The Brightest of Stars

Do you know the absolute magnitude of Polaris, the (present) north star, is -3.64?

Many a time, the brightest of stars isn't exactly the most useful. 

Starshine, be yourself... that is all.

:::Think and Unlock:::

A Nation's Prayer for Good Public Servants

Public service is a calling not an ambition.

Therefore, if the calling is present and the person freely responds and God blesses his or her decision, no one loses out - everybody wins!

So must we always pray for God to raise among our people, good public servants - shepherds after His own heart!



May God inspire in our hearts
a discerning love of the true shepherds
of the common people -

May the LORD cause us
to exhort and support them,
to recognize and to love them,
and to appoint them, wherever necessary,
in free and peaceful elections -

May the generous and good God, our Father,
deign it acceptable to enrich our national communities
with their vigilant and beneficent stewardship
in all levels and across all distinctions
within our one nation.

AMEN.
---<--@



It is said that one only receives the love one thinks one deserves. As a nation, my people, what kind of love do and can we reasonably and realistically expect from government?

In a democratic society, these expectations matter. For these expectations of ours inadvertently shape the custom and the norms that help or hinder the rise and the success of those who are in government to serve or to be served.

Those who expect corruption when and where it suits them in the citizenry provide those who are corrupt in government a means to be corrupt.

Those who expect excellence and all manner of praiseworthy things from our public servants in the citizenry provide those who are true in our government a means to remain so.

Those who do not know what to expect will likewise reap the same uncertainty for their lukewarmness and timidity of spirit in public participation.

Liberty is an exercise, not an excuse.

Lateral responsibility precedes horizontal authority.

Return to Memory

What is in motion and what is not in motion when one recalls one's mind to the truth in all true things... this is the question. What is in stillness is stillness sought? What is waning and what is to remain.



Listen, starshine.

History will only benefit from our remembrance when we perceive from all that is shadow what is light and what is dark.

Everything in this life seems veiled in mist yet the choice is still ours what we see and what we refuse to see.

Everywhere people claim the right, everywhere people cry from the wrong, for all seems so easily forgot and nowhere does the labor of remembrance belong but to books and stone.

Alas! Remembrance belong not to books and stone but to the hearts of Man and to the souls of the nations of the children of Mankind!

Perceive the pages, see through the stone...
and choose to - know through - the grey rain tears of bitter things...
to seek in all thy stories - in and - across all thy nations to truly understand
what to thy plain and simple human heart - is light - to cast away the darkness
that creates trouble for all living souls.

   (War unleashes a terrible darkness
   and in its wake, a host of demons to dispel,
   but courage is to remain true to thy own humanity
   where all semblance of humanity have fled
   keeping true to thy own remembrance
   of a time within a time.

   For, my people -
   the peace of all nations is kin
   and the spirit of every labor of Country
   related both by covenant and by necessity -
   No one nation learns on its own
   and no Country matures by itself alone.)

Do you truly remember?
---<--@

Walker on the Path

If you think the straight path is straight because of the path, you haven't really looked beyond yourself to see what lies ahead...



Peace be with you!

If you feel that our world -
which needs so much of our love and care -
is presently difficult and confusing,
then let us fall back to our own nation
and work to improve the peace of our Republic
from within our national communities.

If you feel like our nation -
which needs so much of our love and care -
is presently difficult and confusing,
then let us fall back to our own selves
and work to improve the peace of our Republic
from within our own families
and circle of friends.

All of this we can achieve
by continually choosing to being better
than our own worst selves...
and in spite of it.

(Is not the first meditation of our rosary of hope
the strongest foundation of all the other hopes?)

- selah -

We do what we can, the best we can -
the rest we leave to the care of Almighty God
and to other citizens not unlike ourselves.

The straight path is straight not because of the path
but because of the walker on the path.
---<--@

Refer to: Salutation #83 (Straight Path)
              Salutation #150 (Rosary of Hope)

Salutation #163

The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution introduces to the people - equally engaged in that Republic undertaking of Country - the right (and the duty) to bear arms in the common defense of the nation.

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

It underpins two essential concepts of American Constitutional Liberty - Freedom and The Common Defense (of Freedom) - concepts which must be well defined for its essence to prevail as truth in the will of the people.

(I recall to mind the US Army motto: "This we shall defend".)

For the bearing of those arms - in and by itself - does not guarantee the life of liberty. Indeed, it might prove to be the death of it.



