What now?

Now that the world did not end,
can we take better responsibility of it?

Can we take a planetary view of ourselves
and see our world as part of a grander design?

Can we become better citizens of each our own nations
and rediscover the order and purpose inherent to our world?

Can we brave the promised dawn that lies just ahead
and together prevail through the darkness of the last age
to become brighter advocates of peace and human community?

Can we become more compassionate stewards of our living earth?

Can we love God more as He must be loved in all creation?
---<--@

The darkest time in the night is not in the middle,
it is that part just before the breaking of the dawn.

The Autumn Gate

How do we know where it leads?



I have written enough now
about the December 21 terminus of the age
to deflect much of the fear and paranoia
that precedes these kinds
of greater movements of things...

...things that are beyond our realm of earth,
things beyond the current spread of our world,
but are yet things that are not beyond the realm
of our Mankind which is the universe entire.



It is not a time of great fear,
it is a time of great faith -
of prayer and not of panic;

of the spirit
and not an ignorance of the spirit;

of reason
and not an ignorance of reason;

of our common humanity
and not of common inhumanity;

of peace
and not of war...

For it is a time of light
and nevermore the darkness!

It begins, my darling Starshine,
as all great feats of freedom oft begins,
with a plain and simple choice -

to be one or the other.
---<--@



The unfulfilled dreams of Mankind and the freedom of God -
these are the primary causes for the expansion of space and time.

We are, therefore, we must.

Salutation #166

(Seasons of Sky)

Starshine, 
the long count calendar
is not a measure of when.

It is a measure of why.

The seasons within it
are not terrestrial in nature.

They are celestial
and are - therefore - cycles
in the spirit.

It is not meant to measure
a spread of time.

it is meant to measure
a completeness of remembrance.

Therefore,
it doesn't answer us when.

It asks us why.

What else is it for?
---<--@

Shalom. Salaam. Peace.

"I will turn them back into their nations
and return them to a memory of themselves
unto the work that I have purposed for the earth
that they may understand again the value of peace

so that I may prosper them through their generations

and bring them back to a memory of each other."
---<--@



I love the Holy Land
and have often thought -

If Israel is attacked, I am an Israeli.

If Palestine is attacked, I am a Palestinian.

If both Israel and Palestine are attacked -
then I am Israeli and Palestinian both.

But when they attack each other,
I am sorely grieved...

I am sorely grieved
for the least, the defenseless,
and the voiceless among them both.

For when both attack each other,
it is never the blame of the weak
but always of the strong...

In this way, I find my voice.

So that when in my heart I affirm -
"let there be peace be in the Middle East!",
I become sure of my own sincerity.
---<--@


No Way

Salutation #158

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.



(The Simple Message of 2012)

Two futures,
one dark and one bright,
is presented before the nations
of the children of Mankind.

We accept one by forsaking the other.

- selah -

How do we understand this?

By completing our remembrances as nations.

Certainly,
the paradigm of the last great age of war
that have prevailed over and utterly eclipsed
the spirit of our nations must be overthrown
by our willing acceptance of the times.

What is a nation?

What for is nationhood?

Personal remembrances make us human.
But it is our national remembrances
that make us citizens.

All depends on the smallest of thoughts.
---<--@

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.

---<--@

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.
---<--@

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.
---<--@

View in Review 20120623

We're half-way through 2012!



I think we're doing splendidly, my brother and sister Filipinos.

You must ask yourselves today, have the first part of this year of years made us stronger together, even slightly stronger, than the days before?

And you must ask this bearing into mind and heart the reality of our nationhood, who we are, as well as the present guardianship of our Republic replete with her memory and institutions, what we stand for, even as you reflect on where time itself has taken our freedoms today.

I personally think we have become stronger for our coming together.

For our liberty as one nation is bound by the strength of our freedoms together.

This liberty is our Republic pursuit, the fullest extent of which is happiness for all our citizens - in this world (of trial and probation) and if we are wise, in that promised world that is to come forever.

Let us remember to stay focused for the rest of this year of years bearing into mind that - yes indeed!

Little things matter, invisible things matter, for these are the essential things.



I recently saw a documentary about the prophesies related to 2012. 

