Salutation #156

You can not see love
yet you feel it when it's near
and even more so when it is far...

The spiritual soul
implicitly understands this.

But to the unspiritual
this only brings confusion.



(Rich in all things, Rich above all things)

Starshine -

Is Mankind 
truly experiencing 
an awakening in the soul? 

We can feel our way
toward an answer to this
by how we learn to come to love
what we can no longer see.

We can not see virtue
but we can understand its worth.

AND if this love of the spiritual
overcomes our love for the material,
far from nullifying our national prosperity,
it will cause our people to become rich indeed -
rich in all things, rich above all things.

Reality is that our Reality is
99% invisible to the human eye -

   We can not see Country
   but we hope to understand its worth.
   For what is essential is formed in formlessness.

We are seen more than we can see.
And loved more than we are able to believe.

---<--@

Salutation #155

(Master of the Harvest)

God
asks us
for a harvest of virtue

Then
we blame each other

Then
we ask God why 
our world is so troublesome...

When
God asks
- our nations -
for a harvest of virtue,
we should work together
to produce the appropriate yield...

Only then
shall our troubles wane.
---<--@

Salutation #154

(Human Rights)

Human rights - are those - 
inalienable and universal legal protections 

granted all human individuals 

that are derived 

from the manifest necessities 

that arise from the fundamental nature

of all human beings.

They
envelop human dignity 

- and - 

embrace human promise 

- and - 

constantly seek
- to do so -

each in their entirety.

In principle, 

these protections are directed 

toward defending our basic vulnerabilities 

and promoting our fundamental responsibilities 

to each other as human beings cognizant of our humanity

and are laws purposed together
by all nations for the benefit of all nations
to recognize, foster, and preserve
human life, liberty, responsibility, posterity, and destiny 

each in their most evolved
and universal sense.
---<--@

Human Rights in Syria Now!

Human rights in Syria now!

About 18,000 people
have already lost their lives
- and - their promise
in this struggle for internal control
of that beleaguered nation...

18,000!

This
represents a sizable tear
in the fabric of our humanity!

For
we can neither bring them back
nor can we resurrect
what good they would have stood for 
in our needful world
if their lives were not cut so short...

Now,
the opposing sides of the Syrian conflict
might have already decided to pursue
- through armed conflict -
each their necessary outcomes
and we might not be able
to change that now...

BUT 
if we - everywhere - stand up
for human rights in Syria - now
and if enough of us starts doing it,
and truly believe in it's work 
though we can not directly affect
the prevailing will of the opposing forces,
we can move to effectively lessen
the unwanted suffering of the Syrian people.

We have our own outcome to work for in Syria; 
an outcome seeks to responsibly preserve 
that nation's own spirit and energy 
for the task of the rebuilding 
that is certain to come after 
this bitter struggle.

Human rights in Syria now!
---<--@

The Great Wall

Walls that represent peace
must only stand for a season...

This is so by strength of its reason
to momentarily conceal and separate
what can not be revealed and united.

They are not permanent things!

And though their structures remain
they remain not if remembered in vain.

For walls that lead to permanent division
are a source of neither unity nor cohesion
And no nation tends to build toward this vision.

Their remembrance leads to wholeness.

For when they have outlasted their purpose
they will have likewise fulfilled their promise.

For walls that are built for peace
are walls that lead to the unity of peoples -
they are walls that embrace human community;
walls that embrace a particular belonging
until all our belonging is embraced by it.

They stand to keep the enemy out
until all peoples have been bonded together
in friendship and all nations are at peace.

They stand until War is vanquished
and the family of Man grieves no more.

Great are these walls!
---<--@

Salutation #153

Prudent stewardship of the temporal order does not disincline the wings of the soul to flight for a rightful love of the things of the earth is one that does not diminish the appetite of the spirit for virtue and truth.

Material prosperity is not undesirable, materialism is. 

For materialism breeds greed and greed is the real dirt.

Therefore, one must guard not against matter but the spirit for it is this dirt that soils the soul; it is this dirt that buries the spirit.

(Nation vs Materialism)

SIMPLY PUT,
economic prosperity
depends on two things:
matter and spirit.

THIS is why materialism
ultimately destroys national wealth.

