The Patron Saint of Addicts and Prisoners

August 14 is the Feast Day of Saint Maximilian Kolbe.

Saint Maximilian, Patron Saint of addicts and prisoners, we confidently implore you -
lead us out of unhappy vices, and deliver us from evil places.

Through thy victorious love -

- of the Father, God of our hearts,
help us who have become too hard of heart.

- of the Son, God in our hearts,
hear us who have become too afraid to pray.

- of the Spirit, God through our hearts,
heal us who have become too weary of life.

- of the Father, Son, and Spirit,
make haste to help us.

- of the Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us.

- of our suffering humanity, pray for us.

- of God and Country, pray for us.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, help of addicts and release of prisoners,
I love you and I trust in you.

Amen.
---<--@



Auschwitz was not a Polish concentration camp. It was a Nazi concentration camp on Polish soil; a wound in the spirit of our common humanity.

Saint Maximilian preceded my Anne in Auschwitz - but in my heart, in the hidden places in every human soul where time as we know it does not apply - they led me to each other.

And believed in me long before I believed in myself.

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.
---<--@

Salutation #150

A Christian without prayer is like a soldier without a rifle.



(Rosary of Hope)

My people -

Do not be afraid
neither be confused.

Dark have our times become
so we have to let the darkness be...

Let us busy ourselves
not with the darkness.

Let us busy ourselves
with the things of the light.

And learn
of the coming of the morning
even in the midst of the night.

In these times,
we have a need to shine
ever as the stars promised of old
to our Father Abraham -
together this time.

Therefore,
I will share each with you
(though I feel most unworthy to do so),
my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
the horizontal aspect of the vertical rosary -

The rosary of hope.

   I need your help in praying this rosary.

   Let us intercede for each other
   with the Blessed Mother.

   Let us pray as a nation.

For
we now
have reason
under this season
to pray harder,
hope brighter,
love kinder,
and believe truer
than we ever
have before.
---<--@

Rosary of Hope (condensed)

I have gleaned from this rosary
many of the things I have come to know
about our undertaking of Country
in relation to our own nation
and in relation to our kindred nations
though I am not perfect in my prayer habits.

This is so
because God is merciful
and our Lady loves this nation
and through our nation wills to extend this love
to all the nations of the children of Mankind
through the liberation of the human heart in prayer
   (the ultimate expression of which
   is the Eucharistic Reign of Jesus Christ
   in and across all Christian hearts)
and the gradual strengthening of the human spirit
in and across all our kindred nations,
making us all one human family - in hope.

Begin with the intention to begin:

Lord Jesus, let me offer to You, this rosary of hope.

+Sign of the Cross

The Apostle's Creed -
meditate on Christian unity
and harmony among the churches.

The First our Father -
meditate on the unity of the LORD, our God.

The first three Hail Mary's -
meditate on the distinct Personages
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The first Glory be -
meditate on the glory of God;
the culmination of all our faith,
the realization of all our hopes,
the perfection of all our love -

Identify (intimately) with the Kingdom in thee,
seek to bring it forth into the darkness of the world.

The Five Meditations

1st Meditation - True Self
2nd Meditation - Family
3rd Meditation - Friends
4th Meditation - Nation/s
5th Meditation - Mother Church

The our Father -
obedience and submission
to the will of God for you.

The 10 Hail Mary's - lineages of hope -
here you will take your petitions with our Lady
into the Presence of God, our Father.

The Glory be
meditate on the glory of God;
the culmination of all our faith,
the realization of all our hopes,
the perfection of all our loves -
here you will now lovingly surrender
the fruit of thy thoughts
with our Lady
into the hand of Jesus Christ,
our one Savior.

After each Meditation pray:

"O my Jesus
zealous for souls
thirsting for the love of Mankind
Come, Lord Jesus,
be Thou the God of my heart
and accomplish in me Thy will of Peace."

Here you will take
positive personal responsibility
to freely act on the fruits of thy prayer.

You may finish with a Salve Regina
or any Marian Salutation.

Remember,
the rosary is a house.
It is the house of the Immaculate.
Respectfully thank our Lady for allowing us 
entrance into intimacy of her home.

+Sign of the Cross

Gradually come out of your mediation...

Some Personal Notes:

When people ask you for your prayers
or when your heart is inclined by the Spirit of God
to intercede in behalf of other people,
needful as thou art needful,
you can now include these
in a particular mediation in this rosary.

Prayer requests feed into this rosary.

If you pray them
in the atmosphere of each meditation
with an open and loving heart,
you will gain certain insights
on the hopes that other people bear
for self and for others like the self
and these insights will serve to strengthen
your own sense of charity.

This likewise holds true with your own hopes.

