What do you think?

An lovely interpretive painting of peace

What is beautiful about peace... the picture above or the one below?

Iraqi Christian kids displaced and disenfranchised by ISIS receiving the help and attention they need and deserve

Personal Reflection:

Peace is one large vision as in the painting. This is true. In that vision, the beauty of peace appears abstract to the seeking soul. This view of peace is depicted by and in the picture above.

Peace here, in the larger view of our world, is like our Lord Jesus looking over Jerusalem from a distance.

But that vision is made up of many smaller, equally important visions. These smaller visions encapsulate many smaller acts... each act is significant and vital to the synergy of the whole.

Peace here, from the view of the poor of our earth, is in the Gospels seen through the many small acts within our Savior's ministry. The beauty of one such act is depicted by and in the picture below.

Such is peace, I think. 

Overall, it is something that can never be won by sheer force of arms. It must be loved. It must be gained by love. To be loved it must first be understood. To be understood it must first be sought. To be sought it must first be desired. To be desired it must first be missed... do we miss it enough these days?

How long till we realize how ugly and how adulterous war is? 

How long till we love again our true love as nations?
---<--@

Friendships without Frontiers

I dream of me and you, dear Starshine,
born and reborn in a million shades and hue,
upon a world without fears, in nations without tears -
an earth living the dream, of friendships without frontiers.

Above the tainted gray clouds of my own indifference,

through a force stronger than the pull of all that prejudice...
I sought to see beyond the deception of a million worthless labels,

and hear above the incessant din of faceless voices of nameless hatreds,
that I may fly to the simple you and I and in the simple you and I - the one we.

I never used to appreciate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because I used to view the Civil Rights Movement in the United States as a movement for the rights of black people.

Now that I have deepened my remembrance of these things, I know that Dr. King fought for the rights of ALL people, and that in his own way and in his own time, this person - far be he in external appearances from my time and my place - truly fought for me and stood up for my rights.

Now I can not stop loving and respecting the man - for here he stands proudly, with all my heroes.

When we fight for minority rights against majority indifference;
when we together stand up for the least of us who can not stand up for themselves;
when we strive hard for the simple uplift of the spirit of the downfallen and the despairing
most especially the least of these from among all of the Children of our Mankind
- from any human nation Divine Providence has seen it fit to work in our hearts,
our LORD's compassionate concern for the causes of our common humanity -
we inadvertently work - alone or with others - towards the ultimate liberation of the souls of all Men
from that unhappy incapacity in each ourselves to think and act as human beings to each other...
and so begin to know freedom as Dr. King knew freedom in the Dream,
coming Home forever as citizens to each other.
---<--@

Racism knows no color, no creed, no culture, no Country.
It is a sin, the sin of inequality, and preys on all of us equally.



"We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools."

Martin Luther King Jr. (19290115-19680404 of valor and love of Country) - servant of Jesus Christ and martyred scion of the elder Republic of the United States of America, beloved son of the one American nation and faithful servant of common humanity, vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement, friend of freedom, friend of peace, lover of the common Man - via con Dios.

Salutation #175

Money is but a means to obtain wealth.

Brothers and sisters of the Promise -
if money and the mere count of all worldly things
were the ultimate end of our coming together into one nationhood,
we should realize - here and now - that we should be
the most unfortunate gathering of souls
in all of God's living creation.

For the devil has his crushing evil lies,
and the angels their quicksilver blue wings,
and the LORD, His glorious, golden Eternity -
But alas, my poor nation! we shall have nothing
if we do not learn, God helping, to multiply our means
not by selfishly obtaining for ourselves the mere number of their count
but by making - in behalf of the All of ourselves - even the merest of means count
so that every generation will have something that remains
to build upon and to hold dear.



(On Eagle's Wings)

Truly,
every nation has its wings
endowed to lift unto the sky of Heaven
the burdens of the earth-bound feet of Man.

But to do so,
We must realize that we, who are but one in our community,
should always look to the least, to the weakest, to the lowliest -
ever to the ones closest to the heavy and difficult ground of our earth
and know that we can not lift up our nationhood with its own wings to fly
IF we can not together uplift the lives of the poorest of the poor
in and amongst ourselves.