- selah -

Virtue is currency!

The rich need the poor, the poor need the rich
for each may only prosper with the other
and this relationship, by it's own virtue,
sustains the middle classes
which is the surest foundation
of a strong and steadfast democracy
providing safe shelter - for all:

A community of striving souls
standing for a just and lasting peace
where freedom is nourished - for all -
and peace, though imperfect, is yet
strongly believed and understood - by many -
as an ideal to be perfected in practice
in vision as well as in mission
- in thought and in act -
as an expression of the good will
of all citizens - least to great,
past, present, and forever.

A society of citizens
living in a just equality with each other
where every and all opportunity
though offered and received in unequal parts
by each individual citizen quantitatively
becomes a quality in the nation
that creates wealth equally
for all.
---<--@

Of Virtue and Vice

Builders of the Earth

When our spirit
becomes truly free, my people,
we shall be able to build better
and brighter things!

So let us always work
on improving our citizenship
and on bettering each ourselves.

Let us continue
to work together to restore
our own nation to its unity and
our Republic to its own native peace.

None of us
have ever truly known
what wonders we can accomplish
as a nation utterly awoken to its own truth.

Now is the time to find out
because now is the time to believe
once again - we can do marvelous things.
---<--@

NOTE: Graphic above top 7 of the posters made by Filipino high school students depicting Bayanihan or "bearing-together(ness)"; a time-honored expression of Filipino nationhood.

Salutation #152

The War in heaven is in the heart.



(The Planet of War)

Science
derives from Mars
better science.

This is so
because the work of science
is the progression of the knowledge
of science.

Likewise -

Citizenship
derives from Mars
better citizenship.

   Citizenship being the act
   of placing one's own true self
   in the service of God and Country.
 
This is so
because the common work of citizenship
is the cultivation of civilization.

   Civilization being the work
   of instilling the creative, regenerative,
   and lawful order of heaven upon the earth -

   It is the labor of forming the unknown earth;
      the untamed worlds of lower creation,
      veiled in darkness and scattered across the void
   into the inhabited earth which is the perfected domicile of Man;
      a universe shining with a myriad living lights, unveiled in perfect form,
      reflecting the golden glory of the Creator of all (the realms of) creation.

   It is the labor of the nations of the children of Mankind;
      the dedicated work of both matter and spirit, heaven and earth -
      God, (the Holy) Angels and (the nations of) Man together.

Therefore -

What does
an understanding of the red planet
give to our citizenship?

Better citizenship.

For
what knowledge
can citizens derive from
the planet of War?

Better civilization.

BECAUSE
Mars gives us an actual glimpse
of what a planet looks like
after the spirit of War
has finished it off.

Lifeless.
Destroyed.
Utterly defeated.
---<--@



Citizenship is in the soul - 'tis a seeking in the self -
an integral part of the blossoming of every human life.
So you breath it in your spirit, and you live it in your life
- you seek it like the motion of a love learning to love -
you long for it in yourself - until you are full for the truth -
until your belonging is absolute and your joy is complete.

(Photos courtesy of NASA - with thanks!)

2012 is not an end!

When we speak about the end of the world
what is really meant is the end of the world as we know it

And the end of the world as we know it
has nothing to do with the world but with the passage of time.

It is the end of time as we know it.



2012 is not an end!

For there is no end,
only a return to the beginning;
only a transformation -
a necessary transformation,
a saving transformation.

Not a few people
may fear the approach of 2012.

But change is inevitable
so we must change to master change.

We are not powerless
over which life we choose to live,
everyday we enter into it
by the power of our choices.

Just the same -

We are not powerless
over which future we choose to live through,
as individuals - but even more so -
as whole communities of individuals,
we only have to enter into it
by the power of our lives.

So let us not fear 2012 - rather,
let us seek to understand it.

THINK about it.
---<--@

Salutation #151

(Crossing Together as one Family)

LISTEN!

The burden of the times
is a burden of expectation.

If it were a burden of justice,
would any nation survive?

For all have sinned
the sin of War.

   Is there any nation in our world
   who is completely without guilt 
  of shedding the blood of another?
 
Therefore,
do we deserve
each other's forgiveness?

Yes.

Is there any other way
to progress into the new age?

