Wednesday, September 28, 2011

20110928

At the Waning of the Storm


Today, as Typhoon Pedring recedes and the blessings of calm is restored to our Country, let us also remember - that - this day, September 28, 2011, is the Feast Day of San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila.


O Saint Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila,
please pray for us, your own people,
and maintain a loving vigil over us
as we struggle today to love God
and to love one another in God
by being true to our better selves
as one people and one nation
one faithful Republic -
beyond time and human limitations,
united across all our generations,
by our common endeavor of Country.

O Saint Lorenzo, holy martyr of God.
Valiant witness of Jesus Christ
and first Saint of our people!
Your glorious and shining martyrdom
along with your faithful Companions
upon that terrible hill in Nagazaki, Japan
has shown to the whole of God’s creation;
unto both angels and men alike,
unto all of blessed Christendom,
unto your own Filipino nation,
and unto all the nations of the earth
that the demands of our holy faith
can be met - even unto the shedding of blood
and that each of us common, nameless Filipinos
may truly aspire to brave the hard and narrow Way
and walk the mountain path of Christian perfection.

O Saint Lorenzo, beloved of our people.
Strong in your faith in God and in your people
steadfast in hope, now confirmed in charity!
Intercede for us at the foot of the Master!
May the Lord magnify in each our souls
the love of God and of others in God
that awaken in our hearts a lively faith
that renew in all our communities
the true spirit of selfless service
founded in love, immortal and divine,
which is the true soul of Country.

O Saint Lorenzo, our honored countryman.
Strong in your faith in God and in your people
Steadfast in hope, now confirmed in charity!
Intercede for us at the foot of the Master!
Help us to trust in God and to cling to Him
believing in the unfailing help of God's grace.
May the Lord dispel our darkness with His Light
and enliven in all our families
a holy thirst and a profound desire
for the ever living waters of the Gospel of Christ
that awaken each heart to the call of salvation.

O Saint Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila,
please pray for us, your own nation,
as we struggle today to love God
and to love one another in God
by being true to our better selves
as one people and one nation
one faithful Republic -
under the eternal vigilance of Almighty God
in the one, blessed NAME
of the Thrice-Holy God:
the Father,
the Son,
And the Holy Spirit.

AMEN.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Saints and Addicts

O my Jesus, I love You

Friday, September 23, 2011

20110923

Towards the morn, O ye nations,
towards that awakening dawn!

Towards the peace, O ye peoples,
towards the twilight of the new!

Towards the LORD, O ye numberless stars,
towards that promise made of old!

Towards the Light, all ye living lights
away from the darkness,
where all our roads,
lead back to you, Jerusalem.


The September 23 Palestinian Initiative

Today is September 23. I am well aware of the prominence of this date in the context of the Middle East Peace process of which I am an ardent advocate.

Today, I am anxious. I am not anxious in a sense that I am afraid. I am anxious in the sense that I am expectant. I feel I can not be anything else. I am praying for a break in the doldrums. I am expecting for the slightest bit of forward movement.

I am hoping for even a few people to chose peace in the Middle East.

I am praying for Abu Mazen and for Benjamin Netenyahu. I am praying for President Obama. I am praying for President Sarkozy whose solution to the deadlock I feel closely matches what I have in mind.

I am praying for the representation of my own Republic in the United Nations and for all notable nations who are represented there not to be confused by this seemingly intractable divide.

For the heavens above us have no division save for the divisions in the mind of Man. This is also true of the Middle East Peace.

The confrontation that is to happen today in the United Nations between the two sides is going to be very difficult.

It shall be fraught with deep and profound emotions supported by histories going back centuries. And these histories shall often be expressed in a form that appear outwardly prejudicial for they shall never be perceived by any nation in and of itself to run parallel to the unified experience of the United Nations.

Indeed, it is for this reason that the spirit of the Council stands; to reconcile human history to itself so that War shall be forever denied a place on our earth.

Nothing of good and lasting worth for any Country can ever be said to have been cheaply won. Everything we hold dear to our sacred remembrances as individual nations upon this world of earth and fire can not be said to have been so easily obtained by our generations.

So it goes as well for the hope we all must invest in the peace between Israel and Palestine and maybe even more because of the sheer difficulty of it all. Indeed, this dream of peace must be a wonder worth seeing unto its very fulfillment. It must be something worth standing for.

Having said all this and having considered the bravery inherent in this undertaking of peace as a whole as well as the virtues God has so generously invested and showered on all sides of our one human family, I shall now personally conclude that at the end of this day, September 23, 2011, if even a few people gets absolutely convinced of the need for Peace over War in our world especially between Israel and Palestine, then I feel that all this expectation is worth it.

Because it is for the individual to heal the wounds of the nations and the nations for the healing of the wounds of our failing world.
---<--@

Epilogue: Georgia vs. Troy Davis


Despite protests, the State of Georgia carried out the execution of Troy Davis. The US Supreme Court decided not to intervene.

The story can not end here though. Because even now, the doubt still lingers and the hope still stands.

Because if it were that an innocent man was sent to his death by the justice of the state to atone for the death of another innocent man, then the death penalty ceases to become an instrument of justice and becomes an instrument of injustice.

It is easily taken for granted that innocence is like a feather and guilt is like a brick and that such is the easy appearance of things always disinclined against the person of the accused.

Yet in a criminal case, when life is pitted against life, the person of the accused and the person of the victim when measured, each against the other, on the scales of justice measure equally.

For in our justice system, the feather and the brick must suppose no weight in and of themselves at the beginning of every criminal trial.