These would have proved disturbing to me have I not learned to anchor my heart upon the prevailing spirit of the times which the LORD has ordained specifically to bring these events into order and perspective that we may each have a choice away and apart from all the confusion.

We have a prophesy of our own we can lean upon... (refer to Daniel 12).

So that if things do get difficult and confusing, we know with the understanding of faith and conviction of heart to all the more place ourselves in the responsible and human service of each other as a nation among nations - under and before - God, our King.

Bear always into mind and heart also, my compatriots, that ye may have a good measure of the horizons of our hope spread in their arcs across time, we have the year 2046 as our intended destination.



For it shall take two generations -
two generations to sow, nurture, and establish
the necessary changes in our Country
and allow for it to take root in the soil of our land,
two generations to work out the labor of peace
that will restore our Republic to herself
blessing all those who patiently wait
for the blessing of the LORD.

So let us give each other a little more love each day -
loving our own and loving others like our own.

Let us be understanding of our weaknesses,
considerate of our brokenness,
accommodating of our own common human needs,
unyielding in our determination to see this undertaking of Country
we call the one Republic of the Philippines through this longest night
and into the new morning of that promised day...

After all, are we not the Land of Promise, 
my brothers and sisters of the Promise?

Remember,
our democracy is to be nurtured like a tree,
its fruits are virtues eternal, and golden like the stars -
our Country which is our labor is to be honored with fidelity
and our nation which is our community cared for with kindness and love,
for these are the blessings of our peace and defended with vigilance and sacrifice.

Is this not the truth?

We are a free nation

because we have rightly chosen

(in the course of our history in time)

in our hearts and across our generations

to be guided and ruled by authentic human freedoms

where each our free and human choices

no longer become one governed by chance,

but by each individual strength of will

and the power of God's own grace;

freedom giving its life to freedom,

liberty shedding its light for all.

Sometimes these days,

and these days are becoming more frequent again

when I reflect on our population issue -

I think about

the prevalence in our collective thought

(as a free nation among the nations upon the earth)

either of (1) randomness (fatalism, or the "bahala na" habit)

(which in a free nation is a moral evil)

or of (2) free and human choice (relativism, amoralism)

(which is evil BUT ONLY if it is left to chance

for freedom that is irresponsible is anathema to itself).

Now,

of these two evils,

the question we must gauge is

which is presently the greater evil 

and so the one we must subdue;

between the one answer and the other -

a proper formation of a moral conscience 

is the arbiter.

   

One can not forsee

all ends in the RH bill debate,

and as a devout Roman Catholic,

I am anguished by its many nuances

BUT notwithstanding our action or inaction 

we are left to deal here with a clear and present evil

which is poverty and the increasing means and degrees

to which individuals and families within our own population,

have become helplessly subject to its many afflictions.

Indeed 

poverty has now become 

a social justice issue in this Republic

where failure to act decisively is consequently

a failure in the prevailing morality of our culture.

   I would even go as far as 

   to consider poverty as a national security issue

   for I am of the growing conviction that 

   poverty in our Country is becoming life-threatening

   to this Republic.

Admittedly, 

there are many facets to this issue

but in the context of the RH Bill debate 

adequate and effective population management

which is a primary responsibility of individual family units

within the peace of a democratic society such as ours

when it is left irresponsibly managed by our common failures

as a Republic whole to redeem our prevailing culture 

from the evil of randomness and chance - will and does - 

become a burden to our nation as a whole

and this burden when it becomes debilitating 

needs the swift action of our Justice and our Law.

What we do about it matters.

What we don't do about it matters even more.

A little mental exercise #1

If tomorrow it is declared, without a shred of a doubt,

that there are absolutely no petrochemical deposits

lying in the bottom of the West Philippine Sea,

I wonder how this will affect the region?

Will it soften the self-destructive stances of the politics of conflict?

Will it serve to alleviate the military tension in our common sea?

Will it add to the peace of our neighborhood and therefore, lead to a further strengthening of our futures together?

What if there really is no economic value?

What then are we really fighting for?

What for are we committing the lives of our most faithful sons and daughters...

...the desolation?

A little mental exercise #2

There is a dispute on Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal).

And this dispute involves two sovereign undertakings of Country -

the RPH and the PRC.

Do we recognize there is a dispute?

Do the two parties recognize there are two parties in this issue?