(On the Bearing of Arms)

Do I believe in guns? No.
Do I believe in the necessity of guns? Yes.

Furthermore,
I believe that the loftiest vision of weaponry
and its development in our world is to make itself obsolete -
in time.

I believe the necessity of bearing arms
provide the means to finally and eventually surrender their utility -
in time.

   (In the last great age of war
   that culminated in the Cold War,
   the nations built and developed weapons
   without an ultimate purpose in mind and heart
   and therefore, mindlessly submitted themselves
   to the truth which is implicit in the nature
   of all weaponry - destruction.

   Weapons were developed
   and refined to such a fine degree
   so as to make it - entirely possible -
   to make our humanity utterly obsolete.

   Weaponry were made to be the ultimate means
   to our own final and complete destruction
   and not the other way around.)

- selah -

Do I love guns? No.
Do I love what guns defend? Yes -
Most certainly.

I believe the means and the resources - to develop -
as well as - the will to wield - weaponry is entrusted to the nations
because the dream in making these weapons is to make safe our world -
not to undo it.

And that only its virtuous use (in the defense)
will lead all Mankind to this greatest of all desired (temporal) ends -
a world where (short of the appointed time, known to God alone,
when heaven and earth are made into one), God-helping,
peace is the rule and - not anymore -
the exception.

- selah -



I believe in a local defense industry
infused with this ethos and professing this motto:

"Filipino arms for the primary defense of the one Filipino nation".
---<--@



Bedevil the gun! 

Let us fear it,
let us make it a thing of mystery,
let us pour all our blame on it -
let us not understand it, 
that we may lay ourselves prone
to higher forms of slavery.



"The gun has played a critical role in history. An Invention which has been praised and denounced, served hero and villain alike...

and carries with it moral responsibility.

To understand the gun is to better understand history."

- Tales of the Gun, a History Channel series

Bangsamoro: A Dialogue of Unity

This does not mean the way ahead shall be easier for our nation, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, but it does mean we shall now have more of our own strength to overcome the difficulties that lie ahead of our peoples. Our unity does not make the straight path easier, it makes the journey safer... for all Filipinos.

For today we have resolved to walk the way of our nationhood - together this time - in the shelter of peace than in the shadow of war.



"Bangsamoro" shall be the dialogue of unity we shall now have with our Muslim brothers and sisters of the Promise within our one nation. It shall be a continuing dialogue - political, economic, cultural, and spiritual - but most of all, it shall be national. For within it we shall now endeavor to speak with one voice.

Within and between the nations there exists this vital dialogue (mostly invisible) composed of thought, time, discernment, and will - flowing like a river of whose tributaries lie at the heart of each of our citizens, a river that nourishes everything that is built and grows in our Republic. The freer the flow of this river, the mightier the reality of our peace together, the better our peace, the greater our prosperity - spiritual as well as material. 

(Material riches by themselves alone bring only misery and to claim to be spiritually rich without economic prosperity is a lie. To be truly rich, my nation, is to be rich indeed - in spirit and in time.)

Let us remember this, my brothers and sisters of the Promise - we who are raised from the diversity of the earth and joined by Providence Divine into one heart, one labor, one destiny:

We are a free people and so must continually exercise this liberty in order to temper it and make it strong, being very much aware of its costs and its inestimable value to the life of our Republic undertaking of Country.

Let us know that if we shall now choose to begin speaking with and to each other as citizens and human beings equally engaged in building a shelter of Country worthy of our common peace together as Filipinos...

If we shall now choose to become more than the words and become the essence of the nationhood inside of ourselves...

If we shall now choose to secede from the rule of War that have for so long denied from our generations (and from our world) the blessings of our own nationhood and enter into this new conversation of peace and national unity and human good will - together this time - we reclaim the hopes of the past...

And it shall serve us well, my people, for we too shall have been reclaimed by their memory. What we have lost in those terrible years of internecine conflict before this time would not have been in vain.

For we would have begun through this conversation to come alive to their enduring legacy.

No one falls back to the earth without uttering this one hope in the heart - a hope for better days, a hope for brighter times, a hope for kinder tomorrows... a hope for peace. Shall we, as a nation before God, abandon the remembrance of our dead to feed the hunger of War?

My people, my beloved people, the new age opens itself up only to those who are willing to enter into its embrace - my brothers and sisters of the Promise, and this - this seminal peace - is the way for our nation to enter into the new age.

