Breaking Free

This work is dedicated to all suffering addicts and alcoholics...

THIS ADDICTION

has power over me no more.

It has power only over those
who believe in the lie.

This addiction has lied to me,
my family, and my friends,
right from the very beginning.

It has nearly destroyed me.

It has harmed those
whom I hold dear to my heart
who hold me dear to theirs.

Therefore, I no longer believe in the lie.
I can neither trust nor tolerate it:

I cast it away from myself!

The first choice is the wrong choice.

All the choices after that
is the choice of the addiction.

Therefore ---

The next choice I must make
is the one choice I must take
toward the road to freedom.

All the choices after this
are steps that take me there,
far away from here,
far away from the addiction,
far away from the lie
that sought to extinguish
my promise and my life.

The road exists even should I fall
because the road exists for me.

The road exists so long as I believe
that time will take me there
and truth will set me free.

So help me God,
So help me God.
---<--@

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

20111010

Salutation # 55

"Saints and Addicts are the same -

both are born of great loves;

one is a love born of things below,

the other a love of all things above.

And freedom is to know.

(13 Responses to the Evil of Drug Addiction: A Salutation to Recovery and Personal Transformation)

These 13 Responses I write

for all who suffer from drug addiction,

the victims and their victims.

To those who prayed for me,

my thanks and appreciation -

I send you all my love.

I write this primarily for those

who are suffering as I am

from the scourge of drug addiction.

For your inspiration...

(1) To the Addict Soul -

So may Peace be unto your heart

- as pristine as the dew of the early morning -

my heart speaking unto your heart, O my precious beloved,

about the evils inherent to the global problem of drug addiction,

addressed to relevant segments of our suffering humanity,

as an aid to our one whole understanding

in behalf of those who still suffer in the darkness -

for the danger of drug abuse affects all human beings.

I do not blame you

nor do I pretend to judge you

for I am to you as I really am,

a peer and an equal in common creation.

I am here not for your sins but for your hope.

Do not empower the past.

Whatever the cause of your addiction to drugs,

it belongs - Now - to the past.

Let the past go and accept it as it is, gone.

It shall never serve you to dwell on things

- that have already moved on -

for there is nothing to be found by looking back,

we stand only to lose ourselves in the attempt.

Never forsake the choice that leads out of the darkness

even though it is difficult to see where the darkness ends.

Believe in your recovery and your recovery will believe in you.

Never believe in your addiction,

however deeply you find yourself mired in it,

it is an illusion that will rob you of your chance to be truly happy.

Look deeply into the present

and you will find hope where you once had none.

For many people in this world suffer - as we do -

and from various ills and pains

but it is not the severity of their suffering

nor the degrees that we are better off than others

that should console us - it is their common hope;

a hope all human beings may meaningfully understand.

For in the hope of our family and friends

we are empowered - despite ourselves -

to give remedy to the evil that plague our soul

making us blind to our own need to recover.

Believe in the person who believes in your recovery.

For hope empowers hope,

hope being the very language of the human spirit,

it is communicated freely among our souls

as a network of common relief

that save against despair

the truth that lives in other people's lives.

As our ability to accept help from others grow,

we witness our own hopes begin to grow.

There is a certain solidarity in human suffering

but there can never be any consolation to be had

from every and all forms of human suffering

whether one suffers more or less than others.

Suffering does not serve to empower

those who are outside it's fold of experience - as a matter of fact,

it is a cause of much of our complacency.

Those who do nothing in the name of anything

- in the face of human suffering -

do not understand what it means to be human.

For to be human is to be defined by common needs.

- selah -

What then is above you

and what is there below you, O Man,

that you should forsake yourself?

Shall you be what you are not

and relinquish the hope of your existence?

Drugs are an evil,

commit that this evil shall meet it's end with you,

never introduce this evil to other souls.

Pray and then pray for each other.

As human beings,

we are powerless against the overwhelming evil of drug addiction,

let us humbly admit to this powerlessness

and willingly relinquish control of this part of our lives over to God -

to the LORD Who knows

- when and how -

to deliver Man from every evil.

And commit to do this sooner than later.

