ASEAN is Essential

If we, as individual nations,
are really serious about our being one
in the particular spirit of our region...
Then it's time to start thinking and loving
ourselves like one region... like one ASEAN.

Citizen,
incline thy better thoughts
towards our ASEAN at least once a week!

Start now
to enlarge thy hearts (and be generous!)
to embrace all our brothers and sisters in the region,
finding ever deeper ways to love us all...

ASEAN is essential.
---<--@

Remembrance 
that does not fill thy spirit with love 
to put an end to all thy hatreds 
and overcome all thy wars 
is but thy ignorance of 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.
---<--@

Salutation #146

(Sundown)

I feel we have crossed a threshold -

There is a definite change in the way the world is;
it is as if a cloud has descended upon our future, my people,
a menace that is not our doing...

There is a time of darkness ahead of us -
a time of uncertainty not necessarily evil in itself.

It may only become evil if we forget.

Let us then
hold on to our dream of Country,
let us carry on - together this time -
in spite of the gathering darkness,
despite our present lack of strength,
strive everyday to awaken this dream
in each ourselves, with each other,
and with all our other kindred nations -
all for a better world - for all.

Are we not the children of the Morning?

Night will pass,
the morning will come,
and we shall still be here.

For
the Day belongs to us
and we belong to the Day -
so bless the LORD, our God,
forever and ever
- alleluia -
now we will prove it to be true.
---<--@

Salutation #117

A citizen is not a citizen 

- if it were not for other citizens -

not unlike him or herself.

---<--@

(Focus)

NO MATTER HOW DIFFICULT 

the evils of the present time 

may be allowed by the LORD, our King, to become,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 

as one Filipino nation, as one Republic undertaking,

there are only two ways we can go - 

two summits we can set our hearts upon -

two lineages we can willingly follow -

two visions we can from heaven obtain -

two freedoms we can humanly share -

two clocks we can live to abide by -

two destinies we can fight and die for.

And of the two -

only one is superior to the other,

only one is faithful to our keeping,

only one is real.

Focus determines the outcome.

People are poor 

- who have accepted -

the reality of being poor.

A nation is defeated 

- who have come to accept -

its own defeat.

Truly, truly, 

no nation can so thoroughly deplete the spirit 

and exhaust the will of another nation 

as completely as it can 

its own self!

Therefore, 

abide in thy fellowship 

as human beings and citizens to each other -

a keeper and friend:

Do not be too quick to judge,

do not expect rights you are not willing to give others,

do not rail against the humanity of others

while feigning ignorance of your own,

harbor neither hatred nor division in thy one heart of hearts,

and never ally thy own soul to the adulterous will of War

and assume evil against the nations of the children of Mankind

(for all nations, as they are purposed and made by God,
exists singularly for the LORD's own human causes
for reasons other than the triumph of evil).

Come into today!

We can not live on the past,

the past can not feed and shelter our people.

Neither can we live on our problems,

our troubles by themselves do not make us complete.

There is only the present...

And so -

IF we are complete in our remembrances

- the good in our every moment shall be complete -

and today shall be sufficient
for all our tomorrows.

Alleluia!
---<--@

Soul of Country

20110723

Salutation #42

(The Peace of ASEAN)

To my honorable Filipino compatriots

and to the kindred nations of our ASEAN -

Our ASEAN Neighborhood has the potential for much good

not only for our region but for Asia and the world.

But only if we apply ourselves

to the understanding

that the Peace of our ASEAN

is wrought in virtue and human community.

We are the ASEAN Neighborhood.

A region that is distinct but not apart

from the problems that the nations of our world

must presently confront as a planetary community.

Problems we must work out and confront together as one

to bring about the close of the last great age of War.

If we fail, we shall all fail together.

For the planet itself is at stake.

But if we shall succeed

- as nations dreaming together this time -

we must triumph as ASEAN first.

It is essential that we believe with our hearts

in what strength there is in our unity

over what darkness there was in our past -

The strength of this unity is evident in the Flag of our ASEAN!

O my beloved ASEAN nations -

we can not hope to pull our home region in Asia

away from the descendant gravity

of the last great age of War

if we cast away our unity, covertly or overtly,

and pull ourselves apart in all directions:

War will surely scatter our peoples to the four winds.

If we remain divided in spirit,

O my Philippines,

O my kindred ASEAN nations,

we will have hoped in vain

to develop the inherent potential of our region.

If we hope in vain, we labor in vain.

For we all have inherent strengths

and we all have inherent weaknesses too

because our civilization is not complete

as individual nations in our ASEAN.

We will capitalize on our strengths

and work together to encourage, develop and fulfill them

in our nations for our region.

And we shall through weaknesses become empowered

to rely on our faith in each other and in God - more and more -

with a sense of humility and sincerity.

We will strive to realize - without direct interference -

that our ability to succeed as nations

depend largely on our being adequately cognizant and understanding

of our essential human natures,

its weaknesses as well as its common needs,

invested to the call of each our nations

and entrusted to the care of each our undertakings of Country.

