A Word on our Barangays

O faithful Republic of my people -

Some are all about height and distance,
but thou - let thou be all about width and nearness.

Nearness to the people is what governs;
thy popular mandate to reign is derived from it.

Width is all about completeness;
it is the fullness of thy will to embrace the Nation
in faithful service of thy most sacred trust.

From nearness to the people is derived
the authority to govern thy peers
and from completeness of will,
the ensuing exercise of Power
is consequently recognized
as legitimate.

Our Barangays
are the living sails of our Cities.

If the life of our Cities
are the wellspring of our Sovereignty;
the vitality of this life is singularly an attribute
of the general state of health of each our Barangays.

Our leadership in the Barangay are essential to the Nation
and so we must be free to seek them and they, to seek us -
through the electoral processes that is appointed for this task.

Indeed,
the toughest battles, invisible to the rest of the Nation,
to build up from the Unknown Earth, our Republic Vision -
are fought and won upon the ground of our Barangays.

It is here within our Barangays where - at every age -
the Divine Commandment to prosper and to make good
the sacred trust of our Nation - across our generations -
is everyday from the Providence of the LORD received -
and the labor of the Republic with each morning begun.

It is here where each our citizenship is everywhere exercised
and the blessings of our togetherness with each night kept -
the greater will of our Peace, each and every day won.

They are the oldest
and most venerable part of our Republic.
---<--@


The Diwata ng Lahi, a replica of the ancient Balangay boat, went out for a test sail in Manila Bay on July 11 2009. The word "barangay" is derived from an ancient Malayo-Polynesian boat called a balangay. It is commonly believed that in pre-colonial Philippines, each original coastal “barangay” formed as a result of settlers arriving by boat from other places in Southeast Asia.

Vessel of the Generations

A NATION 
who lays asleep in the darkness,
fearing nothing - and - knowing nothing
is like a ship that knows only the safely of a harbor,
a vessel unaccustomed to voyage.



But that's not what nations are for,
dearest starshine.

:::Think and Unlock:::

Salutation #173

Wings that work
are wings that lift - aloft -
they fly not merely
because they can, or they must;
they fly because
they carry something that belong
to the skies!



(Burden of Justice)

A nation's burden of justice - is -
all its unaccounted for losses
   (these losses being all that was given us
   that was taken by force from among our midst)
measured in terms of individual human life
each in their own distinct and unrepeatable persons,
each with their own particular names known to the LORD,
the God Who commanded all nations to keep them all,
ever in their entirety, each in spirit preserved
in the sacred remembrance of every nation of the children of Mankind
as a debt of remembrance owed to the God of all life - and -
as a work of peace to be kept - in common trust -
on behalf of all the life of living creation itself.

To each nation God has provided a right of ascent,
a way through which a nation may attain to a knowledge of itself
   (being a way of our returning from the exile darkness -
   in spirit - through - the easternmost gate of faded Eden)
and to every nation there is only one right of ascent.

It is therefore crucial
especially in these present times
that every nation know - as well as -
understand the (1) truth that abides within itself;
   (in general, that every nation is distinct yet the same;
   that every nation though it may long for many things long for only one thing;
   that though the spirit of war marches to threaten,
      in every time, place, and in every age, the peace of all nations,
      that every nation exists for the good and only for the good;
   that every nation exists for the other and that, in the economy of grace,
      there is no other but the self alone;)
and (2) that the power of this ascent is directly affected
in proportion to every nation's burden of justice
and that the weight of this necessary burden
is carried by all of our citizens,
   (each of us according to the measure
   by which we receive them from the Providence of God)
to be shared - as a common labor of peace - across all our generations,
according to our national debt of remembrance -
   (so that it may be heavy - the people choose to forget their hope -
   or it may be light - the people choose to take responsibility for their hope.)

Failure to responsibly carry
this burden of justice - in a nation -
is failure itself.

For a nation overtook by the darkness
is no longer itself.

And every spirit of Country
that has become utterly corrupted
by the adversarial nature
of the enemy of all nations
shall perish forever
from the earth!
---<--@

No Peace without Adversity

Peace does not mean we shall not be challenged.

It means we have resolved to overcome them all - today.

Remember, 

no peace without adversity -

the peace of our nations is an imperfect peace!

For it is this remembrance 

that allows us to walk in humility before the LORD

that we may by His redeeming Light 

know our way ahead.

It is this remembrance 

that makes us strong in our unity.

It is this remembrance 

that makes us brave in the defense.

---<--@

Refer also to Salutation #138 - No Peace without Adversity

Win or Lose

Don't worry, Manny...

When God knocks you down,
He intends to raise you up.

When God wounds your pride,
He intends to heal your spirit.

When God hands you a defeat,
He intends to teach you...
a new kind of victory.

- selah -

Do not forget, my brother Filipino,
that you will always find in your own nation
an even greater, nobler and more lasting arena
wherein which you may freely devote
your spirit and energy.

We will always be here for you.

For it is not for your fame,
your fortune or your many victories
that you are loved by those who love you:
It is for your kindness, your goodness,
your noble strength of heart, your fierce spirit,
your trust in the glory of the God of greater things,
and your manifest love of the common people.

