Salutation #106

My beloved brothers and sisters,

I would be remiss if I did not share with you my praise

of the Queen of Heaven and Earth!

(The Queenship of Mary)

The Queenship of Mary

is not one of power over Man

but of responsibility

over the nations of the children of Man.

This is important to understand

because a lot of hearts seem to revile

this most tender of all Marian titles

- perhaps out of an unfounded fear -

of being controlled or dominated over.

Mary is Queen of Heaven and Earth!

Hers is a dominion of peace and unity;

she cares over a realm of pure relationships

unto which we are all made free

and into which all Mankind

is destined to belong.

- selah -

It was Mama Mary

who freed me from the egoism of my past self!

It was she

who made me realize

- the great reality -

of other living truths

(starting with her own)

that exist separately from my person

who do not depend on my reality

for their own reality to exist

(and my heaven burst forth with stars!).

This painful awakening

further freed me to be able to experience Beauty

and through Beauty, the Divine Reality.

If I, who am most unworthy of all her sons,

am loved so much by the Queen of all our hearts with Jesus -

how much more you, Beloved of God?

So must you, O Christian soul,

run to our Mother Mary today!

---<--@

Mama Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Mama Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Mama Mary, Refuge of Sinners, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

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

Blessed Jacinta Marto of Fatima, courageous for sinners, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Glorified be God forever in all His Angels and in all His Saints, alleluia, alleluia!

O my Mother with Jesus

O my Mother with Jesus
and Glorious Queen of my heart,
I call with my heart upon you, dear Mother -
Recall me again to your most certain reality;
bring me to where you are present in my life.

O dear Mother,

be here with me in my heart!
For I am in need of your care and protection.

I am but a child in my heart with dear Jesus
and delighted for my God to dwell in my heart
yet I am frailest of all - against His enemies -
and I want to keep His Love so very much!

So I harken to you, dearest Lady!
O Immaculata, chief terror of hell,
give me strength against your enemies
and allow me to praise and to honor you!

Arouse me to the truths that endure forever,
recollect me to the presence of all my friends
- and bring me back -

to the foot of the Cross with you
there when the tide of all things have turned
and the serpent of this world was defeated;
his dominion of evil over humanity overthrown!

O bring me back to where it all began anew
at the greatest moment of God's triumph over evil
and the awesome price He paid for our liberation
to awaken our needful souls to the terrible evil of sin.

Ascend with me to the unity of His Peace
and awaken in me a hatred of all that is false.
Teach me virtue that I may stand steadfastly with you

against the countless evils that have been afflicted
not only to my own soul, wounding me so deeply,
but also to all the souls of our suffering humanity
- who are all victims in the first principle -
to that one lie that have wrought so much of our pain
born from that one sin that gave birth to the spirit of War
giving rise to the countless divisions that now rage

within every human heart -
a timeless conflict waged against life,

and against the God of All life;
a War to overthrow God's dominion over this world
upon His Kingdom founded in the heart of Man.

O dear Mother,

make me alive to the love of my Savior
for all things that begin in love begin with my Jesus.

Truly, truly, Blessed Virgin Mary

no evil in this world can ever convince,
nor sin in this world ever bear false claim
to what reality God's love has wrought in my life
as He hung dying on a Cross two thousand years ago
for the blade of His truth reached far across time
to cut me loose from the bonds that held my heart
that I may work out the fruits of my repentance
in loving gratitude and willing obedience to Him.

I want to keep His Love, dear Blessed Virgin Mary
I want to keep His Love and ascend to His one Peace
in prayer and in truth, in peace and in temptation
to serve God faithfully all the rest of my days.

AMEN.

---<--@

(20080615)

Salutation #105

The roots of War is ancient.

Therefore, War was never a choice that can be made freely by any nation as itself.

The real choice all our nations must always make - in every generation, and in every present time - is peace.

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

(Trees in the Garden of God)

The truth is

all nations are friends

- some now, some later -

but in the end,

our peace is kin.

No nation is truly the enemy of another!

And when we do fight,

however enduring and painful

the searing remembrances of these conflicts,

it is always because of a necessity

whether real, contrived, or imagined.

Nations never come into conflict

because of an enmity that is permanent.

- selah -

War is always something imposed upon our peace.

Let us then

learn to discern

- what is and what is not ours -

as a nation among nations, my people,

that we may,

as an integral part of a great family of nations,

begin to know and understand each other

- as nations -

more and more...

Let us bear in mind -

These is a natural tension

- between nations -

a gap between our truths

- ordained by the LORD -

a spiritual divide that may only be bridged

by our awakening to an understanding of ourselves.