Do the two parties recognize each other?

Do the two parties who recognize each other recognize there is a respective claim of sovereignty over the area?

Have any of them already made up their mind to deny it?

Unless these questions are answered meaningfully with due regard for the greater good of the region, of Asia, and of our world - this division will remain unchallenged and unhealed; a neglected space in time wherein the contagion of War may fester and spread.

Peace may only be built on agreements.

- selah -

If the PRC insists on a bilateral remedy to the dispute without even considering the equality of our claims of sovereignty over the area, what it really is implying is a peace enforced by force of arms.

We may not win this fight in the short term but this shall prove ruinous for a power like Beijing in the longer term view of things where the value of any civilization is actually invested in time. 

It shall be to the mutual interests of both our Countries to pursue, if not through the ITLOS, a regional solution worked out with an independent regional or multinational tribunal (probably the ASEAN+China or other recognized body) bearing into mind the vital significance of the longer view of things, especially in this new age of spirit and thought, and the larger good of our Asia (and remembering the number for peace is 3). 

The truth is we can not live without the PRC and the PRC can not live without us either: We can not change the geography of our region, the currents of our common markets will lead and evolve into each other, nor the connected nature of our cultures, they shall always share an affinity wrought in spirit and blood - we may have these passionate disagreements today but all indications are we shall have to make this peace work.

And the sooner we can work this out the better.
---<--@

If we find ourselves,
despite everything and in spite of all,

still dead-locked on Panatag Shoal

and in the Spratlys,

let no bad news be good news,

let no (military) action be good action -

BUT always, 

we should be mindful

of our building together from within,

we should always be mindful

of the real labor of our nationhood,

and all these things shall turn out

for the good of the nation

that is faithful to its own truth

and to the one LORD of all truth.

For in the meantime, 
we shall build.
---<--@

Between War and Peace is indecision and this is the worst choice of them all.

"so because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth." 

- Revelation 3:16

Kung Hei Fat Choi 2012

May this year be one of new beginnings - for all the peoples of our needful world - but especially for our Asia.

May this year usher in an even more significant increase of peace in our Asia, particularly here in our region of Asia South East, and here in our own Philippines.

There is only one Asia.

Therefore, there can only be one peace for our Asia.

May all Asians seek this peace - from Israel to the Philippines, from Siberia to Indonesia - and may we all find it.

So from the Philippines to our region of Asia South East,

and from our region of Asia South East to the whole of our Asia,

and from the whole of our Asia to the whole of our world,

so needful of much respite and repair -

Kung Hei Fat Choi - Mabuhay! God bless us all.

---<--@

Be the change.

Salutation #82

2012 is going to be a very difficult road.

Our only safety is our unity.

Remember,

a nation is meant not only to overcome these trials

but to prevail against the unknown earth

- and - as one family,

transform it into a world

so full of living lights.

(2012)

A short word on 2012 -

First of all,

do not be overly anxious.

Do not trade reason for superstition.

Neither allow your faith be undone with fear.

We all know there is much to be concerned about this year of years.

So let me assure you - here and now -

even at the headwaters,

that despite all of these fears,

2012 shall be what we make of it.

For we are a nation, my people - we belong.

No nation upon this earth is ruled by random chance.

Neither is our Eternal belongings - one to another -

established by our God and true Sovereign

for purposes that are manifestly evil;

that lead to our ultimate undoing.

For all things come together for the good

for all who love and fear the LORD!

And we are a nation, my people - we belong.

So welcome 2012 -

bring on your troubles and your trials,

let in all your overcast days, your doom and gloom,

let loose your tempest and your buffeting fury

and let this temper us in our nationhood.

Let your uncertainly make us certain.

Because the journey toward all our tomorrows

must now begin today.

---<--@

Ngayon

Salutation #80

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.

(Crystal Blue Sphere)

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.

---<--@

My New Year 2012 hope -

I pray for more leaders who are accountable to God first that the LORD may craft them into proper instruments of a government wholly dedicated and responsible to the people they serve.

Leaders who at every level of government embody the definition of a popular mandate being interested in neither fame nor notoriety but in establishing in our nation through their persons the divine authority that makes us all equal before the LORD both in dignity and in promise.