(2) To the Unconcerned world of empty promises -

The world at large is a vast and empty wilderness,

- it is a desolation of war -

dangerous for our isolation

as wild and as rugged as the tracts of our inhabited earth

and made even more dangerous by the predatory malignancy

of the cognizant evil that intelligently prowl

the darkness of this open landscape

for those souls - who -

with complete disregard for it's own safety

have wandered too far away from the LORD

and the shelter of our communities.

Will the world show concern

- for those unhappy souls -

who have wandered too close

to the gaping maw of the beast?

Perhaps it will

- but often -

with a certain flimsiness that betray it's true colors.

For in principle,

- the world at large -

will never side with the weak.

There is a kind of superiority

in the world at large

that with much thunder and noise

hide the cowardly will

behind the shallow action and token gestures

that does so little for the Sacred Life

of the very least of our one family of humanity.

It will be foolhardy to place our sacred trust

onto the unproven conventions of the Unconcerned world;

a world that without us, become empty of it's own promise.

Until we have regained a sovereign majority

- under this greater season of heaven -

until we have reclaimed those vast tracts of the human spirit

that we have in the past been compelled to abandon

- to the ravages of war as a whole -

we will never be sure about this world and it's conventions.

Therefore,

the world as it is today - will never understand -

that the evil that is endemic to drug addiction

- is not the human being -

of whose hopes we wish to redeem;

it will see the evil, condemn it, stigmatize and ridicule the victim

and push it out of way and out of sight.

(3) To the Broken Family about the aftermath -

Those so-called modern trends

the degrade and devalue the synergistic strength

of the complementary unity between male and female

- are just that - they are trends,

an indication of the fickle nature of the world at large.

Those who are deceived by the easy convenience

of these so-called modern trends

resort to bargain away

the infinitely precious calling of the human family

in exchange for an uncertain future that one perceives to be happiness

- all because of a failure to meet the Beloved -

in those private precincts of the timeless heart

within those specific places where it really matters.

As a result,

these families will never attain to their greatest potency.

And the children will suffer through what in these evil days

are called social sins and will be weeded out

not according to our common spirit of humanity

that believes not in depriving them of their dignity and promise

but according to the law of the jungle.

This failure of the family - will then -

become transmitted onto the greater communities

as a certain subtle belligerence pervades

like a hidden, festering, spreading rot

borne by the greater body of any society

of whose significant potential for the future

that it entrusts to the human family

has already been effectively precluded

from the reality of our common human hopes.

The stronger the trend, the greater the effect.

Indeed, to sum it all up,

divorce trends are nothing more than failures

that are enabled to perpetuate itself.

Who bears the burdens?

(4) To the Family who is concerned about drug abuse -

Indeed,

this is an evil that all concerned human families

must be able to effectively defend from

and completely repel right at the very threshold of the family home.

(I have significantly dealt with this subject in my previous work.)

(5) To the Youth who questions the evil of drug abuse -

Hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil.

Have your parents ever told you

that this saying goes for a particular form of evil?

This is the evil of drug abuse;

an evil whose allure is it's greatest peril!

Of the many evils in this day,

this one is dealt with specifically by our ignoring it's presence

where it directly concerns our lives.

Hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil.

However to ignore this in the lives of others

without even connecting to - even a glimmer - of their hope

is inhuman.

(6) To the Addict who still doesn't know -

If you give in to the void of illusion

and accede - in your will -

to the slavery - of the lie -

at the core of every evil,

specifically the evil of drug abuse,

- you effectively commit -

one of the greatest crimes you may inflict

- against your own humanity -

for you will stand to lose yourself

within the confines of the darkness

within your own self.

You will become the lie within the lie.

The void of illusion

- once the choice waxes absolute -

is a hellish existence;

completely empty of any glimmer

of a meaningfulness that assure the soul

and gives breath to the body.

Amidst even the deepest of darkness

where the grace of God is greatest

thou shalt be unmindful of thy salvation

being unable to reach out with thy own power

- to the freedom of the truth -

that there is a wonderful reason for thy being;

that thy life is meant to fulfill thy purpose of happiness

- upon our native earth and sky -

and that this purpose has our good in Mind

because the LORD is God!

What have led you to betray your own self;

what have caused you to commit this treason?