- selah -

UNLESS
all our nations
become aware enough
to care enough
about the suffering
of our common humanity
during the last 2000 years
to desire it
for each our undertaking of Countries
to completely break away
from the poisonous reign of war,
we shall yet again
descend into
another age of conflict
more terrible than the last!

UNLESS
our peace is kin,
all ye nations of the children of Mankind,
we shall never become
family enough
to become possessed
with the strength of unity enough
to bridge and overcome the spiritual rifts
that threaten to devour
our peoples.

IF
we do not dispel
the spirit of War now,
- in and among ourselves -
we shall yet again
become subject
to its terrors.

NOT
because it is God's judgment for Man
but because it is Man's judgment
on himself.

- selah -

EACH
our undertaking of Country
stands to gain in age and maturity
in this present time.

NOW
do we deserve
the abundant prosperity
- spiritual as well as material -
that the peace of our planet may usher in
and freely offer to us?

Yes!

For
we have as nations
suffered long enough now
to know and to understand
the answer to our troubles...

We just needed to be asked...

SO NOW
the question is being presented to us
in each our hearts and across our nations -

Do we deserve
the abundant prosperity
- spiritual as well as material -
that the peace of our planet may usher in
and freely offer to us?

- selah -

THEREFORE,
at the coming of the new,
markedly by the end of this year 2012,
we must work to complete our remembrances -

This means to sift through
all the hurt and the pain of the past
and get the hopes of our nations aright.

   Why were our nations commissioned by God?
   Is it for the purpose of dominating and humiliating each other?
   We certainly can not totally erase this divine commission,
   we can only fight ourselves into exhaustion - again and again.

   Is not our common craft the craft of peace?
   Is not our common labor the building up the inhabited earth?
   Is not our common endowment naught but each other?
   Is not our common vision life and the abundance of living life?
   Is not our common mission the complete and utter transformation
   of the darkness of the unknown earth ever by the kindred light
   of each of our own particular(ly) human civilization?

This means to get rid of all historical baggage!

Yes, this means to forgive and to be forgiven -
people to people, and nation to nation.

UNTIL
our peace is truly kin
and we are a family once more.

AND
we must do this work of completion
- as human beings and citizens to each other -
that we may each MAKE the right choices
that each our nations will TAKE
- together this time -
into the right door that opens
into the right future.

THIS
is how we shall fulfill
the minimum of the times.

THIS
is how we shall together shine outward
as the numberless stars of our Father Abraham,
seeing far into forever.

THIS
is how we shall close
the iron gates of Country
against the darkness of the past.

THIS
is how we shall cross
into our futures together
as the one family of the nations
of the children of Mankind.

There is no other safer way across the river 
that marks the beginning of the new 
than together.
---<--@

Godspeed, Jesse Robredo

We got you back from the sea, sir,
but God has already taken you away
into Himself...

The will of the LORD be done.

So must you rest now, Sec. Robredo.

We will continue
to fight the good fight
to bring our Republic forward
into the new age.

To your family,
and to your friends,
our deepest gratitude
and sincerest condolences.

May your good life be a shelter to us.
May your steadfast faith be a comfort to us.
May the Almighty God be our greatest consolation.

God keep you, sir.
We will remember you.
Be at peace.
---<--@

I did not personally know you, sir.
But I personally felt your passing away
very, very much... salamat po.


Jesse Manalastas Robredo (19580527-20120818) via con Dios.

We have not completely lost Jesse Robredo,
for we are now living in the dream that he helped us dream
and for as long as we are working together to awaken this dream,
his spirit will always be with our nation.

That's why I never bade him good bye.


To Captain Jessup Bahinting (who served our Country with honor)


and to Kshitiz Chand (who loved his native Nepal) via con Dios.  

Godspeed!

For they went in the way of our heroes -

And though we must now part
for as long as we are a nation
for as long as we remember
they shall never be apart.

Salutation #150

A Christian without prayer is like a soldier without a rifle.



(Rosary of Hope)

My people -

Do not be afraid
neither be confused.

Dark have our times become
so we have to let the darkness be...

Let us busy ourselves
not with the darkness.

Let us busy ourselves
with the things of the light.

And learn
of the coming of the morning
even in the midst of the night.