You must never again
say yes to a prayer request
without meaning yes!

Never offer to pray
for the hope of another
without will or understanding.

Remember,
prayer is in your spirit
it is an attitude of thy heart -
as far as your soul is concerned
it is the first thing and the last thing 
for it begins not and it ends not
you feel it motion when you are still
and when you are disturbed, it is calm
stirring up only the darkness in thee
that you may soon remember
that you may soon know
that you may soon be.

So always give thanks 
to the Holy Spirit Who loves us 
to no end.

A Sample Schedule:

Mon - Joyful
Tue - Sorrowful
Wed - Glorious
Thu - Luminous
Fri - Hope
Sat - Hope
Sun - Hope/Holy Mass

Click on the Label "Rosary of Hope" below for further reference.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Prayer to God as First Defender of the Republic

Look upon us this moment,
O LORD, God above all things,
and abide with us now
in our necessary struggle
as First Defender of this Republic
to obtain for our people
the remembrance of Thy peace
and the blessings of Thy freedom.

Bless our one Filipino nation,
O LORD and Giver of all good things,
each and every Filipino heart,
that yet believes with conviction
in this endeavor of Country
that we may by our own willingness
be transformed by Thy abundant mercy.

Tarry with us in the darkness
O LORD and Sovereign of all nations
help us, teach us, bless us
that we may prosper in Thy sight
and in Thy grace and in Thy counsels
remain secure in Thy commandments
walking upright in Thy ways
that we may become the light
that You want this nation
and every nation to be
upon this, our midnight world,
so much in need of Thy presence
like the daybreak twilight is
so much in need of Thee.

For us, Christians, we must add:

This we humbly implore
in the Name of Jesus Christ,
our most loving Lord and Savior,

AMEN.
---<--@

For all the rest:

This we humbly implore,
O LORD and one common Creator
of all things, seen and unseen,

AMEN.

---<--@

Salutation #59

Dakilang Liwanag,

halina't manahan sa aking kalooban.

Hubugin Mo kami upang maging debotong misyonero/a;

ang maging liwanag sa mundo,

ang maging ilaw sa aming kapwa.

- A Prayer from the Candle Chapel

at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Shrine in Baclaran

(That Point of Forgetfulness)

When in our prayers we forget, we proceed to remember.

- selah -

When in our seeking the LORD in prayer

- our efforts suddenly cease -

and for a moment - just for a moment -

all our thunderous longings, all our anxious needs, all our turbulent wants -

they dissipate like so much gray clouds

into the infinite embrace of God

and there is a calm in thyself

that moment is Peace.

God comes to us and just for a moment;

a mere instant in time - in a twinkling of an eye -

you are struck with the realization that God is and He is God

that moment is Peace.

It is as if one is sitting outside of time and of self,

detached from all thy human worries - in the quiet of thy heart -

when at the rising of thy heart and mind in prayer -

as thy freedom ascends to the freedom of God

every need, every care, every fear is vanquished from thought

and you lose sight of everything - everything but God -

that moment is Peace.

You will ask to stay in that one moment

- forever and for always - and forget everything but God -

immersed in a luminous sea of unconsciousness,

but just as soon as you are in it,

just as soon as you glimpse the limitless vistas of the timeless,

just as soon as you feel yourself wanting to stay -

you emerge back out of the unseen waters

into the dimness of consciousness.

These moments are like desert oases

meant to sustain thee in the wilderness of everyday living.

O my beloved Starshine,

so (just) be with Jesus in the quiet of thy prayer - walk with thy God -

especially at the pauses within Holy Mass, during Holy Communion, in the rosary,

in thy daily commune with thy Creator in His garden of waking dreams

and in thy every prayer of the heart open to wonder.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

And be gentle when you do. Be slow but certain in pace.

For practice makes one patient and patience makes one persevering.

And perseverance in prayer makes prayer perfect.

And not because there is a from of power in thy prayer

but because of the God Who hears all our prayers of the heart.

So persevere in thy prayer, my darling Starshine,

through the longing God plants in thy heart, persevere in thy prayer -

like the dream desires to become itself, persevere in thy prayer -

like the sapling hopes to become the oak, persevere in thy prayer -

like the stars strive for every journey's end, persevere in thy prayer -

like the Night seeks for the Day, like the love pines for the Lover -

shut yourself from the rest of the world and pray.

Remember the calm in the storm?

The Stillness is in the stillness - so be calm -

develop a constant awareness of the God in your life

- be gentle and be certain and be thoughtful -

for the Master is asleep in the vessel of thy heart.

If you feel out of place, if you feel undeserving,

so much more should you feel the need to understand -

- one must pray -

one must pray because one has a need

to pray and to pray well.

