20110916

Salutation #50

Who is responsible for the presence of War in the Middle East? No one.

Who is responsible for the absence of Peace in the Middle East? Everyone.

(Breaking the Siege in the Middle East)

Something looms in the distance

like a sword poised to strike;

there is a foreboding in the horizon

and if feels like a thousand nights

over the heart of our Asia -

- selah -

I cry out to God in Eternity -

to the LORD before the assembly of the nations!

Let there be peace upon our failing earth

and the glory of God restored in Jerusalem.

The two most important nations in that region

- Israel and Palestine -

must turn toward each other in peace.

For Israel is a nation; ancient and troubled.

And Palestine too; young and anxious.

Thou both are defined by thy need for justice.

Thou both are endowed with rights - as nations -

to pursue thy own course of peace and self-determination.

But not in the spirit of War and the darkness of division

shall any of thee hope to achieve this!

For no matter how bitter or painful the past

thou both have given birth to each other's present hopes.

O Israel and Palestine!

Do not rely on anything else

but the work of prospering thy present hopes

- thy common human hopes -

as nations dreaming together this time.

Not in names or affiliations made of mere words

not in empty appearances of power or wealth or titles

but in the labor set before thy heart by the LORD thy God

that He may prosper thee in each thy labors of Country

as peoples bound together in the freedom of thy gifts;

a lineage of victory before the LORD!

Each thy undertaking of Country,

may it be separate and distinct or singular and united,

is in reality joined together - so intimately -

that to distinguish between the two is difficult.

Especially Jerusalem which cannot be divided.

Yet the whole region cries out for unity!

This is the truth that they fight against;

those who speak peace but listen not to the plight of Jerusalem.

For peace is in not in their hearts.

Let the whole region speak to Mankind of unity!

Alelluia, Jerusalem is the City of the LORD's Peace.

Jerusalem is the City of the LORD's Peace.

This is the strength that they are so willing to renounce.

They whose hearts stand permanently divided

against our common humanity before God.

They who have chosen to harbor War in the heart.

For instead of rejoicing, they weep.

Instead of overcoming, they are overcome.

With bitter tears, they prepare for war,

and plunge their communities into the darkness.

The youth are brought up in division,

the men, the women,

they learn to call it by whatever name;

all are turned away from the LORD.

Yet peace reaches out to thee, O ye peoples,

for the faithfulness of the LORD is steadfast and true.

Rely on God and trust in the LORD - I bid thee -

O beloved Israel, O beloved Palestine - O ye peoples -

listen to the calling of the times!

Let the Peace of the LORD reign in Jerusalem

and let the glory of God shine forth from Jerusalem to Asia

and from Asia to the world.

- selah -

By the end of next year, 2012,

the choice for peace will no longer be a choice.

War will be let loose and the world shall descend

into another age of conflict.

What good are riches or the anger of Man

in the midst of the relentless hatred of War?

War will not distinguish between human being and human being.

For the beast of War seeks the annihilation of all.

The spirit of War will march to undo the nations - from each to each -

and seek to devour its ward to the last of its generations.

How will our times be remembered?

What will our posterity say of these present generations

who left for them a desolation?

O Israel and Palestine -

thou brothers, make peace!

Is thy long-suffering impotent?

Let it bear fruit therefore,

and let the nations follow thee

into brotherhood, into peace.

Hear me O Israel!

Hear me O Palestine!

You are loved - both of you.

Together thou art loved as twins.

May Peace prevail in our Asia

and may God bless all our nations

from Israel to the Philippines

from Siberia (Russia) to Indonesia

and from Asia to our needful world -

let this peace be for us a season

to bring rest and healing to our world

and blessings unto all Mankind.

---<--@

On Jerusalem -

If any of us wants a proper place to begin building on an understanding of the spirit of the times, one must think about the plight of Jerusalem.

I have previously advanced the concept of Strategic Secondary Capitals specifically for the sake of Jerusalem. Israel wants her. Palestine wants her.

Yet none for truly peaceful reasons. For both desire Jerusalem - zealously - but to the exclusion of the other and by extension, the rest of the nations of the world.

Why should the spirit of War be allowed to dwell in the hearts of the citizens of Zion and obscure the unity that is its living light?

Accept the will of the LORD as is. Accept Jerusalem as is. Truly, God has designs of brotherhood and repentance upon His City. Let Jerusalem be the City of the LORD's Peace for all the nations!

We can no longer abide with divided hearts and hope to enter into the promise of the new age. This may only become more and more evident as we enter into this century. The Middle East peace process is a symbol of this struggle to obtain from God a new unity of spirit and heart for all Mankind.