We must never be afraid

to bridge these gap between nations

and to labor to recognize

- those friendships -

long withheld from our strength.

We work to overcome

the tensions between our peace

secure in the knowledge of ourselves as ourselves

and sincere in our desire

for goodwill and human community

for in the same way other nations does influence us,

never forget, my beloved nation Philippines,

- we also are -

an influence to other nations.

---<--@

Salutation #104

The difference between a Monarch and a President is one of election.

The similarity is that both of them still have to make the surrender of kings - an acceptance of a life of service to the nation as a rule above all rules.

(The Responsible State)

Upon the Responsible State is vested

the authority to govern the people.

This authority is a divine authority.

For this authority

is the right to govern your peers

and therefore,

belongs to God alone.

Upon this vital mandate is built

the structure and the systems

(Constitution or Ideals of State)

from which the Offices of State

derive both form and power.

And these Offices are served

by their various national institutions.

These institutions

when their purpose and design

are directed toward the nation

(not towards persons or personalities)

are what safeguard the national good.

Duty is empowered and rights protected;

peace is preserved and prosperity assured;

hope is sustained and service made meaningful;

law is observed and justice is vigilant;

civil order is maintained and freedoms understood;

vision is perceived and the national destiny clear -

These proceed from a strong and empowered

Responsible State!

---<--@

The Paradox of Power

A Friend Like You

I wish, my Jesus, to be

the friend that You see in me

to be constant, O Lord, to be true,

to be a friend, my God,

a Friend like You.

---<--@

The wilderness is within...

Salutation #103

(Maritime Nation)

If you want to strengthen the land
then strengthen everything
connected to the land.

If you want to strengthen
everything connected to the land
then strengthen the land.

- selah -

If you want to strengthen the sea,
if you want to strengthen the air,
if you want to strengthen space and time,
- you may only do so -
from the strength of the land.

If you want to strengthen spirit,
- you may only do so -
out of thy love for thy land.

Therefore,
if you want to build
both spirit and strength
and need to know
where to begin
- then understand this -
you must build from the land
and must grow only from out of it.

So let thy connections to the land,
give thee strength of will and purpose!

For without the land,
everything loses meaning...

And land that can not be held
- in the heart -
can not be held at all.
---<--@


Out from unity, all things we may build.

Go Team AFP. Go Navy!

Naval Jack of the Philippines

Real Weakness

Salutation #102

(Piercing the Heavens)

If I am silent,

if I do not speak of their names,

it does not mean I have forgotten.

My silence is not ignorance.

My silence is an observance.

At the breaking of every moment, it longs to speak!

It longs for justice...

It longs for peace...

Lest we forget.

Lest we forget.

---<--@

O when shall the wounding stop

and the healing begin!

O beloved Soul of Army -

when is our last fading away?

Excerpted from The Last Fading Away

Salutation #101

Think about our national identity

- our being Filipino -

(being the quality of our being citizens to each other)

meditate deeply on how other nations perceive us

and how we perceive ourselves as a nation among nations

does it not suffer the pain of these divisions?

War is the bane of all nations.

(Divided in our Lands, Divided in our Soul)

My fellow Filipinos -

a nation divided on the outside

is a nation divided on the inside.

This conflict among Filipinos

is more internal than we might

want to allow ourselves to think.

The spirit of War

stultifies our very thinking,

our common identity is confused by it,

it obscures our Republic vision

and worse of all,

the concentrated spirit of our nationhood

is severely weakened by it

We are only a shadow

of our potential

divided in our lands

and therefore,

divided in our soul.

Numerous are the challenges

of this new age, my beloved people,

and we shall never be met enough

to meet and overcome these

- unless -

we are one.

Truly,

there is no other time

in our history as a nation

that we are in need of peace

than today...

---<--@

The Filipino soul is affected by this war among ourselves

more than the ordinary Filipino might want to think.

Herein lies the problem -

we, the people, become complacent

and accept a vision of our Philippines

which is but a fraction of our fullest potential.

No, this is not where we should be, my people!

Filipino Volunteerism

"What is good for the Philippines is good for the Filipino."

This is an axiom of our national life

of which there should be no significant departures -

everything good about our Republic

should redound to the common benefit our citizenry!

The spirit of Filipino volunteerism is nourished by this standard.

Mabuhay, Efren Penaflorida

- tunay na bayaning Pilipino -

malapit sa tao, kilala sa mundo!

May God bless you,

O giver of gifts -

and may God bless our Country

with His most gracious peace

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

---<--@

Salutation #100

SO WE CHOOSE PEACE TODAY

and let peace take us into itself tomorrow.

(The Beginnings of Peace)

We do not enter into a peace process

to convince ourselves of our common need of peace -

the fruits of War itself

should have made this need apparent

to our convictions beforehand.