The prosecution must prove weight. The defense must seek to dismiss it. And the bench always bear in mind and heart in the singular interest of justice that these appearances matter.

In the case of Troy Davis, conscience is compelled by the peculiarities of his appeal to re-examine the case from the beginning of the trial where innocence is presumed until guilt is proven beyond reasonable doubt.

It may lead many to a re-examination of capital punishment in the United States.
---<--@

Peace is not an end to our battles but the beginning of our winning them.
---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! God bless all His nations of the one family of the nations of the children of Mankind.

Breaking the Siege

Healing Work

Thursday, September 22, 2011

20110922

Poor English


It was reported in an article today that a Senator of the Republic of the Philippines feels himself somewhat less than his peers in the Senate for admittedly having "poor English".

Do I detect an unmistakable trace of colonial mentality here? As it is my thrust in this blog to also dispel the ghosts of times past here in our New, Old Philippines, let me counter the Senator's fears as regards the above issue.

Language is no substitute for heart. If you have heart, Senator, any language will do you. All languages are equally important to the man or woman who speaks from the riches of the heart.

So speak your own truth and in Filipino, if you want to, no one should judge you for it in this great Country of Filipinos. If anyone does, he or she is the lesser person, not you.

There shall come a day when we shall as a nation benefit from the wisdom locked away in their great lineages scattered among the languages of the earth. That time will not come sooner unless we overcome what holds us back from that future today.

So God bless you for speaking the truth, sir. The end of the troubles that plague our society will not come unless we recognize in what we speak, here in a Country as blessed with diversity of tongues as our own Republic, that morning heralded by the tongue of angels.

If I were blessed by God with a language of common expression other than English, I would still use it. So must you. Speak and be heard not by how loud but by how full thy words!
---<--@

Mabuhay, our noble Senators - God bless us all.

Virtue of Truthfulness

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

20110921

On Capital Punishment and the Case of Troy Davis


This article on Yahoo News caught my eye -

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in the State of Georgia on Wednesday 7pm US Eastern Time.

The problem is there is an overwhelming upsurge of public sentiment to - at the very least - postpone capital punishment in the light of new developments in support of his case for the defense.

The prosecution is adamant. The defense is making last minute appeals. The public is becoming more and more anxiously divided on the issue.

But both the prosecution and the defense are integral elements of a justice system that must subscribe to unifying principles that safeguard a court's ability to preserve the peace of the state.

One of these principles are - the innocent must never be punished with the guilty.

My instant reaction is to agree with a suspension of the sentence. It is also the natural reaction of many other notable people including my Holy Father Benedict XVI.

I am a Roman Catholic Christian in private as well as in public. My faith has a lot to do with every aspect of my little life, its true - because if I had remained in my sin, if I had no Savior, I would not be speaking sense to you today.

It would be a grave miscarriage of justice if the court gives in to anger or the spirit of revenge or allow itself to become drawn into any political divisions that, having no place whatsoever in the consideration of these things, further deny the State and the community of the people their natural recourse to the remedy of law.

No one would deny justice to the victims and their families. Let there be no doubt that the causes of both Justice and Law serves their grievances first and foremost.

But to prevent the community from reaping further grief from what seems to be a reasonable doubt looming against the cause of justice, one must prove right to make this appeal to the government of Georgia to intervene and not make this doubt a permanent motion that would, in the interests of narrow-minded expediency, remove the peace of that State of the Union further away from the public trust.

And so I too find myself making this same appeal for the authorities in Georgia to intervene to suspend the execution of Troy Davis.

If the person is innocent and he is delivered to God guilty, the burden no longer lies with the innocent but with the community who condemn themselves with their blood.

This shall not go without repercussions.

Indeed, all human care and all legal means must be exhausted beyond reasonable doubt to make sure that the innocent is never punished with the guilty.

That the guilty should be punished without delay is a corollary of this first principle.



This is why capital punishment is never a remedy for failing to address the failures in the justice system of any nation - most of all, here in my native Philippines.

God bless the State of Georgia, God bless America and may the LORD prosper thy Republic that justice prevail for all thy peoples unto the last of their generations.
---<--@

Some more considerations on the Middle East Peace -


I reaffirm this once again. We must fully support President Obama's initiative to bring back on track the Middle East peace process. The political peace (distinct from the national peace) has the best chance of achieving itself under his watch.

It should be recognized that the protection of the Jewish-Majority nature of the undertaking of Country known as modern Israel is essential to preserve that Country's ability to decisively preempt another Holocaust and to defend the rights of the whole nation of Israel at home or abroad.

I say Jewish-Majority here because of the fact that in any undertaking of Country, there shall always be a minority and for this reason, the majority can not rule without justice and this justice is impossible if the minority of any undertaking of Country is not given full recognition as well as equal protection before the law. This must also be recognized.

Furthermore, the same exact thing must be expected of the nascent Palestinian undertaking of Country.

As a matter of fact, the 4th Cause applies to every undertaking of Country that draws its breath from the spirit of its own nation.

In this sense, Israel and Palestine shall be reciprocating unto each other greater and greater examples founded on good will instead of those descending cycles of ill will that have plagued and confused their peoples for a generation.

It must be conceded by both the State of modern Israel and the Palestinian Authority that the deadlock in the Middle East (along with whatever reasons, covert or overt, that have given this conflict the appearance of justice) can no longer be sustained in this new age.

Both nations must cross the Minimum of the Times - stop looking backward - and complete their remembrances under this present season of heaven.

