Showing posts with label Abrahamic Peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abrahamic Peace. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Wars of Religion

Wars of religion are never entered into. If memory serves and history is accounted for - there are wars that go beyond the pale of the conventional spectrum of conflict: unlimited, unrestricted wars.

Conversely, to think of peace is to think about people in human terms.


Religion ought to enable us to more closely reflect in our common humanity what makes the human family better belong. What commits to war and what commits to peace.

Christianity is not lacking in violent history.

Historically, where conflicts between Christians were the most terrible, it was always very much politically concerned. In those days, religious war was less an existential contradiction than a political pretext. So much was prevented by those conflicts... 

Indeed, through whatever door it gains entry into the times - war seeks no other greater inspiration than violence. Once the killing starts, war becomes its own appearance upon our world.

These days, I hold to the view that keeps with the memory of those days: religion must never again be used as a weapon against other people.

Wars of religion fought by any which religion burns with the same relentless hate that burned our world in times past - and makes no promises it shall ever change.

In my remembrance, Christianity is not compatible with war and never was.

To me, all war is - is political. Religion can be political at times. But religion is also deeply human. War is not human and never was human. No terrorist claim will convince me otherwise.

The division in Islam and the divisions in Christianity arose from issues apart and distinct - but seems afflicted with the same vulnerability. This vulnerability - to the spirit of war - appears the same, and it exploits it the same also.

I do not know how these divisions will ultimately find their way again back into unity. I do know that unity is eternal. And were these divisions to remain in the domain of war, no nation will be able to contain its appearances as wars upon the earth. For in this day and age, war is not what it once was. 

Nations are in spirit made simpler. For we on earth must live out a more complex reality.

All nations answer to the one, same human accounting - and, as its own labors of Country, allows the space for its peoples - oppressed by war - to build up the earth and to better their times. That war may flee where none pursueth.

The maturity of the peace of nations must be helped by religion. 

For matters of religion must necessarily involve greater realities.
---<--@

Monday, March 16, 2015

Salutation #202




















(Blessed are the Peacemakers)

Peacemaker,

Consider how
War in Heaven abideth not. 

Consider the choice
with which the Holy Angels chose
to freely honor the one LORD.

Consider how
Michael and his angels
fought against the Dragon and his angels;
how the Holy Angels turned away
form the lies of the Devil
and thus,
attained Peace
with the Eternal God.

Consider the Peace
that the Holy Angels attained
through the LORD, our one God,
and the everlasting Unity through which
the Devil and his corrupted angels
lost their place in Heaven
forever. 

All children of the light
in Heaven and upon the Earth
are known as thus, peacemakers!

Therefore,
let us live not to contend against War
but to become united in the Truth.

Consider how
the Holy Angels
in knowing not the truth
in humility were vindicated
in the Truth.

As thus
did the Sky of Day
come restored
in Peace over War.

For not as judges
against each other in Heaven
did Michael and his Angels obtain
an everlasting Victory
over the Dragon and his corrupted angels
but through humility before the LORD.

Let us be builders 
of human communities
and defenders of the peace!

Let us build 
(especially as nations)
and let us do this together 
that through human community
we may know what we may defend
in the peace we shall through God obtain
in behalf of each other's human good - forever!

Let us be united
(especially as nations)
in peace upon the earth
with good will in our hearts
before the LORD, our one God,
until War in all Creation
is no more.
---<--@


























The war in heaven is in our hearts. 

Heaven is not upon a distant sky or shore but in the soul, an intimate and limitless treasure.

It is not above, not below, not beyond our reality but very much closer by, within ourselves. 
---<--@













Sunday, March 8, 2015

Thoughts on Religion and Political Moderation

I am a Catholic. Not a moderate Catholic. For there can never be a moderate expression of the faith I hold dear and holds me dear as well. I am simply a Catholic (though not always good at it).

