life meant to have an...
WE have to make sure that whenever we encounter pain and difficulty in life, failure and loss, misery and misfortune, things that can usually happen in anyone’s life, we avoid falling into self-pity which will only make things worse. These predicaments in life are actually golden...
WE need to be able to distinguish between the two. They notoriously look alike, but one is genuine while the other is fake. One can truly help in our relation with God and others, while the other tends to harden our self-centeredness. One is usually...