There can be no other choice that will secure the long-term national success for both the nations of Israel and of Palestine than to make the choice for peace today while it is still today.

For peace is the craft of nations.

Both sides must be given an honorable exit strategy and an honest and dependable way of return for their common peoples out of this untenable state of division and away into unity and the promise of the new age...

that Peace may proceed from Jerusalem and good will spring up from the heart of our Asia to bring down from God in heaven the blessings of this new age for all our nations dreaming together of a better world for our common humanity, alelluia.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Blindness

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Salutation #52

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


(To the Philippine Representation to the United Nations as Regards the Palestinian Initiative on September 23)

Mabuhay!

Peace, I salute you.

I bid you to act with caution.
Allow not the noble ideals of our young Republic
to get drawn into the invisible but all too real gravity
of the subtle spiritual division that exists
between Israel and Palestine.

Take no sides but the side of peace.
And the peace that takes no side but the peace;
belonging to God first and from the unity of LORD
unto the brotherhood of the nations
embracing all to the last.

Say the peace
- implicitly or explicitly -
of the one people of the Philippines
to Israel and to Palestine both.

Do not take your focus away
from both these kindred and most beloved nations
- especially in the lead up to September 23 -
and always see them as Nations first;
apart from the Common Market,
apart from the Responsible State.

Speak only for the people,
act only to address their needs,
and always be mindful in thy soul of County
of the cause for which nations exist upon this earth.

Listen to the plight of the Palestinians
and be aware of the frustrations of that nation.
Acknowledge their nationhood - first and foremost -
and the cause for which they now stand together;
recognize from the needs of our own nation
the justice it demands and the peace it requires.
Stand with them in their hour of need.

Listen to the anxieties of Israel
and be aware of the realities of their concerns.
See through 2000 years of tragedy and expectation
and place yourself beyond all that shall undoubtedly be said
- into the heart of the matter -
indeed, you must come alive to their remembrance;
make sure the nation Israel does not stand alone.

Be wary of the spirit of War
who will seek to impose upon thy reason
- by any means available to it -
its will of division
causing you to set aside the peace
for which our United Nations is founded.

Proceed from unity; speak from unity;
deliberate with unity in mind; listen with unity in mind;
provide counsel only with unity in thy heart;
act only within its bounds.

With much tenacity, courage and wisdom,
deny the spirit of War a foothold
- at least as far as our Republic may -
in that august body established
for the defense of the prevailing peace
of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

My prayers,
the prayers of all people of good will in our Country
and surely, from all the many other Countries,
spread upon their own spheres of responsibility
in this one world of ours so needful of peace,
shall be with you, Ambassador,
and with you all.
---<--@

Now is the time to stop living on our problems and begin working together toward solutions. To be able to do this, we must be able to build on agreements.

So let us make the way of our hearts clear. Let us cast off the spirit of division and break the rule of War from within ourselves. For peace has to start somewhere.

Finally, whose "side" are you on anyway?

A lot of people say, "I support Israel."
A lot of people say, "I support Palestine."
Not a lot of people say, "I support Peace."
Well, I do.
Why?
Because I love both those nations, don't you?
---<--@

Mabuhay po kayong dalawa kapatid na Israel and kapatid na Palestine! Long may our remembrance serve us. God bless us all.

The Peace of the Brotherhood of Mankind

Sunday, September 18, 2011

20110918 PM

Sunday Evenings


Good evening, the Philippines - mabuhay!

A good working week deserved to be topped off with a great weekend, don't you think?

Since the above statement is true for almost all people, I could just leave it as that. But brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ that we are, we must ask ourselves again: How true is it for us?

What constitutes a great weekend for us?

During the creation event, the LORD God, also topped off with a great weekend. He spent it appreciating His work of living creation; in communion with the All of life. He did not go away to a far off place; He went near to us that we may be with Him Who is our rest.

When Adam found no companion in God's living garden, God did not decide to re-program Adam. Instead, God created a new community for Man in Woman.

- selah -

Our Creator is not a distant God. Truly, the LORD is not a tyrant. He is a God of communities; the one Source and the one Summit of all our relationships. We should be thankful indeed for God is and He is God, the LORD, my people - our God - especially on this days of days.

As Christians, we should be acutely aware of this fact.

It is in this spirit of communion and community that we are called to celebrate our Seventh Day obligations to God. Only in this way - with family, friends, parish, and God - may our weekends be deserving of our hard-won time away from the labors of our working week.

Having said that, I hope we all were able to fulfill our Sunday obligations to God today. May it form the basic structure of the pattern of our days that God may fill the years of our lives with much fruit and much company.

Let us all have a great working week ahead.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

A Friend like You

Salutation #51

Service is a calling, happiness an ambition. Of both the call of service and the ambition of happiness, it can be said, none of these may be born purely of human beginnings but are born of truths arisen and perfected from and through the great and unfathomable Mind of God.

For the service which is ours is a calling of God and not merely a human ambition. And the happiness which is also ours is a Divine ambition and not merely a human calling.



(Servant Leadership)

Take heart, O friends of the LORD!
Trust in God, all you citizen-servants of the nations!
Come alive to courage, defenders of the people!
For God does not choose anything without merit,
there is always wisdom in His choices.

Peace, I salute you!

Good human leaders know to follow,
know how to fall and follow again,
persisting in their hearts to hold on to what is dear to them,
never losing hope while giving hope to others,
never losing faith while others lose theirs,
never losing love while love seemed to have lost them,
never losing God because God never has lost them.