Loyal leadership like these may only arise from a nation faithful to its own truth, arrayed in time as an undertaking of Country at one with its own mission and at peace with its own vision.

Therefore, I pray - first and foremost - for our nation: May we now become what we've always dreamed of becoming... mabuhay!

This is my new year hope. God bless the Philippines!

---<--@

Salutation #78

Typhoon Sendong is portentous.

It was not only out of season -

it is an indication of a much larger change.

No words can convey my distress at the loss we have sustained

at the passing of this most recent typhoon...

These are ours, O my Philippines, these are ours...

Arise therefore, O my nation - serve -

and pray for the victims of Typhoon Sendong!

(Hidden in Plain Sight)

Each year,

my fellow Filipinos,

our Country is tested

and the endurance of our nation

stectched to a point...

We are -

by the natural cycles of the seasons

and the excesses that the forces of nature

- earth, wind, fire, and water -

a nation yearly inflicted

with much violence

upon our communities

by the evils that arise from

these natural calamities.

But never have we thought,

O my beloved people,

never have we even begun to consider,

the slightest hint of surrender

to the limiting and random nature

of these evils!

Rather,

these typhoons

only serve to strengthen

our resolve

- no matter the pain -

to stand together

as one people.

For in the midst of these trials

we always choose to be the victors

and we always have.

Do you understand this?

We are -

a people whose virtues

have always been - as such -

hidden in plain sight.

So let us bear

- into mind and heart -

the strength and reality of

our own native resilience

as well as bring into the fore

of our social consciousness

- these present days -

the excellence of the virtues

embodied by our national identity

which are all the things that make living

the Filipino Dream worthwhile

as well as possible.

For the greater cycle of the seasons

is shifting -

These shall be times

- unprecedented -

in the history of all the nations

of the children of Mankind.

Winter indeed in coming

(after the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden)

- here in this season of shadows -

and there is a testing ahead

that shall require all our virtue

(as individuals giving freely

and as nations dreaming together

as one family).

Therefore,

let us always have meaningful recourse

to the sacred remembrances

of God and of Country.

- selah -

Our unity as a people

shall be our greatest guarantee against calamity.

Our peace as a nation

shall be our safest shelter against the darkness.

Our vision as a Country

shall be our surest way ahead

out of this long night - this longest night -

and into that new morning of Promise

for our Land of Promise.

2011 have revealed to us our weaknesses.

2012 shall temper for us our strengths.

---<--@

Let us help our brothers and sisters in Northern Mindanao -

Contact -

Tel. (632) 931 - 8101 to 07

Click -

http://www.redcross.org.ph/donate

Salutation #72

If only we knew, O my people -

if only we knew how complete we are;

how illustrious and noble the spirit of our nationhood,

how dignified the purpose of our coming together,

how blessed the nature of our one Republic undertaking -

if only the truth about us were not veiled by the darkness

we would all be one heart and one mind.

- selah -

(Freedom is to Know)

God bless the Philippines!

The great challenge we face in our time

is not the waging of another world war.

The great challenge we face in our time

is the winning of a lasting peace for our world.

Peace is the challenge we face

- my brothers and sisters of the Promise -

and it shall demand from each of us

a deeper and more profound sense

of moral courage and determination

- at par with the timeless virtues -

of all those victorious generations

of times and places past.

This is our time.

Lest we forget. Lest we forget.

Therefore,

a nation at peace with its own truth

- arrayed across our generations -

into a single endeavor of Country at one with its own heart

shall be our greatest and surest guarantee

of safe passage into the new age

beckoning before us.

A nation's motion is the motion of Country

and the soul of Country is in the life of its nation -

- each can not be without the other -

and both must be decided upon

- by each of us -

today while it is still today.

Freedom is to know.

---<--@

Remember - 

War is not the test,
O nations of the children of Mankind...
War is the tutor.

Allowed only for a time.

Peace is the test.
And to pass this test
brings success.

20111023 AM

Two Paths

These two paths lead away from each other - one leads toward the dawn and the other toward the void of all things that never were.