In these times,
we have a need to shine
ever as the stars promised of old
to our Father Abraham -
together this time.

Therefore,
I will share each with you
(though I feel most unworthy to do so),
my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
the horizontal aspect of the vertical rosary -

The rosary of hope.

   I need your help in praying this rosary.

   Let us intercede for each other
   with the Blessed Mother.

   Let us pray as a nation.

For
we now
have reason
under this season
to pray harder,
hope brighter,
love kinder,
and believe truer
than we ever
have before.
---<--@

Rosary of Hope (condensed)

I have gleaned from this rosary
many of the things I have come to know
about our undertaking of Country
in relation to our own nation
and in relation to our kindred nations
though I am not perfect in my prayer habits.

This is so
because God is merciful
and our Lady loves this nation
and through our nation wills to extend this love
to all the nations of the children of Mankind
through the liberation of the human heart in prayer
   (the ultimate expression of which
   is the Eucharistic Reign of Jesus Christ
   in and across all Christian hearts)
and the gradual strengthening of the human spirit
in and across all our kindred nations,
making us all one human family - in hope.

Begin with the intention to begin:

Lord Jesus, let me offer to You, this rosary of hope.

+Sign of the Cross

The Apostle's Creed -
meditate on Christian unity
and harmony among the churches.

The First our Father -
meditate on the unity of the LORD, our God.

The first three Hail Mary's -
meditate on the distinct Personages
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The first Glory be -
meditate on the glory of God;
the culmination of all our faith,
the realization of all our hopes,
the perfection of all our love -

Identify (intimately) with the Kingdom in thee,
seek to bring it forth into the darkness of the world.

The Five Meditations

1st Meditation - True Self
2nd Meditation - Family
3rd Meditation - Friends
4th Meditation - Nation/s
5th Meditation - Mother Church

The our Father -
obedience and submission
to the will of God for you.

The 10 Hail Mary's - lineages of hope -
here you will take your petitions with our Lady
into the Presence of God, our Father.

The Glory be
meditate on the glory of God;
the culmination of all our faith,
the realization of all our hopes,
the perfection of all our loves -
here you will now lovingly surrender
the fruit of thy thoughts
with our Lady
into the hand of Jesus Christ,
our one Savior.

After each Meditation pray:

"O my Jesus
zealous for souls
thirsting for the love of Mankind
Come, Lord Jesus,
be Thou the God of my heart
and accomplish in me Thy will of Peace."

Here you will take
positive personal responsibility
to freely act on the fruits of thy prayer.

You may finish with a Salve Regina
or any Marian Salutation.

Remember,
the rosary is a house.
It is the house of the Immaculate.
Respectfully thank our Lady for allowing us 
entrance into intimacy of her home.

+Sign of the Cross

Gradually come out of your mediation...

Some Personal Notes:

When people ask you for your prayers
or when your heart is inclined by the Spirit of God
to intercede in behalf of other people,
needful as thou art needful,
you can now include these
in a particular mediation in this rosary.

Prayer requests feed into this rosary.

If you pray them
in the atmosphere of each meditation
with an open and loving heart,
you will gain certain insights
on the hopes that other people bear
for self and for others like the self
and these insights will serve to strengthen
your own sense of charity.

This likewise holds true with your own hopes.

You must never again
say yes to a prayer request
without meaning yes!

Never offer to pray
for the hope of another
without will or understanding.

Remember,
prayer is in your spirit
it is an attitude of thy heart -
as far as your soul is concerned
it is the first thing and the last thing 
for it begins not and it ends not
you feel it motion when you are still
and when you are disturbed, it is calm
stirring up only the darkness in thee
that you may soon remember
that you may soon know
that you may soon be.

So always give thanks 
to the Holy Spirit Who loves us 
to no end.

A Sample Schedule:

Mon - Joyful
Tue - Sorrowful
Wed - Glorious
Thu - Luminous
Fri - Hope
Sat - Hope
Sun - Hope/Holy Mass

Click on the Label "Rosary of Hope" below for further reference.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Salutation #149

THERE IS a fundamental strength in the heart of our humanity. It is a strength often obscured by many divisions and many sins.

Yet it is still there... 