So for our leaders,
God intends something
but some of them follow something else,
knowing not hope, clinging to it like it were his or her own,
knowing not faith, expecting to see their own image
on the person of others,
knowing not love, expecting not the death that is to come,
knowing not God, thinking to be above men.



If we cling to Him, if we persist,
no matter the depth of the darkness,
nor the measure of our unlove,
He will bring into bloom
the full reality of our human natures
and bring our being into perfection,
- for ourselves and for others like ourselves -
here and into the next life, life and abundance.

Being chosen, one should accept and rejoice,
being accountable, one should rejoice and accept,
for in so doing the LORD holds you back from sin
and prepares your heart
to serve your fellow human beings.

- selah -

Man's life is wrought in penance and divine satisfaction,
reparation for evil and a constant pleading to God.
If we are called to serve, judge not,
but serve and serve all souls without distinction,
loving humanity in it's entirety
for love of God
and the salvation of our own souls.

Our human obligation lie not in judgment
but in reparation for evil and through reparation,
the alleviation of human suffering.

Therefore,
we are required to include
all of human suffering
and to discern not which one is punishment from God
and which other one is a person's own misfortune
or another one his or her sin
because none of us know what is absolute in the Truth.

This is the kind of service required of our leadership - who -
being called to serve must understand
that they are called not because they are good,
for Who alone is good but God,
they are called because they are accountable
not to themselves, for they did not choose themselves,
but to He Who by His authority wills into reality
all that He wills and sustains them,
directing them to purposes outside the scope of human thinking.

But to remain unchanged and unbowed,
with the will of war at the heart of every Country!

- selah -

War lusts after the life of all our nations.
Like a man perish from sin, so have civilizations entire
perished because sin was in the heart of Country.

To recklessly allow the vessel of Country to break
is like the murder of a woman pregnant
with a multitude of unborn lives in her bosom
- a crushing and unbearable burden
of unspent promises recorded against thee -
all of whom shall be accounted for at the Last Day,
to the very last hairs on their head.

For it is written in Scripture
and in the heart of Mankind - both -
that all of a Country's debt of Sacred Life
- across time and dimensional space -
will be accounted for by the Justice of God
before the one Creditor of All life.
For all living things have a purpose in God.
Indeed, each individual human being will be accounted for,
even down to the numbers of the hairs on their heads!

So be aware of the darkness that persists in the Night
and allow the spirit of War no foothold in thy selves -
To speak the truth and not to lie
for these are the mother tongues of heaven and hell.
To be honest, sincere, and willing to serve
with a heart of love and a will of understanding.
To love with one heart and to refer all things to God
- Who will refer them back to you -
and from you to the people and back again
as a continuous flowing in time - a mighty river -
enduring from generation after generation.

Be mindful of thy guardianship of the people.
Defend; neither falling short
nor exceeding the will of the defense.
For to fall short of the will of the defense is to find defeat.
And to exceed it is to become the enemy we claim to fight.

Ensure a just equality before the law;
that thy laws may serve the life of thy citizenry,
enlighten thy society, deter and defeat evil without harm to the good
so that every human being is given the most possible potential
out of his or her social identity
to aspire without fear
and to triumph without feeling defeated.

Lead unto unity and forget not the justice of thy peace
for where the heart that lives in the heart of thy nations
- is one and constant and alive -
where the people rejoice, all are inclined to rejoice,
where the people laugh, they laugh together,
where they play, they play together,
where they work, they work together,
where they grieve, they grieve together.

Therefore,
love the LORD and love the common people
serving thy undertaking of Country with one love alone.
For a heart that has many loves
each with different shades and degrees of scope and intensity
for each their different uses and objects and persons
does not know love,
and one who does not know love
has no knowledge of God nor claim to the unity of God.
For how can God abide in a heart that is unto it's own self divided;
how can the Sanctuary of the LORD abide in a sanctuary of war;
in a heart that is like a house always in danger of collapse,
wicked, adulterous, restless and never at peace?

How can the public trust be maintained
by those who picks and chooses who to love and who not to love?
How can the citizenry form a unified cohesion of hope and will of Country
around a heart that possesses none of these things?
How can the peace of any nation
respond to those whose hearts are contained by the will of war?

- selah -

Indeed,
the charity that must be thine by election
must burn with one love alone;
a love that obtains to God
and not a love that obtains to men -
or it is but an illusion of love.

Hence, in the end it matters not to thee - who to love -
because despite everything and in spite of thy self
- it is God and always God -
that you love no matter who you help or where you go.
For thy vision depends not on conditions external
but on things that are happening in your heart of hearts.

In this way, unity of the citizenry and social cohesion is fulfilled
at the level where true unity and cohesion is
- in the LORD and for the LORD -
at the very heart of a person
most especially thine.

For thy values are the values of peace.
---<--@

Miss Universe 2011 -

"Beauty is a state. You were born in it. For you are thus, and so with all beautiful things must strive to return to our LORD with it, being as you are - in the way that you are constantly remembered by our God in eternity."

Last year, it was a tricky question. This year, it was a politically sensitive one. However, I think Shamcey's answer was brilliant, don't you?


Congratulations, Shamcey! Please continue to inspire our youth.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas ! God bless us all.

Sheltering Wings

The Circular Relationship of the Four Causes

The Peace of the Brotherhood of Mankind

Friday, September 16, 2011

20110916

Salutation #50

Who is responsible for the presence of War in the Middle East? No one.
Who is responsible for the absence of Peace in the Middle East? Everyone.