We love you for your poverty,
your sense of sharing:
your citizenship.

No ring, no limit, no opponent, no arbiter
can take you away from the you being - just you -
so must you endeavor to never forget, brother,
especially now that you were brought low,
what is lasting and what is not. 

For it is here
- at the lowest points in life -
where you can best observe the highest
the sweetest, and the most wondrous places
thy faith in the good God can take you in your life;
it is here where you can best discover
the heights of what is
and what is not.

We love you, Manny:

Win or Lose.
---<--@

Salutation #4

Of the common human needs that make us responsible to each other as citizens, one to another, there are nine: Hunger, Thirst, Clothing, Shelter, Personal Security (i.e. Security of Person and Property), Basic (or Functional) Literacy, Just Society, Authentic Human Freedom, and Meaningful Existence.

(Light)

PEACE, I salute you.

Evil which is poison, when once by mischief,

allowed entrance into that Kingdom within

becomes the malice that corrupt the purity

of the human will's intention for good -

dividing the one House of that Man within

against the Sanctuary of the LORD in the heart

making the soul vulnerable against itself

inclining fallen Man to sinful things.

For malice is the corruption that is sown

upon the ground of the human heart

to become those manifold and diverse tares

which are the vicious habits of sin

that overgrow with choking weeds

that evergreen garden of the human soul

where we take our walks with our God

in the stillness of our wakeful prayers;

that same timeless garden

that one must through God's good graces

cultivate with much virtue and light.

And sin is a lie that creeps

upon the threshold of the heart

seeking to assault and overthrow

the reign of our sovereign LORD within

that it may slowly overcome with its darkness

the golden blue of our native skies.

Now, our LORD being the one God Who is

revealed unto all of our shared humanity

in complete and utter finality

through the Sacred Humanity

of the Incarnate Word,

Who is the Second Person

of the one triune Perfection -

our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

our one Truelight, our highest Exemplar,

and First of our First Magnitudes,

is the self-same God Whose Presence is

for all creatures, seen and unseen,

that one, holy and sustaining Light,

when once in exile time completely denied

by the arrival in the soul of Man

of an absolute and irrevocable choice

to embrace and to obey the will of evil,

which is the will of sin and the ambition of war,

become in absolute reality manifest

as a smoldering and inescapable wrath

for when the Daystar Sun is completely eclipsed

by rise of Wormwood, that false star of Satan,

this darkness shall by its terrible descent,

completely consume into dust and ashes

all that remains in that Man,

both body and soul,

suffering the first death

which is permanent

as well as the second death

which is everlasting.

What motivates Man in the heart

is either one - good or evil -

and so therefore, that tree of exile

that from our faded Eden cast

the singular lineage of Man

is that self-same malice that

in the garden of our hearts with God

must first be uprooted

and its poisonous darkness

overthrown from within our souls

that evil and its corrupting lie

may from our eternal good be cut off.

This is how we shall acquire

one standard of Liberty for all.

Therefore, let us be good,

beloved friends and constant companions,

let good things motivate us,

let us be a people of the good,

let us seek to dwell on true things,

knowing by heart unto where

and from Whom all good things come,

persevering always in prayer,

both in private but above all together,

with the seen as well as the unseen,

thus, becoming intimate with the Intimate,

and seek no more to profit from evil things

nor make provision in time for evil things

in the timeless abode of our hearts

dwelling with God, alone with the Alone.

For it is human weakness that is forgivable

but malice once by the Spirit of God challenged

when yet willfully and unrelentingly embraced

become that final, festering, poisonous rot

that shall turn into ashes

the timeless life of the spirit from within

that it may forever join Satan

and all that condemn itself to the hell

that shall soon claim all evil things.

Sin that is embraced with such utter finality

is indeed, truly unforgivable

not that our LORD is not merciful,

for our God is a merciful LORD

and kind to all creatures,

large and small, seen and unseen.

It is evil that is without virtue

and once made into a god

in place of our most beneficent LORD,

shall then execute its lethal reign

upon that unhappy soul.

Verily, none of us

should like to question motives

yet when motives are questionable,

indeed, one can not help but question them.

This is a root cause of division.

And so let us ever be mindful

of that constant counsel

that any division within our one peace

is the beginning of all evil.

What we should always question,

my beloved friends and constant companions,

are our methods together,

that we may never cease from seeking

to refine the many ways in which

the abundant grace of our God

that we though unworthy of such a good

have so abundantly merited through our Lord,

Jesus Christ, the one Redeemer of Mankind,

that we by our willing hands and loving hearts,

may become increasingly useful instruments

that diffuse as light into the darkness

this unmerited grace of God

shining for all souls without distinction

that God's loving Presence in time

may be a paternal comfort and a constant help

to our suffering humanity here in our poor world

so needful of heaven's timeless embrace

that hearts may be one in God,

and peace may be all in All.

We are human beings

and therefore,

we are a becoming in time.

We share in our humanity,

a lack that can only be filled by the timeless.

A lack that is felt in our souls

as a reaching out to God

and manifest in our bodies

as common human needs.