My beloved Philippines, we are a nation of whose present generations have never experienced the blessings of peace reigning within our midst -

None of us here today have every truly enjoyed the promise of peace to speak with empirical conviction about its real merit for ourselves and our peoples -

We only have the maddening darkness of War and the illuminating brightness of our faith in God and in God's faithfulness to speak for itself -

Today, we stand at a crossroads in time; a defining moment in the history of our Country is presented before all Filipino hearts -

For 2000 years, we have slumbered but now the time for waking up is here - Now is the time we wake up from the nightmare of the last great age of War -

We have to choose a path that shall lead our generations unto two totally distinct futures -

Peace on its own terms today or War on its own terms tomorrow.

- selah -

If it seems difficult for us to conform with the demands of peace today - on this we may certainly rely, war shall make it impossible for us to live with any decency as a nation tomorrow.

Let us be ever mindful that this season of peace shall not always be.

(There are greater purposes at work in our world today - purposes demonic as well as Divine and angelic - powers above and beyond the scope and the reach of Man alone.)

If not today, when?

---<--@

To love our own and others like our own -

"A stranger once welcomed is a stranger no more."

This especially holds true for those persons from other nations who represent for us the good will of their people as Father Pops once did.

But Father Pops goes one step further than this because he was one of the few who welcomed us first. He was on mission.

Father Fausto "Pops" Tentorio is a citizen of his native Italy who born of his great Christian love for our indigenous and poor Filipinos have truly become one of us. This makes him an honorary citizen of our Country by me.

The great injustice of his death is that he who should have received our warmest welcome was also he who was so abruptly and violently taken from our midst by murderous criminals.

Justice for Father Pops!

---<--@

Prayers for Thailand of our one ASEAN -

Among all our present concerns, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, let us also include in our prayers today the safety and welfare of the people of the Kingdom of Thailand who is presently battling a devastating flood in their Country.

To my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, let us be especially mindful of all our needs as well as our blessings during our Sunday obligations in this day of days and bring all of our prayers to God at Holy Mass today.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Citizenship with Fidelity

Mission Spirit

Salutation #57

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.

(What if?)

What if next year,

we draw a line in our hearts

- together this time -

and agree to belong again

as human beings and citizens to each other

under Almighty God

as one nation?

What if next year,

we leave the darkness of the past 2000 years

completely behind us?

What if next year,

we let go of our divisions

and hold on to our belongings

to each other instead?

What if next year - we begin again -

the labor of building upon the strength of our nationhood

and work to unify our one Republic peace?

What if next year,

we learn to reach out to each other

- more and more - as Filipinos than as anything else?

What if next year,

we make an effort to understand the plight of our minorities?

What if next year,

we stop making fun of the least of our brother and sister Filipinos

and try to share with them the meekness of our spirit?

What if next year,

we capitalize on the freedom of our gifts

and work together to build a better Philippines?

(On an election year: What if next year,

we work together to ensure a free and fair election?)

What if next year,

we mark the beginning of our labor of hope

and the end of our labor of tears?

- selah -

It will not be easy.

The taming of the unknown earth

- was meant to be difficult -

and the building of the inhabited earth

- shining with a myriad living lights -

near impossible.

The peace that we are tasked to observe

- one with the other - is not a perfect peace.

There will be adversity

and there might also be conflict...

But deep may this long night be,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

its darkness shall yield to our unity

for the darkness is but the darkness

if it does not lead to the truth.

Let us always remember,

we are a forward thinking nation!

And a forward thinking nation

is a nation guided by the light of its own truth.

---<--@

May Peace be in Egypt -

"A warlike Republic may seem unified but where the foundations by which the State unifies it's elements are not only unjust but also untrue, it shall never advance to fruition."

My beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise -

Let us pray for the unity of Egypt and for the Christian minority in that land...

Truly, the evolution of the Egyptian Republic shall not be easy. For all undertakings of Country is a labor vehemently opposed by the spirit of division.

But if they must succeed, they must do so by securing the 4th Cause and closing the gate of their Country against the spirit of oppression that wages a constant war against the weakest and most vulnerable portions of their common citizenry.

For if their Republic allows this horseman a free hand upon their land, it shall work its way from the weak to the strong and shall mean to one day overthrow even the noblest of their folk until - by and by - there shall be no one left to defend the liberty of that Republic.

So let the peace of Egypt be in our prayers - for all Egyptians.

And I especially ask my own Roman Catholic brethren and sisters to take this prayer to Holy Mass this Sunday - may Peace prevail in Egypt and in the Middle East!

