Lessons from 2025: Family, faith, and the pressure to change

On this Sunday, Dec. 28, the Church marks the Feast of the Holy Family, a fitting moment to reflect on the lessons of the year now ending.

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In homes across the country, families have been the first refuge amid uncertainty. They absorbed the shocks of rising prices, extreme weather, and fragile systems, often quietly and without recognition. In 2025 many Filipinos were reminded, again, that family remains the most reliable safety net when everything else falls short.

Family also became the place where lessons were processed. Around dinner tables and late-night conversations, worries were shared, plans adjusted, and hopes recalibrated. When floods entered living rooms, relatives offered shelter. When jobs were lost or budgets tightened, families found ways to stretch what little they had. The year reaffirmed an old truth: strong families do not erase hardship, but they make endurance possible.