The Feast of the Santo Niño or the Holy Child Jesus falls yearly on the third Sunday of January. Though originally a simple religious feast, it has become one of the grandest and most colorful festivals now called the Sinulog. To celebrate this year’s festival, various activities were lined up by the Basilica Minore del...
Category: Faith
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Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah!
It is the fourth time since 1900 that the Jewish festival Hanukkah is being celebrated during the Christmas season, which ends on the Feast of the Epiphany or the baptism of Jesus on Jan. 5. This year, Hanukkah began at sundown on Dec. 25 and will end on Jan. 2. (The date of the holiday...
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Renewing faith and devotion to Our Lady of the Candles
ILOILO CITY—Years into her marriage, Maria Fe Villanueva Esquillo had been without a child. But her frustration and seeming endless waiting were eased somehow by her constant prayers and supplications to Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria (Our Lady of the Candles) at the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral. “I asked for at least one child. Instead, the Lady...
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Finding LGBTQIA+ affirmation in Open Table MCC
Jun Torres was casually scrolling through Blued, a gay social network app, in May 2021 when a direct message caught his attention. He was being invited to an online worship service by the manager of the account of “a church for LGBT.” He followed the link to the Facebook page of Open Table Metropolitan Community...
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Workers’ equality in the kingdom of God
Jackieh, a library assistant, had to walk fast or run to be on time for work. Tardiness would mean a salary deduction if her reason for being late is not acceptable. During the pandemic when the norm was to work from home, she set the alarm 10 minutes before 10 a.m., her time in, so...
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Arayat Rizalistas believe in superiority of spiritual education
Filipinos honor their heroes—the men and women who led or contributed to the country’s struggle for freedom against the Spanish colonizers—on the last Monday of August, which falls on Aug. 28 this year. But for a group in Arayat, Pampanga, every day is spent in veneration of National Hero Jose Rizal. The group’s members do...
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Need help? There’s ‘Thank God It’s Wednesday’
KALIBO, Aklan—A conversation can do wonders. A safe space where people freely talk about their predicaments and anxieties to someone who listens intently without prejudice, offers advice whether solicited or un, and prays for their healing is therapeutic. Sometimes all one needs is to have one’s feelings validated, one’s thoughts articulated, and one’s actions understood....
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On a street in Brooklyn, prayer demonstrates power
NEW YORK CITY—It was May 11 and I had to be at the acupuncturist’s clinic by 2 p.m. I left Manhattan and headed to Brooklyn at 1:15 p.m. I was by myself. I usually travel with my friend but she ran into train delays from where she was coming, and we decided to meet at...
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In Payatas, the Church helps widows and orphans pick up the pieces
The women are all business inside a tailoring shop a stone’s throw from Ina ng Lupang Pangako church in Payatas, Quezon City. They work on fabrics and sewing machines to produce bags of all shapes and sizes—totes, “ecobags,” shoe bags, envelope bags, lunch bags, laundry bags. For six days of work a week, they take...
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Amid tensions, Jerusalem celebrates the King of Peace
While the Crucified Christ and the Risen Lord are the most dominant images of Jesus during Holy Week and the Easter Season (which runs until May 28, Pentecost Sunday), another image is that of the King of Peace entering Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt. Christians remember it as the Palm Sunday to start Holy Week. The...