Laban ng Buhay

Laban ng buhay,

hamon ng panahon!

Gumising O puso,

tumugon sa hamon!

Lumaban sa agos,

pag-asa'y itaguyod.

Laban ng buhay,

iwaksi ang takot!

Manalig sa sarili.

Maging tapat sa Diyos.

Kapwa mo'y mahalin.

Katotohana'y intindihin.

Puso ng tao'y

parang tala sa langit

na sa gabi'y nangarap

at minsa'y nagising

sa dilim at liwanag

at sa umagang parating.

Ito ang kalayaang

hindi kayang alisin

kalayaang sa puso'y

kung bibigyang pansin

kapangyarihang tunay

na pumiling taglay.

O pusong natutulog

gumising sa dilim!

Dusa'y intindihin.

Imobt ay alisin.

Ningning mo'y patikasin,

liwanag mo'y palawakin.

Laban ng buhay

sa kadilima'y ipahiwatig

sa mga pusong nakikinig

lumaban sa agos

tumugon sa hamon

at lumaya ng lubos.

Laban ng buhay,

hamon ng panahon!

Puso ko ika'y tumugon.

Mamuhay ng may tapang,

problema'y harapin,

langit mo'y abutin.

Kung pangarap mo'y

malayang susundin,

kung liwanag mo'y

siyang pagtitibayin,

sa laban ng buhay

kamit mo'y tagumpay.

Laban ng buhay!

Puso ko sa dilim

sa Diyos ang tingin

pangako Niya'y dingin

manalig, maniwala

mangarap ng malaya.

---<--@

Ikaw at Ako

Pilipinas, ano ito?

Ito ang lupain ng pangarap,

Bayang hinirang ng araw

sa puso nating lahat -

isang bayan, isang diwa

isang layunin, isang puso

isang kapatiran, isang gawa

isang umagang pangako sa atin

nang Diyos nating Maykapal,

at nag-iisang Kapayapaang namumuno

sa lahat ng mga Pilipino.

Pilipinas, ano ito?

Atin ito: Ating lahat,

noon pa man, dito sa Ngayon,

at sa kalahatan nang panahon -

dito sa lupa, sa ating karagatan,

at sa lawak ng mga kalangitan,

atin ito, ating lahat,

mga kapwa ko Pilipino -

kapwa kapatid nang Pangako.

Pilipinas, ano ito?

Atin ito: Tayo ito - ikaw at ako,

ngayon at magpakailanman:

Bayang dakila, Inang kandungan,

Tahanan ng ating mga bayani -

punong puno nang kabutihang loob

at pananampalayaya sa Diyos.

Matamis ang magsilbi

sa malaya mong mga kalupunan.

---<--@

Filipino

Who is a Filipino?

But the heart that lives

to love the Filipino

and the one Republic

of the Filipino people.

How is the Filipino?

But through faith that seeks

to find itself alive

in the eternal remembrance

of God and our people.

Where is the Filipino?

But in the will that accepts

the trust that embrace

our lives and our fortunes

together as one nation.

Why is the Filipino?

But with every dream that begins

ever like a single breath

to become our breathing together

of the many into one hope.

When is the Filipino?

But at every present rising

from the deep of Eternity

in the every moment that breaks

upon the awakening reality

of the dawn of a new Philippines.

---<--@

Love our own and others like our own.

---<--@

Who is a Filipino?

Salutation #63

When you say "yes" to Peace you can not say "yes" to War as well.

(New, Old Philippines)

Tell them -

The LORD has heard thee crying out from thy heart

- O my one Filipino nation -

in the weeping of thy widows,

and in thy orphans,

in thy poor and the needy,

in all the travails of thy sons and daughters

and from out of the blood of all thy unforsaken dead

- all thy salty tears -

- all thy crying out to God -

- all thy mourning has not gone unnoticed -

for the one God of all heaven and earth has heard thee

- the LORD is His Name!

Therefore,

God desires a new, old civilization of peace for our people.

A national community such as this world has not yet seen

being cognizant of its own truth and certain of its own humanity.