The power of our release from the gravity of our earth
we acquire from the presence of the poor - and we shall always have them -
(because the poor is, by measure of time as a whole, none other than the All of us)
for it is they - who are, at each moment, among the least among us - who give to us
- as a nation among nations - ever by the grace of the LORD, our King,
the constant opportunity to fly and to ascend to our completeness.

Remembering now the 4th Cause -
(which is the key to wealth generation in this new age
and the threshold that leads unto the other three Causes)
Indeed, within this Republic undertaking of Country
under heaven upon the earth - each of us -
who become rich becomes rich indeed
when we learn how to make each other rich
within a labor of Country borne ever aloft
by an economy of matter and grace.
---<--@

Salutation #121

The Lord Christ said,

"The poor you will always have with you..." (Matthew 26: 11)

Starshine, there will always be a minority.
---<--@

(The 4th Cause: The Cause of Minorities - Benignity)

BENIGNITY is the practice of goodness.

Now,

goodness

in the company 

of the great, the strong, 

and the powerful, 

is not an extraordinary virtue.

Therefore, 

this Cause must concern itself 

with (1) the preferential treatment and care 

of minorities (i.e. the weak and the vulnerable)

and (2) the just distribution 

of the material goods of this world.

In the person of the stranger, 

the orphan, the widow, the unborn, 

the disabled, the elderly, and the poor 

whether transient, semi-permanent, or permanent, 

there shall always exist within our midst, 

a minority.

Indeed,

at one time or another 

in the lifespan of individual human beings 

as well as in the lifespan of individual human nations, 

we all become part of this minority.

Let us always bear this in mind and heart...

- selah - listen, think.

Have we forgotten our own roots, 

O numberless stars of our Father Abraham,

O ye children of the Peace, of the Light,
promised by the God of old 

to bless the national communities 

of our needful Mankind?

Were we not all 

drawn up by the LORD

from the poverty of the minority?

Were we not all 

uplifted from our lowliness

by the mercy and beneficence of God

to people the nations of the earth?

Let us always bear this 

- in mind and heart -

especially in these present times.

For this is how 

we shall fill the earth 

with living lights.

- selah -

We are by our poverty indistinguishable! 

How we shall each 

- distinguish ourselves -

in the midst of the darkness

is through virtue and the continual refinement 

of each our inherent human nobility.

This is important to remember, 

my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 

because the victimization (by the strong) 

of the marginalized (or the weak) 

will ultimately result in the implosion 

of our national communities 

and in the Last Day, 

it shall also bring about 

its final and irreversible destruction.

The marginalization 

- in any society - 

of any of one of its parts 

is always the effect of divisions 

(overt as well as covert) 

in the one heart of the people.

A social order built on disagreements 

(abiding in prejudices, misconceptions, fear and ignorance) 

is ever like a tyranny without a tyrant -

a culture of national self-destruction!

In this hostile atmosphere, 

the spirit of the nation itself

feels ever trodden underfoot 

until the burden of Justice 

becomes unbearable.

Indeed,

the will or the spirit of War 

always takes the easiest entrance 

into the midst of the people... 

And this it always does 

by subverting the 4th Cause.

- selah -

The one sin 

a nation can not abide by 

is the presence of War in the heart.

Indeed, 

we all shall stand before God 

to account for our gifts of nationhood! 

So let us not forget
to ask ourselves before God in prayer - each day -

what we have done or chosen not to do

to improve the life of our communities

and prosper the native peace 

of each our undertakings of Country.

Because Peace is our only path - 

it is the only choice we can really make

both as human beings and as human nations.

- selah -

The 4th Cause explicitly espouses 

the first principle - that -

the strong exists in defense of the weak.

The entire hierarchy of the Angelic realms 

is ordered by God around this first principle.

And since our nations (as they are) 

are a natural extension of the unseen realms, 

we too are expected by the Providence of God 

to faithfully imitate the heavenly order 

by formally uniting ourselves as a people 

to the will and the governance of the LORD, 

our God - the one Sovereign of all nations.

What the majority does in behalf of the minority 

dictates a nation's fidelity to the 4th Cause!

Wealth generation and long-term national prosperity 

is entirely dependent on the 4th Cause!

It is from the 4th Cause that we enter 

into an understanding of the higher Causes!

---<--@

The Circular Relationship of the Four Causes

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

20110921

On Capital Punishment and the Case of Troy Davis

This article on Yahoo News caught my eye -

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in the State of Georgia on Wednesday 7pm US Eastern Time.