The real test of these times is the recognition of our common humanity before the LORD and a return of our nations to their rightful tasks of building up the inhabited earth as the one covenant family of the nations of the children of Mankind.

Each of us - especially the stars of our Father Abraham - is called to break free of the gravity of the last great age of War and become for each other the hope of the last 2000 years.

Peace must be desired and desired absolutely - especially in Jerusalem.

In a divided world, we should not concern ourselves with the lives of other nations. The question is - do we live in a divided world?

"If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy." (Psalm 137: 5-6)

---<--@

God bless Israel and God bless Palestine, mabuhay! Long may our remembrance serve thee.

Breaking the Siege

War in the Heart

20110912

Salutation #49

Hear me, O my nation! The LORD, thy God, is a God of relationships.

(This one it is difficult.

You must please bear with me.)

(Our one Human Habitation)

Cast adrift in this great void of exile time,

in a remote spiral arm of our one Milky Way galaxy,

but one upon one of more than a billion known galaxies

that lay spread in their great clusters

across the vast expanse of this visible universe;

upon the life bearing regions of a nameless yellow star,

lay a nameless, native planet of earth -

a world embraced by those familiar circling of seasons

held in their great cycles by the perennial sweep

of each our measured round

about a singular middle aged star we simply call, our sun;

a world sheltering these worlds within ourselves.

This is the reality of our one planetary home.

It is a reality - that -

while seemingly being at present - obscured -

by the prevailing darkness of these times,

is nevertheless the abiding truth that prevails

as the one common reality of our one planetary home.

We are upon this earth,

a world embarked upon an inevitable journey

toward an inescapable destiny - that -

while remaining hidden and unbeknownst

even to the understanding of many,

is nevertheless the unfolding of a reality - that -

has and ever will be - a truth - that is and must be shared

by and with all human beings

as the one common reality of our one human habitation.

Upon this, our home world,

we as human beings have pondered together

the questions of our existence.

Each these question as questions bent and inward sought

like answers seeking its way into thought.

Each these thoughts as thoughts we must leave afloat

upon the cumulative tide of each those silent moments

we spend sought in our seeking.

Each our seeking like our prayers - met -

by our ascending with each moment that rises and falls

with each moment - spent -

in the pondering of that great and unfathomable Silence,

awash upon a void,

hostile beyond hostile to all Sacred Life.

We are by what answers we bear for each other,

ever like the twinkling of each of those unseen stars

rising in their great arcs

upon the great ocean of our LORD's Eternity,

an inward part of the rising and falling of one firmament,

an integral part of the seasons of our one native sky.

These seasons of our one native sky

are the interior seasons within each and every human soul

that when perceived through the ebb and flow motions

of our coming together in our great belongings under the sun,

become the great celestial sweep of that one unseen cycle

rising from deep within the soul of all Mankind.

And it is this one unseen cycle

that universally attests to our common human witness

of that one great and unfathomable purpose of all creation,

the one great celestial cycle,

the one gathering of the All of Sacred Life,

and the one destiny toward which we are purposed

to steer the one common reality of our one human habitation.

We are like the questions that we ask,

borne by each our own common experience

of our one human habitation.

We are by what answers we bear for each other

carried afloat upon the great sweep of the physical motions

of this vast and empty realm of the visible universe.

For we are through each other,

our own seamless experience of our one common human reality,

the experience of our own human habitation.

Begun at the timeless birth of all human togetherness,

we are upon the earth, upon this one great and visible realm

of our one common human habitation - with each other -

as those worlds upon worlds

bound by our own true belongings to each other

as the one lineage of the generations of the children of Mankind.

And fallen into the darkness of exile time,

at the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden,

at the great scattering of worlds,

we were a togetherness never purposed to belong

upon a realm intended to be as divided, dark and barren,

as fallen, bitter and empty

as these shattered skies fallen upon our world.

When we, as human beings, gaze out into the universe

- above and around ourselves -

we must know in our heart of hearts

that even in the midst of all this emptiness and longing for life,

even in the embrace of all these questions sought

here in the darkness of exile time,

here at the great scattering of worlds,

if we are to understand the order of the physical stars

in those temporal heavens above and around our native of earth,

from clusters to galaxies, from star to star,

from worlds to their companion worlds,

we can easily perceive in each native region of space

what is reflected inwardly in our souls

like a primordial longing bound in companionships.

For there is only a gathering sense of belonging

in the all of visible creation and this sense of belonging,

reflected by the physical order

of even those shattered temporal skies

that lay barren about our native of earth

and amidst all of this exile darkness,

is the one order that have endured - and therefore -

should be the one truth that must have always to prevail

in the order of all of the visible universe.

For our one human habitation

is not comprised of individual human beings

ordered according to each individual self.