It shall rise out of the ashes of the last great age of War

- an endeavor of Country, old as time itself, yet new to our exiled earth -

a Republic in His Majesty's Service!

Yea, my people -

that thou may know in thy one heart of hearts

that the LORD, thy God, is the God of all true belonging

and of the hosts that stand in defense of faithful community

- the LORD Himself shall be our King.

And all these things shall fall into their proper places and times

before the countenance of our God;

our original culture of life reconstituted,

the labor of these times re-dedicated

- to the fostering of justice, truth, and equality for all -

and the life of our common peoples safeguarded

by her one, faithful Republic.

It shall be the triumph of the one Filipino nation

who from least to greatest, bound by the freedom of our gifts,

shall cleave as citizens and human beings to each other

unto one ascent, one lineage of hope, 7,107 islands strong.

And Peace shall be our common salutation.

- selah -

How can we know the triumph of our nation

if we can not hear the song of our victory?

And how can we hear the song of our victory

if we can not say "yes" to God today?

---<--@

‎"The hottest places in Hell is reserved for those who, in a time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." (Dante Alighieri)

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Shalom. Salaam. Peace. God bless us all.

A Prayer to the King

Service is a calling (not an ambition)

The Circular Relationship of the Four Causes

Land of Promise

Glorious Motherland,

Pearl of the Orient Seas,

the fire of our love for thee

pines for thy proud embracing.

Land of Promise,

Cradle of the Brave,

from the tyranny of oppression

thou shalt never yield.

Across thy shining seas

and verdant mountain peaks,

fair winds and thy native blue skies,

the splendor of this hymn and song

speaks of thy vaunted liberty!

The brightness of thy Banner

undiminished in triumph waves,

the glory of thy stars and sun

are lights that shall ne'er fade.

Land of the Morning,

worthy of honor and of love -

our home away from Home -

what happiness it is

should the enemy draw near

to die for thy liberty.

---<--@

(My personal English translation

of "Lupang Hinirang",

the Philippine National Anthem.)

Citizen

My name is Filipino citizen.

The name of my nation is Peace.

Peace means, "we belong".

My work is Freedom.

My ambition is called Happiness.

My calling is known as Truth.

My name is Filipino citizen.

My family name is called Endless.

It means, "I love".

My Country is called Promise.

The land of my fathers is called Bountiful.

The name of my city is Friendship.

The name of my religion is Sacred Life.

My God is called Beautiful.

Beautiful means, "We are one".

My government is Service.

The name of our leader is Servant.

It means, "Great Soul".

---<--@

The Last Fading Away

Who can bear the loss of our soldiers? From all services, they are this Republic's most obedient sons and daughters... Never forget!

O Soul of Army!

Defender of our Peace -
when in battle we weep
for those whose time has come
weep not because of anguish,
our tears are meant not for grief.

Cry not because they have fallen,
those sons and daughters of Country;
valorous souls who gave to us their utmost
and have bled their everlasting witness
to the universal mission of the eternal Army
from which all honorable armed professions
draw their great lineages of victory
Here, at the last fading away -
the quest for that one final sacrifice
the very last soldier to fall

before the breaking of the Day
in the name of Peace and for Sacred Life
in a relentless war that have lasted
from the dawn of Our exile time.

O Soldier of the Peace!
Noble Defender of Country -
You are life preserving life itself
for what is Country but a work of life.
Know you not why you respond
when duty calls you to battle?
Vague at times may your reasons be
especially amidst the desolation of war
and the darkness of war's attendant evils
but forget not what you love
and love shall forget not why you live
and none shall forget you if you shall fall
for in thy Country is thy longevity
Life itself shall be your resting place
and God will forever remember you
His Peace shall forever honor you
for the time you have given others -
more time for building,
more time for sowing,
more time for loving,
more time for hoping,
for kinder days to come.

O when shall the wounding stop
and the healing begin!
O beloved Soul of Army -
when is our last fading away?