It is the needy who calls out and not the satisfied.

And ours is a God of infinite mercies!

---<--@

The Love of God in government is the safeguard that preserves the bond that must exist between the Nation and the Responsible State, without it our freedoms become troublesome.

---<--@

This is why Tibetan culture is precious -

Wisdom is timeless

who in the midst of darkness

illumines to the one heart of Man the way back into himself

that he may live complete.

"Practice. Practice. Practice."

- The Dalai Lama

---<--@

Glory to God the Father!

Adoration to Jesus Christ!

Alleluia, peace be unto our nation

and peace be unto all our nations;

good will to all men and women of Peace.

20111007

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary

"A Christian without prayer is like a soldier without a rifle."

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

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

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

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

Therefore, no Man who has ever existed, exists or shall ever exist may ever truly claim to have never prayed.

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

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

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

- selah -

Brothers and sisters in Christ the Lord, the Roman Catholic feast we celebrate today is perhaps, the only feast that celebrates the power of prayer. It is significant in our times in that, it has the power to bring our nation into a state of more perfect unity.

As nations, we have been formed in battle - the history of the feast of the Holy Rosary is witness to this fact - War is the reason for which we now exist as nations.

As nations, we have fought each other for so long it has become difficult to accept that Peace, not War, is the Cause for which we have always existed as nations.

War gave us our fiery births. But God is our beginning as well as our last end.

I bid us to reflect on this and to also reflect on our Rosary of Hope. October is after all, the month of the Most Holy Rosary.

In this new age of peace, the Rosary will take on a new significance. It shall serve to combat the greatest nemesis of the Queen of Peace - the beast of War.

So let us honor our Lady by learning to be strong in Christ, our Savior, and let us begin this by a persistent, almost suicidal bent on Christian prayer.

After the omnipotent and invulnerable prayer of Holy Mass, let us cling to the humble, trusting and thoughtful recitation of the Rosary of our Lady as a choice weapon in the spiritual combat.

Let us become proficient in its use!

---<--@

Please also read: A Remembrance of Fatima

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Mama Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Mama Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Mama Mary, Refuge of Sinners, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Patron Saint of the Suffering Addict and Refuge of the Recovering Addict, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Blessed Jacinta Marto, Courageous for Sinners, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

20110815

The Greatest of Marian Knights

Yesterday was the feast day of one of the principal Saints in my life, Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe.

You will notice that I take my name from Saint Maximilian.

This is so because I have a great devotion to this Saint of God. To Saint Maximilian, I owe much of my Roman Catholic formation.

In many ways, he is to me the greatest of all Marian Knights.

He and my darling Annelies Marie share a connection in my life that have proven to be more than mere coincidence.

He is the patron Saint of the suffering addict and refuge of the recovering addict.

My own Marian character was taught to me by Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe.

Glorified be God forever in all His Angels and in all His Saints!

---<--@

The Feast of the Assumption

Today is the feast day of the Assumption of our Lady.

It is the focal Marian feast that reveals through the life of our Lady the immense joy of our Christian faith.

It is equivalent to the Transfiguration in the life of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in that both of these are a preparatory experience in the Christian life.

Simply put, a Marian character in a Roman Catholic soul multiplies joy.

This Marian joy lends its strength to Christian endurance. It prepares our hearts to live the hope of ordinary time.

- selah -

Now, if there is anything our Lady desires of thee, O my Philippines - it is thy own heart at prayer.

You know this in your own hearts, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that God has set a labor before our hearts and a challenge for all the world to repent unto Peace and forsake War.

For these are defining times indeed, we are living in a transition from age to age.

Prayer is a battle we can not refuse to fight.

But our prayers can not ascend to the unity of the LORD, O my nation, if War is in our heart.

- selah -

We have to learn to pray as a nation:

We have to learn to desire what a nation desires.

We have to forsake the divisions that have prevented our unity.

We have to let go of the bitterness that have fed these animosities.

We have to stand up against the despair that have shackled our dreaming.

We have to see our generations through this midnight darkness

ever by the light of our faith in God and in each other as citizens together.

We have to understand -

A nation that prays as one, stays as one.

And a nation at one with its own truth is a nation at peace.

Verily, as a nation, we can not be anything else but one.

So let us pray to God for the gift of prayer for our nation. Let us desire it from God as our Lady desires it from us now so that in time we may all profess to the LORD as one the truth that the prayer of the Philippines is Peace.

---<--@

Closing Reflection -

The common religion of every Man is peace - it is that mysterious desire dwelling deep within all of us to be able to somehow return to the happiness and perfection of that one common belonging written in each our heart; the Peace of the LORD, the one God of All creation.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Hope Taking Wing

An Act of Unity