Our one human habitation is ordered

- according to the connections that we serve with each other -

as individual human beings

and those relationships borne in exile time and dimensional space

that we in our shared humanity

is purposed to serve with and for the All of Sacred Life

that we must in our own particular belongings to each other

responsibly carry out not as divided individuals but as united wholes -

ever as those nations dreaming together this time.

Therefore,

we must be able to perceive the reality of all of visible creation

with an understanding that bring us closer

to an understanding of what truth it reflects.

For our one human habitation

reflects the truth about our own persons as human beings

with and to each other - in God and Country, for God and Country.

---<--@

On Friendship

To love first your friends is to know them -

May all our friendships be without frontiers!

The Angels of the LORD,
my precious Starshine,
each of which is distinct
in Beauty and Light,
being individually endowed
with splendor of truths
unique to each their gifts
possessed by each their person
from the very beginning
of their swift flight
across the timeless void
and into eternity
into the wholeness
which is God
for lack of human words
to define the strength of a relationship
that transcend the all of time
from across that veil of shadow and tears
beyond the sum total of human experience
call each other "friends".

Each of our family
who are related to us
by corporal bonds of blood
are the friends that our LORD
has chosen for us.

Each of our friends
who become part of us
by spiritual bonds of truth
are the family that we learn to choose
in the course of each our lives
to complete what our LORD
has begun for us
in our families.

Both bonds bind us together
in the strength of human relationships
that nurture life and sustain hope
through action of community
and the service of life.

You must love,
my precious Starshine,
to transform these bonds
into that one friendship alone.

And make these bonds
into the bonds of angels
who are each in God
spirits united in their freedom
created by the strength of friendships
bound in timeless truth.

So with each other,
my precious Starshine,
you must build on the good,
and give to the need of thy beloved
recognizing in thy shared humanity
the giving of the LORD
Who is the singular Source
of all our relationships.

Be thankful for friendship wings
human, angelic and Divine,
that take us all across
from moment to moment
into an understanding of its peace
lifting us into the unity
of those wholes upon wholes
from hope to hope
and strength to strength
past, into present
and into every present
across the void
into eternity.

Starshine,

there is always a reason to smile.

---<--@

On Loyalty

What you do for your friends will be remembered by your friends. What you don't do for your friends will be remembered by your enemies.

Starshine,
the things of Loyalty
are the relationships
that shall remain
forever with thee;
so defend your friendships
with courage and tenacity.

For we are not Loyal
if we do not remain
true to each other,
moment to moment,
from always to always
appreciating those things
that we share in our humanity
and respecting the things
that make us unique as persons,
seen as well as unseen,
in ourselves and in our nations
in the vision of our timeless belonging
with one another in God and Country
as each our own true self -
as each our own true names
written in heaven.

From the descendant gravity
of the spirit of war and division;
against things born of the darkness
defeated and empty of promise
stand fast in thy friendships!

Guard thy peace with each other
and in thy togetherness hope.

Never be Loyal
to inanimate and empty things;
those fickle and ephemeral
things of vanity!

But only to each other
and in the ascendant motions
of Sacred Life.

For the realization of all our hope
rests in the glory of our LORD
in all creation.

And all these created things
are made by our one common Creator
to be Loyal to all of these.
---<--@

A Requiem Prayer -

During the first week after 9/11, I made a conscious effort to refrain from learning anything more about the lives of the fallen. I remember that first week was a week of soul searching. The whole Country was looking for meaning.

I am very sensitive to the impact of lost innocents and I knew it. I was only beginning to know my Anne and her lost generation.

The only name whose life I can remember is Tod Beamer on Flight 93. And he was a hero - is a hero. He became consigned to embrace with valor the fate which though sad, he and those others with him were able to transform into a shining light. It is easy to remember guys like Tod.

But what of the others? Those who died crying and afraid. Those who are difficult to let go? What of the youngest who I now learned is only 3 years old?

I blocked them all during that first week. I avoided knowing more about their stories. Not because I wanted to but because I had to - for me.

9/11 also happened during the darkest times of my life. I was not yet reconciled to many things in my own life. My personal life was at a threshold. I was in despair.

And then all was swept away in the aftermath. That was all exactly 10 years ago yesterday.

So last night, when I heard the calling of the names, I remembered again that first week (this is Philippine time of course which is exactly 12hrs ahead of the Eastern Seaboard). I was affected again. I felt the pain of the loss. But this time, I felt I was no longer alone. And I began to include them in my prayers to God.

I encourage you to please do so as well.

People with no connection to people will say this is all over-hyped. But if you understand what I understand, you will think of people. Because we are our relationships.

Let us pray for the victims and their families. Let us expedite their final hopes on earth.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Truth

Breaking the Siege