A Season for Faith and a Time for Reason

All things happen for a reason. And verily, Man is made to understand them. But all things under sun come each in their due season. So that Man is made to trust in his faith as well as to his reason.

Faith is a season to trust. Reason is a time to understand. And they come in cycles, great and small. T'is the First Sufficiency, and true for all. T'was with the Peace that never did fail nor fall.

The Lord Jesus many at time left trails in His Incarnation. Proclaimed in the Good News - He often left things He did to faith, and then gave faith in each person their own due season, so that each Man through his reason may in time hear - and understand His Word - and see the Truth they came to see.

That nothing in this world was built on random purpose, and that this is true! And so to those who feel their freedoms constricted because "everything" happens for a reason, the Lord Jesus says, "come and see", thy faith will you set free.

Faith and reason is like two freedoms reaching out to each other. Where they meet they kiss, and when they embrace the embrace of peace - as heaven and earth must always do, in the soul, and in time too - Truth is, for God is with us and Man hears, and faith remembers, and reason too, understands - all is well, all is well...

Therefore, Starshine, you must lead with your mind, but always think with your heart.


To understand the Trinity is to know more and more that God is one - and to proclaim Amen to the Truth: Amen to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - the LORD indeed is one God alone!

And in Peace to proceed in God - with the Goodwill of God - for all Mankind.
---<--@


Mabuhay! May you always be in love, Beloved of the Love.

Salutation #189

God replied, "I am who am." 
Then He added, "This is what you shall tell the Israelites:
I AM sent me to you."

God spoke further to Moses,
"Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD,
the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
has sent me to you. "

This is my Name forever; 
this is my Title for all generations.

Exodus 3: 14-15


Pursue peace and pursue it absolutely.

In commemoration of the outpouring of humanitarian aid and assistance to my Nation by the many Nations in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) - "Salamat po at mabuhay po tayong lahat nang mga Bansa ng mga Anak ng Sangkatauhan!" 

(God is, and that is all!)

God is, and that is all!
The LORD is His Name.
And this is the Truth -
He is God forever!

God is, as He is!
And all creation bears witness to God,
the LORD Who is - Creator to all that is,
was, and ever will be, worlds upon worlds
without end, and glorious for God forever.

The LORD is One
and jealous is God for His Name's sake.
He is, alone among the Heavens and upon the Earth,
and in all souls and in all hearts, God without compare!

Above all things, beyond all things,
with all things, and in all things,
the LORD waits. God waits on those
who wait on Him. And confess that He is One!

God is to be feared.
For a mighty God is the LORD!
He is God and kind to all His creatures,
merciful to all poor souls in need, and able to save all
who come to know Him and fear Him and say,
"Amen to God, Amen."

God is Spirit Unseen 
and He goes where He goes;
here, there, and everywhere God is.

He comes without knowledge,
and speaks without words,
yet all hearts know the LORD is
and make Peace with His Name
singing, "Alleluia to God, 
Alleluia to God,
Amen."

For God is forever
and none has seen the Truth
of the God Who is
Who is not of the LORD forever
and prevaileth without death
for God is - all are not.

What creature can say this or that 
of the LORD?

What mouth speaketh
of God of the knowledge of God
knoweth not the LORD whose heart
repenteth not in tears and ashes.

It is terrible to Man 
to be caught up in the LORD.
For God is - where Man is not.

In the realization of God,
Man awakens to fear
for Man fears God
because God is -
and Man is not
and comes
to a knowledge of fear
in the reality of his separation
from God and from other Men.

And in the fear
of not being asleep to God,
Man finds in the reality of God,
in His faithfulness and loving kindness,
the fear of not being awake in Him.

And in humility
he overcomes his fear
by subjecting it to the LORD,
the God Whom he wisely fears,
with trembling adoration.

The image of the LORD is 
the Sound of His Name!

All that is - hears the call of their God
and arises from the face of the deep.

All that is - rejoices in the Name of the LORD
for all that is, was, and shall ever be.

None has seen, none has heard, yet all is
and all that is - rejoices - for God is
and God in all - is.

God is the likeness of life;
all that live know of life through God
and all of the living who seek God
came to know of the life in Him.

For He is in all living souls
the Being of our being and the Life in our life,
in the breath that imparts, in the breathing that becomes, God is -
ever like life - longing for the perfection of happiness forever.

The Wisdom of God is in all His works.
And it is wondrous to behold!

The glory of God rests
upon all things like the morning dew
and it refreshes the poor of heart.

For Wisdom makes poor as God makes rich
that the humble rejoice and the haughty flee in shame.

God is God in perfect contemplation of Himself;
Truth realizing Love - and Freedom proclaiming itself to the captives,
Love realizing Truth - and Justice and Mercy blessing all the Earth
with loving kindness, compassion, mercy, gentleness, and peace.
Beauty beholding Beauty. God beholding God.
---<--@

Salutation #187

The War in heaven is in the heart.

(Maturity of Remembrance)

God seeks to be near to all His Children!

In their Exile,
He has clothed them with Justice.

Justice
through each Nation
the LORD hath - together appointed -
at the autumnal Dusk of our Faded and Fallen Eden
to shelter with Peace the remnant peoples of all Mankind,

and who at the East Gate stands faithful guard to the Memory
that the lineages of Adam and Eve may hope to prevail - in time,
according to the great and mysterious designs of His Wisdom,

over the lands of an Unknown Earth, far away from familiar Sky,

cast adrift in the unyielding Darkness, across the Veil of Exile Time. 

And in despair of death, 

offered them Love and Mercy.

Love
in the one Redeemer
He hath appointed to save our souls,
- ever before any of our souls needed saving -
long before we were even souls - alive to the Alive -
deep in the waters of the Firmament, before the Earth.

