Salutation #10

Today is Flag Day.

(Old Defiant)

Peace, I salute you.

Of the colors of Old Defiant, all are well known to you.

Save perhaps for two, the color white and the color gold -

The white of our Flag is the color of Chastity -

a love of purity and of good and wholesome relationships.

It is the unseen structure that preserves

human dignity and human promise -

the medium of our common respect for all human life.

For a citizen is not a citizen in this land

were it not for other citizens like unto him or herself.

The gold of our Flag is the color of Eternity -

unfading, unyielding, changeless and constant.

When all things in this world have faded away,

it is from Eternity that all things shall too be restored.

For gold is the color of the Presence -

the Aura of the glory of LORD,

it is the Hand that leads the Angels,

it is the Shine that guide the heart of Man.

Let our Banner be unto thyself a symbol of unity, my people,

and let it fly in thy heart out of love of God and Country.

Yea, let this Banner fly in thy heart of hearts or not at all!

For if this one kind of love is absent in the absent heart of Man,

there shall our Country be found nowhere in creation.

By love of God and Country we are refined, my people -

our culture, our products, our well-being -

all of these may only benefit

from the advancements

wrought by our present determination

to advance the cause of Country -

in our lives, in our families,

in our tribes, and in our communities

across our nation, in our own present time,

and across our generations

to the very last of our generations.

Without it, we are lost.

Ah, but we are here now, my nation,

and we are present for the peace.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Fly Old Defiant:

Defy War. Defy Darkness. Defy Evil. Defy Corruption. Defy Poverty.

Prosper the Peace! Prosper the People!

20110527

A Mature Republic

Mature nations derive their eternal significance according to responsibility. The most powerful is not necessarily the greatest. The greatest is the most responsible.

Of the five ages of Country, my fellow Filipino compatriots, only the first four is well within our natural competency as a nation distinct but not apart from our one family of nations.

The fifth age is a supernatural event. For at the hour of fulfillment, when all things true and good the LORD, our God, shall restore unto their original beginnings, all nations shall be transformed into ascended nations - together.

This hour is commonly known as the Last Day or General Judgment. Now, as the one heart of Mankind implicitly knows, this hour shall certainly come to pass for the promised time shall indeed be fulfilled.

But this hour is known to God alone.

So we shall leave it at that. For we are a nation under God, my people, and we shall forever be that way

Therefore, for our own intents and purposes of building a better, brighter, kinder Philippines, it shall be sufficient for us to concentrate our freedom and our will on the first four ages of Country.

We shall be aiming precisely for the fourth age - a mature Republic.

---<--@

A Nation Distinct But Not Apart...

These days, under our President Noy, we are laying the groundwork of those things to come.

Now, being always mindful that our nation as a whole is always greater that what the present can perceive, let us make that last statement more complete:

These days, under our President Noy, we are laying the groundwork of those things to come - for us, here in our present time, and for all our generations, past as well as those that are yet to come.

My honorable compatriots, if we perceive ourselves only in part, we shall find it quite difficult to grow into a fuller, more potent appreciation of who we are as we are - as we must be.

Consequently, we shall find it hard to qualify in our souls those little, seemingly unknown acts of civic responsibility and common patriotism that we are everyday required to meaningfully accomplish as citizens to each other. For they will seem pointless - like a fish out of water.

But a miracle is almost always composed of little acts of faith.

Likewise, to get to the fourth age of Country - a mature Republic, we must labor to commit ourselves sedulously to accomplishing meaningfully those selfsame acts of civic responsibility and common patriotism - for ourselves (i.e. family, friends, tribes, communities), here in our present time, and for all our generations, past as well as those that are yet to come.

- selah -

Every nation is unique to itself and to it belong its own destiny.

When this destiny is understood by the peace of its people - the vision of the national success is perceived by the whole of the nation.

When this destiny is likewise perceived by the Responsible State, it drives forward the motion of Country (for Country is a verb) into its ages in time.