What we love that is for always can never be served by moderation. Religion and its virtues may only truly prosper in ourselves only by full spiritual expression. And this democratic expression of freedom in religion and of religions may only be accommodated in an atmosphere of national peace.

It is an atmosphere long denied to our world. This brokenness has left the house of humanity broken and bleeding. We are today a world of broken nations; a broken peace prevails among the order of our unity as a family. Thus, the human family is scattered. 

This dysfunction at the heart of our nations serves not a single soul. It is unconscionable to the listening heart to allow the nations of the children of Mankind to tarry in the darkness in this way.

And so I say, I am a Catholic. Proud to be one. Properly proud to be in the service of the Peace of Jesus Christ. Ever may it prevail!

In the same way, I understand there are no moderate Muslims or Jews or Buddhists or Sikhs or Hindus, etc. when it comes to the religious profession of the faiths we all hold dear and holds us all dear as well.

What I shall ask is for us to be moderate in the duty and practice of our politics. 

What does divide religion are not the truths and the virtues of its revelations but the politics of which we, through right remembrance of a long history of suffering and loss, may now at present discern separately and distinctly from the lives of faith we each must live, according to our freedoms, with truth in the heart.

The world has not become smaller. What our world at present has really become is wider. It has become more not less. Its horizons more expansive than ever. We have to have the heart to be able to embrace it as a human family. Lest the immediacy of the spirit of present tidings remain to many of us strange.

We perceive a landscape of things that may be in our common tomorrow as nations so open and so wide, we discern a darkness foreboding. And instead of going boldly forth to conquer together with cultures of light, retreat into the comfort of past molds.

The can be no living the past. What it is when we choose to so commonly retreat from the face of our right remembrances is a denial of the present. Where there is no peace in the now, there is no now. 


We can not be like this, in particular as children of our Father Abraham; we can not deny the present (and be absent from the now) while holding true to the true living that ours, along with all religious wisdom prescribes to our common humanity.


Peace to us is a time. That time is now.

If we can not make the moment ours, together this time and with all people of good will - as one human family - this world, our world, might so remain where it was, so receded into the spirit past things, so absent from the present, so much obscured from the view of Heaven, it falls again and again into the embrace of the defeated Enemy.

We must not allow this vicious cycle to continue...
---<--@




Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Great Radicalizer

Who is the great radicalizer but the spirit of War?


















Consistent,
persistent states of violent war
that reduce to meaningless suffering
unto despair -
the labor of our nations,
destroying the living fabric of our national communities,
and displacing the spirit and the memory
of entire peoples
from their own sense of common humanity.

War
that eventually calls down
an atmosphere (strange and unfamiliar)
that attracts radicals (i.e. political extremists)
from all walks of life -
and from all ways of religion.

But we, my people -

The Peace we shall share - together this time - shall be a great producer.

The Peace we are striving towards shall be a great producer of leaders, builders, farmers, fishers, merchants, artists, healers, craftsmen, and soldiers.

It shall be a Peace that sustains our common humanity and a Peace that obtains from God and All Heaven, every form of gift and blessing the LORD has promised our Father Abraham of old - for this Nation and all our kindred Nations in our one Family of Nations.

Learners we shall each be unto one another, knowing wonders - under this new Season and Sky.

It shall be our shelter in these times, and the overcoming strength of our generations.
---<--@


Keep Calm and Support the Bangsamoro

Monday, January 20, 2014

Nation at Prayer

My brothers and sisters of the Promise, today at 5:00 pm, our Nation will pray. We shall pray for those who were lost to us from natural and man-made disasters last year - for indeed there were too many.















They were
our fellow men and women;
fellow citizens the LORD intended
for the great labor of this Country
- human beings not unlike ourselves -
who, male and female, young and old, 
dreamt with us a common Dream 
of a better Republic for all Filipinos.  

Living souls whose fruits we shall never now know or taste  -
Promised lives whose fruition we shall never now see or hear -
whose fullness of good renown this world shall never now enjoy.