And Mercy
through the Most Holy Incarnation
of that same timeless and ageless Redeemer,
in Our Emmanuel - Who is Jesus Christ the Lord -
Who through His Sacred Humanity, came upon our Earth
- to be with us - the God with us - in our poverty and suffering.

Christ 
Who as Word of the Father spake to all hearts of - the Truth -

that God is - across all realms of Earth - and unto all Ages of time,
one and for always - for Christ did love - the each of us, in each of us
- ever in spite of our smallness and despite the greatness of our sins,
with a Love that is forever - and did reveal to our needful world
the deepest and most profound expression of this Divine Love
in the Christian Mysteries - for the Salvation of all human Nations -
so that in Spirit and Truth, the LORD is, in all living hearts - as God is -
to be sought, loved, served, understood, praised, revered, and worshiped
without division - as one ascendant motion in time - for God is Love unyielding,
and in all things professed in honor of this Blessed and Eternal Unity
He dwells forever - as Father, Son, and Spirit.

- selah -

As Father to each orphaned human heart,
and the one Sovereign of all the Nations of Mankind
God seeks us - in the Peace we profess in our human communities;
in the National Belongings that are the direct expression
of His unyielding will of Unity, of Peace over War.

As Redeemer of all Mankind,
the Son comes to us - as a Servant of our common humanity -
to share in our littleness, and to drink of our bitterness,
and to join in our common human hopes.

Indeed,
Jesus came to call sinners to life,
and to gather all the lost to Himself.

And lived to serve and not to be served,
in a posture of offering, and laid down His life
through an act of His own Freedom - giving all -

- that the poor and the needy 

may receive sustenance and strength,

- the stranger and the outcast
may find the good will of Godly friends,
- the orphan and the widow
may come to the solace of a faithful Nation,
- and the weak of the Unknown Earth
may discover again the preserving salt of our tears
through Him Who wept for all our weeping
upon that lonely Cross on Calvary

for the Salvation of our common Humanity 

and the Redemption of our Mankind

with tears born of human compassion 

that flowed with the Blood of His Passion

and cleansed the Darkness of our Exile 

sealing forever the one Everlasting Covenant

that consummates the Promises of the Old 

of deeds by written word spoken in Scriptures 

by Prophets and Patriarchs of those times before

Passing them Over from weakness to strength

that Scripture may be professed as Light,

through Word of the Incarnate Truth, 

made Ageless and ever New. 

For Christ is our Prince, 

and everlasting above everlasting,

- the Defender of our Eternal Remembrances - 

mighty and able to save us - through height or depth,

in good times and in evil times, through illness and in health,

from weakness into strength, from grief to joy, despair to hope

across the desolation of the human soul and the troubles of this life,

Jesus is Emmanuel - in life and in death, forever - He is God with us.

And He seeks us - in the Good Will we must profess as a love of the Peace
He has entrusted to all those whose hearts have come to know the Truth, 

that God is, the LORD - one God alone.

- selah -

Yea, in the Spirit of the Father and the Son, we are sent - 

to be seekers of the Peace and witnesses in the Good Will of God thereof.

For as the Father sends the Son to call the Nations to Remembrance

and even as the Son speaks to each and every Nation about the Father 

- calling all human hearts unto an everlasting witness of the Truth -

the Spirit of the Truth rejoices in - the one Truth - that God is, 

and that He is God forever!

Alleluia to God, 

O Children of Mankind, 

alleluia to God, all ye Nations!

For thou wert a people saved - before thou needed saving -

and a Nation - gathered and justified - before God and each other,
long before thou wert ever alone and in need of His constant Peace.

Alleluia to God, 

O Angels of the LORD, 

alleluia to God, all ye Heavens!

For the LORD purposed - through time and all its Ages -
to bring unto all living hearts, a new rebirth of Freedom and Truth -

that the Original Glory of the Heavens and the Earths shine again forever;

in a time made new, of worlds made whole again, lit in golden glory.

Peace is over War.

---<--@

We are by each unique person 
Redeemed by our Holy Redeemer.

But the fullness of our Salvation comes 
through the strength of our common 
human communities.

In Peace we are purposed
and through it, we are obtained.

The LORD God therefore 

banished him from the garden of Eden, 

to till the ground from which he had been taken.

When He expelled the man, 

He settled him east of the garden of Eden; 

and He stationed the cherubim 

and the fiery revolving sword, 

to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 3: 23-24

God Encompassing God

PREAMBLE of the 1987 Constitution -

"We, the sovereign Filipino people,

imploring the aid of Almighty God,

in order to build a just and humane society,

and establish a Government

that shall embody our ideals and aspirations,

promote the common good,

conserve and develop our patrimony,

and secure to ourselves and our posterity,

the blessings of independence and democracy

- under the rule of law -

and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace,

do ordain and promulgate this Constitution."

- selah -

O LORD,

God encompassing God,

God encompassing All in Thyself!

O LORD,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -

Blessed Unity,

Holy Trinity,

Perfect Company!

O LORD,

there is none but Thee,

there is none like Thee!

O LORD,

Thou art from everlasting to everlasting -

in Thee All draw their being,

in Thee All draw their living life,

in Thee there is no shadow of turning,

in Thee there is neither darkness nor Night,

in Thee there is joy, abundance and peace,

in Thee there is only love and the Light!

O LORD,

Thou desire salvation for all beings

to Whom shall all needful souls turn to,

my God, but to Thee?

O LORD,

Thou art the one Sovereign of all nations

unto Whom shall Thy exile peoples return to,

my God, but unto Thee?

Abide in us, O LORD, be with us!

Be the God of our lives, our families,

and our national communities!

O Goal of all my goals,

I love, I trust, and I adore Thee!