Go and look at the darkness that we leave behind us - the depth and terribleness of it - and let us each ask ourselves today if there is any other way.

Let us reflect upon those tomorrows we, the people, commonly dream of - a future that is our right and our destiny - and let us seize the moment. Let us gather unto the gathering of our nation and heed the call of our peace - today is the day and now is the favorable season.

Let us allow ourselves to be joined together as one Country - being distinct in each person, family, and tribe, but never again distant in spirit - let us entrust ourselves to each other as citizens under the vigilance of Almighty God - let us work for this one outcome - that of unity - together this time

For our enduring compact is one of unity - in this compact we shall entrust to each other our everlasting good being called by Providence into one nation forever.

I have printed a copy of the Framework Agreement and shall be with you in prayer as well as in the labor to complete a comprehensive agreement by the end of this year, 2012.

Indeed, we have much work to do but I can see now that no longer - after this year - shall it be a labor of bitterest tears but a labor of hope.

My heartfelt thanks goes to the negotiating teams from the GPH and the MILF, the MNLF, and above all OPAPP and the Office of the President, as well as the tireless efforts of those nations - especially Malaysia - who have offered us the third element necessary in all peace processes - that of Peacemaker; a conqueror of heights.

May we all be blessed, may all be blessed by all - mabuhay po ang Bangsamoro at mabuhay po ang Pilipinas nating lahat: Shalom. Salaam. Peace - God bless us all.
---<--@

The brightness of thy Banner undiminished in triumph waves,

the glory of thy stars and sun are lights that shall never fade.

Ang kislap ng watawat mo'y tagumpay na nagniningning,
ang bituin at araw niya'y kailanpama'y di magdidilim.

Salutation #162

My beloved, it will be remiss of me not to speak what I feel about this...

Here is a priest blessing weapons - what feels wrong about this picture? 

(Mind you, I have seen priests of other denominations as well as holy stewards of other honorable religions doing the same thing - but I choose to be represented by my own shepherds within my Mother Church - so let he or she who has not sinned cast the first stone.)

(On the Blessing of Victory)

Since we tend to bless only those things that have an everlasting value -
the blessing of weapons seems to imply to the human heart that War
(and the suffering that war and its abominations - murder, hatred, genocide -
has continually wrought in and among the nations of the children of Mankind)
is a thing that may reach out and across into Our Eternity
to do us more ill - which is not the truth.

For in heaven, there is no War.

We may bless the individual soldier along with their kit - weapons included -
since the weapon (or weapons platform) is only an extension of the soldier
who hopes (as all soldiers across all the major arms come to hope -
through his or her submission to freely serve in the defense forces
raised by his or her particular undertaking of Country, Republic or otherwise,
to preserve his or her own nation - family, friends and communities -
from the ancient curse of War) not for the continuation of war but
for the consummation of peace).

Or we may bless the soldiers in his or her own position and place
within a particular weapons platform - terrestrial, marine, aerial, or space.

Or soldiers arrayed as a unit whole - being within their organized teams -
from the very basic maneuver element to the one whole army itself -
complete with individual kit and organic combat, combat support,
and service support attachments.

We may do this (and bless their victory) - but know and understand -
that the weapons - in and by - themselves are ultimately destined for destruction
and should never receive our blessing outside the context of the noble military
and apart from the person of the soldier.

Let us then reflect upon this and pray about it.
---<--@

Farewell to Arms

The Paradox of Power

Starshine, do you know the paradox of power?



The paradox of power is that in the final accounting of things, there is no such thing as power, only responsibility.

:::Think and Unlock:::

The Myth of the Magic Sword

Starshine, do you know the myth of the magic sword?



The myth of the magic sword is that the magic does not come from the sword.

:::Think and Unlock:::

Election Season...

It sure is.

---<--@

Political Graffiti

When the strength of our governance is held in its thrall by its love of the nation and not with itself, it is a popular government.

For it is not a popular government to be popular, it is a popular government to stand with the people, and for the people prevail.

---<--@

The word I use for this is political graffiti; the worse ones are writ in steel and stone but the most prevalent ones are in paint and print.

There is nothing wrong with proper acknowledgement of persons, even elected persons must get due credit where credit is due, this is only right and just.

