What do you think?

An lovely interpretive painting of peace

What is beautiful about peace... the picture above or the one below?

Iraqi Christian kids displaced and disenfranchised by ISIS receiving the help and attention they need and deserve

Personal Reflection:

Peace is one large vision as in the painting. This is true. In that vision, the beauty of peace appears abstract to the seeking soul. This view of peace is depicted by and in the picture above.

Peace here, in the larger view of our world, is like our Lord Jesus looking over Jerusalem from a distance.

But that vision is made up of many smaller, equally important visions. These smaller visions encapsulate many smaller acts... each act is significant and vital to the synergy of the whole.

Peace here, from the view of the poor of our earth, is in the Gospels seen through the many small acts within our Savior's ministry. The beauty of one such act is depicted by and in the picture below.

Such is peace, I think. 

Overall, it is something that can never be won by sheer force of arms. It must be loved. It must be gained by love. To be loved it must first be understood. To be understood it must first be sought. To be sought it must first be desired. To be desired it must first be missed... do we miss it enough these days?

How long till we realize how ugly and how adulterous war is? 

How long till we love again our true love as nations?
---<--@

Salutation #57

It is human to fight for love. It is not human to fight for hate. For when we fight for love, we defend. When we fight for hate, we only fight.

(What if?)

What if next year,

we draw a line in our hearts

- together this time -

and agree to belong again

as human beings and citizens to each other

under Almighty God

as one nation?

What if next year,

we leave the darkness of the past 2000 years

completely behind us?

What if next year,

we let go of our divisions

and hold on to our belongings

to each other instead?

What if next year - we begin again -

the labor of building upon the strength of our nationhood

and work to unify our one Republic peace?

What if next year,

we learn to reach out to each other

- more and more - as Filipinos than as anything else?

What if next year,

we make an effort to understand the plight of our minorities?

What if next year,

we stop making fun of the least of our brother and sister Filipinos

and try to share with them the meekness of our spirit?

What if next year,

we capitalize on the freedom of our gifts

and work together to build a better Philippines?

(On an election year: What if next year,

we work together to ensure a free and fair election?)

What if next year,

we mark the beginning of our labor of hope

and the end of our labor of tears?

- selah -

It will not be easy.

The taming of the unknown earth

- was meant to be difficult -

and the building of the inhabited earth

- shining with a myriad living lights -

near impossible.

The peace that we are tasked to observe

- one with the other - is not a perfect peace.

There will be adversity

and there might also be conflict...

But deep may this long night be,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

its darkness shall yield to our unity

for the darkness is but the darkness

if it does not lead to the truth.

Let us always remember,

we are a forward thinking nation!

And a forward thinking nation

is a nation guided by the light of its own truth.

---<--@

May Peace be in Egypt -

"A warlike Republic may seem unified but where the foundations by which the State unifies it's elements are not only unjust but also untrue, it shall never advance to fruition."

My beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise -

Let us pray for the unity of Egypt and for the Christian minority in that land...

Truly, the evolution of the Egyptian Republic shall not be easy. For all undertakings of Country is a labor vehemently opposed by the spirit of division.

But if they must succeed, they must do so by securing the 4th Cause and closing the gate of their Country against the spirit of oppression that wages a constant war against the weakest and most vulnerable portions of their common citizenry.

For if their Republic allows this horseman a free hand upon their land, it shall work its way from the weak to the strong and shall mean to one day overthrow even the noblest of their folk until - by and by - there shall be no one left to defend the liberty of that Republic.

So let the peace of Egypt be in our prayers - for all Egyptians.

And I especially ask my own Roman Catholic brethren and sisters to take this prayer to Holy Mass this Sunday - may Peace prevail in Egypt and in the Middle East!

---<--@

No State exists to fail but all States that fail exist only for itself.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Republika ng Ehipto! God bless us all.

Exceeding the Defense

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!

20110519

The End of the World?

Peace, I salute you.

In the lead up to the time of 2012, my honorable compatriots, when all the choices we must each make today (at a time, times, and half-a-time) shall serve to bear up our hopes as a nation, there shall be many feelers and sayers of impending doom along the way.

You will first of all, respect them.

If it helps you to be more devout, if it helps you to be good, if it helps you to free yourselves, may God do so, from the grip of things we could really do without, then are these not those things we must willingly accept and ought to be thankful about?

There is a prediction in two days time about the end of the world - at sunset on May 21 (at what time zone, I am uncertain). Not with a feeling of despair, ignorance or ill-will shall we meet it.

For Providence is a great teacher of life.

But if we can not accept reality as it unfolds, if we can not accept the present as it is, we will miss most of its value in our lives - and consequently in the life of our nation.

Truly, my fellow Filipino compatriots, God's will shall be fulfilled in all things, whether we know it or not, whether we approve or disapprove of it.

What is ours to do is to be ready here today. Or at least try to learn today how to be ready for that day - together.

The end of the world is actually the beginning of it. Everything in every moment is in a state of constant renewal, arising from the spirit and returning to it once more.

If God wanted to completely restore all things in Himself today, it will happen.