For the peace of the State and the peace of the Nation are one. And this vital unity builds as well as enriches the Common Market, prospering the people, giving glory to God.

- selah -

For our intents and purposes, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, our destiny is to work our way into becoming a mature Republic and to shine in the brightness of its remembrance - not only for the good of our own nation, but equally so for the good of all the kindred nations of our one family of nations (represented in and by our United Nations institution).

Truly, one who understand these things should agree with me that it has now - more than ever - become vital for us Filipinos to awaken to a knowledge of who we are as ourselves - as our new, old Philippines.

- selah -

We were not situated by the Providence of the LORD, our God, upon a continent so we should not be thinking in terms continental nor should we be building in terms other than tropical and archipelagic. We have to re-discover our own unique forms of architecture.

Too some say that national power is intrinsically linked to national productivity. This is true.

But national productivity is first of all, linked to civic responsibility. And this sense of civic responsibility is founded on a heart of peace that in this Republic "we belong" truly as citizens to each other.

This is how we shall "open a way for the poor".

Indeed, my friends, middle class is key.

---<--@

Our Justice System

We are not a material people (i.e. unspiritual).

I can name you precisely those problems that we face today that arise out of a forgetfulness of those things we have just mentioned above.

I am quite sure however, that those of us who are abreast of these things already know them.

These problems affect those fundamental national functions because those things that lack our remembrances are existential national truths.

Having said that, I greatly admire Secretary de Lima for her indefatigable spirit and unwavering determination to make things work. She is truly a blessing to this great Country of ours.

It is always a good thing that we pray for her and for all our national leadership.

One must never again doubt the fact that our women have a great contribution to make to the future of this Republic.

Our Justice system is not broken, my people. It has always been there.

Its spirit has apparently become diluted however, and therefore, keenly require our own greater participation that it may continue to preserve the life and the promise of our nation.

Having said that, here are the Five Pillars of our Justice System:

1. Our National Community
2. Our PNP
3. Prosecution/Public Defenders
4. The Law Courts
5. Corrections/Penology.

---<--@

Our Common Market Environment

Our natural resources are the patrimony of all our generations.

It is sad to hear the report from among our news agencies about the plunder of our coral reefs.

These reefs take generations to grow, my fellow Filipino compatriots and they are presently being destroyed in a comparatively very brief span of time.

Is this not an outrage?

In a previous post, I have identified four major sources of poverty (i.e. corruption, geography, division, ecological depletion) - this plunder of our natural resources is one of them (ecological depletion).

We are being taken for fools by criminals who do not recognize the value and the beauty of the natural patrimony of this nation of ours.

I think it's about time we citizens wise up to them. Let us echo the call of our DENR and of our President Noy -

Boycott all black coral products!

---<--@

The Joplin F5

Lastly, let us pray for the victims of that massive tornado in Joplin, Missouri, USA.

May all of those who have been lost to friends and family find their way back to God and may all of those whom they have left behind be likewise led by the LORD back to safety and peace.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas, long may our remembrance serve us! God bless us all.

Patient Perseverance

20110522

The 1st Cause: The Cause of Sacred Life - God

"Sacred Life is all of life, plant and animal, above all human life."

This is the Cause for which all the other Causes exist:

Sacred Life is All of life, seen and unseen, as well as all of life's distinctly individual relationships with and to the LORD, our God, the one Creator of all of life, first of all and then to each other - Angels first, then Man, then animals, then trees, then plants.

It includes both being (dignity) and becoming (potential) especially in the visible realms of Man.

To this Cause belong the exercise of Christian charity - as a sacred duty - which is compassion, kindness, and mercy tempering truth, common humanity, and justice in that order.

It bids all human hearts - Love first, all else follows.

Because Our God, O my beloved of my heart, is a God of relationships.

---<--@

The Noahide Covenant: The Covenant of the Nations

"You shall love the LORD, thy God, O my nation, with everything and in everything."