And so, lacking, needful, bereft,

we are come to a knowledge of God

and of each other in God.

Verily, as our faith sets us apart,

our hopes join us together,

indeed, this is what makes us truly human -

our need for God and for each other -

and so in our belonging together in God

we must come together to build

through these, the generations of life,

those truly human communities

where all roads constantly lead to the dawn

towards the morning that return Mankind

to the one Love that has forever kept

all of our nations close to Its own bosom.

A society of need is a human society.

It is a society that goes hand in hand

with a government of gratitude.

Therefore, we must profess

a politics of thankfulness,

being a people of hope,

and work to enable a culture of peace

of which truth must be begun

in the darkness of exile time

by the first of the generations of life,

which is this, our generation

as well as those members of the elder generations

who are similarly called by our one LORD

and whose wise and steadfast companionship

our good God has so generously blessed us with,

ennobling us by the substance of their experiences

and the strength of their years.

War is a tension that is insufferable in this new age.

But hope is also a tension,

my beloved friends and constant companions,

and one that is more apt to liberate our nations

from the mire of poverty and despair.

It is an expression of God's own peace

which is the Peace of Jesus Christ

and an extension of the one paradigm of the peace

which contain in the one whole truth of itself

the reality of a promise of old to all our nations

made by the one God of our Father Abraham

that the numberless stars that we are each called to be,

shall bless the communities of Mankind -

when we shall in the darkness of exile time

by each of our own life's width and breadth

through our LORD's unfaltering Light be made to shine

for each other in, with, through and for God and Country -

here upon this, our poor world,

upon this inhabited earth in the grip of the midnight of war,

as a labor of hope upon this last wintering,

upon a time of falling tears.

Finally, as regards to our one peace,

we can not, as a whole, abide by lukewarm halves -

we must each enable each other through God's grace

to profess this as a one whole paradigm,

one whole truth in the universes within our souls,

one whole truth in our families,

one whole truth in our local communities,

one whole truth in our national communities,

one whole truth in our regions,

one whole truth in our continents,

and one whole truth in our one planetary whole -

in reality, wholes upon wholes aligned towards life,

built on winged truth, an ascendant motion in time,

advancing the cause of life which is lasting happiness

through civilizations that with our nameless and honest labors

rise like incense to give glory to the God of all life

as the one family of the nations of (the children of) Mankind.

If we shall give war an inch,

my beloved friends and constant companions,

if we shall willingly allow

a segment of our shared humanity

to become vulnerable to evil things,

if we freely and recklessly abandon

our Lord's poor,

in the weak, the defenseless,

the displaced, the dispossessed,

the widow, the stranger, the orphan,

we shall indeed soon find

that war and the ambition of war

has again overtaken us all

with the final defeat which is its curse.

For what war does to one, war does to all.

So let our one peace forever remain, one whole one.

---<--@

(produced 20090128)

Salutation #155

(Master of the Harvest)

God
asks us
for a harvest of virtue

Then
we blame each other

Then
we ask God why 
our world is so troublesome...

When
God asks
- our nations -
for a harvest of virtue,
we should work together
to produce the appropriate yield...

Only then
shall our troubles wane.
---<--@

Salutation #147

Because time is a flow
and once it has gone out of the timeless

within our hearts, 

once time has flowed out of the Sanctuary of the LORD 

in our every hearts, 

it is no longer time but consequence 

and is near impossible to change. 

(You may refer to the River in Ezekiel 47: 1-12.)

(Nation, Mission, Commission)

My people,
our spirit is strong and virile -
at par with each our kindred nations!

Believe this today with me
and we will build everything else
around this belief -

In you and in me,
there dwells our Country;
'tis a will of peace and of good will
as well as the unity to build up together
from star to star, our one whole sky.

It is the love
that binds us together
in the freedom of human citizenship
and the belonging that holds us together true
in the completeness of our Republic one.

It is that intimated promise
we must hold in our heart of hearts;
the unspoken truth upon which is established
the lineages that leads us back from exile
unto our own Eden rebuilt!

Believe this today with me
and we will build everything else
around this belief -

For in this spirit is realized
the sheltering wings of our nationhood;

the strength to shall carry our generations forth
and the safety to see our vision through to the LORD
across the desolation of war and the darkness of exile time.

Believe this today with me
and we will build everything else
around this belief -

THAT
we are a nation,
one and distinct -

a nation
ordered and purposed
to shelter our common humanity
and to build up the inhabited earth -

a nation
commissioned by the LORD, 
to preserve the dignity and the promise

of all our generations in every generation -

a nation
faithful to our own remembrance
being endowed with justice and freedom
sufficient for the good of every present generation -

a nation
true to our own vision and lineage
and allied to the peace of all the nations
of the earth under heaven -

a nation
united and able through our unity
to overcome the evil of every present time -

THIS 
is in each our spirit first
before anything else
or not at all.
---<--@

spirit is energy

Salutation #144

(Nation vs Corruption)

Corruption 
must be uprooted
from the roots!

It must be
the conscious fight of every individual
who desire to prosper together as citizens
in a living community that is aware of itself,
at peace with its own true purpose for being,
striving under Almighty God
to build up the better causes
that make it human and free!