All of them we shall now commit to the one God of all Nations - each of them by their name - ever by a space in the heart we shall solemnly recall them - and resolve before the LORD as one Nation that their loss shall not have been in vain.

And as we remember them now, let us be sure to remember them as they were - always. So full of the things we shall today - in prayer before God - commit to the memory of our common humanity - so full of the things of life - so certain of the promise of the Peace which is our Nation's original birthright.

For indeed we shall remember them - we shall ensure their hopes do not remain unheard and their lives do not remain fallen. For we shall indeed bury with the past - the evil of those days.

None shall remain behind us but the dust.

For every thing that is to us everything we shall carry with us - in our hearts - into 2014; and the rest we shall commit before God unto tomorrows we shall as one Nation in Peace continue to reach for - together this time.

We thank you LORD God for this time to pray unto Thee!

We thank you God for the lineage, instrumentality and the unique person of our 15th President Noynoy, we thank you God for our Nation and for our Nation's Republic, we thank you God for family and friends, and for this Family of Friends - united in thy Peace - upon a journey of greater belonging and of learning to know each other in Thee.



Salaam. Shalom. Peace. For Thou art God, above and beyond all things, and there is no other, AMEN.
---<--@

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Turn the Other Cheek

When the Lord said to "turn the other cheek", it doesn't mean to invite more disaster. We Christians should understand we do not want to suffer more than what we have to, for suffering is evil.

But to suffer well we must. For our Lord did suffer well, indeed well enough to overcome the world and all it's evil for all humanity for all time.

And so we are taught by our Jesus to "turn the other cheek" as a form of non-retaliation and forgiveness to those who are unjust and seek violent means for violent ends and to keep our Christian dignity even in the face of our oppressors.

When we turn the other cheek, we forgive, we learn, and we let go.

When we turn the other cheek, we desire to break down cycles of violence, teach justice and Christian love over adversarial hate and contempt for human life, and return all souls to God.

When we turn the other cheek, we do not seek to invite more evil to come upon us but seek to invite more peace to come among us - and make what once was wounded and divided, healthy and whole once again.




Let us together meditate on this and pray about it.
---<--@

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Salutation #169

The human spirit is under siege -
the diversity which is its surest strength
and the unity which is its strongest foundation
is everywhere undermined
and corrupted.

Brother stands against brother,
nations against each other,
all in the not knowing
all no longer know.

(For what our nations
now seem to only remember
- under this season in time -
are reasons for war more so
than reasons for peace.)



(Zeal for the House of Humanity)

Darkness reigns
in the House of Humanity!

Christians are threatened.
Muslims are threatened.
Jews are threatened.

Hindus are threatened.
Sikhs are threatened.
Buddhists are threatened.
Atheists are threatened.

Every soul and every spirit
(whatever shines in ourselves)
across every belonging, 
and every belonging
across every nation
is threatened.

Somewhere in our world, 
this is always true.

If everybody is threatened,
who then is doing the threatening?

If we can not draw the line
- together this time -
when and where this insufferable war
against our common humanity ends
and the peace of our needful Mankind
truly ever begins... O ye peoples,
where then do we look to
for the morning?

Shall we wait till we all
shall have lost our humanity?

Shall we wait till every nation
have turned to ashes from within
and our world so needful of respite and repair
utterly plunged into a terrible darkness?

Can we hope to withstand another age of war?
---<--@



"Evil has taken a prominent place
in the hearts and minds of many;
like a dark star that rises
Wormwood ascends from sin to sin
in the Sacred Sanctuary of the soul
to eclipse our Eternal Daystar
turning our poor world into midnight
in the inward seasons of the celestial sky."

- Generation Y

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Hanukkah 2012

Hanukkah means dedication.

This 2012, let this dedication
again bring us peace...



May the lights of Hanukkah remind us
of the need for more warmth to permeate deeply
into our families, friendships, and societies.