Until mankind learns
to be better builders in peace
more than wanton destroyers in war;
until humanity learns
to value Sacred Life
than to seek those paths of death
Heaven and earth shall weep
with thee, O Soul of Army,
but never for those whose time has come
for the lost are never lost
so we must seek them not in vain.
Seek not our fallen with the dead
for life is life and death is death
so let the dead bury the dead!
Let us look for those who are triumphant
not with the defeated enemies of the Peace
but with the living as well as the everliving
for God Himself has declared Peace is over War.

It is for the oppressors of Country
and the enemy of Peace and Sacred Life
for whom the bell tolls
as we sing the songs of our fallen heroes
and their potent remembrance stir
in the hearts of those who yet believe
in the victory of the eternal Army
and in the timeless vision of God
to bring to bear in the name of All that is life
the final wrath that is to come
and bring to pass
Our last fading away;
that one final hymn of taps
at the joyful dawn of the Everlasting Peace
and the breaking of this midnight world.

So cry not because of the passing away
weep for loneliness but never for sorrow
for life is life and death is death.
Let us save most of our tears for those
who yet stubbornly cling to the lie
and believe in the heart in everything that is false
giving rise to all things that inflict evil to our poor world
and bring war and death to our suffering humanity.

For it is always for the reprobate that the bell tolls
to remind to those who sow in War what they shall reap.

---<--@

On Being Strong

Love the LORD, thy God, in everything and with everything. This is the truth.

---<--@

Our precious Starshine -

STRIVE.

Strength is primarily expressed in the masculine.

Strength is fidelity to the truth; a measure of its brightness.

It is the noble glow of its own conviction;

the ascendant magnitude of our every embrace

- of all those living and everliving things -

that belong to the timelessness in our souls.

Strength is secure in its patience

being sure of the reality of itself;

born of the light that understands

the exactness of its own truth.

It is not harsh and uncertain of its own reality;

born not of the lie that in the darkness understands not itself.

Strength is certain in its meekness.

It is a temper of the will that neither rises nor falls

but is even and steadfast against the assault of false things.

It is not a hardness that hides its unfamiliarity to its own virtue;

being established not by ignorance of the value of the beautiful things

it exists to serve and to keep.

It is not coldness. It is not distance. It is not decrease.

It is warmth. It is presence. It is increase.
---<--@

On Being Beautiful

Carnality when it imposes itself upon the soul of Man usurps the image of the one Beautiful in every living being - when Man allows this to freely happen to his heart, the heart no longer beholds the beautiful but beholds something else entirely.

We become accustomed to ascribing beauty to the most hideous of things...

---<--@

Our precious Starshine -



DO NOT DESPAIR.

Beauty is primarily expressed in the feminine.

It 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.

Beauty is joyful.

Eternally youthful.

It is not a feeling.

It is never passing.

Beauty is chaste.

It can be claimed only by Love.

It is not carnal.

Invincible against lust.

Beauty is free -

You do not have to strive to be beautiful, O precious Starshine,

for Beauty is somewhere you may always return to,

- here, in your heart of hearts -

a sufficiency that you share with the one Beautiful.

Nor must must others approve of your being yourself -

for as flowers must bloom each in their own time, so will you.

Therefore, Beloved of God,

establish your roots in the timeless image and likeness within thyself

and strive everyday to reach out into the outside world

that needs so much of what you have to offer.
---<--@

An Accounting of Time

Our dearest Starshine -

Let me teach you
the way in which thy heart
does perceive the idea of numbers
and the concept of its operation
in those realms where
the mathematics of physicality
and the limits of its reality
in terms temporal
and in measures finite
does never and shall never agree
with the reality of things within.

Because the substance of thy soul

is the abode of the timeless
that in terms eternal
and in measures infinite
are an accounting of thy heart
that amidst thy comings and goings
perceive things as they are
like a vision of love forever
in moments standing still
and not as they seem to be
amidst the darkness of things
that appear and disappear
with the rise and fall
of the tides of exile time.

One is not the beginning

for one is time neither begun
nor is one perceived to have an end
because one is an infinity
and two is not two things together
but two things that become one
for three are not three things apart
but two things made one whole one
by the Love that visits
each our longing for itself.

And so when you shall perceive

each of thy friendships, dear Starshine,

(e.g. family and friends, above all conjugal love,

as well as all natures of relationships.)

among all truly human relationships
you shall think only of one.