It must be fought
hand-in-hand with a loyal leadership,
comprised of Offices greater than the persons
who serve through each their institutions,
within a responsible government
at-one with its vision and lineage.

Unto to the very spirit 
of a people!
---<--@



Many things corruption can be,

my beloved people, for many are its names -
only one thing it is not - faithful.

Salutation #141

There were two worlds

presented to me in a vision -

One was ordered, blessed, and free
- shining with a myriad living lights -
and the other was dark, empty, and forgotten;
indistinct from the void of all things that never were.

These worlds are not ruled by two gods
but presented to us by one God alone
as a choice to the human heart
and a path for our nations.

refer to Crystal Blue Sphere 
---<--@


(The Two Clocks)

The will of War
and the will of Peace
can be likened to two clocks.

Either one - and only one -
of these two clocks may exist
at the heart of a nation at any given time -
right at the very head waters.

Each clock dictates
the general inclination of the people
and works to synchronize the vital movements
of each our will of Country.

One clock inescapably leads
to a time of death and desolation
and the other to a time of life and abundance.

We move forward
only by the weight of the burdens
we must bear with each other as a nation
and this burden is the burden of Justice.

It is a burden that grows
- ever the heavier -
under the suffocating crush of War
and ever the lighter under
the sheltering wings of Peace.

When we follow
or are led to follow
the clock of War,
the clock of War moves forward
as the clock of Peace is stopped.

When we follow
or are led to follow
the clock of Peace,
the clock of Peace moves forward
as the clock of War is stopped.

When we allow
the will of War to steal away
the lives and the promise
of each our fellow Filipino compatriots,
the clock of War is hastened.

When we allow
the will of Peace to work to fulfill
the lives and the promise
of each our fellow Filipino compatriots,
the clock of Peace is hastened.

Either clock leads - all the way -
to the higher purposes of God for all creation
unto the LORD's ultimate will of completion
for all things, seen and unseen.

But the choice is always ours
which one to follow.

For we can only follow one.

- selah -

One may only imagine what clock
our world has been taking its time* from
by the name we have learned to call it by -

"The Doomsday Clock"

(*time here determines direction in the national will -

in essence it is what rules over the heart of the people
being either an inclination or disinclination to the truth

and determines the disposition of the spirit of any nation)

---<--@

(original produced 20110517)

Salutation #139

(Helping Hands)

My brother and sister Filipinos -

A nation who
has no remembrance of its own past
is like a man who
have lost the use of his legs.

A nation who
has no love of its own present
is like a man who
have lost the use of his heart.

A nation who
has no vision of its own future
is like a man who
have lost the use of his mind.

If we are this nation, 
what for are our hands?

What for are our hands, my people?

- selah -

What for the memory but the light?
What for the light but the life?
What for the life but the hope?
What for the hope but the love?
What for the love but the labor?
What for the labor but the peace?
What for the peace but the LORD?

And what for the LORD, our King,
but the victory of all these good things,
alleluia to God on high, my people! 

What for our independence if not our freedom?
What for our freedom if not our peace?
What for our peace if not each other?

What for are our hands, my people?

- selah -

Who has given us our nationhood but God?

Alleluia to God on high, my people!

Did any of us choose to be born with such a soul?

Who can take this spirit in our hearts away?

Alas! Only we, my people, you or I -
by our unremembrance, by our impenitence,
by our unpeaceful, and false ways.

So let us, as the stars,
in this time before the dawn,
awaken Now.
---<--@

Salutation #138

No peace without adversity!
No peace is obtained through weakness.
Durable peace only comes through strength.



For as gold is purified in the fire of the Refiner,
a peace that is precious is a peace that is tried;
a peace tempered by its own will of truth,
a peace that is meaningful to all -
this is a durable peace.

It is always a gift -
a thing we must receive.
---<--@



(No Peace without Adversity)

No peace without adversity -
in human terms, no virtue without vice -
in spiritual terms, no repentance without sin -
no contrasting light without the darkness;
no serenity without suffering.

No peace without adversity,
in terms of the nations (of the children) of Mankind -

A peace established from within
where cooperation and consensus take root
upon the very soul of every Country
drawing its power from the essential spirit of the nation,
expansive in its liberty, exhaustive in its understanding of all things,
evolving into works that eliminate undue fear, inordinate want,
and the slavery of all these diverse forms of oppression
growing stronger in good will and human community
one with the other, as trees in the orchard of the LORD,
as stars ordered according to each their times,
arrayed according to their constellations,
rising in their great galactic gatherings,
bursting forth against War, darkness and division
bearing edible, sweet, timeless fruit
shedding their everlasting light -
for the glory of the God
of all Mankind.

It is not the peace built from fear and force
which is that "peace" established from without
'tis like a prison - deceptive and constricting -
enslaving the spirits of nations entire
and corrupting each their own soul of Country -
adulterous, inhuman, and distrustful -
a peace built from sheer limits;
one which can never last.

   One may only imagine
   from a perspective of two thousand years
   where a false peace may lead us.

Therefore,
no peace without adversity!