---<--@

No State exists to fail but all States that fail exist only for itself.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Republika ng Ehipto! God bless us all.

Exceeding the Defense

20111003

The Last Quarter of 2011

We have now reached the last quarter of 2011. Let's start with a little review.

At the very beginning of this year, we set out in this blog what is to be expected of the year 2011.

I made it clear to each of us that 2011 is a time set aside for preparation and that 2011 is going to be a year of remembering what it really means to be the nation in ourselves; a year of choices.

Truly, we are the nation in ourselves - the love in our hearts for God and Country makes our one Republic undertaking visible to the eye of the spirit. It places us on the map so far as the Angels of the LORD are concerned.

It makes us easier to find in the darkness.

- selah -

I want you to recall all of the lessons we have learned so far...

Love creates the conditions for peace and our peace is a love of common good will. For the peace we profess as a nation is an affinity to unity and the highest unity of all is the unity of the LORD.

Therefore, the peace of the Philippines is a peace that must ascend being a peace that is beyond our understanding. What is meant by this is that our belonging is a unity that obtains to all of creation and more.

It is a religious peace. It is an economic peace. It is a political peace. It is a cultural peace. It is a social peace. It is a generational peace. It is a human peace.

It is the peace we offer to each other as citizens.

It is also the peace we offer to others like ourselves as a nation of citizens.

And all of these things repel the beast of War for all of these things draw us close to the memory of our people. It brings us near to the LORD, our King, Who remembers us first. Light attracts light. Love attracts love. Truth cleaves unto truth. Abundance creating abundance.

War can not understand Peace and so this peace professed is the end of the spirit of division.

This is what I mean by completing our remembrances.

All these things must begin with peace in the Filipino heart - your heart, my fellow Filipino compatriots, and mine. This one heart makes us children of the Promise.

It binds us to the dawning of our Land of Promise.

For the War in heaven is in the heart. And as War found no place in heaven, it certainly has no place among the nations. For the earth is not the abode of War: Peace is the responsibility of all.

I am telling you this because by 2012 there shall be many more crisis and conflicts that shall take on the outward appearance of anything but the central proposition being made to us by the Providence of God under this season of heaven: That (1) the problems Mankind currently face is a problem of the human heart and that (2) all of these crises and divisions find their root in the spirit.

God is making a call for the exiles to return.

If we do not heed the call of these present days, we shall certainly lose our way and our nations shall plunge deeper into the embrace of War. For how long shall our generations linger in darkness and in division, I can not tell you. For I do not know.

All I know is that if it took 2000 years for us to arrive at this choice for peace, how much longer will it take for us to listen to the LORD?

Nay, my brothers and sisters of the Promise.

We must shine in the Night as one whole sky.

- selah -

Remember this now, Beloved of God, for the time shall come when you shall seek to understand these things:

These are all external manifestations of a spiritual requirement...

...and that the answers to these questions are within ourselves.

For the core issue of 2012 phenomenon is the peace of the human heart.

---<--@

An Application of the Heart -

Having said all of the above, I take it these two previous facebook postings of mine will wax all the more clearer to us today.

The first one concerns the national peace:

"Never take your focus off the peace process, do not delude yourself in thinking that war and poverty is the reason we stand together as one nation.

Peace is the reason we are Filipino. It is the purpose for which Providence brought us forth through our parents into this time and place.

If we fail to believe it now, how then shall this generation be remembered?

But if we succeed in turning the tide today, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, how many generations shall tell of this gift when indeed, peace is at the beginning and peace is at the end of the long march of our nations?

We only have to choose and choose absolutely."

- selah -

And the second one concerns the regional/continental peace:

"This Spratly Issue could become a thing of War or a thing of Peace; a thing of War if we miss the bigger picture and a thing of Peace if we succeed in grasping it."

- selah -

Let us try to pray and reflect about these things.

Also, let us try to validate in ourselves this week the fact that all our nations, being born of the one lineage of victory, also subscribe to a common wisdom and this is the wisdom of peace.

I am not aiming for all to be convinced. I am aiming only for each of you who are called by God to be convinced to be convinced. God be with us all.

---<--@

One who understands War understands Peace.

---<--@

We will stand with each other. We will stand with our friends.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Revelation 12: 7-9