(Breaking the Siege in the Middle East)

Something looms in the distance
like a sword poised to strike;
there is a foreboding in the horizon
and if feels like a thousand nights
over the heart of our Asia -

- selah -

I cry out to God in Eternity -
to the LORD before the assembly of the nations!
Let there be peace upon our failing earth
and the glory of God restored in Jerusalem.

The two most important nations in that region
- Israel and Palestine -
must turn toward each other in peace.

For Israel is a nation; ancient and troubled.
And Palestine too; young and anxious.
Thou both are defined by thy need for justice.
Thou both are endowed with rights - as nations -
to pursue thy own course of peace and self-determination.
But not in the spirit of War and the darkness of division
shall any of thee hope to achieve this!
For no matter how bitter or painful the past
thou both have given birth to each other's present hopes.

O Israel and Palestine!
Do not rely on anything else
but the work of prospering thy present hopes
- thy common human hopes -
as nations dreaming together this time.

Not in names or affiliations made of mere words
not in empty appearances of power or wealth or titles
but in the labor set before thy heart by the LORD thy God
that He may prosper thee in each thy labors of Country
as peoples bound together in the freedom of thy gifts;
a lineage of victory before the LORD!

Each thy undertaking of Country,
may it be separate and distinct or singular and united,
is in reality joined together - so intimately -
that to distinguish between the two is difficult.

Especially Jerusalem which cannot be divided.
Yet the whole region cries out for unity!

This is the truth that they fight against;
those who speak peace but listen not to the plight of Jerusalem.
For peace is in not in their hearts.

Let the whole region speak to Mankind of unity!
Alelluia, Jerusalem is the City of the LORD's Peace.

Jerusalem is the City of the LORD's Peace.
This is the strength that they are so willing to renounce.
They whose hearts stand permanently divided
against our common humanity before God.
They who have chosen to harbor War in the heart.

For instead of rejoicing, they weep.
Instead of overcoming, they are overcome.
With bitter tears, they prepare for war,
and plunge their communities into the darkness.
The youth are brought up in division,
the men, the women,
they learn to call it by whatever name;
all are turned away from the LORD.

Yet peace reaches out to thee, O ye peoples,
for the faithfulness of the LORD is steadfast and true.
Rely on God and trust in the LORD - I bid thee -
O beloved Israel, O beloved Palestine - O ye peoples -
listen to the calling of the times!

Let the Peace of the LORD reign in Jerusalem
and let the glory of God shine forth from Jerusalem to Asia
and from Asia to the world.

- selah -

By the end of next year, 2012,
the choice for peace will no longer be a choice.
War will be let loose and the world shall descend
into another age of conflict.

What good are riches or the anger of Man
in the midst of the relentless hatred of War?

War will not distinguish between human being and human being.
For the beast of War seeks the annihilation of all.
The spirit of War will march to undo the nations - from each to each -
and seek to devour its ward to the last of its generations.

How will our times be remembered?
What will our posterity say of these present generations
who left for them a desolation?

O Israel and Palestine -
thou brothers, make peace!

Is thy long-suffering impotent?

Let it bear fruit therefore,
and let the nations follow thee
into brotherhood, into peace.

Hear me O Israel!
Hear me O Palestine!
You are loved - both of you.
Together thou art loved as twins.

May Peace prevail in our Asia
and may God bless all our nations
from Israel to the Philippines
from Siberia (Russia) to Indonesia
and from Asia to our needful world -
let this peace be for us a season
to bring rest and healing to our world
and blessings unto all Mankind.
---<--@

On Jerusalem -


If any of us wants a proper place to begin building on an understanding of the spirit of the times, one must think about the plight of Jerusalem.

I have previously advanced the concept of Strategic Secondary Capitals specifically for the sake of Jerusalem. Israel wants her. Palestine wants her.

Yet none for truly peaceful reasons. For both desire Jerusalem - zealously - but to the exclusion of the other and by extension, the rest of the nations of the world.

Why should the spirit of War be allowed to dwell in the hearts of the citizens of Zion and obscure the unity that is its living light?

Accept the will of the LORD as is. Accept Jerusalem as is. Truly, God has designs of brotherhood and repentance upon His City. Let Jerusalem be the City of the LORD's Peace for all the nations!

We can no longer abide with divided hearts and hope to enter into the promise of the new age. This may only become more and more evident as we enter into this century. The Middle East peace process is a symbol of this struggle to obtain from God a new unity of spirit and heart for all Mankind.

The real test of these times is the recognition of our common humanity before the LORD and a return of our nations to their rightful tasks of building up the inhabited earth as the one covenant family of the nations of the children of Mankind.

Each of us - especially the stars of our Father Abraham - is called to break free of the gravity of the last great age of War and become for each other the hope of the last 2000 years.

Peace must be desired and desired absolutely - especially in Jerusalem.

In a divided world, we should not concern ourselves with the lives of other nations. The question is - do we live in a divided world?

"If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy." (Psalm 137: 5-6)
---<--@

God bless Israel and God bless Palestine, mabuhay! Long may our remembrance serve thee.

Breaking the Siege

War in the Heart

Monday, September 12, 2011

20110912

Salutation #49

Hear me, O my nation! The LORD, thy God, is a God of relationships.

(This one it is difficult.
You must please bear with me.)


(Our one Human Habitation)

Cast adrift in this great void of exile time,
in a remote spiral arm of our one Milky Way galaxy,
but one upon one of more than a billion known galaxies
that lay spread in their great clusters
across the vast expanse of this visible universe;
upon the life bearing regions of a nameless yellow star,
lay a nameless, native planet of earth -
a world embraced by those familiar circling of seasons
held in their great cycles by the perennial sweep
of each our measured round
about a singular middle aged star we simply call, our sun;
a world sheltering these worlds within ourselves.