Admit to the problem

and acknowledge thy own confusion

and let yourself be grounded upon the truth

before your own realities turn into those falsities

that will imprison you and throw away the keys.

No one will be cognizant enough

to know where you really stand

- within your own heart -

to be able to help your soul.

(7) To the Addict who is still suffering -

Do not empower the habit.

Let go of your own rational control

and admit that you are powerless against this evil.

This habit responds by degrees

that we draw near to this evil

- it has great allure -

but at it's core is an emptiness

- which is actually the body of the lie itself -

commensurate in size

to the greatness of it's temptation.

(8) To the Addict who admits to the problem -

Admit to Almighty God the problem.

Admit to Almighty God all of the problem.

Surrender control of this part of your life

to the care of the Divine Will and cling to this trust,

taking it day by day, moment by moment,

rebuilding and regenerating your integral whole,

with hope upon hope, grace upon grace,

and strength upon strength.

Prepare yourself.

It will be difficult - before it gets even close -

to getting any better.

Speak to a safe person.

(9) To the Addict who seeks for solutions -

This evil escapes the power of reason

- and eludes faith -

do not seek for answers

- by searching for it -

for in so doing you empower

- it's temptation -

to cast it's adulterous stench upon your soul.

Admit to the problem

and forgo all understanding of this evil.

Make it an integral part of your necessary surrender

to the will of the Almighty Who knows

when and how to deliver all men from evil.

Repair all relationships -

vertical and then horizontal.

(10) To the Addict who aspires to greater evil -

Do not become the illusion that you pretend to be -

we are real human beings

who live in a real world

with real concerns

and a real potential with God's grace

for doing an infinite amount of good.

Have We become your own illusion

or have the tiny confines of the lie

become your one absolute reality?

Never be compatible with evil - actively resist it,

even where your are in the very thick of it all,

even when it seems you have exhausted all ways and means,

until your realize the truth,

you must never cease to struggle against

the evil in all evil things.

(11) To the Addict who deceives the innocent into drugs -

A murderer who deceives his or her victims

- into the snare -

in order to take away their lives

is about the same in terms of gravity

to one who deceives others into losing

the completeness of their integrity,

for it is an integrity you can never bring back.

A human being has three lives,

one is the life in the soul,

the other is the life of the body

and the third is the life of his or her name;

the honor of a person's reputation

- that enable and empower -

every person's connection with other persons.

All three once taken away,

as one does who recklessly murder the innocence of our youth

and plunder the integrity of our brothers and sisters in Creation,

only an act of God, can ever restore.

Think about your own incompatibility with evil

and where you are deceived into thinking that you are

one of those who are compatible with evil,

think about your own incompatibility with death

for that is the permanent destination of all evil things.

(12) To the Pusher who deceives the innocent into drugs -

Why do you forsake your own nobility?

Or have you already lost your own sense of humanity?

You pretend to speak in the tongue of the truth

while the intentions within your own heart

contain something else completely!

Have you two hearts to contain your double mindedness?

Or a forked tongue that is sundered like the peace within yourself?

- selah -

Ponder your own thoughts

and return to your own sense of honorable remembrance,

DO NOT disturb the waters of our common community.

(13) To the Dealer who profits from dangerous drugs -

Everything turns to ashes eventually - but as for evil,

it has been a decree from Eternity,

your Satan will turn into ashes from the inside,

and the Devil who is your defeated lord

will stand as your own tormentor after he leads you

and all the reprobate angels and men into very bowels of hell.

For the wages of thy sin is thus - unless thou repent -

you will die an everlasting death.

- selah -

Glory to God the Father in the highest

Adoration to Jesus Christ

may the LORD restore - all addict souls -

to sanity and may the Spirit of God

bring us back to the hard and narrow way of salvation;

a way that though - as hard and as narrow -

as the old way of our active addiction

is the only way that leads away from the past

into to the life and the happiness

that we all desire - and desire so intensely -

so as to burn with the overwhelming power of our addictions.

May we learn to love the right things -

may we learn to be truly free

and to find happiness and security

- in the knowledge of the Truth -

that to love the LORD is to forsake the idolatry of drugs.

Ultimately,

after our convictions are proven in time

- by the grace of God -

and the help of family, friends, community and nation

we shall become who we must be...