The problem is there is an overwhelming upsurge of public sentiment to - at the very least - postpone capital punishment in the light of new developments in support of his case for the defense.

The prosecution is adamant. The defense is making last minute appeals. The public is becoming more and more anxiously divided on the issue.

But both the prosecution and the defense are integral elements of a justice system that must subscribe to unifying principles that safeguard a court's ability to preserve the peace of the state.

One of these principles are - the innocent must never be punished with the guilty.

My instant reaction is to agree with a suspension of the sentence. It is also the natural reaction of many other notable people including my Holy Father Benedict XVI.

I am a Roman Catholic Christian in private as well as in public. My faith has a lot to do with every aspect of my little life, its true - because if I had remained in my sin, if I had no Savior, I would not be speaking sense to you today.

It would be a grave miscarriage of justice if the court gives in to anger or the spirit of revenge or allow itself to become drawn into any political divisions that, having no place whatsoever in the consideration of these things, further deny the State and the community of the people their natural recourse to the remedy of law.

No one would deny justice to the victims and their families. Let there be no doubt that the causes of both Justice and Law serves their grievances first and foremost.

But to prevent the community from reaping further grief from what seems to be a reasonable doubt looming against the cause of justice, one must prove right to make this appeal to the government of Georgia to intervene and not make this doubt a permanent motion that would, in the interests of narrow-minded expediency, remove the peace of that State of the Union further away from the public trust.

And so I too find myself making this same appeal for the authorities in Georgia to intervene to suspend the execution of Troy Davis.

If the person is innocent and he is delivered to God guilty, the burden no longer lies with the innocent but with the community who condemn themselves with their blood.

This shall not go without repercussions.

Indeed, all human care and all legal means must be exhausted beyond reasonable doubt to make sure that the innocent is never punished with the guilty.

That the guilty should be punished without delay is a corollary of this first principle.

This is why capital punishment is never a remedy for failing to address the failures in the justice system of any nation - most of all, here in my native Philippines.

God bless the State of Georgia, God bless America and may the LORD prosper thy Republic that justice prevail for all thy peoples unto the last of their generations.

---<--@

Some more considerations on the Middle East Peace -

I reaffirm this once again. We must fully support President Obama's initiative to bring back on track the Middle East peace process. The political peace (distinct from the national peace) has the best chance of achieving itself under his watch.

It should be recognized that the protection of the Jewish-Majority nature of the undertaking of Country known as modern Israel is essential to preserve that Country's ability to decisively preempt another Holocaust and to defend the rights of the whole nation of Israel at home or abroad.

I say Jewish-Majority here because of the fact that in any undertaking of Country, there shall always be a minority and for this reason, the majority can not rule without justice and this justice is impossible if the minority of any undertaking of Country is not given full recognition as well as equal protection before the law. This must also be recognized.

Furthermore, the same exact thing must be expected of the nascent Palestinian undertaking of Country.

As a matter of fact, the 4th Cause applies to every undertaking of Country that draws its breath from the spirit of its own nation.

In this sense, Israel and Palestine shall be reciprocating unto each other greater and greater examples founded on good will instead of those descending cycles of ill will that have plagued and confused their peoples for a generation.

It must be conceded by both the State of modern Israel and the Palestinian Authority that the deadlock in the Middle East (along with whatever reasons, covert or overt, that have given this conflict the appearance of justice) can no longer be sustained in this new age.

Both nations must cross the Minimum of the Times - stop looking backward - and complete their remembrances under this present season of heaven.

There can be no other choice that will secure the long-term national success for both the nations of Israel and of Palestine than to make the choice for peace today while it is still today.

For peace is the craft of nations.

Both sides must be given an honorable exit strategy and an honest and dependable way of return for their common peoples out of this untenable state of division and away into unity and the promise of the new age...

that Peace may proceed from Jerusalem and good will spring up from the heart of our Asia to bring down from God in heaven the blessings of this new age for all our nations dreaming together of a better world for our common humanity, alelluia.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Blindness

Defeating Homophobia

IGNORANCE breeds fear for lack of understanding. What's strange about it all is that people seem to fear the understanding more than the ignorance itself.

Now we come to a complex issue - gay rights.

Some people find this issue too difficult hence, homophobia. What is it?

ho·mo·pho·bi·a [hoh-muh-foh-bee-uh] –noun: unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality.