By this we shall strive to be an example to each other in ASEAN

so that while we understand that we can not without coming into conflict

disregard the common experiences of our peoples,

each nation being as unique as each individual human being is unique,

we may also affirm in our own times

within each our own particular undertakings of Country

that the destiny we all aspire for as nations is one and the same

as the Peace we all strive to live in as Countries in ASEAN.

The spirit of War will eventually flee us

by the strength of the Peace of our ASEAN.

Therefore,

peace be to Brunei Darussalam,

peace be to Cambodia,

peace be to Indonesia,

peace be to Laos,

peace be to Malaysia,

peace be to Myanmar,

peace be to Singapore,

peace be to Thailand,

peace be to Vietnam,

and peace be to our ASEAN!

(And to East Timor

- waiting in the wings -

the Peace of our ASEAN as well)

Mabuhay po sa ating lahat - past is past -

we will ascend with one ascending

as one ASEAN Neighborhood.

---<--@

Attack on Norway

The twin terror attacks on innocent Norwegians yesterday at a youth camp and at the city center is appalling. Initial reports that placed the casualties at less than 10 have now risen into around 80 with people still unaccounted for.

This crime is a condemnable act of terrorism indeed.

Let us stand with Norway in this hour of tragedy, my Filipino compatriots, and let us pray for the victims and their families.

---<--@

SONA 2011

Let us pray for our President Noy. May his SONA 2011 be a sweeping success!

Lastly, let us ask the LORD in prayer (especially at Holy Mass tomorrow) to bless our nation with a strong succession of presidents beginning with our PNoy to lead our Country out of this long night.

Better yet, let us constantly desire this in our prayers to God as a nation that the LORD may bless, preserve and prosper the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines and that God may likewise bless, preserve and prosper the Office of his or her Vice President.

(Yes, we need more than one and so may all of them be blessed by God with a lion's or a lioness' heart. Refer to Daniel 12 since we are running on this timeline.)

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Being Present for Peace

20110701

Patriotic Grace

Several days ago, I picked up "Patriotic Grace" by Peggy Noonan.

I got it at the bargain pile just right outside of National Bookstore at a local mall and was really happy about myself for finding it. You see, I identify with things like these - in some strange but real sense, I feel what the author is saying, I really do.

Now that I am almost done with her book (thank you so much, Peggy Noonan), I am finding that many of the things I have been quietly thinking about seem to be the very things that common people in America have also been thinking about - all this time.

Something that when I really sit down and think about seem strange to me. But I am so used to strange nowadays that this all seems to me as something not out of the ordinary.

So I bless the LORD, and praise His Name.

Salutation #25

(Equanimity and the Longest Night)

Peace be with you, Starshine.

You must get used to strange events

without thinking you are something else

but you and you alone.

Because these are extraordinary times indeed,

and we as ordinary people must live through these times

with the kind of grace necessary for us to remain ourselves

- just ourselves -

nothing more, nothing less.

For God is at work shaping our history with us, right now.

- selah -

The first half of the 21st century is the Longest Night.

From 2000-2045, especially after 2012,

everyday for us is going to be like D-Day at the beaches -

It is going to be difficult, I promise you.

But if you love God and Country - you will fight this fight.

The battleground is the soul of every nation.

For the War in Heaven is in the Heart.

I want you to understand - even as we go along -

that the Passage in Daniel 12 specifically speaks of this time -

that this is OUR time, dear starshine.

At no time do the stars shine all the more brighter,

at no time do their starlight cut all the more sharper

than the deepest of nights

and we are at a turning point, Beloved of God,

for here in our needful world, it is Midnight.

But in your heart of hearts, starshine,

when you know what it is

and who you it is that you love

- the utter simplicity and completeness of it all -

your heart of hearts

being that space within your soul

that you share with God and God alone,

it shall always be clear as Day for you.

For when God is on His Throne in Eternity,

the night shall yield for you

- its own opportunities -

even as the darkness shall as the tide

recede for you, our most precious starshine,

to give you room enough to build a life

worthy of your labors in the nation.

Cross the Minimum of the Times

by individually completing your remembrances.

Make peace with all you know and must hold dear -

individuals, their communities, and above all, other nations.

Unify your heart of peace, Beloved of God,

carry forward with you into these present times

every hope of times past

- as much as you can and as far as you can -

for it is through these hopes that the generations of the past

shall bless our present labors with their peace

and this will add power and momentum to our will

to see to it that the labor of these present times

is advanced down the line of our lives

from hope to hope and strength to strength

as a labor of completion in our nations.

Never allow yourself to be by evil inspired.

(I am now speaking here in particular with the USA -)

Our common battle

is the battle to unite the heart of Country

and to reclaim the mission of the Republic.

It is a fight to rebuild peace and reclaim good will,

within as well as without.

It is the labor of every human heart

invested by the LORD God

in both our undertakings of Country

as citizens to each other.

(But in particular of my generation

as well as of that generation after mine -

in behalf of all the generations of life.)