And when you shall seek to perceive
each our own expressions of hope
in the sharing and the bearing of Sacred Life
(e.g. complementarity of the sexes, the freedom of thy gifts, etc.)

you shall think only of two.

And when you shall seek to perceive
those things born to thy own heart's longing
and felt through the beauty of remembrances

(e.g. the creative ideal - cooperation with the Creator,

Peace and the labors of peace, etc.)
awakening to thy slow awakening dream
you shall think only of three.

And ever be aware that the medium

of thy constant reality from within
is an emerging continuum of gratitude
spread as luminous stars upon thy spirit
bursting with the joy of living life
born from things that cleave as truth
unto that vast universe in thy soul
that make you think of the many
but return you always to one -

the One, O my Starshine,

the LORD!

The one Giver above His gifts.

---<--@

On Loyalty

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.
---<--@

On Friendship

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.

---<--@

Beauty and Industry

Hang on to the things in your life that doesn't change. Hang on to them till it hurts. For if life is all about change then the secret to living well must be this - stand still.

Starshine, dearest Starshine,
the labor of our heart - must -
always preceed the work of our hands.

So if you shall desire happiness
you must first know in your heart
what it is that you seek
even before you shall desire it.

For desire in and of itself offers
neither sight to thy heart
nor light to thy understanding
which you must require,

Beloved of God,
to know thy own truth by heart.

And seeking it not by sight
but through the eye of thy love
that in thy seeking believes

with conviction of faith
you will come to know thy happiness

by the grace of God
even before desire bears thee away
to where thy feet must follow.

For you work hard, dear Starshine,
you deserve to profit from thy labors.
But yet many are the times
that you fail to find thy love
which reduce thy labors into tears
and deprive thy heart of life's purpose.
Yet while there is yet longing in our life
precious Starshine, believe -
there is nothing in this world
that can ever undo
in thy heart of hearts
what Love for thee has already done.

So return again to thy longing
but know also to trust this time
in the Love that longs for thee back
and work hard, dear Starshine,
knowing to be happy with every hope
striving to always be free
to find thy peace and to prosper,
far into yonder horizons,

our beautiful forever.
---<--@

Unconquered

DREAM, my precious Starshine,
and be thankful for the dreaming
more than the dream itself -

For as tomorrow remains unwritten
yet every hope is made secure
so trust you must in thy dreaming
more than in thy dream itself
for as the eagle soars with wings
knowing not how it must fly
so must your own freedom become
more than what can be held by hands:

Thy freedom, dear Starshine,
like thy dream and thy dreaming
is a thing held not by grip
but a thing beheld by thy releasing
for to hold freedom tightly
like it is to deny it's flight
is to lose it entirely.

For thy freedom walks
upon the unconquered grounds
and wills to take it's flight
untrammeled and untamed.

So seek of thy freedom,
my precious Starshine,
but in thy seeking know -
here and Now,
that freedom lives in the giving
like every dream is in the dreaming
for it is always in the giving
that we become free.
---<--@

Breaking Free

This work is dedicated to all suffering addicts and alcoholics...

THIS ADDICTION

has power over me no more.

It has power only over those
who believe in the lie.

This addiction has lied to me,
my family, and my friends,
right from the very beginning.

It has nearly destroyed me.

It has harmed those
whom I hold dear to my heart
who hold me dear to theirs.

Therefore, I no longer believe in the lie.
I can neither trust nor tolerate it:

I cast it away from myself!

The first choice is the wrong choice.

All the choices after that
is the choice of the addiction.

Therefore ---

The next choice I must make
is the one choice I must take
toward the road to freedom.

All the choices after this
are steps that take me there,
far away from here,
far away from the addiction,
far away from the lie
that sought to extinguish
my promise and my life.

The road exists even should I fall
because the road exists for me.

The road exists so long as I believe
that time will take me there
and truth will set me free.

So help me God,
So help me God.
---<--@

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Patron Saint of the Suffering Addict and Refuge of the Recovering Addict, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Ignite

Starshine,

your addiction is to life.