Take note, homophobia is an unreasoning fear or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality.

Like I said, it is a complex issue and herein lies its difficulties. It is simply too unreal to say one is pro-gay or anti-gay.

I myself consider my convictions about the issue to be centrist because I find myself advocating both liberal as well as conservative positions. My main argument though and one that I will not compromise with is the issue of human rights for gay people.

First of all, let me put this argument in the proper context -

The last great age of War thrives on a mindset of division. Where these mindsets have become firmly entrenched in the people, some cultures of persecution will persist.

Here in the Philippines, my honorable compatriots, we shall make every effort to successfully enter into the door that will lead our nation to promise in this new age.

We shall, as one nation, work to prosper our peace. This means we shall both clearly define and continually safeguard individual human rights as a vital element requisite to our integral sense of a national common good.

Because, honorable Filipino brothers and sisters of the Promise, without the real development of individuals there can be no true national development and there can be no real development of individuals without individual rights.

- selah -

In this sense, speaking for myself as a citizen, I am more concerned about the fear and ignorance that feed the phenomenon of homophobia than of homosexuals per se as a minority segment of our common humanity.

It is easier to reject than to respect and to forsake love rather than to embrace it. Hate blinds the faith that causes our reason to see further than it normally could, by the grace of God.

This is why in the case of minority human rights issues, above all other considerations, force of law is a requirement we can never do without.

This means that - especially in the case of the weaker segments of any society - the force of free human choice must be augmented by the prevailing law of the land.

But we can not have law without resort to reason and we can not use our reason (naked or otherwise illuminated by faith) without first accepting that homosexuality is not the problem, the phenomenon of homophobia is.

As a Roman Catholic Christian, though my stance on the matter is the traditional one and is well known to all, I am also additionally concerned about the abuse of my Christian faith by those who seek to use it to persecute my fellow human beings (homosexual or not) first of all, and the protection of my faith tradition from the excess of those who for selfish reasons, seek to make it more or less than what it should be (homosexual or not).

I do not believe in same-sex marriages. As far as I am concerned, we should just politely leave church weddings out of it.

But I do believe in the equality of homosexuals (and all human beings) before the law - specific civil contracts should be fine. And I mean this primarily to protect their property rights as fellow citizens equally engaged in our one Republic undertaking.

I believe in the dignity and the promise of the homosexual person as a fellow human being upon this earth but I will never endorse the homosexual act as a legitimate act of conjugal love.

I do not believe in legislating conformity as regards to anybody's private personal preferences as long as both the integrity of the human community and the common good of the nation are not threatened by it.

I am of the religious opinion that the homosexual state is a unique calling to serve in the chaste single state and must be explored in that context. Homosexuality is not a disease. It is a distinct calling to serve. That's my religious opinion.

Furthermore, I believe not in judging homosexuals but in helping them realize also their God-given right to be happy not by a false freedom that will consume them but by the freedom that will liberate them in the truth - that their lives too have purpose and meaning from God if only they shall seek to avoid conformity with the spirit of the world and fall in love with the Spirit of Jesus Christ the Lord.

Besides, how can one help those one has already, in his or her heart, condemned to be beyond help? And the homosexual person is never beyond help - no one is.

"Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins." (2 Peter 4: 8)

Absolutely speaking, I do not believe in using my religion as a weapon against other people.

My honorable compatriots, the future we are choosing to bring forward today belong to all Filipinos - it shall belong to all Filipinos or none at all.

---<--@

Within the week, I shall be issuing our next monthly challenge for this month of August 2011.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. (Ayn Rand)

Others Like Yourself

A Just Equality

20110619

PEACE be with you, Starshine -

Words are but empty vessels if they are to remain without meaning for you.

Just the same, in everything you say or do, Beloved of God, do not remain hollow - because you must practice, you must pray.

Now then, didn't you know the best prayer of all is Holy Mass?

To learn the heart of this most important of all Christian prayers ask your local parish priest for a Catechesis of the Holy Mass today - and then pray...

For prayer is an attitude of the heart present to the Presence of the LORD of all hearts - it is a sense of connectedness (unity) we must fight to always maintain in ourselves, Starshine.

In this sense, prayer is battle (2725, Catechism of the Catholic Church).

And it must naturally lead our heart of prayer toward a deepening sense of inter-connectedness (community) with each other as human beings and as citizens of all creation.