---<--@

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

---<--@

A Bruised Wing

I saw half an angel wing once...

glimmering in the quiet of a corner;

I sought to fight off the vision -

or I thought I could for I was an ignorant fool

now I know what the vision was for.

God gave me a bruised wing

that I may be able to more sweetly sing

of His great love for me.

He fettered me with pain

to see me through the storm

and limited my powers of flight

to see me through the night.

God gave me a bruised wing

that I may be able to more sweetly sing

of His great love for me.

---<--@

If my recovery is the only gift I can give, then let it be the greatest gift I can give.

---<--@

Mabuhay ka kapatid ko, at mabuhay ang Pilipinas nating lahat. God bless us all!

Hope Taking wing

NOTE: For more on this particular issue (addiction and recovery) please refer to my secondary blog: My Recovery First Journal

My Miyang believed in my recovery long before I ever did.

20110928

At the Waning of the Storm

Today, as Typhoon Pedring recedes and the blessings of calm is restored to our Country, let us also remember - that - this day, September 28, 2011, is the Feast Day of San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila.

O Saint Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila,
please pray for us, your own people,
and maintain a loving vigil over us
as we struggle today to love God
and to love one another in God
by being true to our better selves
as one people and one nation
one faithful Republic -
beyond time and human limitations,
united across all our generations,
by our common endeavor of Country.

O Saint Lorenzo, holy martyr of God.
Valiant witness of Jesus Christ
and first Saint of our people!
Your glorious and shining martyrdom
along with your faithful Companions
upon that terrible hill in Nagazaki, Japan
has shown to the whole of God’s creation;
unto both angels and men alike,
unto all of blessed Christendom,
unto your own Filipino nation,
and unto all the nations of the earth
that the demands of our holy faith
can be met - even unto the shedding of blood
and that each of us common, nameless Filipinos
may truly aspire to brave the hard and narrow Way
and walk the mountain path of Christian perfection.

O Saint Lorenzo, beloved of our people.
Strong in your faith in God and in your people
steadfast in hope, now confirmed in charity!
Intercede for us at the foot of the Master!
May the Lord magnify in each our souls
the love of God and of others in God
that awaken in our hearts a lively faith
that renew in all our communities
the true spirit of selfless service
founded in love, immortal and divine,
which is the true soul of Country.

O Saint Lorenzo, our honored countryman.
Strong in your faith in God and in your people
Steadfast in hope, now confirmed in charity!
Intercede for us at the foot of the Master!
Help us to trust in God and to cling to Him
believing in the unfailing help of God's grace.
May the Lord dispel our darkness with His Light
and enliven in all our families
a holy thirst and a profound desire
for the ever living waters of the Gospel of Christ
that awaken each heart to the call of salvation.

O Saint Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila,
please pray for us, your own nation,
as we struggle today to love God
and to love one another in God
by being true to our better selves
as one people and one nation
one faithful Republic -
under the eternal vigilance of Almighty God
in the one, blessed NAME
of the Thrice-Holy God:
the Father,
the Son,
And the Holy Spirit.

AMEN.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Saints and Addicts

O my Jesus, I love You

20110331

From Hope to Hope -

The People's Republic of China yesterday carried out the death sentences for Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Elizabeth Batain and Ramon Credo.

The three were executed by lethal injection. It was carried out in strict accordance with the law of that land which we must respect. There was no evidence that due process was denied any of them. Everything went like it should...

Why is it that it still feels so wrong?

I received the news yesterday evening while riding a bus back home and I can not help but feel a wave of sadness overtake my thinking. For a moment I felt what their families and friends were expressing behind all those tears.

I understood that underneath all the raw emotion was a fear of the unknown - a fear that the world has been unkind to them and will continue to be unkind to them.

And then I felt angry - angry at the people who betrayed my compatriots to this evil fate. For it is an evil fate; a fate I believe does not belong to them.

In my previous posts regarding this matter, I have made clear my view as regards to the fate of our three compatriots.

We now have an onus to carry out their final hopes on earth - as a nation, we must do justice to their plight - take care of the people they left behind and assist our local authorities to pursue and convict those who are responsible for this crime.

...and all our local Barangay Watches.