But for as long as the hour of the fulfillment remains God's to decide upon (and it is) and to fulfill (and it is), we must remain with our hand on the plow, busy with our labors here in this world both as individual human beings and as individual human nations - together this time.

If it takes a moment, a year, a hundred years, if it takes forever, my friends, let us still say peace and amen to God, it shall be done!

Now, if there is any fear for the future, then let this be reason for the exercise of faith enough for today.

---<--@

The 4th Cause: The Cause of Benignity - Minorities

The Lord Christ said, "The poor you will always have with you..." (Matthew 26: 11)

"There will always be a minority."

BENIGNITY is the practice of goodness.

Therefore, this Cause must concern itself with the preferential treatment and care of minorities and the just distribution of the material goods of this world.

In the person of the stranger, the orphan, the widow, the unborn, the disabled, the elderly, and the poor whether transient, semi-permanent, or permanent, there shall always exist within our midst, a minority.

At one time or another in the lifespan of individual human beings as well as in the lifespan of individual human nations, we all become part of the minority.

Let us always bear this in mind and heart...(selah - listen, think)

Have we forgotten our own roots, O ye children of the Peace, promised by God of old to bless the national communities of Mankind?

Were we not all drawn up by the LORD from the poverty of the minority?

Let us always bear this in mind and heart especially all ye numberless stars of Father Abraham.

This is how we shall fill the earth with living lights.

We are by our poverty indistinguishable. How we shall each distinguish ourselves in this midst is through virtue and the refinement of our inherent human nobility.

This is important to remember, my friends, because the victimization (by the strong) of the marginalized (the weak) will ultimately result in the implosion of our national communities and in the Last Day, it shall also bring about its final and irreversible destruction.

The marginalization in any society of any of one of its parts is always the effect of divisions (overt as well as covert) in the one heart of the people.

A social order built on disagreements (abiding in prejudices, misconceptions, fear and ignorance) is like a tyranny without a tyrant.

In this hostile atmosphere, the spirit of the nation feels itself trodden underfoot until the burden of Justice becomes unbearable.

The will or the spirit of War always takes the easiest entrance into the midst of the people. And this it always does by subverting the 4th Cause.

The one sin a nation can not abide by is the presence of War in the heart.

Because Peace is our only path - it is the only choice we can really make.

The 4th Cause explicitly espouses the first principle that the strong exists in defense of the weak.

The entire hierarchy of the angelic realms is ordered around this first principle.

Since our nations (as they are) are a natural extension of the unseen realms, we are expected by the Providence of God to faithfully imitate the heavenly order by formally uniting ourselves as a people to the will and the governance of the LORD, our God - the one Sovereign of all nations.

What the majority does in behalf of the minority dictates a nation's fidelity to the 4th Cause.

Wealth generation and long-term national prosperity is entirely dependent on the 4th Cause.

A word on the value of Human Promise -

"One life lost to War is always one life too many."

Human lives once willfully cut short and stolen in the midst of our communities do not just end, they linger because by each life lost to War, we are truly diminished.

One can not expect to eat the fruits of a forest, benefit from the shade of its wood as well as rest within the protection of its multitude if there are no trees left.

If the nations are hungry, if we are vulnerable, if we are weak, it is because of War in the heart.

When we forget to remember the unsung promises of those who are now lost to us through war and reckless, wasteful violence, when we forget the hopes they have left to our present care, we stand to learn nothing of their pain and loss and are therefore doomed to relive it.

Because it is not the sins of the past that curse, it is the inability of every present generation to overcome its evils that prevent our Day from flourishing.

Human promise once forcefully taken by the hand of Man becomes an inescapable part of his unbearable burden - to be borne by all of his generations spread across all our nations.

Without Justice, it hinders his destiny. Without the mercy of God, it prevents it.

Without the peace of the nations of Mankind, by this burden, Man is sunk in despair.

Without the love of a mighty Redeemer, by this burden too, Man is to be lost to us forever.

Now let us think -

If we were able to be blessed by even some of the lives that our nations have collectively lost to War in the last age, we would have not have plunged this far down in our troubles today.

We would have been far more advanced in the fields of medicine, health science, conservation, and energy than we are at present.

We would have already solved many of the problems that confound us today.

We could have been back and forth to the stars already.

We should never be that reckless again.

The 4th Cause intrinsically recognizes the timeless value of human promise and acts accordingly.

It naturally leads to the 3rd and the 2nd Causes that seek to ensure that the prevailing peace of the prevailing social order remains constantly compatible with Man's God-given and therefore, inviolable human dignity.

Without the 4th Cause, the 3rd and the 2nd Causes will never ascend to the 1st Cause.

And without the 1st Cause, all the other Causes lose cohesion, value and potency.

But Man has the help of both heaven and earth, and the favor of God.

Shahbaz Bhatti (19680909-20110301 of valor and love of Country) - though I did not know you in life, I now know you are a friend to me - so peace, my friend - via con Dios!

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

- John 15: 13

---<--@

The Final 6

About two months ago, I was asked by someone close to my heart to work out an interpretation of the Book of Revelations. For the most part, I remained silent about this request. I am not sure I can.