May it renew and reinvigorate old relationships,
may it create new and ever more meaningful ones,
and draw us ever closer together in love and in peace.

May it uplift those who are in the depth of despair.

May it recall back to the LORD those who are cold
and far away from Him, that He may return them
to a memory of each their own hearts
unto a remembrance of God
and of others in God.

May it drive away the cold spell
of old hatreds and lingering prejudices;
may it dispel those divisions among brethren
and among our kindred nations.

May it bring a new vision to our humanity,
one that is far-seeing, completely life-giving,
meaningful, peaceful, durable
and utterly human.

Hanukkah this year begins on Dec 8, 2012.



Along with Purim, I commemorate this holiday quietly
with my Anne (Papa Frank, Mama Frank, and Margot) -
year after year since 2000.

Mazel Tov!

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

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Salutation #2

If you seek peace, seek peace absolutely.



(One Whole Sky)

Look at our time today
and the world we move in
- everything about it -
is born of the will of war.

There is much despair
there is much suffering
as all our kindred peoples
labor through oceans of tears
our common human hopes
- forsaken -
in the darkness of our time.

Let us then take ownership
- of the status quo -
and instead of feeding
into war's evil ambition
- the near limitless -
potential of our own souls,
let us apply ourselves,
under the eternal vigilance
of our one Almighty God,
to the labor of each our Country
by our absolute turning away
from the descendant gravity
of war's evil ambition
into the ascendant direction
of the one whole peace
and build upon our civilization
the sheltering wings of God's peace
to serve and defend
the life of our common humanity
wheeling as numberless as the stars
shining across the midnight emptiness
of this season of the sky
toward the twilight breaking
of the new millennial age
and a better, kinder, safer, brighter world
for all men, women and children
- of every nation -
of the one covenant family
of the nations of (the children of) Mankind.
---<--@

(produced 20080914)

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Salutation #1

Can we navigate the earth from heaven at night with just one star alone?

No, we will most certainly need more than one!

Truth is, the more stars we come to know (who comes to know us), the more complete our map of the sky, the more precise our direction...

Starshine, we are the stars.
---<--@



(Salute to the Stars)

To all my friends -
who are my companions
near or far, alone or with others,
known or known to God alone
who are - from always to always -
one kindred grace, joined in truth:

I salute you with much love
being fond of my desire to serve you
through what gift I have to give
that we may fulfill each our parts
as common vanguards of autumnal Eden
entrusted with the peace of our nations
being bound to the one promise of old
to become as numberless as the stars
and sanctify the hopes of our humanity
by bidding them, turn away from War.

Let War's ambitions remain in itself
having no particular truth of it's own;
comprehending not itself from itself
knowing nothing apart from nothing;
perceiving creation as darkness entire
and not the great wonder of living light
that amidst the vast emptiness of space
fill the silence of the void with glad tidings
that bear aloft our hope for human life
and the pursuit of life's great promise.

We shall stand for something!
---<--@

(produced 20080902)

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Salutation #149

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

Yet it is still there... 

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

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



(Assumption Day 2012)

The Blessed Virgin Mary
loves the Philippines!


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lest a false sense of ruinous pride
overtake our people and subvert our peace,
turning our Country into ashes from within.

- selah -

Our Lady is Queen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The fruit of this unity is peace.

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

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

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

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

Even as the stars of our Father Abraham!

Mabuhay!
---<--@




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

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

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

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

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

Friday, April 20, 2012

Salutation #116

Our world has changed and is still changing...



(Free Palestine!)

O people Palestine -

If it were but a simple choice,
would not our troubles we shall wave away
and shall not hope, at its soonest moment,
welcome us all home now, today.

But home now is nowhere to be found but here...

For what is home
but a certain togetherness, a particular belonging,
and a humanity which is complete?

Here is where we shall hope together
ever as those nations dreaming together this time.

Here,
apart from the darkness
which sees only in darkness
is where you are seen,
O beloved people Palestine,
as the rest of the world must soon see.