It is the daily fight to feed, clothe, shelter, educate, provide for,

employ, serve, nurture, protect and prosper our common people,

and to enable them to empower the Responsible State

to guide the course of both our nations toward God and destiny.

This is our fight, our longest night.

---<--@

We all are part of the strength that will deliver this world to promise. Or doom it by our own ill will for other people and other nations.

---<--@

Let us make this Country of ours work not by being better (or think that we are better) than other Countries but by being better than our own worst selves.

For it is only by besting the false image of ourselves that we shall truly succeed.

---<--@

The Question -

An angel asked me, "...and what do I love, O heart?" For I longed to know.

It led me to a shop and showed me a thing I desired for myself but could not yet afford. Something I knew I knew but did not really think about that much.

"I love all these things that you love, O heart, that leads you to be good", the angel said to me.

"I love all the good clothes that was made for you, I love the cell phone that you'd so wished for so much, oh and that laptop - I love that as well - for you, O heart."

"So how do you love me in return?" The angel's question seem to echo from deep into my being for the lesson has now penetrated me indelibly right into my heart.

There was silence:

"You shall love the LORD thy God as one LORD alone".

"Make peace with the all of creation. Divide it not. Say peace to the river, to the sky, to the earth, to the animals (and the trees) of the earth and the fishes of the seas, to thy nations good will and to all thy fellow human beings, life and abundance. Do this if you love me."

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! May God bless all His nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

The Longest Night

Revelation 12: 7-9

20110624

"THERE IS A WAY to effect change but never must it go against the will that establish for all Mankind the shape of present things, all that is present to our humanity must be all that is accepted, first and foremost, and without condition -

this is the first requirement of faith in Divine Providence."

Salutation #23

(The 2009 Minimum of the Times)

Peace, I salute you.

Accept the status quo from 2009 - surrender to it -

embracing all its opportunities, problems, as well as its advantages.

And work to improve it from within.

Look no more into the troubles of past things for answers.

Neither be inspired by the evil of things past.

Let them all fade away into the night falling away behind us.

Rebuild thy nations

who are citizens of each its undertaking of Country

and work to restore good will one with another

dreaming as nations together this time -

human nations, O human Man!

Restore the fostering strength of thy national communities.

Repel the darkness of War and deny War an entrance into this world

by rebuilding the one Peace from within

- from wholes to wholes -

from each thy selves, shining out,

even as the numberless stars in the night sky

become in thy selves all those living lights, shining out,

into thy families, thy tribes, thy communities, and thy nations;

into thy regions, and into to thy continental wholes

and when the wholes are in their order,

arrayed according to their councils,

the problems of this, our present world,

which have heretofore

remained out of thy reach

- being global in their nature and scope -

shall come into each thy own purview

and - if God is merciful to us,

no longer shall these evils confound.

Remember always from Whose Light you were all recast,

especially all of you numberless stars of our Father Abraham

- children of the Promise made by God of old -

drawn from the emptiness of the void

into the substance of thy remembrances this time -

the LORD, thy one, true and living God!

Remember also thy togetherness,

O ye nations of the children of Mankind,

and make a burden of thy history no more.

Cross the threshold into this new age

by entering into the right door

which shall not only open for you

the dawn of the promise of this new age

but shall also secure for each of thee

a blessing for thy generations

- the generations of life, they shall be called -

closing itself shut against

the lingering hold of the last great age of War.

You must do so before the close of 2012.

For if these shadows seem long and dreary,

lingering there - in front of thy sorrowful heart

turn away from the Night, Beloved of God,

and face thee again the gathering Day!

And if in the LORD, thy God,

thou has found once again Thy sheltering Light

never look back, o ye nations,

to let these shadows of times past

fade away behind us

forever.

(Refer to Daniel 12)

---<--@

Our Future

The future is golden, it is the color of a smile.

You may measure it by the brightness of thy hopes.

The future is blue, built upon the strength of friendships.

You may in thy belongings succeed under the sheltering skies of its Peace.

The future is green, it is verdant with patient life.

You may stand firm upon the solidity of its commitment to Sacred Life.

The future is white, resplendent with truth and virtue.

You may seek all human happiness unhindered in the freedoms you will gain by its merits.

Let this be our future.

---<--@

Arise, America

There are these many stars in the skies above my soul -

I draw from the inspiration of General George Washington, impervious to the corrupting influence of power, steadfast in adversity, gracious in victory - avarice and elitism (wrought by selfish factionalism) were no match for his discipline.

His soul lived for his Country and his heart for his of family to whom he showed an ordered love that lived in the context of his patriotism especially for his wife, Martha.

It was the obsolete practice of blood-letting that weakened George Washington and eventually took his life on his sick bed in Mount Vernon - something that I perceive is happening all over again to his beloved American Republic.

- selah -

America, you must dream again with us in this new age of Peace.

Arise, America! Complete your remembrances - our one family of nations have a constant need of your principles, ideals and strength of innovation.

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat nang mga bansa! Long may our remembrance serve us. May God bless all the nations of our one family of the nations of Mankind.

An Act of Unity

Come See