- selah -



My brothers and sisters of the Promise,

great may these present divisions be
but greater still is our desire and our recourse
to an understanding of God and ourselves,

we must continue on our course -

unto the stars, unto destiny.
---<--@

Of Virtue and Vice

Salutation #136

(Change to Master Change)

Things in our world are speeding up again...
If ever you feel confused about the goings on in our world...

You must remember to focus...

You must remember who we are*, my fellow Filipinos...
all we have discovered about ourselves...

   (*So that even without the words
   we shall be the meaning in our nationhood
   and the soul that lives in our Country
   shall sing to our songs!)

You must remember to place
both your attention and your heart
in the service of everything*
that improve the peace of our Country
and strengthen the unity of our peoples
as a nation among nations.

   (*In a million forms, in a million ways, serve -
   loving one another and building up the earth.

   In a million forms, in a million ways, serve -
   dwelling with each other in the Peace of God
   being united (in Spirit) as the LORD is united.

      [As God is one, be thou one heart, one mind -
      going forth and doing what War does not expect!]

   In a million forms, in a million ways, serve -
   upholding the purpose of our coming together
   as one nation among nations sown upon the earth;
   dwelling always in unity, understanding now
   with an understanding of the truth
   the labor set before us and the work purposed
   for the economy of our generations -
   the labor of peace!)

Above all God.

Then we will as a Republic
stand strong against these changes
like the bamboo have evolved to master the storm.

For we will as one nation
shine out against these uncertainties
changing in our hearts to master change.
---<--@

"I am the change to master change."

Salutation #127

That we lead many nations
in terms of faith - only means one thing,
we are a people prepared.

- selah -

For the burden of the times
is a burden of expectation.

If it were a burden of justice,
would any nation survive?

Therefore,
do not despair,
my people.

Believe.

---<--@


(Burden of Expectation)

What does a nation do with a burden?
It bears it together!
---<--@

THERE IS
an expectation - under heaven -
about this one nation of ours;
a requirement to succeed.

What is it about expectations
that make us cringe, my compatriots?

To whom much is given,
much must also be expected!

Is the Filipino truly free?

Have we become a nation mired
in a state of permanent revolution?

The mindset of War requires division - even in the midst -
but against whom must we fight against these days?

Increasingly,
we are becoming a people exhausted,
a nation dark and despairing,
trampled upon by unnamed tyrannies
and nameless tyrants.

Is the Filipino truly free?

- selah -

What is this freedom, this vaunted liberty?

We are a nation distinct, a nation among nations;
we are a nation led by a vision enshrined in our Constitution,
bounded by laws, and governed by an entire lineage of sacred trust
that goes from strength to strength and hope to hope
embodied - in time - through the Offices of this Republic
and duly represented by the mandates carried
by each their presiding Seats of public service
in persons elected or appointed.

We are a human society,
endowed by Almighty God with a culture,
a history, customs, traditions, aspirations, civic values,
and a freedom to pursue the happy ends
for which our generations (as a whole)
have dedicated and gained for this nation
self reliance and self determination
at such a cost!

What is it about the national success
that is becoming so fearful to us, O my nation,
that we have come to shun it?

Have we forgotten who we are?

No other nation upon the earth
can build upon this one, faithful Republic
the foundation of all her better days
than this particular nation -
this one Filipino nation!

Truly, there is a requirement for us to succeed!

But this requirement - under heaven -
(being that rightful expectation we all, as fellow citizens, share)
is only a requirement - and shall remain so -
as a thing remembered for us by God
and reminded in our hearts - these days -
by the most beneficent will of His Providential grace.

We have yet to claim it and make it ours!

And so let us together say, "yes, indeed."

There is a requirement for us to succeed!

- selah -

We are no different
from our other kindred nations
yet we are also distinct from each of them
because of the things that gather us together
into one common, human belonging; one nation.

We can not allow ourselves
to be defined by the those things
that strive against our peace,
that seek to tear us apart,
but by our free and human belongings
to each other as a whole,
one and distinct.

A nation - is - the people
- and - our connections - with and to each other;
our relationships - as citizens to each other -
and what (Who) animates and informs it.

Our freedom proceeds from this realization.

For we can not truly become free
to fulfill our national aspirations
until we have learned to serve
- as citizens to each other -
and we can not become
- as citizens to each other -
unless we participate in the work
to achieve a better Philippines.

And that this Republic is but one work.

- selah -

I have a belief 
in our beloved Philippines 
that transcends mere optimism.

And I often feel,
if I think about it long enough,
that I have come to a conviction of this
long before our time.

It is as though
it has always been there,
and never at all was it lost.

It sought as I sought
and now - we are together -
in our seeking.

And
in this togetherness,
we are together sheltered.

- selah -

The work we must do
to restore to ourselves our Republic endeavor
is not just the work of our government
in the Responsible State (not just the President's)
- it is ours as well, my people beloved of God.

It may only be accomplished
by nations and indeed, it may only be accomplished
by this particular nation, our one Filipino nation!

This is why I am addressing
much of this communication to each of you:

Only as
- we, the people -
can we effectively stand
against the evils of our present times.