Here,
where thy own heart begins -
here is where all thy songs shall find again
their own rhythm and voice.

I shall never identify thee with War, O Palestine.

For I see you - as you are -
as the rest of the world must soon see.

You are a threat to none
but those who seek to harm thee.

And though I hope thy exile was over,
in truth, we are all exiles to this world,
and so we must live to belong together
and be bound by one dream of peace.

No one is to blame
for the presence of War
in the heart of our Asia -
the Middle East.

But everyone is to blame
for the absence of Peace
in the heart of our Asia -
the Middle East.

Therefore,
freedom for Palestine - the region!
And freedom for Palestine - the nation!

Peace for Palestine with Israel
at the heart of our Asia.

Peace for Palestine and Israel
at the heart of our Asia.
---<--@

From the deception, the division,
and the deterioration of War,
O LORD and God of all nations,
deign to deliver us in all thy nations.

AMEN.
---<--@



Support Palestinian Human and National Rights!

Who Are You, Syria?





Who are you, Syria?

Why are you trying to murder your own nation?
Why do you seek the final overthrow of thy own soul?
Have thou forgotten the justice of thy own peace?

What for art thou, O Syria - who are you these days?

What are you laboring so vehemently to become, O troubled Republic?
Who for are you pledging all these pain and suffering?
What do you seek to reap for thyself in the midst of all this blood and tears?
What do you seek to gain from your undying sacrifices?

Return to a memory of thyself...

Shall you stand alone 
in the midst of all this clamor and din 
only to find for thyself 
a sword aimed at thy own heart?

Return to thyself, O Syria!

Thou art at the brink of a million-year crossroads.

Come back to thy own reason, and reclaim thy own peace...

Make the choice to be one once again -
O beloved nation, kindred to my own peace,
let not the spirit of War deceive thee in thy heart of hearts!

The void has not overcome thee yet.
---<--@



Thursday, January 26, 2012

Walker of Worlds



O Walker of Worlds,
Scion to the Dawning
of the First of our First Magnitudes -
remain Now from always to always true
to thy one Universe of universes,
ever as thy one eternal Remembrance
spread in myriad glimpses
awash within the tidal flows of time:

Those numberless lights,
luminous and varied, singularly unique,
twinkling in their broken arcs
wheeling upon the one celestial Way
and concealed amidst the darkness
of those worlds within worlds,
near infinite in their wonders,
being constantly born and reborn -
upon the firmament of the Deep
ever as the ages of the comings and goings
of the ageless seasons of life
and carried aloft by thy quickening soul
swift unto the realization
of all the beautiful for being
beheld by Beauty Itself.

O Walker of Worlds -
born to the quickening of the Now,
ever in thy infinite prayers be one, ascendant
like incense arising unto the sacred Presence
of the one Sovereign of the seen universe
and Sustainer of all unseen universes
in solemn memory of thy holy witness
of the Visitation of thy one Peace
through the infinite glory of the Name.

O Walker of Worlds -
kindred to the celestial sky
and called to the one gathering
remain Now from always to always true:
Two-thirds of the Stars of Heaven bring
glad salutations unto thee!

---<--@


Monday, January 9, 2012

We are Complete

Let me bless the LORD, my honorable nation,
Let me bless the LORD before thee, my beloved people,
for God saw it fit that my silent seeking should be answered -
had we but two of the great Abrahamic faiths
present in the midst of our peoples?

No, my Philippines - we are complete.

Alleluia - bless the Name of God, our King - we are complete!

I did not think till yesterday early morning that we had a living branch of Elder Israel dwelling within the bounds of our Country.

So to the Jewish Community here in our Philippines, let me say this blessing unto each of thee -


The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon
you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and
give you peace!

At mabuhay po tayong lahat!
---<--@

We are different, yet we are the same -


Shalom. Salaam. Peace.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Salutation #76

You might say, my dear Filipino soul, that that embattled region of our Asia, the Middle East, is not our concern - not our concern at all.