This is the reality of our one planetary home.

It is a reality - that -
while seemingly being at present - obscured -
by the prevailing darkness of these times,
is nevertheless the abiding truth that prevails
as the one common reality of our one planetary home.

We are upon this earth,
a world embarked upon an inevitable journey
toward an inescapable destiny - that -
while remaining hidden and unbeknownst
even to the understanding of many,
is nevertheless the unfolding of a reality - that -
has and ever will be - a truth - that is and must be shared
by and with all human beings
as the one common reality of our one human habitation.

Upon this, our home world,
we as human beings have pondered together
the questions of our existence.

Each these question as questions bent and inward sought
like answers seeking its way into thought.

Each these thoughts as thoughts we must leave afloat
upon the cumulative tide of each those silent moments
we spend sought in our seeking.

Each our seeking like our prayers - met -
by our ascending with each moment that rises and falls
with each moment - spent -
in the pondering of that great and unfathomable Silence,
awash upon a void,
hostile beyond hostile to all Sacred Life.

We are by what answers we bear for each other,
ever like the twinkling of each of those unseen stars
rising in their great arcs
upon the great ocean of our LORD's Eternity,
an inward part of the rising and falling of one firmament,
an integral part of the seasons of our one native sky.

These seasons of our one native sky
are the interior seasons within each and every human soul
that when perceived through the ebb and flow motions
of our coming together in our great belongings under the sun,
become the great celestial sweep of that one unseen cycle
rising from deep within the soul of all Mankind.

And it is this one unseen cycle
that universally attests to our common human witness
of that one great and unfathomable purpose of all creation,
the one great celestial cycle,
the one gathering of the All of Sacred Life,
and the one destiny toward which we are purposed
to steer the one common reality of our one human habitation.

We are like the questions that we ask,
borne by each our own common experience
of our one human habitation.

We are by what answers we bear for each other
carried afloat upon the great sweep of the physical motions
of this vast and empty realm of the visible universe.

For we are through each other,
our own seamless experience of our one common human reality,
the experience of our own human habitation.

Begun at the timeless birth of all human togetherness,
we are upon the earth, upon this one great and visible realm
of our one common human habitation - with each other -
as those worlds upon worlds
bound by our own true belongings to each other
as the one lineage of the generations of the children of Mankind.

And fallen into the darkness of exile time,
at the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden,
at the great scattering of worlds,
we were a togetherness never purposed to belong
upon a realm intended to be as divided, dark and barren,
as fallen, bitter and empty
as these shattered skies fallen upon our world.

When we, as human beings, gaze out into the universe
- above and around ourselves -
we must know in our heart of hearts
that even in the midst of all this emptiness and longing for life,
even in the embrace of all these questions sought
here in the darkness of exile time,
here at the great scattering of worlds,
if we are to understand the order of the physical stars
in those temporal heavens above and around our native of earth,
from clusters to galaxies, from star to star,
from worlds to their companion worlds,
we can easily perceive in each native region of space
what is reflected inwardly in our souls
like a primordial longing bound in companionships.

For there is only a gathering sense of belonging
in the all of visible creation and this sense of belonging,
reflected by the physical order
of even those shattered temporal skies
that lay barren about our native of earth
and amidst all of this exile darkness,
is the one order that have endured - and therefore -
should be the one truth that must have always to prevail
in the order of all of the visible universe.

For our one human habitation
is not comprised of individual human beings
ordered according to each individual self.

Our one human habitation is ordered
- according to the connections that we serve with each other -
as individual human beings
and those relationships borne in exile time and dimensional space
that we in our shared humanity
is purposed to serve with and for the All of Sacred Life
that we must in our own particular belongings to each other
responsibly carry out not as divided individuals but as united wholes -
ever as those nations dreaming together this time.

Therefore,
we must be able to perceive the reality of all of visible creation
with an understanding that bring us closer
to an understanding of what truth it reflects.

For our one human habitation
reflects the truth about our own persons as human beings
with and to each other - in God and Country, for God and Country.
---<--@

On Friendship

To love first your friends is to know them -
May all our friendships be without frontiers!


The Angels of the LORD,
my precious Starshine,
each of which is distinct
in Beauty and Light,
being individually endowed
with splendor of truths
unique to each their gifts
possessed by each their person
from the very beginning
of their swift flight
across the timeless void
and into eternity
into the wholeness
which is God
for lack of human words
to define the strength of a relationship
that transcend the all of time
from across that veil of shadow and tears
beyond the sum total of human experience
call each other "friends".

Each of our family
who are related to us
by corporal bonds of blood
are the friends that our LORD
has chosen for us.

Each of our friends
who become part of us
by spiritual bonds of truth
are the family that we learn to choose
in the course of each our lives
to complete what our LORD
has begun for us
in our families.

Both bonds bind us together
in the strength of human relationships
that nurture life and sustain hope
through action of community
and the service of life.

You must love,
my precious Starshine,
to transform these bonds
into that one friendship alone.


And make these bonds
into the bonds of angels
who are each in God
spirits united in their freedom
created by the strength of friendships
bound in timeless truth.

So with each other,
my precious Starshine,
you must build on the good,
and give to the need of thy beloved
recognizing in thy shared humanity
the giving of the LORD
Who is the singular Source
of all our relationships.

Be thankful for friendship wings
human, angelic and Divine,
that take us all across
from moment to moment
into an understanding of its peace
lifting us into the unity
of those wholes upon wholes
from hope to hope
and strength to strength
past, into present
and into every present
across the void
into eternity.