There are some things I am sure about, and there are some things I am not sure about. For as regards to these things, I have very clearly defined limits.

While I do have some things that are open to me, there are some things that remain closed to me.

First of all, I am not a Biblical scholar.

But I have been made aware in my heart over the years what presumption is; a sin against the Holy Spirit. This along with obstinacy to the truth, final impenitence and despair (of self and of others) constitute the four unforgivable sins that I am wont to avoid for fear of losing my own soul.

They are unforgivable not because our God is less merciful, for the LORD Himself is the Fullness of Compassion, but because they cause the heart of Man to harden completely into hell.

I am a citizen of my Country, a Roman Catholic Christian trying to be a decent human being for Christ and for fellow men. That's about all that I am - a common everyday person - and that's about all I want to be. (What I really want, this world can never give me.)

However, I can say this much - as regards to the number 666, this number is the number for the first thousand years of War (time), the second thousand years of War (times) and those who are so inclined to choose War in the heart once again this third Christian millennium (half-a-time) in the context of the manifest climate of the new age which is Peace (of whose number is 3).

To choose to ignore the will of Divine Providence which God have made so obvious to the nations of Mankind by the naked requirements of the present time, this is the final 6, which is the choice to remain permanently divided in the heart against one's own humanity before God.

It is

a choice that is made just as absolutely and irrevocably as those whose hearts have been inclined by the LORD towards the Peace of the times.

For 6 is the number for opposition/division. And as its master is the fallen cherub, Lucifer, now Satan and the Adversary of All; a murderer, thief and father of all lies.

It will certainly come (incarnate as itself) in the guise of peace - a perfect peace.

It shall be as a lie conceived against (1) the covenant of the nations, against (2) the wisdom of all honorable human religious traditions, and (3) in the face of the everlasting covenant laid down by the Blood of Christ the Lord.

It shall work out a desolation and it shall call this desolation, peace.

Against it, we will continue to work in our nations to obtain from God the peace that prospers the sheltering wings of each our undertaking of Country - for all our generations - together this time.

Now, i

f you understand this number, you will no longer fear it. Nor will you allow yourself to be held in a dreadful thrall of its mystery.

For t

hough we do not know the time, we do know that the time is near, so we must press on and make provision for the generations that are yet to come.

Pray.

Look for evidence.

See for yourself the climate of the times. Go d

iscern for yourselves the reasons behind the choice you must make. Seek the LORD, ask for wisdom.

But choose.

Else you shall default yourselves and fall headlong into the gravity of the last great age of war.

A nation is where it labors in time. It is in eternity always where it is - giving constant worship to the one Sovereign of all nations: He is the LORD, our God.

And as God has remembered us, t

h

is is our work - this is our time.

All we need to be is ourselves as ourselves - together this time.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Human Nation

20100912

Eid'l Fitr

Belated Eid greetings to all our Muslim compatriots - mabuhay po kayong lahat! Peace be upon all Muslims at the end of this season of Ramadan: May God bless and prosper us all!

Eid'l Fitr fell on September 10 of this year and was declared a public holiday by PNoy.

We should seriously consider what the President said about raising our national awareness about this holiday, my fellow Filipino compatriots. Everything that brings us together as one nation has a special import in these times.

Because unity is an aspect of the liberty of nations: A Filipino is a Filipino is a Filipino.

September 11

September 11 was yesterday. I've never forgotten: It's not a time for hatred.

Lest we lose sight of the significance of it all. We are one family of nations after all - what affects one will affect all. Such is the climate of the times.

The world was changed 9 years ago yesterday - but toward what end?

Shall the ignorance, prejudices and hatred that have ruled and divided the nations of Mankind for so long be allowed to linger still?

Shall the war that was so emphatically excluded in heaven still find a place on this earth?

No, not in my heart of hearts. I have worked hard to clear myself of all of this as much as I could by the grace of Almighty God and so must you, O my nation!

For we can not have any claim to the prospering peace of these times ruled by the same spirit of war.

Therefore, from whom and from what must we guard against on this day of days by our timeless remembrance?

From war and from hate.

So be it! Let us then remember September 11 as one in this way with America and with all our other kindred nations. Let us thus be motivated by good things together.

There will always be battles, this is true. But time has come under heaven for us to fight these battles together this time. Such is the climate of the times.

Lest we forget, lest we forget.

Anthony Nicholas

Of the four faithful causes, O my nation, the fourth cause is the cause of benignity - this is the cause of minorities.

A few days ago, the local papers reported that a Briton, a long time resident of our Country, was murdered in Sipalay in Negros Occidental in what was reported to be an isolated incident.

As with the victims of the Quirino Grandstand Hostage Crisis last August 23, our sense of justice must ever be cognizant to the fact that Mr. Nicholas (and others like him) is a stranger (in the Biblical sense) and a minority living in our nation and therefore, deserving of the special care and protection of our laws and customs.

The apprehension of those responsible for this crime must be further inspired by the above fact.

My personal condolences go out to all his loved ones.

May justice for him be swift and true.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Xenophobia has never been part of our culture as Dr. Rizal himself and many of those of his great generation is able to attest.