Reading: Genesis 9: 1-17 -

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: "Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.

Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered.

Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants.

Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.

For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life.

If anyone sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; For in the image of God has man been made.

Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it."

God said to Noah and to his sons with him:

"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you

and with every living creature that was with you: all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark.

I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."

God added: "This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you:

I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds,

I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings.

As the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant that I have established between God and all living beings--all mortal creatures that are on earth."

God told Noah: "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all mortal creatures that are on earth."

---<--@

O Unspeakable Beauty

O UNSPEAKABLE BEAUTY that surrounds, penetrates and transcends into eternity, O Beauty that shines forever brightly, ever here and ever there, ever always present in places sacred to Thy holy remembrance, in places found within the soul of every creature in need of Thee.

Arise in me and cure me of my deformity, my perversity, my ugliness, my constant rebellion.

Though I weep with guilt and shame at every thought of Thee, though I should recede back into the darkness where I truly belong, Thou has seen into my soul and my soul has caught a glimpse of Thee!

O what can a mere creature do at the hint of Thee, O unspeakable Beauty?

By Thy own Truth, Thou hast enraptured my heart and now I am madly in love with Thee.

I reject all that is not Thee!

Ever in spite of me, I constantly long for Thee, I thirst and I hunger for Thee.

O Beauty, Thou art Beautiful for Thy being Beautiful, who can resist Thee?

Bless me, convince me, lead me on and fulfill what Thou sees as Thy reflection in me. Become the fullness of Thy own image and likeness that Thou has imparted in me, and lose me forever into the depths of Thy Being.

Make use of me and recreate me into an instrument of Thy holy creation and a servant to all Thy beautiful works of divine artistry.

O wonderful God, O wonderful God! O what majesty! O what glory! O what Beauty! Thou art truly Beautiful for Thy being Beautiful.

Arise in the hearts of all Thy servants, arise in our poor world, that we may learn to see what is beautiful for being beheld by Thee.

Abide in us, O dearest LORD and Love of my love, spread upon our souls Thine infinite horizons and become for each one of us as the breaking of the new dawn from on high.

AMEN.

---<--@

One Heart, One People, One Destiny

My fellow Filipino compatriots,

in the Final Accounting of all things, it shall be shown and made known to to All that

we are a nation distinct

but not apart from all our other kindred nations - a human nation, allied to the kindred peace of all the other nations of our one family of nations.

We are a nation, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, and so it is as a nation

that we shall be held responsible by both heaven and earth before the God of all heaven and earth.

As a nation, O my people, we are by our individualities, families, tribes, communities and generations bound by one heart, one labor, and one destiny.

We are thus called, according to our fidelity to the truths of our nationhood, to make a shelter for our generations, the shelter of Country - a home away from Home for all living beings.

As a nation, we shall rise or fall upon the void of the unknown earth

according to the one peace of our peoples and the one economy of our generations to the very last of our generations.

As a nation, we shall build upon this world, the kindred peace of Country to the glory of Almighty God in heaven,

and fill it with living lights

or lay it to waste by our refusal to

subdue the darkness in and amidst ourselves - the evil in all evil things.

As a nation without its peace, we shall fail - a defeated Country, desolate and empty of promise, of broken, shattered skies, we shall remain in the dread embrace of this maddening darkness, falling forever into the void.

As a nation in possession of our peace, we shall persevere.

Victory shall in its time be restored to each of us by God Himself where w

e shall together with our own eyes behold

the triumph of an unimaginable abundance.

As a nation, we are called by weight of our history and by the call of our destiny to rise above our differences.

And to do so with courage and tenacity for h

ow else is peace to be defended?

Indeed, my honorable compatriots, it matters most what unites us than what divides us.

Our differences are diverse and the cause of many valid concerns,

but they are temporal.

Unity is eternal.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Fly Old Defiant:

Defy War. Defy Darkness. Defy Evil. Defy Corruption. Defy Poverty.

Prosper the Peace! Prosper the People!