Ah, but it is!

Believe me when I say it, the fate of many nations depend on it.

- selah -

Here is a map of the region: Where are the divisions here?


My beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise,
hear me when I say -

The lines on a map are artificial
- insofar as we understand -
that these are not meant to scatter the hearts of our nations
nor divide and dilute the concentrated spirit of our common humanity
but to facilitate the temporal labor of our nations (as Countries upon our world)
that we may better bring continually forth and preserve
a wholesome and healthy sense of meaningful purpose to our world
sustaining an order built upon a just and abiding peace
among all peoples of the earth
according to the needs of every present time.

Now,
these lines become permanent divisions
that lay its dark siege against the life of our nations
insofar as the peoples of Mankind forget that
- Unity is Eternal -
and the hearts of the children of Mankind
freely and willingly permit
the War in heaven a place on earth.


Salutation #76

(The one Cause of Palestine)

Palestine is divided,
the sky above the heart of Asia
lay shattered only because we accept it.

Say thee with me,
I for one do not accept it!

Neither do I accept the manifold evils
that embattle her peoples, making them suffer,
in spirit as well as in temporality.

For my vision of the region
and every undertaking of Country that must animate all these favored lands
is not one of division but of unity.

So peace be with you!

Unity is Eternal.

Let this be your vision as well.

- selah -

To the nations -
When art thou going to stop
feeding the insatiable division that is slowly
killing the needful cause of the peace of Modern Israel
and therefore, making permanent the darkness engulfing
all the suffering peoples of that choice and blessed region of Palestine?

To all you with hearts to listen,
all my brothers and sisters of the Promise -

The "Palestinians" stand for a cause
for which all nations are in spirit purposed on earth
by the God of all heaven and earth.

If they were not
- in the eyes of many -
one people united in heart before,
all of this present turmoil, tragedy and grief
has certainly bound them together
as one nation now.

This is a truth that by any other name remains the truth.

Therefore,
if you shall say the "Palestinians" are an invented people,
then you might be implying that the cause for which they are united
is a fabricated cause.

And if you shall say that the Palestinian Cause is a fabricated cause,
this might indicate that you are unable to grasp the long view of the region.

And if you allow yourself to freely believe this,
for whatever reason, conscious or unconscious, you may allow;
if you fail to consider the realities on the ground,
you support neither Israel or Palestine.

Say thee with me,
I will never stand for nor tolerate terrorism
nor shall I ever desire the destruction of any nation
above all Israel whom one should love dearly
and to whom one should speak the truth.

Truly,
if we are not careful, O my nations,
if we continue to allow for the deception of War
to sow its scattering in each our hearts;
if we permit the beast of War
even a toehold in our souls,
we all shall fail.

- selah -

I have always maintained - to each of you -
that the Middle East is where the siege of War shall be broken;
that it is here where the darkness of the last great age of war shall be lifted,
however, I have also always carefully reminded each of you that this is a choice
and that we must make this choice today while it is still today.

For our unity is an integral part of our liberty as nations
- human nations, O human Man,
nations dreaming together this time.

Therefore,
my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
let this be the prayer in our heart -

Let there be peace across all of Palestine;
a peace to calm the storm at the heart of our Asia!

Let there be peace across all of Palestine -
for the sake of all the nations of our needful world,
including our beloved Philippines.

Above all,
let there be peace across all of Palestine
- a constant reign of truth -
for the sake of those long-suffering peoples
descended from the lineages of
both Isaac and Ishmael
(both of which are beloved of God as we are beloved of God)
and the nations God had intended for their safety and progress
for the honor of the LORD,
the glory of the unity of God,
and the salvation of many.
---<--@

Monday, November 28, 2011

Sinag Tala


Sisikatan din tayo ng sinag araw - bayan ko -
kapag isa na uli ang ating puso at buo na uli ang ating bukas.