---<--@

For God is a God of relationships;

the singular Source of all true belonging -

seen and unseen, all of Sacred Life come together in Him.

He is the LORD, He Who is, and there is none but Him;

the one Sovereign of all the nations of the children of Mankind.

---<--@

ADDED: 20130526Sun

We enter into the mystery of the Divine Unity to be alone with the Alone.
We enter into the mystery of the Holy Trinity to be intimate with the Intimate.

And we who are called to be witnesses of the Redeeming Love of Christ 

are called to be alone with the Alone AND intimate with the Intimate.

Let us reflect on the number 1 as the number for perfection: with the Father, Son, and Spirit as the perfect unity of order, purpose and relation - the God Who is, the LORD Who Loves us all - one God, in Persons three. Happy Holy Trinity Sunday 2013.
---<--@

Peerless

O LORD!

Thou art One -
Peerless and Inaccessible.

Thou art Being -

Infinite in Perfection.

Thou art Beauty -

Unsurpassed in Wisdom.

Thou art Good -

Wondrous in Power and Might.

Thou art Strength -

Ready and Able to Save.

Thou art Will -

The Fullness of Compassion.

Thou art the Truth -

Thou art God,

Thou art God,

Thou art God,

Irresistible is the Sound of Thy Name

who can withstand Thee?
---<--@

"This is my Name forever

the Name you shall call Me

from generation to generation."

O Unspeakable Beauty

O UNSPEAKABLE BEAUTY that surrounds, penetrates and transcends into Eternity, O Beauty that shines forever brightly, ever here and ever there, ever always present in places sacred to Thy holy remembrance, in places found within the soul of every creature in need of Thee.

Arise in me and cure me of my deformity, my perversity, my ugliness, my constant rebellion.

Though I weep with guilt and shame at every thought of Thee, though I should recede back into the darkness where I truly belong, Thou has seen into my soul and my soul has caught a glimpse of Thee!

O what can a mere creature do at the hint of Thee, O unspeakable Beauty?

By Thy own Truth, Thou hast enraptured my heart and now I am madly in love with Thee.

I reject all that is not Thee!

Ever in spite of me, I constantly long for Thee, I thirst and I hunger for Thee.

O Beauty, Thou art Beautiful for Thy being Beautiful, who can resist Thee?

Bless me, convince me, lead me on and fulfill what Thou sees as Thy reflection in me. Become the fullness of Thy own image and likeness that Thou has imparted in me, and lose me forever into the depths of Thy Being.

Make use of me and recreate me into an instrument of Thy holy creation and a servant to all Thy beautiful works of divine artistry.

O wonderful God, O wonderful God! O what majesty! O what glory! O what Beauty! Thou art truly Beautiful for Thy being Beautiful. Arise in the hearts of all Thy servants, arise in our poor world, that we may learn to see what is beautiful for being beheld by Thee.

Abide in us, O dearest LORD and Love of my love, spread upon our souls Thine infinite horizons and become for each one of us as the breaking of the new dawn from on high.

AMEN.

I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine.

20111023 PM

Sunday Evenings

Good evening, the Philippines - mabuhay!

This evening, I just want to share with this with you -

The Stranger at the Tabernacle

On 20110908, the feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I went to pray the rosary in front of the Tabernacle located on the right wing of our parish church to honor Mama Mary on her birthday.

During my prayer, three visitors came to Jesus.

The first one was a young mother and her young daughter; the second was a devout woman; and the third was a strange man, seemingly crude and unrefined, who ignoring all the norms of piety came with his footwear on and dirty clothes, snapping his fingers at the Tabernacle, mumbling strange words to God.

I was becoming concerned at the spirit of the latter for it seemed alien to the quiet of the place and then my Jesus made realize: the first visitor was led to Him by her love for her daughter; the second by her love for God, and the third by the grace of God.

All are children of the Father. But of all of them, I was more like the last one.

When I pray to the Father and feel helplessly inadequate as I oftentimes do, it is the welcome of Christ that constantly reassures me that I belong. It is the Spirit of Christ that prepares me to receive the invite of the Father to attend the wedding feast of His beloved Son, my most loving Jesus.

How can I go wrong by listening to Him Who came to save me? And we listen to Jesus when we pay attention to the Gospel.

- selah -

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 22:34-40 -

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them (a scholar of the law) tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

---<--@

Let us pause and reflect on the timelessness of this Wisdom, alleluia.

For it is this love that binds us together as one nation.

Whatever challenges the new week shall bring, if we face it together, if we persevere in our unity, if we keep in mind all that unites us more than what divides us, not only shall we overcome, my people, but in God we shall prevail.

So may the Holy Spirit of God sustain each of us, especially in our continuing quest for peace and righteousness in our Country, as we enter as one nation together into another working week.

My salutation is peace to you all.

---<--@

The DOST Juan Time Campaign -

Juan time starts tomorrow!

No more advancing the time to make up for Filipino time. Let us all set our watches to Juan time and be on time all the time.

Filipino time is a myth.

The truth is we move to the beat of just Juan time.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Filipino

Who is a Filipino?

But the heart that lives

to love the Filipino

and the one Republic

of the Filipino people.

How is the Filipino?

But through faith that seeks

to find itself alive

in the eternal remembrance

of God and our people.

Where is the Filipino?

But in the will that accepts

the trust that embrace

our lives and our fortunes

together as one nation.

Why is the Filipino?

But with every dream that begins

ever like a single breath

to become our breathing together

of the many into one hope.

When is the Filipino?

But at every present rising

from the deep of Eternity

in the every moment that breaks

upon the awakening reality

of the dawn of a new Philippines.

= ^.^ =

The Truth

A Friend Like You

20110720

If the LORD asks you for a harvest of good works, do you go and blame one another for the lack of fruit in His orchard, O you nations of Mankind?