But when this sense of entitlement is taken out of the proper context of the Republic whole and the person becomes bigger (or have begun to think themselves to be so) than the Offices that empower his or her stewardship of a particular function of the government of the people - it becomes a dismaying display of narrow-minded self-interest over the public spirit and the common weal.

So when I see names or images bigger than the Seals or Titles of the one Republic whose ages in time shall - and must - outlast all of our lifetimes in this present time, I cringe.

I ask myself, "what kind of message does it imply to the littlest Filipino?"

That we are ruled by mere individuals vulnerable to every idiosyncratic whim and fancy and the corruption of time not by vision and laws, ideals and virtue, that under the vigilance of Almighty God stand invulnerable to the folly of Man and the ravages of time.

Who do the people serve but the national success? What ensures our destiny is not the life of individuals but the longevity of our Republic undertaking of Country - yea, and long may she live - mabuhay!

Upon this we have all committed our lives, fortunes and sacred trust, have we not?

I love us all, but I have to disagree with those who think otherwise.

This is why I support the Anti-Epal bill: May it be further argued and definitively proven to be necessary to further perfect our Republic undertaking and be made part of the laws that safeguard the same.

Shalom. Salaam. Peace. God bless us all.
---<--@

Salutation #161

My brothers and sisters of the Promise, I have always stressed both the importance of prayer as well as the universality of prayer.

Prayer is as necessary to the soul of Man as breathing is to his body.

There is no Man on earth - past, present, or future - who, having seen creation in a constant state of prayer, has never thought to look inward and gaze into the depths of that irresistible Silence within himself without asking the questions he knows in his heart he may only address to God.

No human heart is fool enough to resist the power of prayer. Indeed, all of creation around us - seen and unseen - exists in a constant state of prayer.

Therefore, no Man who has ever existed, exists or shall ever exist may ever truly claim to have never prayed; to have never gazed with his heart into the depths of mysteries unseen, to have never experienced the buoyancy of hope, nor sensed the immediacy of faith, nor the timelessness of love.

What is common to all our prayer regardless of externals is that universal human desire to experience the reality of the Divine.

For prayer is a common human need. It is an attitude of the human heart.

In a faithful Republic, prayer is protected and this protection extends especially to all places of holy worship - temples, churches, synagogues, and mosques.



In prayer is Peace because its results are the works of peace.

(On Prayer)

AS A RULE, my precious Starshine,
prayer is always more
than the sum of all that we can see
with our unseeing eyes.

A soul in prayer is a heart present to its thought;
a walk across the vast, empty deserts within;
a reaching out to places beyond self;
a looking above from within.

It is silence contemplating Silence -
alone with the Alone.

It is a growing, persevering,
often times frustrating work
born of great necessity,
out of thy love of God.

Prayer is an ascent to the timeless,
anchored upon ageless truth,
of all the things we love
and of the Love that all created things hope for,
most especially by the truth of thy heart of love,
and of thy faith yearning to God in prayer.

The way to God is a crooked line,
for we are all but human.
But the way of prayer
makes this way certain.

For the soul that perseveres in prayer
shall indeed profit
from the LORD Who rewards all things,
great and small, known and known to God alone,
when done out of love and fear
of the one common Creator
of all common creation, seen and unseen.

It is not only important that we pray,
and persevere in this way, my precious friend,
in private, above all in community with each other,
it is simply necessary for human happiness
and the well-being of the still small truth that lives,
like a mustard seed,
inside of every self
for all things true and everlasting
depend on a heart of prayer.

Prayer is spiritual.

Therefore,
there are seasons within the soul that range
from sweet to dry or empty
but never must thy heart stay still,
you must gather when it needs gathering
and to know also when to look beyond these seasons;
you must be vigilant,
pressing on till you reach the heart of God
to lay your hopes in the LORD.

So prayer may be long
or it may be short
but it must always be timeless,
its substance is the motion
that lives like a love longing for Itself.

And when the Silence shall to your bowed heart speak,
It shall do so swift as light,
being Spoken without words
and instantly manifest to your soul as winged truth -
then you shall seek to forget all other things
but God and God alone.

And in God you shall range far,
self cognizant of self,
intimate with the Intimate,
to dwell in holy remembrance of all things.

For far may your wandering heart be
but to love and in Love
you shall forever remain
when you shall in prayer persevere.

So do so, dearest Starshine,
and say AMEN:
Know for thy own self
why the heart that believes
believes only because it prays.
---<--@

(produced 20090223)


Prayer is the first thing. It is also the last thing.