Truly,
my fellow Filipino compatriots,
we should only expect for ourselves,
united across differences and one in our generations,
to succeed because victory is the only lineage
that belongs to the national peace
we must soon come to profess -
together this time.

Now is the time for peace:

This is our time.

Peace, I salute you.

(original produced 20100914)
---<--@

Battlestrong

Salutation #126

One does not need
to look at the sun - to see -
the day that is all around us.

Likewise -

One does not need
to see the LORD - to know -
that God is and He is God!
---<--@



(The Miracle of the Sun)

The manifestation of the sun
at the closing of the Fatima visitations
- was a visible herald -
of the manifestation of the Light
here, in our own times.

- selah -

We are in a spiritual darkness.

Our world is caught fast
in the depths of an invisible night.

And
just as the sun
was the chosen instrument
that sealed the miracle at Fatima,
this Light is
Who shall seal for all the miracle
that shall mark for each of us the closing
of the last great age of War.

For this Light is
as the sun in those days.

For just as the sun shines
to give sight to the eyes of our body,
this Light shines
(being the true seeing in our seeing)

to restore sight to the the eye
in the heart of Man.

For this Light is the Holy Spirit. 

The Spirit of the LORD consuming with fire
come to transform our world and bring our nations
out of the darkness and into the Light!
---<--@



My brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ -

The message of Fatima

does not have to be read again to us.

Nor its miracles again be sent
to spur our memory of things above
and beyond our earthly plane;
of things true and Divine.

Suffice it for us to know today 

we have a choice again.

We have a choice again to make
- here in this, our century -
to determine the nature and reach
of the next hundred years.

- selah -

We have a choice again to make
- as nations dreaming together this time -
even at the crossroads, here and now,
at the threshold of another thousand years.

And the things of the last century,
if not the burden of the last 2000 years,
should have prepared us to make this choice.

So let this choice be one for Mother
and let this choice be one for peace.

Let this choice be one for us,
and the common generations of life.

(This is the best mother's day gift
we can offer to our Lady, our Queen Mother Mary,
who is so solicitous for the common welfare of our humanity
this close to the closing of another age.



May peace be to all our mothers, across all our nations in time,
as we remember the universal heritage of motherhood
this Mother's Day 2012.)
---<--@

View in Review 20120511

While there are other note-worthy articles I should like to include in this Review, for today, I am going to delve exclusively on the one issue that seems to loom in the horizons of my mind - Scarborough Shoal.

(I initially did not expect this incident to become so protracted...)



Scarborough Shoal is NOT a population center.

It is an economic resource.

For what else is it?

There is a difference here, a subtle but significant one.

- selah -

Sovereignty lies chiefly in the nation - in the reality of we, the people who under God and before our laws and constitutional ideals are ordered and arrayed (in time and dimensional space) as one nation.

And from the nation extends to those spheres proper to our Republic undertaking of Country.

Why is it then that in the issue of Scarborough Shoal we are becoming so willing to undertake with China (PRC) burdens proper only for the defense of a population center?

Sovereignty has degrees just as equally as defense has depths yet sovereignty in all its places must be equally well-defended.

How we undertake this defense - against War, against each other - lies chiefly in how we must succeed in its conduct.

If we do not succeed in a diplomatic course of action as history has always been so eager to point out, we shall have no other recourse but an armed confrontation - a low-intensity conflict, as it were.

In this particular outcome, if we allow it to be, we shall be in control with China (PRC) only of how much damage we shall each be willing to sustain, for in this particular outcome, all parties would have already lost even before formal hostilities will have already begun.

We can not subdue China (PRC) neither can China (PRC) subdue us.

In this particular outcome, the longer view of things both obscures itself from our vision and denies itself from our foresight.

For we certainly could pursue the Scarborough Shoal issue through to its military means but to what ends, my fellow Filipinos, to what uncertain ends?

So instead of going into that exercise in sheer futility that in this particular case is armed conflict, it is to our common benefit with China (PRC) to find a way to share the advantages as well as inherent responsibilities of maintaining a common marine area as a mutual resource meant for the peace of both our peoples.

There is a middle ground to be found here. War shall not avail us anything.

And this middle ground has got to be found, recognized and commonly agreed upon through the use of an innovative approach that seeks to let go of old and antiquated ways of thinking... for the times are truly changed.

My personal position here (in support of President Noy) is to clarify, communicate, compromise, recognize, coordinate, legislate, and conform - exhaust every means, take every opportunity to transform this unwanted incident into an achievement of good worth to our nation (with armed confrontation only as a means of last resort in the conduct of the defense) - all for the greater good of our common regions in Asia, for the good of our Asia, and from our Asia to our needful world so much in need of respite and repair.

Moreover -



Scarborough Shoal is well within our 200 nautical mile EEZ or Exclusive Economic Zone (a compensatory advantage of our Archipelagic nature) and its continuing and responsible maintenance as an integral part of our territorial seas is sanctioned by UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).

Of the substance of this truth, lettered in international law, and witnessed by many of our kindred nations, we may indeed constantly rely.

It is more costly, in terms of the national wealth, for the PRC to do what our naval forces and maritime law enforcement agencies must be able and indeed are able to accomplish in these waters. This is to maintain the law of our Republic and extend forth the sovereign peace of our one nation into this maritime territory - not to make it ours - but to preserve it as a resource for the good of our nation.