---<--@

Salutation #41

(Divine Love)

Starshine, be not afraid.

If the Judgment of God did not directly involve our nations,

I would not have been speaking about it to you.

Who shall God save, Beloved?

Despite all these differences in yourselves,

the bottom line is the hope of All is the salvation of all.

Do good, be good, pray hard, work hard,

be a human being to other human beings not unlike thyself

(forgetting not how Our Emmanuel brought you up into new life)

and do this for love of the God in your own heart;

acknowledge only Him, worship only Him, and leave all else to Him,

and never despair of others like yourself

for the LORD thy God is supremely able and mighty to save,

full of compassion for all His creatures,

slow to anger, unsurpassed in generosity,

merciful and just to all living beings.

Starshine,

all you love in your heart is worthy to be saved by Him

so love All in Him and trust in the LORD.

Maintain a state of common good will

with all thy fellow citizens upon the earth,

and say thee thy peace - freely and with joy -

back to all of creation entire, divide it not,

you whose soul is alive to the wonder God has done.

Be reconciled to the salvation God intends

for all those who love and fear Him.

Follow all that He ordains

and seek thee the shelter of all His commands

and you shall remain safe from doubt and needless fear.

Prosper the living life of His glorious creation

and thou shalt return to thy LORD in peace.

Do not make judgments reserved

for the final Justice of God in Eternity

while you are yet caught adrift in this exile darkness.

Love all living beings

- with all your mind and heart -

and love yourself as well.

For you can not love others

- without first coming alive -

to the love you must invest

in your own humanity.

Ask the LORD for wisdom in unceasing prayer.

Learn His ways through discerning acceptance

of the realities that He everyday spins around you

- as a net cast around thy being -

sown from the thread of thy human communities

into the fabric that separates you from the void

not only to keep you and all those you love safe with you

but to instruct you also in the same work of living creation.

If you love the LORD, you shall do this and you will love as God loves.

If you love Jesus Christ, you shall do this above all else - as a sacred duty -

for in Christ the fundamental law of divine love is perfected

and the justice of God is made complete in love which is boundless mercy.

Never desire hellfire on other human beings.

For if you do not yet understand it

you should not play with it.

Do not dwell in dark fire

lest it consume you body and soul.

Rather,

let yourself be consumed in the bright fire of God's love

and you shall live complete

and with your little life fashioned by God

you shall be a great instrument

of the life of God in Him -

the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

If you love the LORD, you shall do this and you will love as God loves.

If you love Jesus Christ, you shall do this above all else - as a sacred duty -

for in Christ the fundamental law of divine love is perfected

and the justice of God is made complete in love which is boundless mercy.

AMEN. Alleluia to God.

Adoration to Jesus Christ the Lord.

Peace to all our nations and goodwill to all men and women of peace.

Alleluia to God. AMEN.

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! Peace. Salaam. Shalom. God bless all His nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

Promise of Old

20110713

Salutation #35

(WYD Madrid - The Peace of Jesus Christ)

We live in a world of contradictions,

a temporal world hidden from the Eternal,

where the One divine reality cause being to exist

and so cause existence to also be meaningful to us

because God is infinitely wise,

incomparably good and full of loving kindness to all His creatures.

We could live in a world of chaos and disorder

where all things and thought in time

float in utter meaninglessness

but the human soul will not do so well

in an environment that is void of spiritual essence.

For like outer space is void of air to breathe,

the soul of a man will suffocate

in a place apart from what God knows is best for us.

So let us praise the LORD and bless His Name!

- selah -

Hear me, Starshine

of the Christian communities from among all our nations!

PEACE, I salute you.

A truly Christian life is a truly human life -

recast in the original purpose of God - in us and for us -

as His image (Love) and likeness (Life) upon the earth,

to be counted among the true living lights of the universe,

the living jewels in the crown of His glory and majesty in all visible creation,

His stewards and co-creators, servants and friends to Him alike;

the preservers of the Sacred Life of all His nations

of the one family of the nations of the children of Mankind.

We are among the many -

as numberless as the stars of our Father Abraham

and allied with the peace of all His nations -

one whole sky.

Rebuild the Church around the Holy Father

and from within thy nations

serve all souls without distinction.

For our Christianity is not a source of division

but of strength for our human communities.

Neither is the Name of Jesus Christ

a source of division, discord, dilution and dissolution

among the nations but of peace.

The beginnings of a better world

begins with Jesus Christ in our heart of hearts.

Therefore,

incline thy hearts to Peace -

forsake War today while it is still today.

As it was before must never be again!

(Refer also to Generation Y)

Viva la Espana!

---<--@

The Separation of Church and State in our Republic

As regards to the PCSO issue, I do not think one can completely blame the CBCP for what happened. Though it is painful and disheartening to witness these kinds of issues, my honorable compatriots, it is better to learn the lessons now than later.

We are not yet as established as other Countries after all. I think what history will remember most about this time is how we managed to pull together to make it better in behalf of those generations to come.

We can not look at another Country (better or worse than ourselves) and with false comparisons fail to grasp the reality that is presently confronting our common will of belonging that we must presently confront as a nation. If we do so, we only allow for evil to flourish again in our times.

Therefore, it is not the weight of these present divisions but our will of unity above all that will matter for us in the long run.

I will refer us to the current topic of our monthly exercise.

And bid each one of us to say a quiet prayer invoking God to preserve us from the evil of these present times.

Let us bear in mind and heart, my brother and sister Filipinos, that the healing of the wounds of this nation of ours depends on the strength of individuals.

No generation is ever remembered for the evils they have failed to overcome. And no evil is ever truly overcome by a nation divided against itself.

My own thoughts on the matter is this -

It is just not right for the Church to accept donations from the State.