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

Pray, pray, pray therefore - pray for all Mankind, my most precious Starshine - pray for all our poor, broken nations, know of their needs intimately in thyself, tolerate no division, no chaos, no enmity in thy heart of hearts and let us storm the one God of all heaven and earth with our common human hopes -

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday.

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)

Salutation #16

(Salutation to all Christian minorities among the nations)

To all our Christian communities, Peace.

Take courage,
my beloved brothers and sisters,

peace be with you!

Let us remember each other

as we heed the call of Christ

Who upon the mount of Tabor
was Transfigured into glory
that we may see beyond time
into the timeless brilliance
of our great Home in eternity.

Let us be meek like our Savior
and seek shelter in His humility
Who upon the mount of Tabor
by our witness of a living faith
was Transfigured into glory
to unveil for us,

our Christian hope
and give courage in adversity -
"Arise, be not afraid." (Mat 17: 7)

God is our surest Refuge!

We include you in our hearts,

my beloved brothers and sisters,

our prayers constantly reach out to you
asking the LORD for His mercy
that we may always together endure

for God alone provides

and His grace alone is sufficient.

Though you may feel alone

at times, O Beloved of Christ,

surely, you must know

in your heart of hearts

our baptism is for always.

Ever in God then,

my beloved brothers and sisters,
in time and in eternity

we are but

one Communion of Saints.

Ever to God then,

my beloved brothers and sisters,

toward peace and brotherhood

and the unity of God's Perfection

where your hope becomes our hope

your virtue becomes our virtue

your sin becomes our penance
whatever helps you helps us
whatever hurts you hurts us
your gladness being our gladness
your sorrow being our sorrow
for we are but one bread,
one Love, broken for others.

Hold fast to the peace of Jesus
for His peace is our abundance
and the abundance of Christ is life
being the promise of eternal bliss
revealed in the Most Holy Trinity
as the truth of the most high God
unveiled in the Father and the Son
and in the unity of the Holy Spirit -
one God that transcends all time
one Truth that illumine all truth
one Will that fulfills all our being
one Being that sustains all of life
one Love that gathers us together
like a love ever longing for Itself:
one blessed, triune Perfection!

Alleluia, my brothers and sisters,
distance is no longer a tyranny
nor separation bear it's sting
to every Christian who trusts
in the Name of Jesus Christ
Who is Emmanuel, God with us.

Alleluia, Amen to Christ, Alleluia.

---<--@

Let us pray especially for our brethren and sister Christians in the Holy Land. For the Holy Land is a special place. And the Christians in the Holy Land are a special people.

Let us therefore, extend to them willingly our hearts and hands.

Let us bear in mind and heart this day, all human minorities of whatever distinction from among all our nations, peace - mabuhay!

And also let us pray for Dondon Celestino Lanuza, an OFW on death row in KSA.

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! God bless all His Christian communities.

God Encompassing God

O LORD,

God encompassing God,

God encompassing All in Thyself!

O LORD,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -

Blessed Unity,

Holy Trinity,

Perfect Company!

O LORD,

there is none but Thee,

there is none like Thee!

O LORD,

Thou art from everlasting to everlasting -

in Thee All draw their being,

in Thee All draw their living life,

in Thee there is no shadow of turning,

in Thee there is neither darkness nor Night,

in Thee there is joy, abundance and peace,

in Thee there is only love and the Light!

O LORD,

Thou desire salvation for all beings

to Whom shall all needful souls turn to,

my God, but to Thee?

O LORD,

Thou art the one Sovereign of all nations

unto Whom shall Thy exile peoples return to,

my God, but unto Thee?

Abide in us, O LORD, be with us!

Be the God of our lives, our families,

and our national communities!

O Goal of all my goals,

I love, I trust, and I adore Thee!

---<--@

Our God, O my beloved of my heart, is a God of relationships - One, Triune Perfection!

20110519

The End of the World?

Peace, I salute you.

In the lead up to the time of 2012, my honorable compatriots, when all the choices we must each make today (at a time, times, and half-a-time) shall serve to bear up our hopes as a nation, there shall be many feelers and sayers of impending doom along the way.

You will first of all, respect them.

If it helps you to be more devout, if it helps you to be good, if it helps you to free yourselves, may God do so, from the grip of things we could really do without, then are these not those things we must willingly accept and ought to be thankful about?