Personally speaking, I want this event permanently etched into our national memory and let it seep thoroughly into those institutions that fight against this evil.

As a Church, we must continue to pray for the repose of their souls.

What worries me now is precedence.

---<--@

Improve Philpost

As a proactive measure to ensure Internet trade, when it booms in the Philippines (because it will), is properly facilitated and the advantages of eTrade preserved for the benefit of the nation, steps should be taken to revitalize and improve Philpost.

I believe that this would be a good investment and should be seriously considered. This will help boost government revenue - eventually.

It will also help us feel more closely connected.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

20110325

An Angel Weeping

I SAW
in my heart of hearts
an angel weeping,
saddened but not bowed,
shedding holy tears,
shed for Love.

"O hellfire!",
said the presence
within the comforting silence
of our hearts' mingling,
"The greatest abomination
is not thy existence!"

"I weep not
for thy blasphemy
and the abominations
that you relentlessly hurl
in the face of my Creator."

"I weep
with tears
that is shed
like the rain
filling the rivers
that flow in time
from the golden deep
of the Eternity of my LORD."

"I weep
because I am wounded
but not by thy evil
O reprobate sink
of wasted creation."

"I weep
not because of thee
O hellfire
for I am hurt not
by the bankrupt nature
of the Devil and his demons
and the reprobate men
who condemn themselves
by their unwavering
and immovable
allegiance
to the everlasting death
that was decreed
from Eternity."

"I weep
because of Love
knowing the unbearable hurt
of the terrible affliction
that thy rebellion
have inevitably caused
the most beneficent nature
of my most loving and most merciful
one LORD and only Creator."

"O hellfire,
thy existence
is a curse,
right by Justice,
but a transgression
against the infinite
dignity of Love!"

"I weep
because I am hurt
but not by thee,
O hellfire,
I am sorrowful
not for thy eternal woe
and the crushing depths
of the gravity of thy fiery defeat;
not for thy reprobate evil
do I shed these tears."

"I weep
because I am hurt
and I am hurt
because my God is hurt,
my LORD and my only Creator."

"I weep
with all the love
that longs for Itself
and I shall weep
profusely
in great torrents
like the rain
to fill the rivers
that flow in time
into you, O nations,
into you, O my beloved,
into those new seasons of life
that advance the cause
of suffering Mankind
and serve my one LORD
being like unto my God,
extending the glorious will
of my divine Sovereign
until my only Creator,
most forgiving
and with kindness
unsurpassed
wipes away the tears
at the springtime beginning
of all things new."

"And thou
O hellfire
and all thy
countless
abominations
that fight against
the rivers that flow
becomes to me
a forsaken season
shed like these tears
and overwhelmed like the darkness,
at the final winter of my memory,
and the daybreak of the everlasting peace."

"Alleluia, glory to our Creator,
holy, holy, holy is our one Sovereign,
alleluia to the LORD!
Beloved to God are those that weep
and labor in their hope,

dwelling always in good will
and believing with conviction of faith
that all will be well,

all will be well, peace,
amen, alleluia."
---<--@

OFW Drug Involvement

It was recently reported by our news agencies that the three condemned Filipino drug mules in the People's Republic of China will be executed. I am saddened by the fact that their courts have decided to uphold the death sentences for the three.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, I am no proponent of capital punishment. What I am convinced of will serve to further strengthen the cause of Justice in our own lands is a more efficient justice system; one that is swift, vigilant, and above all human (and therefore, humane).

I personally disagree with the punishment meted out by the court in China that convicted the three. I simply believe it does not fit the crime. The judgment however, is sound. For the three did what they did (in a strictly objective sense).

If it were otherwise, I do not think we would find ourselves hoping for a commutation of the prior death sentence to the lesser, in my own view, more fitting punishment of life in prison. I myself had hoped for a commutation of the punishment, and were the judgment not sound enough for me, I would not have felt realistic in my hope to make the plea that I had previously aired on this blog on 20110217.

The date for the executions was set at March 30. The Chinese Embassy in Manila had released a statement that the verdict is final. In a last ditch effort, our government is still hoping to strike a reasonable deal with China and save their lives.