There must exist a distinct separation between Church (Religion) and State (but not between God and human reality) in our Republic. Because the Church is not part of the Republic per se (i.e. its three elements).

The Church is for the Nation(s) alone and the Nation(s) for the Church.

All honorable religion, in this Republic undertaking of Country, ennobles our politics not through its direct participation but by its constant illumination in the heart of the Nation.

As the Blessed John Paul II taught -

The way of the Church is Man. The way of Man is Christ.

(Refer also to Human Nation)

---<--@

Our National Golden Rule

The Faux Golden Rule of Old Compliant -

"Whosoever has the gold rules."

This is the rule of Mammon. Its cohorts are War and greed.

The Golden Rule of Old Defiant -

Our rule of gold shall be the will of the God of old for all His human nations -

"You shall love the LORD, O my people, with everything and in everything."

If we remain with this rule, as a particular undertaking of Country upon the earth, not only shall we become rich, O my nation, we shall become rich indeed.

Let this be our National Golden Rule!

---<--@

Christ-centeredness is other-centeredness.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

One Nation

Loving Obedience

20110703

A New Dream

If there is anything I'd like to see, America - it is your own faith restored - the faith you forgot.

A world without you is an unfamiliar world indeed.

There is no perfect undertaking of Country upon the earth - which is why we are all called to be one family of nations.

The last great age of War has exacted from all our nations a great and terrible toll indeed. You have stagnated. And now you are in danger of retrograding in your ages in time.

But sufficient for our day is the evil that we all must face - as nations dreaming together this time - so this is for you a test of your own commitment to God and Country as well, America.

Remember, you are still a young nation but as a Republic - in this present time, upon our needful world, under this season of heaven - you are the eldest of all.

Therefore, you must always take care in your youth that you may advance safely in age and maturity but as a particular undertaking of Country, you must also dare to dream and dream greatest of all.

So let us dream again today, America, a new dream of peace.

Happy Birthday, Old Glory.

---<--@

Salutation #27

(A Prayer for America)

For sundry times -

O LORD GOD and Creator of us all,
look with kindness on the one people
of the United States of America,
and remember that orphaned nation,
O LORD, and Father of the fatherless,
and the one Republic that You raised
to stand forever in her defense.

Favor her, O God,
abide with her,
be both her strength
and her stronghold;
a refuge from the darkness;
a sword against deception;
and a shield against War.

Bless all her servants, civil and religious -
Strengthen them, O LORD,
and share with them Thy special grace,
to enable them to serve - freely and with joy -

Thy noble cause of Country.

Reawaken in her Thy Spirit, O LORD
and the remembrance of Thy peace.

AMEN.
---<--@

During election seasons -

O LORD GOD and Creator of us all,

look with kindness on the one people
of the United States of America,
and remember that orphaned nation,
O LORD, and Father of the fatherless,
and the one Republic that You raised
to stand forever in her defense.

Favor her, O God,
abide with her

and watch over her,
most especially during
these elections.

Be both her strength
and her stronghold;
a refuge from the darkness;
a sword against deception;
and a shield against War.

Bless all her servants, civil and religious -
most especially those candidates You picked out
and have placed in the forum of the people.
Strengthen them, O LORD,
and share with them Thy special grace,
to enable them be humble in victory
and magnanimous in defeat.

Reawaken in her Thy Spirit, O LORD
and the remembrance of Thy peace.

AMEN.

---<--@

Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee. (Psalm 33: 22)

---<--@

If you feel a certain kinship with the generation who won for us the peace we have kept since WWII - that is because that peace is at stake again in our times.

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! God bless you, America, and God bless all His nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

The Eagle in the Night

20110619

PEACE be with you, Starshine -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday.

On Prayer

AS A RULE, my precious Starshine,

prayer is always more

than the sum of all that we can see

with our unseeing eyes.

A soul in prayer is a heart present to its thought;

a walk across the vast, empty deserts within;

a reaching out to places beyond self;

a looking above from within.

It is silence contemplating Silence -

alone with the Alone.

It is a growing, persevering,

often times frustrating work

born of great necessity,

out of thy love of God.

Prayer is an ascent to the timeless,

anchored upon ageless truth,

of all the things we love

and of the Love that all created things hope for,

most especially by the truth of thy heart of love,

and of thy faith yearning to God in prayer.

The way to God is a crooked line,

for we are all but human.

But the way of prayer

makes this way certain.

For the soul that perseveres in prayer

shall indeed profit

from the LORD Who rewards all things,

great and small, known and known to God alone,

when done out of love and fear

of the one common Creator

of all common creation, seen and unseen.

It is not only important that we pray,

and persevere in this way, my precious friend,

in private, above all in community with each other,

it is simply necessary for human happiness

and the well-being of the still small truth that lives,

like a mustard seed,

inside of every self

for all things true and everlasting

depend on a heart of prayer.

Prayer is spiritual.

Therefore,

there are seasons within the soul that range

from sweet to dry or empty

but never must thy heart stay still,

you must gather when it needs gathering

and to know also when to look beyond these seasons;

you must be vigilant,

pressing on till you reach the heart of God

to lay your hopes in the LORD.

So prayer may be long

or it may be short

but it must always be timeless,

its substance is the motion

that lives like a love longing for Itself.

And when the Silence shall to your bowed heart speak,

It shall do so swift as light,

being Spoken without words

and instantly manifest to your soul as winged truth -

then you shall seek to forget all other things

but God and God alone.

And in God you shall range far,

self cognizant of self,

intimate with the Intimate,

to dwell in holy remembrance of all things.

For far may your wandering heart be

but to love and in Love

you shall forever remain

when you shall in prayer persevere.