We may at times forget it but it may never forget us.

The Assumption of our Lady reveals to us this strength; the ultimate triumph of a fully human life.



(Assumption Day 2012)

The Blessed Virgin Mary
loves the Philippines!

But not by name alone,
she does not draw herself close
to the heart of our nation simply because
we choose to call ourselves
such and such.

Let us be proud to be Filipinos
and to call ourselves Filipinos!

Our heroes
and their noble lineages
were never shy of the name.

But let us never forget
the essential spiritual values
that create and re-create
in and through our generations,
the spirit of the nationhood
in each ourselves.

Let us not just be,
as if everything relied on externals,
let us become - and strive together
to always, always become.

For every appearance on the earth
draws its existence from the spiritual
to imbue it with virtue and purpose
and to give it motion and form.

So let us be a prayerful people,
a nation not unfamiliar with gifts of mystery -
pondering the invisible, indescribable, undeniable
things of God in our hearts.

Lest a false sense of ruinous pride
overtake our people and subvert our peace,

turning our Country into ashes from within.

- selah -

Our Lady is Queen.

And her sense of compassionate responsibility
is universal among the nations of the children of Mankind.

She loves the Filipino heart
because it is a heart of humanity.

Within the abode
of each our heart dwells a spirit
that is exuberant, patient, obedient and attentive,
willing to always listen and to learn.

It is much like her own heart.
For our nation's heart is child's heart.
It is ever youthful and brave.

It is a trustful heart
that naturally recognizes,
not in spite of all our diversity
but all throughout,
the Providential Hand of God,
our Father.

It is a heart
that is valued very, very much
by her Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

The Gospel bears this witness
to our nationhood - unity is eternal.

The fruit of this unity is peace.

In every generation
to the last of our generations,
the residue of this nationhood is love;
a love reserved for all, and a love shared by all.
Its every action is a spiritual action
that ascends to glorify the God of Peace -
as our Lady did as we commemorate her this day,
her Assumption Day.

No matter
our distinctions, differences,
disagreements, or difficulties,
if we always remember
this most fundamental peace
we share amongst ourselves
and with other nations like ourselves,
we will never be far off
from the Kingdom of the LORD, our King -
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Our sense of maturity
as an undertaking of Country
relies not on its physical ages in time
but on a timeless remembrance of these!

When we are faithful to our remembrances,
this spirit of nationhood is revealed to us,
and we are able to shine 

as the stars.

Even as the stars of our Father Abraham!

Mabuhay!
---<--@



We are a human nation; a Country endowed by the LORD, our God and King, not just with a distinct Roman Catholic heritage, but with a rich Christian, Islamic, and Jewish heritage.

These as well as those other traditions of honorable religion, allied to each other in peace and good will, is a primary source of our unity.

All have contributed to the diverse and colorful fabric of Filipino culture and life.

If we sacrifice these in the name of War and in the spirit of division, what kind of a people are we?
---<--@

Here in the Philippines, the Feast Day of the Assumption of our Lady is August 15. Today is the Feast Day of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe.

Salutation #148

It is human to fight for love.
It is not human to fight for hate.

For when we fight for love, we defend.
When we fight for hate, we only fight.



(Nemesis)

Listen!

There are
two sources of nemesis
for any Country, republic or otherwise -
one is man-made, and the other one,
natural.

Of these two sources,
the military has a distinct role
in mitigating the damages wrought
by each their particular evils.

   (All our civilian first response teams
   integrated into police and public safety institutions
   also have a purpose and responsibility
   to carry out and fulfill
   in times of national duress
   but these purposes and responsibilities
   remain and have remained
   both clear and un-obscured hitherto.)

Now,

man-made sources
give rise to armed conflicts
but natural sources also does
give rise to armed conflicts.

Both
are of a paramount concern
to the Responsible State.

What is important
- is to remember -
which one is which.

For "peace-time roles", as such,
which are actions meant to intervene for the nation
in response to the Country's enemies of a natural source
   (i.e. floods, typhoons, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.)
through seemingly diminished
in contrast to the war-time responsibilities of any military,
   (necessarily utilized and evolved through the last great age of war)
shall have a great emphasis
in this new age.

Mabuhay!
---<--@

Prayer to the King