Indeed, we still have reason to hope. But I should like to prepare us now for the worse. Let us first be appreciative at least for the reprieve that our fellow Filipinos had received. That it was granted is a fact, the conditions it implied were also evident - the courts in China decided that the sentence be suspended.

In the event that the sentences are carried out, if ever - for even now I still find myself hoping for a commutation of the death sentence to life in prison - I shall have to agree to disagree with China on those points of divergence and respect the discipline and sovereignty of their judicial processes.

Now please, we shall waste no time to remember as a nation what is now potentially being lost to us in the lives of Ramon Credo, Sally Ordinario Villanueva, and Elizabeth Batain (and others like them) -

Compact Against Demon Drugs

Many of our people may be equating this tragedy to politics, or the Spratley issue, or are outright indifferent or even hostile to the plight of Ramon, Sally, and Elizabeth. These tendencies I often find baffling.

There are opinions out there from among our own people about the fate of those three that vex me to no end. The truth of the matter is that there are hundreds if not thousands of our own people who are presently faced with the same troubles.

Shall we also leave them to their fates and say, "dapat lang yan sa kanila"?

It is vital that we keep our eyes and our hearts fixed on the ball, as it were - to the core nature of the evil that betrayed our countrymen and the social ills arising from it that sold them all to this evil fate.

If we do not - if we do not address these particular evils, how are we to remember those people in our memory? Shall we just live to forget what the pain of these things teach?

How is our nation to account for their lives to the one Sovereign of all nations?

Out of love for the memory of those who are suffering, we are as a Country always compelled to give ear to the grievances that has afflicted, still afflicts and will afflict our generations - which in this particular regard, my honorable compatriots, is the evil of the manufacture and trafficking in narcotics and other dangerous and illegal chemical substances.

True citizenship does not make deals with the evil in all evil things.

I will not take you on a tangent about this - if we are angry about any of this, let us be angry about the root cause of this pain in our hearts; a pain brought about by the evil that brought to so many Filipinos like Sally, Ramon, and Elizabeth, a sad and completely unexpected fate - the evil of the illegal manufacture and trafficking in narcotics and other dangerous and illegal chemical substances.

Some of us are like children in the way that we hold on to our hope. As a people, we still believe in happy endings. And rightly so, because of such a substance is our national destiny.

We do not cling to our self-identity because it is not a wonderful thing. It is a wonderful thing to be and to belong together as a nation.

We say we are Filipino and deep in our hearts perhaps very deep, and therefore, even more profoundly felt once revealed, we have a certain sense of expectation, even joy. Somehow we understand that it is a good thing to be Filipino. Else we would not even bother looking to find who we really are as a people.

If what nationhood is all about is just pain and evil - an empty and defeated promise - our own souls would not be able to comprehend this innate, completely human desire to belong. A nation is a people under God - lawful, ordered, beneficent, peaceful, and good - even very good. Else it is not a nation but a mob.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, how we feel about our national identity is a thing felt as something good because first and foremost, it is a gift.

So we have every right to hope as children hope - because we have this gift. Truly, many of us have sacrificed much in the name of this gift - for the sake of all our generations.

Shall we be bereft of such a heart these days?

For these are the days we need shepherds for the flock, laborers for the field and servants for the LORD. For it is God Who protects these hopes. He is the LORD, my people, our God.

Sally, Ramon, and Elizabeth had such a hope - a hope betrayed by evil allurements yet a hope in common with ours all the same. For their being in need, they were victimized and exploited by the lie of those whose hearts are far away from theirs. Shall we also stand aloof from them now in their greatest hour of need?

A Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino - that's the bottom line.

How are the shepherds to account for these missing sheep? How are the laborers to explain this lost harvest? How are the servants to explain these stolen lives?

You, my honorable compatriots, are kindled in your hearts to anger because each of us is indeed responsible for each of us. We are each to another, a keeper and friend. Now with this feelings at heart, I bid us once again to re-examine the issue at hand:

How are we to account for this lost promise? By binding the evil that lie at its very root. We shall make a Compact Against Demon Drugs.

Indeed, I have put much thought into this problem of demon drugs. I myself am a recovering addict. I am personally familiar with the pain and the darkness of drug addiction. Over several posts of this same label, Compact Against Demon Drugs, we shall begin to examine closely the spiritual root of drug addiction, its evil purpose and anti-human design.