So do so, dearest Starshine,

and say AMEN:

Know for thy own self

why the heart that believes

believes only because it prays.
---<--@

(produced 20090223)

Salutation #16

(Salutation to all Christian minorities among the nations)

To all our Christian communities, Peace.

Take courage,
my beloved brothers and sisters,

peace be with you!

Let us remember each other

as we heed the call of Christ

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

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

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

God is our surest Refuge!

We include you in our hearts,

my beloved brothers and sisters,

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

for God alone provides

and His grace alone is sufficient.

Though you may feel alone

at times, O Beloved of Christ,

surely, you must know

in your heart of hearts

our baptism is for always.

Ever in God then,

my beloved brothers and sisters,
in time and in eternity

we are but

one Communion of Saints.

Ever to God then,

my beloved brothers and sisters,

toward peace and brotherhood

and the unity of God's Perfection

where your hope becomes our hope

your virtue becomes our virtue

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

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

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

Alleluia, Amen to Christ, Alleluia.

---<--@

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

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

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

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

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

God Encompassing God

O LORD,

God encompassing God,

God encompassing All in Thyself!

O LORD,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -

Blessed Unity,

Holy Trinity,

Perfect Company!

O LORD,

there is none but Thee,

there is none like Thee!

O LORD,

Thou art from everlasting to everlasting -

in Thee All draw their being,

in Thee All draw their living life,

in Thee there is no shadow of turning,

in Thee there is neither darkness nor Night,

in Thee there is joy, abundance and peace,

in Thee there is only love and the Light!

O LORD,

Thou desire salvation for all beings

to Whom shall all needful souls turn to,

my God, but to Thee?

O LORD,

Thou art the one Sovereign of all nations

unto Whom shall Thy exile peoples return to,

my God, but unto Thee?

Abide in us, O LORD, be with us!

Be the God of our lives, our families,

and our national communities!

O Goal of all my goals,

I love, I trust, and I adore Thee!

---<--@

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

20110604

Salutation #11

(On Honorable Religion, Religious Harmony and Pluralism)

Peace, I salute you.

Religious wars are a perplexing feature of the last great age of war

and one that we ought to guard against in this new age of peace.

Alone or with others,

our nations stand to gain much through honorable religion

but only if we succeed in exorcising the past

and healing the present from the contagion of War.

Alone or with others,

the fruit of all honorable religion is peace

not because they are the same but because they are different.

For despite the unrelenting tide of the darkness of exile time

and the half-forgotten specters that haunt our history,

honorable religion is ever the engine that inspire

the ennobling light of human civilization,

advancing the Causes that like sheltering wings defend

from the relentless gravity of War's final defeat

the heart of every nation of our one family of nations

gathering together the generations of the children of Mankind

ever toward greater peace, true belonging

and universal brotherhood.

As a shelter against War, therefore,

the peace of our Republic undertaking must prove proof

against the spirit of division.

As citizens to each other,

we can no longer dare to extend safe harbor,

in our hearts and in our times,

to the debilitating rot

of religious divisions, misconceptions, prejudices,

than accept the eternal loss of our peace.

If we love as we ought, then we will see -

that fear and ignorance breeds intolerance

and intolerance destroys human community.

Thou must ever so beware, O Man,

guard thee never to behold the LORD, thy God,

as an image of thyself - a limited, mutable, ephemeral, unfinished work.

For the LORD, our God, is not the invention of any human religion.

The LORD, our God, dearest Starshine, is an infinite Reality.

Compared to the LORD,

all of time and all of the timeless,

all of creation whether seen or unseen,

everything that was, is, and shall ever be,

are all but a particle - incomprehensibly tiny.

Remember thee always, Starshine,

only through God's wisdom,

only through His benevolence,

and through His generosity,

may thy little soul attain

to the incomprehensible vastness of Eternity.

Notwithstanding religious distinctions -

You will know the LORD, thy God,

only inasmuch as you allow thyself to love Him.

And even then, O Man,

you yourself know in your heart of hearts

that you can never love thy God

in the way that God ought to be loved.

Because you heart may never behold the infinite -

no creature may do so, my beloved, and hope to live.

The Divine Reality

when one may think it is understood

is understood only because the One and infinite God

is pleased to reveal Himself to thy understanding.

All creatures are limited

but the LORD is neither finite

nor lacking in anything.

We know Him only by the tiniest of degrees

and even then, always indirectly.

For no creature

may truly know God, dear Starshine,

and hope to survive.

What thou understand therefore

is never God Himself as Himself

but God as He is pleased

to become so intimately related to thy soul

through the freedom of thy faith.

God pours into thee like a tiny vessel

an essence thou can never hope to contain

without His Face beholding thee always

and so only with love, mercy and compassion,

from the LORD and His instruments -

the Angels and the Prophets,

the Incarnate Word of God - Christ the Lord,

Our Emmanuel through His Sacred Humanity,

may you attain to the object of thy faith -

The God Who is, the LORD.

Be this way unto all beings, therefore,

thou who have attained to God in truth and Spirit -

loving, merciful, and compassionate.

Worship none but the LORD - God and God alone!

Honor and respect all of God's instruments

all the Angels and the Prophets,

the Incarnate Word through His Sacred Humanity

Who is Christ the Lord and Savior of All

without any confusion or division of heart -

let there be no cause in thee for War in the heart

and say thee truthfully thy peace to All of creation.

Be thankful always and be glad, being humble in heart,

tremble and work out thy salvation in virtue and good works

for the Reality of the LORD has become a reality to thee!

So let thy faith bid thee

seek, serve and love God

and in thy heart, be at peace.

Our dearest Starshine,

what all creatures will to safely and meaningfully comprehend

whether great or small, seen or unseen,

from the noblest of Angels to the least responsible of Man,

are our distinctly individual relationships to the One.