There is nothing worthy
about things that cause harm -
Destruction is only good
if it brings about growth and transformation.

So remember this
when you shall desire to find yourself
when you shall seek to one day be
as stars looking out from yourself
possessed by your own light,
being by the one Beautiful beheld
seeing far into the darkness
of our needful world:
Make no provision in your heart
for evil things: Here, Now.

For there will come a time in your life
when you shall be confused
when you shall cross an imperceptible threshold
into an in-between world -
By the ebb and flow tides of shadow and light,
you shall wander alone with the Alone
and you will be compelled to look for those things
that are meant to be yours
as well as forced to shed away all other things
that should no-wise belong to you.

So listen to good counsel, Beloved of God,
for it is better not to begin weeping
than to weep until the tears that was begun
are all shed away by our weeping together
for before you can shed your own starlight,
our most precious Starshine,
before the love in your heart ignites,
you must first shed away all your tears.
---<--@

20111028

Salutation #62

I am hopeful not because there are words.

I am hopeful because there are people with listening ears

and hearts who are able to hear the meaning to the words...

(Nations Like Trees)

Wisdom is in the people -

(and discernment is in the Responsible State)

if we remain in ourselves, a nation united

- through thick or thin - by and by,

our Republic shall be enlightened by the peace we profess as a people

and our leadership enabled - inasmuch -

as we are empowered by the unity of our peace.

The more mature the peace we profess as a nation,

the better the age of our Country in time.

The deeper the roots of our citizenship is planted

upon the earth - far into forever -

as one Republic undertaking,

the more trusted shall be its fruits.

For nations are like trees

and the labor of Country is the labor of bringing the promise

of our nation into full fruition - for all Filipinos.

It is a labor of cultivation and nurture.

This is why I am passionate about the peace process.

Everything in this day and age - as far as our Philippines is concerned -

is invariably tied to its success and its success is likewise tied

to the greater forces that are now driving our world

toward interdependent community.

For there are many rooms and many trees...

---<--@

One lineage of hope - 7,107 islands strong -

"In the longer view of things, divisions don't make a difference, unity does."

You know, I used care a lot about where we've been - about one's upbringing, how one looks, how one sounds, what's in a name, from which school, from what religion, from what province, and from what family, and from what social class...

Now, what I truly care about the most is where we are ALL going.

I have awoken to the truth - that -

there can only be one Philippines for ALL Filipinos!

---<--@

An Accounting of Time

Time is not distance for time is distant

only to those with distant hearts.

Nor is distance a hindrance to our hearts

that in the timeless, beholds and is beheld.

PEACE, I salute you.

---<--@

Our dearest Starshine -

Let me teach you
the way in which thy heart
does perceive the idea of numbers
and the concept of its operation
in those realms where
the mathematics of physicality
and the limits of its reality
in terms temporal
and in measures finite
does never and shall never agree
with the reality of things within.

Because the substance of thy soul

is the abode of the timeless
that in terms eternal
and in measures infinite
are an accounting of thy heart
that amidst thy comings and goings
perceive things as they are
like a vision of love forever
in moments standing still
and not as they seem to be
amidst the darkness of things
that appear and disappear
with the rise and fall
of the tides of exile time.

One is not the beginning

for one is time neither begun
nor is one perceived to have an end
because one is an infinity
and two is not two things together
but two things that become one
for three are not three things apart
but two things made one whole one
by the Love that visits
each our longing for itself.

And so when you shall perceive

each of thy friendships, dear Starshine,

(e.g. family and friends, above all conjugal love,

as well as all natures of relationships.)

among all truly human relationships
you shall think only of one.

And when you shall seek to perceive
each our own expressions of hope
in the sharing and the bearing of Sacred Life
(e.g. complementarity of the sexes, the freedom of thy gifts, etc.)

you shall think only of two.

And when you shall seek to perceive
those things born to thy own heart's longing
and felt through the beauty of remembrances

(e.g. the creative ideal - cooperation with the Creator,

Peace and the labors of peace, etc.)
awakening to thy slow awakening dream
you shall think only of three.

