It seems rather tiring to speak of resilience in a country that seems to have grown tired of having consecutive natural disasters and of a corrupt system that does not even ease the suffering of the people.

by Fr Earl Allyson Valdez Reflection  for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time At times, the way we thank each other becomes too common, that we take for granted the value of gratitude, reduced to becoming a way of exchanging pleasantries. However, if we look at it closely, there’s something that changes in us whenever we come to appreciate things, even in what we consider as “thankless” situations.  If we look at it carefully, gratitude is closely related to attention,

We are so used to hearing conversion stories which arise from “good” feelings.

This Sunday’s gospel reading reminds us of this attention, but with a distinct emphasis on its relationship with mercy. In the parable that Jesus tells us today, one can say that what the rich man truly lacks is this kind of attention to the presence of people.

What we understand as humility can come as a virtue or a vice. On one hand, there is real humility in which we actually accept our talents, achievements, and recognitions as they are, without actually flaunting them or making them too evident for people to see.

For many years, I taught about the experience of believing, beginning with the sense of faith, and ending with the more important question: why believe (or not believe)?

In principle, it should not be hard to understand the idea of poverty that the Church encourages as a virtue, which is distinct from the condition of poverty as a miserable and inhumane situation that must be avoided.

As Catholic Christians (and Filipino at that!), we have become all too used to the Lord’s Prayer that we actually do not appreciate what it means. But if we look at it carefully, not only does it provide a summary of our Christian life; more than that, it presents its difficulty. 

Fr. Earl A. P. Valdez reflects on the influence of Pope Leo XIII and Pope Francis on Pope Leo XIV.

Already a priest of four years, I never had an opportunity to have a one-on-one with Pope Francis.

Fr. Earl Valdez explores the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Catholic Church