The LORD's unchanging will for all of Sacred Life is Our business:

How this will of salvation is revealed to all creation

is the universal labor of all faiths.

Now, a faith that is universal is one that must also become particular.

For no one faith may truly hope to represent the totality of the LORD.

Religion is the structure that makes a particular faith present.

And the fruit of all honorable religion is peace.

- selah -

As a Roman Catholic Christian, most especially,

I do not consider myself at odds with any honorable religion

most especially with Judaism and Islam.

For I must practice my peace to keep it - not to lose it.

For I shall be held to account by my Lord Christ for this grace;

the grace of belonging to God and to my Country

and of prospering in the faith and obedience of my Holy Mother Church

helping to add to the life of my own nation,

and hoping to grow into a peace this world can neither provide

nor truly ever understand without God

and God in Christ Jesus the Lord -

the one Redeemer of All.

---<--@

On Religious Harmony

Religious toleration seems to me, an oxymoron - what is there to tolerate?

It implies a sort of truce. But what if there really was no conflict to begin with...

To build harmony among our religions, there must be interdependence - a common ground.

This common ground is the labor of peace-building - primarily, the work of its inspiration within as well as between our nations.

It is the work of fostering hope in the people and also of realizing these hopes for the benefit of the greater good, competing in good works.

This is religious harmony.

---<--@

Moving Forward...

Congratulations to our President Noy on the success of his recent trips to Brunei and Thailand.

Peace be to Brunei Darussalam and to the Kingdom of Thailand - It is always a very good thing indeed to foster relations with our friends in ASEAN.

What is good for one in ASEAN is good for all in ASEAN.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

God Encompassing God

O LORD,

God encompassing God,

God encompassing All in Thyself!

O LORD,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -

Blessed Unity,

Holy Trinity,

Perfect Company!

O LORD,

there is none but Thee,

there is none like Thee!

O LORD,

Thou art from everlasting to everlasting -

in Thee All draw their being,

in Thee All draw their living life,

in Thee there is no shadow of turning,

in Thee there is neither darkness nor Night,

in Thee there is joy, abundance and peace,

in Thee there is only love and the Light!

O LORD,

Thou desire salvation for all beings

to Whom shall all needful souls turn to,

my God, but to Thee?

O LORD,

Thou art the one Sovereign of all nations

unto Whom shall Thy exile peoples return to,

my God, but unto Thee?

Abide in us, O LORD, be with us!

Be the God of our lives, our families,

and our national communities!

O Goal of all my goals,

I love, I trust, and I adore Thee!

---<--@

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

20110327

Gaps in the Line

There are gaps in the line of my Generation X -
the lonely spaces of missing lives,
the unfulfilled promises of those individuals
taken before their time...
the results of man's evil against man.

In those other generations before my time
these gaps were the unwanted effects of war and crime.
In my Generation X,
though war and crime still takes its toll
most of these gaps in the line
are the result of abortions.

It is no small wonder my Generation X is hurting - a lot.
---<--@

Let us now, for a moment, go back to the debate regarding the RH Bill:

As regards to our nation, there exists only one evil end that I should like to warn you about and this evil end is the abomination of the desolation of war - the one defeat that this nation and all of its present generations should be wary about. Because through many and diverse methods, it shall make a relentless sport of the life of our nation.

Against the will of this evil, we must be just as relentless in our vigilant desire to preserve our peace as a nation (distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind).

Though abortion is not perceived to be the central issue as regards to the RH Bill. I shall not fail to make mention of it here. For the evil of abortion serve the same end as it must be obvious to many of us now.

Those missing gaps I have mentioned above constitute a lack in human promise. We are left all the more weaker in our generations when human promise is left wanting in the nation.

Indeed, our representative congress has a commitment to pass the right laws. What I hope to avoid for our nation is a weakening of its vitality through laws passed that are in reality anti-human and so instead of binding what evil there is bind what good there is.

There are nations in our world today who are suffering because of this lack in vitality so that we are not left wanting in those lessons we can not afford to learn ourselves.

I should like to point out to you, my honorable compatriots, that we are as a nation a pledge of the victory of Sacred Life. We exist to preserve both human dignity and human promise.

In my own view, the essence of the RH Bill is education. It is more than just simple choice. More than that, it is about fostering the right choices in our people.

It is about quality of life issues in this nation - how to improve it?

It is about poverty as a social justice issue in this Republic - how to diminish it?

It is about population demographics - how to utilize it in pursuit of the national good?

It is about traditional Filipino family values - how to preserve it?

It is about the order of our generations - how to obtain its completeness?

To wit, it is all about engendering a new sense of freedom in our people and therefore, the duties that must accompany it. So what are these duties?

The passing of any kind of RH law in this Republic will impact the way in which Filipino society as a national whole will perceive what kind of responsibility we shall as individual citizens attach to these questions, and therefore, how courageously and how consistently we shall apply ourselves to the constant demand for answers in the civic sphere.

All of these have a direct bearing on the national destiny. All of these are shaped by the

laws that must always be guided by a will to preserve this sense of a

responsible freedom in our people.

This debate is contentious. But let it also be guided by civility and a sense of loyalty to the nation. It can not descend into blindness. For if we are not vigilant in our freedom and allow ourselves to become so divided in our hearts about this debate, we shall still come to calamity.

The sheer weight of the division that this issue represents to us must not completely suffocate our burning desire to recognize what we are all trying to promote in common with each other through this debate. If we allow this to happen, it is the least of us Filipinos who shall suffer. It will add to the debt of Justice and multiply burdens.

Lastly, as regards to the evil of abortion, it is not the number of cells in a fetus that define our being human, it is how we treat each other.

Angel of the Nations

I would like us to think about this:

How we treat each other counts for much.