I will present to you what I have learned, relate it to the greater context of the nation, and place it squarely in the service of the national good.

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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The National Minimum

20100913

Crystal Blue Sphere

I saw in a vision, a crystal blue sphere, shining with a multitude of living lights. The vision came to me quite abruptly while I was awake in the day, riding a jeep home from work.

The vision stayed for a time before me as I wondered. I wondered at how wondrous and beautiful beyond imagination it was that I thought I was seeing through the eyes of angels.

Then a darkness came over the vision and it seemed to me for an instant that it was no longer there. But it was, O my nation, before me was a world so overrun by sin and war that it was no longer distinct from the nothingness of the void - an unknown earth bereft of light, forsook by heaven, and forgot by God.
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We are as nations as the angels have their choirs. Arrayed in time and space, we are but one family of nations. The family of humankind is so ordered.

Without this order, the labors of the earth shall become increasingly impossible to bear. And there is but one labor in time upon the earth - we are to build up from the unknown earth, the inhabited earth - our crystal blue sphere.



This work is our work, O my nation. It is the work we share with all the other kindred nations of the one brotherhood of Mankind.

It is but one work: The providential grace of God sustains it and all of creation, seen and unseen, bends with us according to it. For the will of the LORD is as such.

From the very least to the most responsible of all our kindred nations, we are but one family of nations and the work we do, O my nation, is but one work. For the will of the LORD is as such.

We are many and yet we are one. And not for war's sake do we stir but for peace: The peace of the LORD, our God - He Who is - one, peerless and eternal.

This is the peace which God promised our Father Abraham in time we would bring as a blessing to all the communities of Mankind - from star to star, at a time, times and half-a-time, one whole sky - the peace that prospers and matures; the peace of our nations.

And there are four Faithful Causes that align us toward the peace of our nations: Sacred Life (the Cause of God which is the first), Unity (the Cause of Law which is the second), Harmony (the Cause of Justice which is the third) and Benignity (the Cause of Minorities which is the fourth).

We have the unprecedented opportunity, O my nation, to choose to help bring this great and necessary labor unto fruition and help bring respite to our failing world.

And we shall do this together this time - nation, commission, and mission.

For there really only is one choice - one way of remembrance, one path of peace.

And do not just believe these words on my account but please do as I did and look for evidence of the times yourselves and diligently work out a conviction in your own heart of hearts through much prayer and quiet contemplation.

Only then may one understand with an understanding of faith that the fruit of all honorable religion is peace and this fruit is expected by the LORD above all of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

This peace is our hope. And our world needs this peace.

I address this message to you, O my one Filipino nation and to my generation X in particular and to all our kindred nations:

Peace, I salute you.
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Compact Against Demon Drugs

There was seized from some foreign nationals some days ago about 100 million pesos worth of shabu or meth.

The drug trade feeds a false economy built upon the sufferings of many. I know a lot of these suffering people on a personal basis. I myself am a victim though as a recovering addict I now suffer in hope and not in vain.

The question I always ask myself whenever an amount of illegal drugs is reported to have been seized is this: How much shall it take out of the real economy of our nation? This is really quite difficult to say because the effects of drug abuse has profoundly deep roots.

However, quantitatively speaking, how many schools will 100 million pesos build? How long shall we suffer for our starshine - our children and our youth - to go without these needed schools?

In the same way that we are protective of strangers living peacefully in our lands, we should be just as aggressive to act against those who would seek to undermine the peace of our civil society in this way. They have no right whatsoever to come here and disturb the waters of our Republic.

PDEA recently proposed the idea of the death penalty. It was reported by the same agency that foreign nationals involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs are not being deterred enough in their criminal activities and may even be emboldened by the lack of capital punishment.

I believe that the ends proposed by the agency are good and agreeable. However, I also believe that there are deterrents other than the death penalty that would better serve our national interests in this regard.

The Cause of Benignity naturally proceeds to the Cause of Harmony because a better Justice system must be built upon preserving the foundations of the public peace and the common good.

Its virtue lies in restoration more than in retribution. In this sense, I believe that a more efficient and a more inspired Justice system is, in and of itself, an effective deterrent.


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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.