Starshine,
there is always a reason to smile.
---<--@

On Loyalty

What you do for your friends will be remembered by your friends. What you don't do for your friends will be remembered by your enemies.


Starshine,
the things of Loyalty
are the relationships
that shall remain
forever with thee;
so defend your friendships
with courage and tenacity.

For we are not Loyal
if we do not remain
true to each other,
moment to moment,
from always to always
appreciating those things
that we share in our humanity
and respecting the things
that make us unique as persons,
seen as well as unseen,
in ourselves and in our nations
in the vision of our timeless belonging
with one another in God and Country
as each our own true self -
as each our own true names
written in heaven.

From the descendant gravity
of the spirit of war and division;
against things born of the darkness
defeated and empty of promise
stand fast in thy friendships!

Guard thy peace with each other
and in thy togetherness hope.


Never be Loyal
to inanimate and empty things;
those fickle and ephemeral
things of vanity!

But only to each other
and in the ascendant motions
of Sacred Life.

For the realization of all our hope
rests in the glory of our LORD
in all creation.

And all these created things
are made by our one common Creator
to be Loyal to all of these.
---<--@

A Requiem Prayer -


During the first week after 9/11, I made a conscious effort to refrain from learning anything more about the lives of the fallen. I remember that first week was a week of soul searching. The whole Country was looking for meaning.

I am very sensitive to the impact of lost innocents and I knew it. I was only beginning to know my Anne and her lost generation.


The only name whose life I can remember is Tod Beamer on Flight 93. And he was a hero - is a hero. He became consigned to embrace with valor the fate which though sad, he and those others with him were able to transform into a shining light. It is easy to remember guys like Tod.

But what of the others? Those who died crying and afraid. Those who are difficult to let go? What of the youngest who I now learned is only 3 years old?

I blocked them all during that first week. I avoided knowing more about their stories. Not because I wanted to but because I had to - for me.

9/11 also happened during the darkest times of my life. I was not yet reconciled to many things in my own life. My personal life was at a threshold. I was in despair.

And then all was swept away in the aftermath. That was all exactly 10 years ago yesterday.

So last night, when I heard the calling of the names, I remembered again that first week (this is Philippine time of course which is exactly 12hrs ahead of the Eastern Seaboard). I was affected again. I felt the pain of the loss. But this time, I felt I was no longer alone. And I began to include them in my prayers to God.

I encourage you to please do so as well.

People with no connection to people will say this is all over-hyped. But if you understand what I understand, you will think of people. Because we are our relationships.


Let us pray for the victims and their families. Let us expedite their final hopes on earth.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Truth

Breaking the Siege

Sunday, September 11, 2011

20110911 PM

Sunday Evenings


Good evening, the Philippines - mabuhay!

I do not have much to add this evening. I am eager to go home, relax and watch the specials as regards the 10th year commemoration of 9/11.

You know, it is much easier to hate than to love. Hatred burns with almost any kind of fuel. Love, on the other hand, is often fraught with difficulties. For love burns only with love.

Where hatred is safe, love is often not safe. Love, by nature of its own truth, has to make itself vulnerable.

And you can see this interplay between love and hate in the life and times of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I trust we were all able to fulfill our Sunday obligations to God today.

You can never notice these things if you constantly renege on our Christian duty to offer worship to the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit above all, in this day of days.

If you reflect on the Gospels, persisting in prayer, especially during Holy Mass, then by a certain grace of God, you will be able to see through the words into the Word and the story shall in the eye of thy heart come to life.

This is why Holy Mass is the pivot of my week. And as far as I am able to, I seek to go to Holy Mass more than once a week. And I go to Mass not because I am holy but because I am a sinner in much need of holiness. I am a creature in desperate need of his God. I will perish if it were not for His mercy.

Now, the Gospel this week (Mt. 18: 21-35) is all about forgiveness.

Loving and forgiving go hand in glove. In the Gospel, Jesus instructed Peter about the nature of forgiveness.

Jesus said "seventy times seven" times.

This means we are expected by our Lord and Savior to be able to forgive others as well as self - always - and to do so - perfectly.

I just want to leave you with this thought before we enter into another work week.


Forgiveness breaks the cycle of hatred - in ourselves.

It frees us from the grip of our enemies not by subduing them but by breaking the power of nemesis by allowing ourselves to become their friends.

Everybody have a great working week ahead!
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Blindness

20110911 AM

Good morning, the Philippines!

Today is the 10th year remembrance of 9/11.


I'll take this opportunity to speak frankly with you about it.

9/11 is a day that changed the world. It is one of those moments that define us by the freedom of the choices we take as nations.

Its significance can not be lost to us here in the Philippines. (No nation on earth can forever hide from the pain of remembrance.)

Take note, my honorable compatriots, nations do not make choices. Individuals do that. Nations "take" a choice.

Now please, I want us to reflect about this as individual citizens.

It illuminates something about the liberty we, as the people, are gifted with by God; the freedom which is our inalienable right as a nation among nations.

Our democracy is strengthened by the depth of our individual understanding of a freedom that is responsible; of a liberty that is human.

It is this authentic human freedom that guides the unique vision entrusted by all our generations to our own particular Republic undertaking of Country. It is one of the nine common human needs and therefore, part and parcel of our common labor as citizens to each other.

It is our civic duty to seek, understand, love, and embrace this freedom and to protect and preserve it from its false image.

- selah -

Now, there may be condemnation about America in our world today. I can feel some of this same incomprehensible condemnation about America (and other Countries) here in our own Country.