The PRC's over-extension (inherent in its claim to the whole of these waters west of our Republic) is also a cause for concern among other Countries in our world whose vital interest it is to keep those international shipping lanes within and beyond our EEZ free; whose nations need assurance that these sea lanes are kept open and available as a common trust of all nations.

However, the law by itself is troublesome if we ignore the fact that that the PRC is laying a claim to Panatag or Scarborough. This is why it is important to meet the PRC in the middle and preserve not only the dignity of both our Republics but also the viability and value of the shoal for the use of our future generations.

The US commitment to our defense may only be as strong as our own commitment to our own defense.

We must be able to take this in principle: Our primary defense in the context of the common defense and in concert with the mutual defense of our allies is always our responsibility.

We must be a friend to our friends and they shall be a friend to us.

The old mold of our ASEAN, however tenuously, may still understandably prevail.

That our ASEAN of late may still feel itself a random and accidental falling together of unrelated interests within our region instead of that purposed, principled, unified, Providential gathering of kindred nations into one focused and decisive regional force for collective peace and human community within our Asia may be evident in the uncertain stance that our own region is now taking here in our own region.

Therefore, we, as a defense partner with the United States and as part of the one ASEAN Neighborhood, must take both of these vital considerations arising from this unwanted incident as an impetus to spur forward the transformation of our Republic as well as that of our region with ASEAN and recognize its potential as an integral part of our diplomatic initiative.

We must do everything in our power to amicably resolve this standoff with the PRC.

Mabuhay! God be with us all.
---<--@

The Human Cost of War

Indeed,
my fellow Filipino compatriots,

the first ones to suffer the pains of War 

are ever the weak and the vulnerable.

- selah - 

Not our politicians,
not our able soldiery, 

not our middle classes,
not our wealthier classes, 

not even the criminally inclined, 

it is our small fisherfolk 

and their humble, hungry families 

who bear the brunt of this stand-off.

People whose minds (and stomachs) 

dwell furthest off of this brewing crisis!

We must bear in mind and heart 

that the human cost of this deadlock 

begins with them and is now counting...

   (Indeed,
   War will not cease
   until all of us
   - from least to strong -
   are made weak and vulnerable.
 
   For the spirit of War is a devourer of peoples!)

If we who are able
do not consider their plight 

to lend to our sense of urgency 

a deepening sense of justice, 

we might find ourselves taking stands 

on the wrong foundation.

---<--@

Salutation #120

Mazel tov, Israel -

mabuhay at maligayang bati!

Binabati kita bilang tanyag at modernong Sambayanang-Kilusang payapa
nang may buong kaalamang ika'y tunay na matanda pa
at kagalang-galang sa iyong mga taon kesa rito.

Kapayappan sa iyo ang aking alay:

Sana maghari na rin
ang kapayapaan sa Gitnang Silangan
at diwa ng pagkikipagkaibigan sa mga bansa sa puso ng ating Asya
bawa't isa bilang kanya-kanyang Sambayanang-Kilusang payapa
lalo na ang pinaka-mahina at pinaka-nangangailangan sa lahat -
ang mga Palestinong biktima na rin ng lumang diwa ng galit at dibisyon
na magiting na tumatangan sa pag-asa ng kaninlang adhikaing
makilala at makipagugnayan sa atin bilang bansang isa.

Kapayapaan na inyo na ring kanlungan,
mahal naming bayang Israel,
at kanlungan na rin nang lahat ng ating mga bansa
dito sa mundo nating pagod at nanganganib
at kasalukuyang nangangailangan
ng ating pagkalinga at pagmamahal.

Maghari sana
ang diwa ng bagong panahon
at maging liwanag nawa ito
sa pagnanasa nating lahat -

Kapayapaan, Israel,
ang iyong tunay na karunungan!

Mahal kita - nawa'y kupkupin ka ng Diyos
at pagpalain nang Diyos ang lahat nating mga bansa -
maligayang kaarawan!
---<--@



(Free Israel!)

Mazel tov, Israel -
long may thy remembrance serve thee!

I greet thee, Modern Israel, as an undertaking of Country
recognizing that thy age as a nation is far more better in their years.

My hope for thee is peace:

Let there be peace in the Middle East
and goodwill to all the nations at the heart of our Asia
- each arrayed as their own particular undertaking of Country -
not forsaking all, especially the most vulnerable of all:
the Palestinians caught between the poverty of their exile
and the strength of the nationhood they keep in their hearts.

The peace which is to thee 

thy own shelter, beloved people Israel,
as well as to all our kindred nations in this world
so much in need of respite and repair.

May the spirit
of this new season under heaven
reign upon the souls of all our peoples
and may it be as a light unto each of us
that guide our way back to peace -

Peace, Israel,
which is thy real heritage
and the fruit of all thy wisdom.

I love you - God keep you

and God bless us all -
happy birthday!
---<--@



O Israel, can you see what lies just ahead? There is nothing there...

For we have ALL been by the spirit of War deceived.

