To my Philippines -
Peace is the responsibility of all!
O my nation, if this conflict were anything else but a war among Filipinos, it would have been a foregone conclusion. The "all-out war" option would have been an easy choice.
In this particular conflict, however, our truest enemy is within. For the greatest threat to the peace of our one Republic are the divisions that keep our nation down.
(Mind you, O listening heart, not the sides themselves but the divisions that keep us apart!)
For it is these divisions that keep our Country weak and unfashioned; a mere shadow of the real glory of the Republic hoped for by all those generations past; that Land of the Morning of whose vision is the singular intention of all their labors, all their tears, all their sacrifices.
This War has prevented the appearance of that Republic, for we are at present living in a place in time that is increasingly not our own; a mere shadow of the hopes of the generations of Filipinos past, a mere fraction of their glorious dreaming.
(If we are being warned, it is because we are at a decisive juncture in the life of our nation.)
My honorable Filipino compatriots, this War in the heart of Man will prevent us from achieving the vision of the national destiny and work to deny our peoples through all our generations the realization of all our dreaming together.
It will seek to further dilute the concentrated strength of the spirit of our nationhood, preclude the promise of many, and consume the life of all. For the spirit of War is a devourer of peoples.
It is within each of us.
(Before the end of days, this beast shall be among the nations for the undoing of all nations.)
Therefore, in the midst of all of this passion, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, in the aftermath of what might have been the worst blow to the peace process we have had to endure as one nation thus far, I am not going to advise anyone of us to choose anything at this point in time.
I want us to rest and reflect. Let us afford our fallen the dignity of a calm worthy of their peace and reflect upon the things they have given their all to afford us.
Let us remember them all in this way, seeking not to add to the price this nation has to pay to obtain from God above the unity which is ours by honor and blood.
Let us listen to our President. Let us invest our trust in the power of his Office. Let us believe in his sincerity. Above all, let us believe in ours.
I personally believe in the sincerity of our President Noy. He may say it differently, do things his own way but I am absolutely convinced that he means to do exactly the same thing - restore our Republic and our generations to our rightful place in time.
Furthermore, let me say this to our national media corps -
Please be aware that all the media hype about this may also have unforeseen and unintended consequences. It might serve to inflame already deeply held passions and further alienate the bar of public opinion from the true merits of the peace process. Therefore, I would like to also ask our press people not to cut the branch we are all sitting on.
I would advise you to listen to the voices of the families of the fallen; to the voices of the common folk who live in the direct path of this conflict, decent Filipinos who did not intend for themselves to become victims of a struggle that is not theirs.
I would advise our national press as a whole not to make accusations that fly in the face of reason and impugn their investigative integrity.
For in a great democracy such as ours, the power of the free press comes from an understanding of its inalienable responsibility to the nation - one values the other. For press freedom protects its nation from ignorance of itself and an enlightened nation protects the freedom of its press.
Media serves the truth. The truth serves the people.
To sum, to all my brothers and sisters of the Promise, all us Filipinos to the last, from the noblest to the least responsible in the nation, from our President and across our wings to the very littlest Filipino, all you with listening hearts -
Let us not make any hasty decisions at this point in time. We do not have to.
Let us rest apart from our troubles and reflect - together this time.
Indeed, let us as one nation solemnly pause - observe a moment of deep and meaningful remembrance - at least till next week or at the very least, till after we have buried our dead.
Let Peace be our common salutation.
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Harbinger
Then the LORD God said: "See! The man has become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad! Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life also, and thus eat of it and live forever."
The LORD God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken.
When he expelled the man, he settled him east of the garden of Eden; and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.
- Genesis 3: 22-24
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Prayers for our kindred Republic of Turkey -
Let us also pause for a moment and pray for all of those who were lost in the recent magnitude 7.2 earthquake in eastern Turkey.
As a nation who is not unfamiliar to the tragedy of earthquakes such as these, let us grieve with our brother and sister human beings in Turkey and in hoping with their hopes, send all our kindred concerns to the one God of all human beings - the God Who is - the LORD, my people, He is God!
To all my Roman Catholic brother and sister Filipinos, let us especially take these prayers as well as our prayers for the peace of our Country to God, the Father of our Holy Redeemer, at Holy Mass - tomorrow and every Wednesdays with our Lady of Perpetual Help, on Fridays through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, at sundry times from feast to feast, but above all on Sundays through Jesus Christ and all Christians in Jesus Christ, alleluia.
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Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.
The War in Heaven is in the Heart -
Revelation 12: 7-9
A Prayer to the King