There is a prediction in two days time about the end of the world - at sunset on May 21 (at what time zone, I am uncertain). Not with a feeling of despair, ignorance or ill-will shall we meet it.

For Providence is a great teacher of life.

But if we can not accept reality as it unfolds, if we can not accept the present as it is, we will miss most of its value in our lives - and consequently in the life of our nation.

Truly, my fellow Filipino compatriots, God's will shall be fulfilled in all things, whether we know it or not, whether we approve or disapprove of it.

What is ours to do is to be ready here today. Or at least try to learn today how to be ready for that day - together.

The end of the world is actually the beginning of it. Everything in every moment is in a state of constant renewal, arising from the spirit and returning to it once more.

If God wanted to completely restore all things in Himself today, it will happen.

But for as long as the hour of the fulfillment remains God's to decide upon (and it is) and to fulfill (and it is), we must remain with our hand on the plow, busy with our labors here in this world both as individual human beings and as individual human nations - together this time.

If it takes a moment, a year, a hundred years, if it takes forever, my friends, let us still say peace and amen to God, it shall be done!

Now, if there is any fear for the future, then let this be reason for the exercise of faith enough for today.

---<--@

The 4th Cause: The Cause of Benignity - Minorities

The Lord Christ said, "The poor you will always have with you..." (Matthew 26: 11)

"There will always be a minority."

BENIGNITY is the practice of goodness.

Therefore, this Cause must concern itself with the preferential treatment and care of minorities and the just distribution of the material goods of this world.

In the person of the stranger, the orphan, the widow, the unborn, the disabled, the elderly, and the poor whether transient, semi-permanent, or permanent, there shall always exist within our midst, a minority.

At one time or another in the lifespan of individual human beings as well as in the lifespan of individual human nations, we all become part of the minority.

Let us always bear this in mind and heart...(selah - listen, think)

Have we forgotten our own roots, O ye children of the Peace, promised by God of old to bless the national communities of Mankind?

Were we not all drawn up by the LORD from the poverty of the minority?

Let us always bear this in mind and heart especially all ye numberless stars of Father Abraham.

This is how we shall fill the earth with living lights.

We are by our poverty indistinguishable. How we shall each distinguish ourselves in this midst is through virtue and the refinement of our inherent human nobility.

This is important to remember, my friends, because the victimization (by the strong) of the marginalized (the weak) will ultimately result in the implosion of our national communities and in the Last Day, it shall also bring about its final and irreversible destruction.

The marginalization in any society of any of one of its parts is always the effect of divisions (overt as well as covert) in the one heart of the people.

A social order built on disagreements (abiding in prejudices, misconceptions, fear and ignorance) is like a tyranny without a tyrant.

In this hostile atmosphere, the spirit of the nation feels itself trodden underfoot until the burden of Justice becomes unbearable.

The will or the spirit of War always takes the easiest entrance into the midst of the people. And this it always does by subverting the 4th Cause.

The one sin a nation can not abide by is the presence of War in the heart.

Because Peace is our only path - it is the only choice we can really make.

The 4th Cause explicitly espouses the first principle that the strong exists in defense of the weak.

The entire hierarchy of the angelic realms is ordered around this first principle.

Since our nations (as they are) are a natural extension of the unseen realms, we are expected by the Providence of God to faithfully imitate the heavenly order by formally uniting ourselves as a people to the will and the governance of the LORD, our God - the one Sovereign of all nations.

What the majority does in behalf of the minority dictates a nation's fidelity to the 4th Cause.

Wealth generation and long-term national prosperity is entirely dependent on the 4th Cause.

A word on the value of Human Promise -

"One life lost to War is always one life too many."

Human lives once willfully cut short and stolen in the midst of our communities do not just end, they linger because by each life lost to War, we are truly diminished.

One can not expect to eat the fruits of a forest, benefit from the shade of its wood as well as rest within the protection of its multitude if there are no trees left.

If the nations are hungry, if we are vulnerable, if we are weak, it is because of War in the heart.

When we forget to remember the unsung promises of those who are now lost to us through war and reckless, wasteful violence, when we forget the hopes they have left to our present care, we stand to learn nothing of their pain and loss and are therefore doomed to relive it.

Because it is not the sins of the past that curse, it is the inability of every present generation to overcome its evils that prevent our Day from flourishing.