Indeed,

the last 2000 years

is prelude to this one choice alone.

(This is why it is important that our national leadership -

especially those who are at the forefront of the peace process

are the persons most convinced of our need for Peace over War.)

Because

lasting peace does not begin

at the stroke of a pen.

Lasting peace

for our nation begins

when hearts become turned away from War.

- selah -

It is a mistake to think

- here in our native Philippines -

that the peace process is anything complex.

For if we prevail over one of its major areas of concern,

this makes it easier for us to prevail over the others.

(The spirit of War is cunning but it is still one spirit alone.)

This is why

our main focus must always be - in Mindanao -

because, my brother and sisters of the Promise,

- if we are able to bridge -

the deepest and most enduring of our divisions as a people,

then the peace for our Philippines

is sure to be certain.

We prevail over War together

- my one nation Philippines -

or War shall have us all!

Therefore,

we do not enter into

our own particular peace process

to pursue a path of defeat for anyone -

(for Peace is Peace and War is War)

we enter into our peace process

to find a way of victory for all Filipinos.

(Many other things require our energies...)

O when shall we sing
our victory songs, my people?

When shall we see
peace reign across our land,
making our hearts whole,
and our spirits glad?

Now is the favorable time...

This War among Filipinos must be brought to a swift end!

---<--@

Salutation #99

The things of division are ephemeral

- difficult and painful they may be -

these evils serve a necessary purpose

and this purpose is always

- greater and nobler -

than these hurts.

For unity and the fruits of unity,

- these are the things that matter -

these are eternal!

(Emergence)

Listen!

When I was a child,

I demanded perfection from my parents.

As I grew,

I came to accept not only their imperfection

but my own.

Now that I am all grown up,

I work with my parents

to make our family more perfect...

My brothers and sisters of the Promise -

That child is our nation,

those parents are our government

(under the LORD as our one Sovereign),

and that family is our one Republic.

---<--@

To everything there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under heaven.

Salutation #98

WHEN WE SPEAK OF PEACE

- we do not mean to say -

we shall have no more enemies.

When we speak of peace

- we mean to say -

we shall fight to reclaim our right

- as a free and sovereign nation of the earth -

to triumph over our enemies,

seen and unseen, both natural and man-made.

(Choosing to Belong)

If we do not understand peace,

what do we promise ourselves by our reaching out for it?

If peace were the most unpopular thing on this earth,

would we still willingly reach out for it - unless -

we are all convinced it is something worth our having?

O my beloved Country,

can we love a thing that is eclipsed to our hearts?

- selah -

Peace,

the peace we together strive toward -

is never but a mere word.

For peace is more meaning than word;

it's essence is immense and its entirety

too large to be memorized.

We can not realistically commit peace into memory alone.

For peace and its timeless remembrance

can neither be served by intellect alone

nor by momentary passions that live and die.

Truly,

peace as it may appear

to the eye of our heart is important.

For we can never be half-way in our heart with peace!

(Those who give themselves up to the will of War

give themselves up to it - just as completely.)

Now,

peace is not a thing

to be held by the grip of a hand,

nor is peace a finite space in time,

something fleeting and meant to be lost.

Peace is not something we - as one nation,

may ever take for granted!

My brothers and sisters of the Promise -

Peace is a vision, a leading,

a pleading, a need, a volition, a truth;

it guides and comforts,

it rules and it warms,

it embraces and sets free...

Peace is that timeless spirit - unyielding and immovable -

that brings our generations together.

Peace is that unseen climate - constant and irresistible -

that works to bind our gifts and our freedoms

into one labor in time; one ascent of Country.

Peace is a constant of heaven on earth -

the inhabited earth

(a world inclined toward good will and virtue)

can never be built up in the absence of it

for no nation may prosper without it,

nor Country prevail outside of it.

For our peace is as a light

- a civilizing light and a beacon of Man -

without it the darkness of the unknown earth yields not

for without it entire nations fall into disarray

and even angels lose their way.

Without peace, my beloved nation,

there literally can be no more tomorrows

for without it all our dreaming is at a dead end.

- selah -

If we do not understand peace,

what do we promise ourselves by our reaching out for it?

So we choose peace today

and let peace take us into itself tomorrow.

By thus we secure ourselves

against the buffeting winds of the storms

that prevent our peace process

from taking a firm hold on the ground of our Republic

- its own native soil!

---<--@

What War Expects?

Go now and do what War does not expect.

What War Expects?

Go now and do what War does not expect.

What War Expects?

Go now and do what War does not expect.

What War Expects?

Go now and do what War does not expect.