Tuesday, March 22, 2011

20110322

A Prayer for Peace



LORD God,

we adore Thee
and we bless Thee!

O most beneficent LORD

and one God of all creation,
rekindle in the hearts of Thy nations
the desire for meaningful peace.

Come, O LORD,
abide with needful Mankind
be again the God of our families and of our lands
reclaim Thy right as our one Sovereign
that loving hearts and willing hands
may learn the ways of Thy grace
and thy faithful bring down from heaven
the blessings of Thy most precious Peace.

Forsake us not, dear LORD
but with Thy holy angels lead us
away from the darkness of our times
and into the Light of Thy Countenance
that all the peoples of needful Mankind
may come to a holy remembrance of Thee
and that we may as one firmament shine
ever like the numberless stars
that you promised of old
to our holy Patriarch Abraham.



May kindred Palestine and elder Israel,
each in You, O LORD God,
become a light unto all nations
shining with Thy numberless stars
cast upon Thy one firmament
across the unfeeling darkness
of this midnight of war
as a warmth to each other
and a guide to all mankind.

AMEN.
---<-@



O ISRAEL, you are the cradle of our peace,
a nation destined to bless the other nations
with a knowledge of life and the Everliving.
The first people chosen by Almighty God
to bring the light of hope to our poor world.

What has become of us my elder brethren?

Thy terrible hurt, due to war's ambition
shall one day turn into strength, if only
we begin today to become that hope again
the hope of our Father Abraham, a promise
to bless the communities of Mankind, peace.

As I love my Annelies Marie, I love you.
But not the War, O people Israel, only you.
Not the hatred, O kindred grace, only you.
---<--@

Jerusalem, Remembered


O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
should the City of our LORD's Peace
be a hindrance to it?

If the ageless realms
of the unseen reality had a center,
it would be in thee, O Jerusalem.

O City beholden of old,
hearken to thy own virtue!

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
arise in God, arise in God,
why should War ever be found
laying its filthy hand on thee?

O my dear people - come,
and know this, here and now -
the rightful ownership of this city
may sometimes elude us, in exile time,
but this is only because of intentions,
born of a will and a purpose divine,
higher and more kinder than our own,
as a mystery shrouded in hope
being embraced by the substance of things
outside the scope of our understanding:

The protection of the peace
and the primary defense of this city,
where there is any question,
belong to the common good will
of both the nation of elder Israel
and the emerging Palestinian nation:
Jews, Christians and Muslims together.

Because my beloved people,
it is here in our Jerusalem
where these - two nations of old,
brought together by a promise not forgot,
shall learn the ways of God's Peace
and shall put behind them
the darkness of the midnight past
forever.

So pray, my dear people,
arise in God, arise in God - and -
always keep true to each other's good
all ye numberless Stars of old!

And ponder this in thy hearts -
wrestling with a new sense of hope
born of things rekindled
deep in the faith of thy soul
ceaselessly asking the LORD to bless us
until all of the generations of life
in each our kindred nations
have become blessed by God
with a sustainable, meaningful
and lasting peace.
---<--@

The one Code



REMAIN TRUE -
to our peerless LORD
to the one God
of our Father Abraham,
the one common Creator
of all common creation,
seen and unseen.

To your own sacred remembrances
and the memory of your peace
with God and with each other.

To the overcoming of your War
and the advent of your hope
at the dawn of our new dreaming
as nations together.

To thy own universe within
and to the riches therewith
those treasures that
neither thief nor tyrant
can deprive.

To thy own calling
to serve in the way
of virtue and of peace
and to thy own ascent
upon the one mountain path
whereupon all good things
find their meaning and merit
in the prayer of the heart.

To thy own labors
upon this necessary life
and to the hardships also
that this inhabited earth brings -
May you be satisfied
knowing in your heart
what you truly strive for.

To thy own endeavor of Country
and to the trust of thy own nation
may you embrace with your embracing
these wholes upon wholes
as far and as wide as you could
and with courage
and steadfast persistence
bring all your love
as near as it takes you
to the one Love
that unifies us all
with the one LORD of All.

To our Lord's poor
and to each other
as keeper and as friend -
May we all remain faithful
from always to always
until the final gathering
at the end of days
and the beginning
of all things new.
---<--@

My fellow Filipino compatriots, the Israeli-Palestinian/Palestinian-Israeli conflict is like two brothers fighting inside a burning house. Both of them are fighting for the inheritance of the house. Neither of them remember that their real inheritance is each other.

The roots of War is ancient. Therefore, War was never a choice that can be made freely by any nation as itself. The real choice all our nations must always make - in every generation, and in every present time - is peace.

So let this be our choice - let our freedom be always guided by it.


For amidst the mounting troubles of this world, we must never forget that
we all have a stake in the Middle East Peace.

Mabuhay po tayong lahat. God bless us all.



War in the Heart