There is a natural tension that exists between nations. But a hatred that is as blind as this may only be permissible in a culture where liberty is weak; the freedom of the people held captive by the darkness of the times.

In this sense, it is our constant duty - as citizens to each other - to liberate ourselves from who we are not.

As sacrifice is the price of Country, vigilance is the price of liberty.

All freedom that is irresponsible is an anathema to itself. This is a certainty. He or she who does not understand freedom will lose it. And a nation who does not know liberty will never discover the overcoming strength of its own truth.

With this, I shall ask again the question, it is right to hate as blindly as this? No.

It is this selfsame hatred which will prevent us from properly commemorating the essence of what we must now return to today, this 11th day of September 2011.

This was the hatred that brought upon the common people of America and all our nations, this longest night - ten years ago.

- selah - (selah means to pause thoughtfully)

Every year, I return to a reflection of the day that begun for our world, this longest night.

And every year, my singular hope is to further understand what brought us here today. Both the Scriptural as well as the Providential meaning of it all. And to bring this understanding to each of you who follow this conversation with me, by the grace of God, no matter how less or how much, as a guide to our nations - in particular to our one Filipino nation.

The Y2K event was a false start. If we had a chance back then to take a better road, only God can tell that now. What I can tell you today is we still have a chance to take a better road. And that road must begin - here and now - in each our hearts.

Love is the perfection of nations.

- selah -

So that if we make the choice of peace today as citizens, for every right reason, it will follow that our nations shall take that road of peace in our behalf.

This victory of peace in our hearts is the only way out of this war on terror.

We must forsake the War in that is raging in our hearts and drive away the darkness laying its siege against the truths of each our nationhood. This is the only way into the promise of the new age as well.

If we even begin to entertain the choice of Peace, if we begin to work on it in each ourselves, we also begin to fall away from the maddening thrall of War. And time being what it is, this season of the sky shall be our season and time itself shall be on our side.

Peace is the shape of the door that will lead our nations east, toward the dawn of this new age of thought and spirit. It is also the key that will open the way for every human heart to the vision that will lead our failing world to that promised morn.

Not peace which is the false image proposed to us by the spirit of this world but the peace which is purposed for us by the one LORD of All; the one peace which is the universal salutation of all three Abrahamic faiths; that very same peace that the whole of blessed Christendom celebrates every year in the Christmas season - the one prologue of all things new.

If this is our mindset, if this is the conviction we keep in our hearts, not only shall we overcome the mindlessness of the divisions that persist in our lands, we shall as human beings and citizens to each other, across our diverse national communities, prevail against the unknown earth.

For this peace is the craft of all nations.

With this, I leave you to your remembrances this day, mabuhay!

God bless the Philippines, God bless America and may God bless all our nations of our one family of nations with the peace that prospers!
---<--@

PHL in the ICC -


The one Republic of the one Filipino nation has recently joined the International Criminal Court. This is good news. It was further reported that our Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has been chosen to be sent to contribute to the mission of that international body as the first Filipino judge of the ICC. This is also good news.


Our Miriam is as fierce as a judge could be. I hope Khadaffi sits in her court.

If Colonel Khadaffi ever loved his Libyan people, he should concede defeat for the sake of the nation which is still his own. Both sides have fought bravely. Both sides have lost enough time, treasure, and promise. Now is the time to sober up; now is the time to think about the present and proceed to the future.

When promise awaits, there is no time to waste.


My own Republic have already recognized the legitimacy of the transitional council in Libya. And so do I recognize in them, the prevailing will of the one Libyan nation.
---<--@

The Philippine Peace Process -


The Philippine peace process has hit a road bump.

I tell you the truth, as a rock stands against rushing water shall soon find itself washed away, we can not prevent the morning from rising here in our Land of the Morning.

If we love Israel and Palestine. If we love Afghanistan. If we love India and Pakistan. If we love America. If we love the ASEAN. If we love Asia. If we love Iraq and Iran. If we love Africa. If we love Europe. If we love South America. If we love Korea. If we love China and Japan. Indeed, if we have love for all the other nations of our one family of nations - broken and in need of this peace. We will love our Philippines first and restore our nation to its proper place in time and space.

To love your own and then others like your own.

(Is this the real work of our nations?)

From these islands shall proceed the peace that prospers or none at all.

I'm talking here about tangible, sustainable, durable, meaningful peace - the hard fought peace of the ages. The peace that all nations must need to work out - under this season of sky - with one another before the one LORD of All nations and not the fantasy, feel-good peace of popular fiction.
---<--@

To Prayer -


This afternoon we shall have our Sunday Evening discussion. I encourage all my fellow Catholics to go to Holy Mass today and all my fellow Christians to fulfill their Sunday obligations to God.

The Peace of the LORD be with us all -

O MANKIND, my nations,
saith the LORD, our God,
where is thy one heart?
The heart that yearns
to be one as I AM one.

O ye believers, listen:
Have thou loved the other?
Have thou seen through
Babel's confusion?

O ye peoples, gather about!
Return to Me, O my portion,
come and learn again My ways
for My ways lead thee to life
and My peace is thy only path.

Know ye the Truth
and I shall set thee free.

I am the LORD, thy living God:
Behold! I am but one God alone,
worship Me not with thy divisions!
Serve me not with wars' ambition
but turn away, O stars of Abraham,
and serve the life of My creation.

(A Call to Remembrance)
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Citizenship with Fidelity


The Peace of the Brotherhood of Mankind

Common Ground

Healing Work