Human promise once forcefully taken by the hand of Man becomes an inescapable part of his unbearable burden - to be borne by all of his generations spread across all our nations.

Without Justice, it hinders his destiny. Without the mercy of God, it prevents it.

Without the peace of the nations of Mankind, by this burden, Man is sunk in despair.

Without the love of a mighty Redeemer, by this burden too, Man is to be lost to us forever.

Now let us think -

If we were able to be blessed by even some of the lives that our nations have collectively lost to War in the last age, we would have not have plunged this far down in our troubles today.

We would have been far more advanced in the fields of medicine, health science, conservation, and energy than we are at present.

We would have already solved many of the problems that confound us today.

We could have been back and forth to the stars already.

We should never be that reckless again.

The 4th Cause intrinsically recognizes the timeless value of human promise and acts accordingly.

It naturally leads to the 3rd and the 2nd Causes that seek to ensure that the prevailing peace of the prevailing social order remains constantly compatible with Man's God-given and therefore, inviolable human dignity.

Without the 4th Cause, the 3rd and the 2nd Causes will never ascend to the 1st Cause.

And without the 1st Cause, all the other Causes lose cohesion, value and potency.

But Man has the help of both heaven and earth, and the favor of God.

Shahbaz Bhatti (19680909-20110301 of valor and love of Country) - though I did not know you in life, I now know you are a friend to me - so peace, my friend - via con Dios!

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

- John 15: 13

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The Final 6

About two months ago, I was asked by someone close to my heart to work out an interpretation of the Book of Revelations. For the most part, I remained silent about this request. I am not sure I can.

There are some things I am sure about, and there are some things I am not sure about. For as regards to these things, I have very clearly defined limits.

While I do have some things that are open to me, there are some things that remain closed to me.

First of all, I am not a Biblical scholar.

But I have been made aware in my heart over the years what presumption is; a sin against the Holy Spirit. This along with obstinacy to the truth, final impenitence and despair (of self and of others) constitute the four unforgivable sins that I am wont to avoid for fear of losing my own soul.

They are unforgivable not because our God is less merciful, for the LORD Himself is the Fullness of Compassion, but because they cause the heart of Man to harden completely into hell.

I am a citizen of my Country, a Roman Catholic Christian trying to be a decent human being for Christ and for fellow men. That's about all that I am - a common everyday person - and that's about all I want to be. (What I really want, this world can never give me.)

However, I can say this much - as regards to the number 666, this number is the number for the first thousand years of War (time), the second thousand years of War (times) and those who are so inclined to choose War in the heart once again this third Christian millennium (half-a-time) in the context of the manifest climate of the new age which is Peace (of whose number is 3).

To choose to ignore the will of Divine Providence which God have made so obvious to the nations of Mankind by the naked requirements of the present time, this is the final 6, which is the choice to remain permanently divided in the heart against one's own humanity before God.

It is

a choice that is made just as absolutely and irrevocably as those whose hearts have been inclined by the LORD towards the Peace of the times.

For 6 is the number for opposition/division. And as its master is the fallen cherub, Lucifer, now Satan and the Adversary of All; a murderer, thief and father of all lies.

It will certainly come (incarnate as itself) in the guise of peace - a perfect peace.

It shall be as a lie conceived against (1) the covenant of the nations, against (2) the wisdom of all honorable human religious traditions, and (3) in the face of the everlasting covenant laid down by the Blood of Christ the Lord.

It shall work out a desolation and it shall call this desolation, peace.

Against it, we will continue to work in our nations to obtain from God the peace that prospers the sheltering wings of each our undertaking of Country - for all our generations - together this time.

Now, i

f you understand this number, you will no longer fear it. Nor will you allow yourself to be held in a dreadful thrall of its mystery.

For t

hough we do not know the time, we do know that the time is near, so we must press on and make provision for the generations that are yet to come.

Pray.

Look for evidence.

See for yourself the climate of the times. Go d

iscern for yourselves the reasons behind the choice you must make. Seek the LORD, ask for wisdom.

But choose.

Else you shall default yourselves and fall headlong into the gravity of the last great age of war.

A nation is where it labors in time. It is in eternity always where it is - giving constant worship to the one Sovereign of all nations: He is the LORD, our God.

And as God has remembered us, t

h

is is our work - this is our time.

All we need to be is ourselves as ourselves - together this time.

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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Human Nation