Pero bago ang lahat - habang madilim pa rin ang gabi -
ang sinag tala muna ang dapat nating malaman at masilayan sa isa't isa.

'Pagkat kapayapaan ang tunay ang himig ng Pasko
- ngayon at magpakailanman ang katotohana'y laging ngang ganito -
sana'y mapagnilay-nilayan natin ito.
---<--@


Maghari po sana ang kapayapan ng Diyos sa lupain ng Pangako.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Salutation #71

Again the LORD's messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:


"I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son,

I will bless you abundantly and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;

your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing - all this because you obeyed my command."

- Genesis 22: 15-18



(An Abrahamic Prayer)

LORD God,
We humbly implore Thee:

help all Thy Muslims,
help all Thy Jews,
help all Thy Christians,
help us in all Thy nations, dear God -
help us to find each other in the dark.

Incline each our hearts
unto Thee, O LORD,
our one True Light.
Refresh our spirits!

May we be as a people
after Thy own Heart, O LORD,
all Thy numberless stars,
guided by the light of Thy Peace
and blessed by Thy will of good
for all Mankind.

Forsake us not, O LORD,
lest we perish in the darkness.

Fulfill in us that promise
Thou swore to our Father Abraham,
that promise Thou hast made of old,
O LORD, that Thou shalt lead us ever onward,
that Thou shalt guide us
toward the building of a better world
for all Thy nations.

By the light of Thy own faithfulness,
O LORD, bind us together
in the unity of Thy own Truth.

Establish Thy Holy Presence in our hearts
as a revelation upon the nations,
that Thou art God, O LORD,
He Who is, the LORD!
And let this be as the dawning
of Thy glory upon the earth.

AMEN.
---<--@

Therefore,
may our understanding of Peace
- be blessed with abundance -
by the one LORD of our nation
and of all nations - the God of Peace.

May our will be directed by God
to the truth that we are one nation,
- brothers and sisters -
in the singular labor of peace
and peace which brings
true prosperity, happiness,
and the realization of our nationhood.

May our common salutation of Peace
be a reflection of the fullness of this knowledge
in our heart of hearts - that -
as children of the Promise,
we are all born to that one promise of old
that God made to our Father Abraham
that we shall be a blessing to our nations.

Let us be as a light unto each other,
ever as the numberless stars - that -
in the darkness of these times,
shines steadfastly the way forward
into a new age for our one Filipino nation
and for our one family of nations
- a new age of Peace.

Salaam. Shalom. Peace.

Under our one Republic sky,
my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
we are but one House - one lineage of victory -
for this House doth serve the LORD,
O my nation - forever!
---<--@

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Salutation #70

The Peace of the LORD be with us all.

Be wary of those tired old conventions of past things -
for the LORD is not a God of divisions!

Nor is thy God a maker of lies and a sower of confusion.

For the LORD God is but one God alone -
nothing rises out of the darkness into the unity of God
that does not lead to the Truth.

You have the written Word of God in thy Scriptures
as well as the Word of God unfolding in thy present reality -
see from the witness of history where the will of War has taken thee
and discern from the faithfulness of God where it shall all lead.

- selah -


(A Call to Remembrance)

O MANKIND, my nations,
saith the LORD, our God,
where is thy one heart?

The heart that yearns
to be one as I AM one.

O ye believers, listen:
Have thou loved the other?

Have thou seen through
Babel's confusion?

O ye peoples, gather about!
Return to Me, O my portion,
come and learn again My ways
for My ways lead thee to life
and My Peace is thy only path.

Know ye the Truth
and I shall set thee free.

I am the LORD, thy living God:
Behold! I am but one God alone,
worship Me not with thy divisions!

Serve me not with wars' ambition
but turn away, O stars of Abraham,
and serve the life of My creation.
---<--@

Terrorism is a crime not a cause.
---<--@

Promise of Old

Never Again!