Prayer for Peace to Mary, the Light of Hope

Immaculate Heart of Mary,
help us to conquer the menace of evil,
which so easily takes root
in the hearts of the people of today,
and whose immeasurable effects already
weigh down upon our modern world
and seem to block the paths toward the future.

From famine and war, deliver us.

From nuclear war, from incalculable self destruction,
from every kind of war, deliver us.

From sins against human life from its very beginning,
deliver us.

From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity
of the children of God, deliver us.

From readiness to trample on the commandments
of God, deliver us.

From the loss of awareness of good and evil,
deliver us.

From sins against the Holy Spirit,
deliver us.

Accept, O Mother of Christ,
this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings,
laden with the sufferings of whole societies.

Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin:
individual sin and the "sin of the world,"
sin in all its manifestations.

Let there be revealed once more
in the history of the world
the infinite saving power of the Redemption:
the power of the merciful love.

May it put a stop to evil.

May it transform consciences.

May your Immaculate Heart
reveal for all the light of hope.

AMEN.


by Blessed John Paul II

Salutation #113

Those who live to nurture
the tree of the desolation of war
- shall certainly eat of its fruit -
and the fruits of war is plain
and bitter forever.

Therefore,
let us return now to the native peace of our nations -
that we may eat of the fruit that sustains our humanity;
that we may be a support to each other as citizens;
that we may be a blessing to each other as nations;
that we may reflect the glory of the God heaven on earth.



(The Tree of the Desolation of War)

THERE WAS ONCE
an orchard filled with trees
of many kinds.

All of the trees in the orchard
bore good fruit save for one.

There was a tree
at the center of the orchard
that bore no fruit at all.

It was the largest tree of all.

It was also the most ancient of all.

It's great and lofty branches
overshadowed a third of the orchard.

It blocked out much of the sky.

And it drew up nourishment
from the soil meant for other trees.

Now,
the number of trees in the orchard was fixed
by the owner from the beginning.

To each tree he assigned
from among all of his laborers in the field,
a custodian.

For the owner had much property to tend
and not enough workers.

To each custodian in the orchard, 

the owner assigned a specific yield. 

And for this yield he gave a specified time.

He then left to find more workers.

- selah -

The trees are our nations. 

The great tree at the center of the orchard 

is the desolation of war. 

The custodians are the angels of the nations 

who are the keepers of our sacred remembrances. 

The owner is the LORD, 

the one Sovereign of all nations. 

And we are the workers.

But the custodian of the desolation of war 

is the great serpent of faded Eden. 

And he bids us 

- constantly - 

not to tend to our trees. 

At the very door of our hearts, 

the enemy of all human nations 

calls us not to serve
and to commit adultery
against our own humanity.

Time came 

and a great darkness fell upon our nations: 

The great cycle of the one celestial season is turning: 

Winter now approaches our time on earth.

Let us then work 

to complete our own remembrances 

with autumn leaves shed 

not so much for winter's sake 

but for the spring.

Let us turn away from the darkness.

Let us tend to each our own trees. 

And bear the good fruit of repentance.

Let us fight for the Causes 

- that have forever established us -

a free and human nation: 

Sacred Life, Law, Justice, and Benignity.

Let us compete in virtue 

- as citizens to each other - 

and produce for God and for each other 

a yield of good works, ten-fold, 

a hundred-fold, even a thousand-fold!

Starve out the serpent, O my nation! 

And let our generations prosper far into their years...

Born to the Morning: 

This is our land and Now is our time.

Because now is the time for peace.

This is our time.

---<--@

It is human to fight for right causes. It is not human to fight against Justice.

It is human to know when to stop fighting. It is not human to forsake the cause of Peace.

It is human to hope for self and for others. It is not human to despair of either self or of others.

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.
---<--@


Lightning Preceding Thunder

Salutation #105

The roots of War is ancient.

Therefore, War was never a choice that can be made freely by any nation as itself.

The real choice all our nations must always make - in every generation, and in every present time - is peace.

So let this be our choice - let our freedom be always guided by it.

(Trees in the Garden of God)

The truth is

all nations are friends

- some now, some later -

but in the end,

our peace is kin.

No nation is truly the enemy of another!

And when we do fight,

however enduring and painful

the searing remembrances of these conflicts,

it is always because of a necessity

whether real, contrived, or imagined.

Nations never come into conflict

because of an enmity that is permanent.

- selah -

War is always something imposed upon our peace.

Let us then

learn to discern

- what is and what is not ours -

as a nation among nations, my people,

that we may,

as an integral part of a great family of nations,

begin to know and understand each other

- as nations -

more and more...

Let us bear in mind -

These is a natural tension

- between nations -

a gap between our truths

- ordained by the LORD -

a spiritual divide that may only be bridged

by our awakening to an understanding of ourselves.

We must never be afraid

to bridge these gap between nations

and to labor to recognize

- those friendships -

long withheld from our strength.

We work to overcome

the tensions between our peace

secure in the knowledge of ourselves as ourselves

and sincere in our desire

for goodwill and human community

for in the same way other nations does influence us,

never forget, my beloved nation Philippines,

- we also are -

an influence to other nations.

---<--@