I've often asked in prayer to know the proper name of the Angel of the Philippines. It is never given to me. As much as I would like to tell you what it is, my fellow Filipino compatriots, I do not know. This is so because we are what we do.

The nation is present in ourselves when we do the things that are proper to our nationhood.

This is true

especially when it concerns the unmet needs of the very least of the children of God and Country, the poorest and the most defenseless of our brothers and sisters in the promise.

We are what we do.

---<--@

A Day of Days

To my brother and sister Christians, the world is so full of troubles indeed. If you are confused, do not be afraid. For this world is shrouded in a spiritual darkness. This confusion is a symptom of the times.

Darkness is but darkness that does not lead us to the light. So do not hold on to what must pass away with the ebb and flow tide of exile time. Time is an ascent of the truth and the Truth is not of the darkness. Fear the LORD, He is God!

Sunday is our day of worship and rest.

It is that day of days we are obliged by sacred duty to go to church and, for Catholics like myself, to celebrate Holy Mass. This day was made for you and me, dear Christian soul - for each of us.

This day of days, my fellow Filipino compatriots - those of us who are the sons and daughters of Holy Mother Church and all who invoke the name of Jesus Christ - the nation can wait. For today among all days we shall renew our commitment to peace and common humanity before God.

Today we shall rest our souls and refresh our spirits.

Let us know that we have our other brothers and sisters, honorable Filipino compatriots each and every one of them, especially those of the faith of our Father Abraham, who shall keep the fort for us this day as we must do for them on their days of obligatory worship to the one LORD and Sovereign of all nations.

Let none of us here say peace who live upon our lands without its meaning being first understood in the heart with a conviction of faith.

We shall be vigilant for each other.

The peace of our Philippines must no longer be vexed by the evil of religious wars; a perplexing feature of the last great age of war.

This mindset of division require a form of monolatry - each to his own one god. This is a form of idol worship. The curse of monolatry is a peril we can no longer ignore in this present age.

If it is truly our desire to obtain from heaven the peace that prospers, we must know that God is the God of all - God is and that is all. He is the LORD and there is no other like Him.

So let your mind dwell on God this day making certain that when you shall enter deeper into the inexhaustible mystery of our Christian faith - in personal prayer and above all, in community with other Christians, most especially at Holy Mass, you enter with all your heart and all your soul into the most profound depths of the Trinitarian mystery.

This will strengthen you - each one of us - for the work of peace-building that we are all as a nation (distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind) presently tasked by God to do; that my generation and the generation after mine (X and Y) in particular have been commissioned by our Lord Christ to accomplish (X and Y for Z).

Go open wide the eyes of thy hearts to the Incarnate Word of God, thy True Light and let flee the darkness from within our poor selves. Pray so that the ears of your inward hearing may hear the eternal message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then let us go bathe our broken hearts in its everliving waters.

Let us Catholics receive fervently together the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the altar, and then let us serve. Let us serve with all those who invoke Christ as Savior and Lord, who share with us one common baptism. For serve we must. Let us repent of our past ways.

As the Muslims say, we shall compete in good works, my fellow Filipino compatriots, as citizens to each other - together this time.

This is our burden of expectation:

We shall break completely with the momentum of past two thousand years by breaking the rule of war in each our hearts. A difficult thing indeed, but not by God Who everyday fills for each of us and for each our nations what is impossible for Man to do in and of himself alone.

For the War in heaven is in the heart. We must remain vigilant. We must refuse the spirit of War entry into our world from a heart submitted to the truth, even to the peace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer of all Mankind. To accept this truth is to refuse division a toehold on this nation.

In this world of ours, cast adrift in a void that is hostile upon hostile to all of life both body and soul (most especially to all human life which is hated above all by the evil and all evil things), the only other freedom that reaches out to the freedom of Man reaching out from that loneliness from within our heart is the freedom of God.

Both the void of space and the void of war lay eager to consume the life of both the body and the soul. To the heart of Man, its emptiness is maddening, and its oblivion is certain.

But the LORD, our God, is merciful to all those who love and fear Him. He knows our sufferings intimately. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we know that God is the Fullness of Compassion.

Brothers and sisters, for all the good things our God had worked for us, in our lives and in the life of our nation, the things we truly ought to be most thankful about are those we don't have any knowledge about, for of these things are the greatest of evils made, those evils from which God has chosen to deliver us. Because as Jesus Christ Himself taught, God indeed delivers from evil - each person, each family, each tribe, each nation, even the world entire.

Isn't this the purpose for which our Emmanuel came to our world - to deliver us, all of us?

Our God is indeed a good God, a very good God.

There is no reason God will not relent to deliver us now - in this darkness. If only we hear Him.

So today we shall remember the LORD:

That God is and that is all - That He is God - the LORD, our God, The God Who loves us all - the Father Who sent to us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ Who one with the Holy Spirit lives and reigns with the Father, One God forever.
---<--@

I LOVE YOU, my nation -

I love you, my people:
Our hustle and bustle life,
our noisy, chaotic streets
full of pedestrian colors
and the sweetness of
our nameless, honest labors.

O my Philippines, advance!
Into brighter, better days
where I know
our hearts belong.

O my Filipino compatriots,
companions of national destiny:
We are not a bad people
these are just bad times,
but let us fear not
for I have seen our hearts
and I know we have it in ourselves
to make it all right.

We are a people of the peace,
stalwart defenders of Sacred Life -
and worthy of each others sacred trust.

Let us remain who we are
to become our better selves:
One nation, strong for being faithful
with one, indivisible peace
under the eternal vigilance
of our one Almighty God
and valiant keepers
of each other's
human hope and good will.

These evils times will pass
and all will be well, my nation,
we shall outlast these evil days.

All will be well, peace -
my one people.

I love you,
We love you -
O eternal Philippines -
from always to always.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.