And ever be aware that the medium

of thy constant reality from within
is an emerging continuum of gratitude
spread as luminous stars upon thy spirit
bursting with the joy of living life
born from things that cleave as truth
unto that vast universe in thy soul
that make you think of the many
but return you always to one -

the One, O my Starshine,

the LORD!

The one Giver above His gifts.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Patient Perseverance

Remembrance: The Ages of Country

Salutation #61

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Crystal Blue Sphere

I saw a vision of two worlds -

two paths leading away from each other...

two choices - with nothing - in between;

one is a freedom that leads to a future bright,

the other a return to the darkness of the night -

a choice begun in every human heart

a choice to return us again from the start.

(no picture I can find does justice to what I saw that day...)

I SAW IN A VISION,

a crystal blue sphere,

shining with a multitude of living lights.

The vision came to me quite abruptly

while I was awake in the day,

riding a jeep home from work.

The vision stayed for a time before me as I wondered.

I wondered at how wondrous and beautiful beyond imagination it was

that I thought I was seeing through the eyes of angels.

Then a darkness came over the vision

and it seemed to me for an instant that it was no longer there.

- selah -

But it was, O my nation,

before me was a world so overrun by sin and war

that it was no longer distinct from the nothingness of the void -

an unknown earth bereft of light,

forsook by heaven,

and forgot by God.
---<--@

(This was two years ago or more... during the first half of 2009.)

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.

I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine.

20111025

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.

---<--@

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

---<--@

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.

---<--@

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

20111023 PM

Sunday Evenings

Good evening, the Philippines - mabuhay!

This evening, I just want to share with this with you -

The Stranger at the Tabernacle

On 20110908, the feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I went to pray the rosary in front of the Tabernacle located on the right wing of our parish church to honor Mama Mary on her birthday.

During my prayer, three visitors came to Jesus.

The first one was a young mother and her young daughter; the second was a devout woman; and the third was a strange man, seemingly crude and unrefined, who ignoring all the norms of piety came with his footwear on and dirty clothes, snapping his fingers at the Tabernacle, mumbling strange words to God.

I was becoming concerned at the spirit of the latter for it seemed alien to the quiet of the place and then my Jesus made realize: the first visitor was led to Him by her love for her daughter; the second by her love for God, and the third by the grace of God.

All are children of the Father. But of all of them, I was more like the last one.

When I pray to the Father and feel helplessly inadequate as I oftentimes do, it is the welcome of Christ that constantly reassures me that I belong. It is the Spirit of Christ that prepares me to receive the invite of the Father to attend the wedding feast of His beloved Son, my most loving Jesus.

How can I go wrong by listening to Him Who came to save me? And we listen to Jesus when we pay attention to the Gospel.

- selah -

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 22:34-40 -

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them (a scholar of the law) tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

---<--@

Let us pause and reflect on the timelessness of this Wisdom, alleluia.

For it is this love that binds us together as one nation.

Whatever challenges the new week shall bring, if we face it together, if we persevere in our unity, if we keep in mind all that unites us more than what divides us, not only shall we overcome, my people, but in God we shall prevail.

So may the Holy Spirit of God sustain each of us, especially in our continuing quest for peace and righteousness in our Country, as we enter as one nation together into another working week.

My salutation is peace to you all.

---<--@

The DOST Juan Time Campaign -

Juan time starts tomorrow!

No more advancing the time to make up for Filipino time. Let us all set our watches to Juan time and be on time all the time.

Filipino time is a myth.

The truth is we move to the beat of just Juan time.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Filipino

Who is a Filipino?

But the heart that lives

to love the Filipino

and the one Republic

of the Filipino people.

How is the Filipino?

But through faith that seeks

to find itself alive

in the eternal remembrance

of God and our people.

Where is the Filipino?

But in the will that accepts

the trust that embrace

our lives and our fortunes

together as one nation.

Why is the Filipino?

But with every dream that begins

ever like a single breath

to become our breathing together

of the many into one hope.

When is the Filipino?

But at every present rising

from the deep of Eternity

in the every moment that breaks

upon the awakening reality

of the dawn of a new Philippines.

= ^.^ =

The Truth

A Friend Like You