Remembering the End of World War II in Europe

Every May 8 is the remembrance event of the defeat and banishment of the greatest single conflict to wrack the soul and soil of Europe and her nations. 

It's a bit belated but I would still like to extend my well wishes to Europe in commemoration of VE Day 2015.

The Cold War that followed just right after WWII was a completely different kind of war than the one that preceded it... no less dangerous but quite in a league of its own. 

Every right remembrance of war in order to profit us whenever we may recall their moments must be rooted where the silence was first broken by gunfire so that their commemoration may oblige us to reflect upon numbers of days since... and also the memory those terrible days contain.

One might remember VE Day by its celebratory nature only but there is little profit in it. 

Were one to take for granted these days the peace that in commemoration is observed by events that mark the end of a war, take as the focus of one's remembrance the divide that had existed between the victorious and the vanquished and forget that commemoration should connect the heart from peace to peace, it would profit one very little nor one's community very much.

One does not remember Armistice Day in that way: T'was from silence to silence contained; the terrible cost of the road that led apart from peace and away into war being from silence to silence observed.

Thus, this day's commemoration should return one to a deeper recollection of those darkest days that led Europe off in seach of VE Day, for days without number they were, days without substance and life - when most of the world was in rubble and most of our humanity were in tears...

That our remembrances may bless and together bear for all of Europe especially on this day, a greater desire for robust unity and a more perfect peace.

The epicenter of my remembrance of VE day is Warsaw.

Love then - to all the nations of Europe. 

Love to Russia and the Ukraine both. 

If the past showed your States anything - it is that all free nations have a right to live their lives and their labors of Country free from war also.

This is a right I believe Russia shares equally with the Ukraine. 

And so may permanent solutions be found. 

I salute Chancellor Merkel for her bravery and humanity, President Putin for his forthrightness and candor, both of whom met on this day in behalf of the hope for a greater peace in Europe.

I salute all the Nations of Europe including Russia for their contributions to the betterment of our world and pray - in commemoration of VE Day - for a greater dawning of peace in Europe - one that might begin in the Ukraine and with Russia - so may the ceasefire hold.

---<--@

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?
---<--@

Anne Frank died 70 years ago this month.

Those words above were on a headline on an Internet article I came across just now... It is of course, is a remembrance of Anne Frank and by extension, her times.

Since Anne Frank is a continuing inspiration in my life (going 15 years this year), I'd like to share some of my own thoughts on the matter of her remembrance...

Winston Churchill refused to begin the liberation of Europe through the most direct route. If he did, then we would be remembering Normandy not in 1944 but much earlier. He believed that victory in the war against Hitler and Nazi Germany would be won or lost on the shores of Normandy. (And it was, in 1944, won that is. Upon those beaches and from the ice to the far East, in Russia.)

The PM of Britain at the time was being careful. As he should. Upon that undertaking (the Allied re-taking of Europe) a lot of the things we enjoy today in the "free world" depended.

This is why the Allied fight-back was first fought from the underbelly of the so-called Third Reich right on through North Africa and backwards up the boot of Italy.

The "free world" of Churchill's time and the "free world" of our time in my mind hold on to only two things in common - (1) that it was, is, and shall remain (while time is time) imperfect and therefore, retain a peace that is imperfect and (2) that the sufficiency of this imperfect peace is at every age and in every generation at risk of losing its good and human worth through an evil sufficient for each our times.

Every generation gets a shot at being great... but the greatest ones ally themselves to each other.

We can wax a tad bitter about our remembrances of things past but what we can never be is in denial of the present. We being each of "us" as the nations.

I thought about Churchill's decision a lot in an earlier time thinking that if things had been different, then Anne and most of her generation would have lived. I stubbornly refused to accept what happened. I did contend with the truth of those times, trying to unseal what was already sealed. Undo what was already done. And this attitude made me bitter to the point where my remembrance contributed to nothing in my present life.

I was like that once, a malcontent when it came to the memory of past things that were not up to par with my own personal set of ideals (much like Hitler it was, in retrospect). T'was vanity. The pride of it.

You see, before Anne or rather, before I had a good read of her diary (Anne and her diary of course, are two different truths), I was an idealist when it came to warfare.

When I was younger, my impression of gun battles might have been influenced a lot by the A-Team, one of my favorite 80's TV shows (which aired here every Tues 7:30pm on channel 7, I think... goodness, I still remember). You know, where Colonel John Hannibal Smith, Face, BA, and Howling Mad Murdoch - when they confront the bad guys in the end... everybody shoots a whole lot of rounds for a bit, and then ta-dah! In the end, the A-Team wins. Justice is served. Nobody dies.

Then I grew up. However, even after the memory of ANZAC in Gallipoli was impressed upon my mind and heart, I still thought: No women. No kids. WWI was terrible but I still clung to that dying belief in myself that wars were clean and noble affairs. Desirable and even good when fought correctly... Boy, was I wrong... (is there ever a correct way of taking another life? The act itself is intrinsically evil and wounds the soul of a person for life.)

Things have changed for me in the 15 years that passed... 

Well, 15 years this June 13 (when her diary first came to my attention at Barnes and Noble in Fremont, CA because she attentioned her entries to a "Kitty"); the day after her birthday, June 12.

I am not trapped by the pages of her diary anymore. They were means to better means.

I do not have to read it over and over with fear in my heart. Fear for what I know will happen that I can not change. For am I not anymore bitter with her memory or that of her times.

I have accepted the inevitability of the past and this liberated my present, opening up my soul to the thought of better tomorrows - visions of a time better written... full of days brighter lived.

My remembrance is now of worth to me because it makes me a better person and a better human citizen. I am no longer hateful despite the past nor am I in denial of the present even in spite of the present because I constantly work to reconcile my soul with the memory of these times.

These days, I hate war. I know what it is. 

Which is why my heart is turned to peace. I understand what it is. 

And because I do, I can not be in denial of the truth in the now. Lest I forget.

I can no longer live in disagreement with the memory of all those times past and remain unreconciled to all those names which in their solemn silence illuminate realities often overlooked in the now of my time.

This is why I also can not be in despair of tomorrow - for anybody or for any nation.

For these days, I am a lover of peace. I am more a romantic when it comes to peace than a strict idealist. And because I am, I also must know how to defend it. And that I must. Like anyone who loves someone... and love someone enough to understand that the beloved should be preserved. Not just the "why". But the "because" and everything that goes along with it.

Anne Frank died 70 years ago this month... 

She passed from this world in Bergen-Belsen. Died just a week or two before the camp was liberated. The exact day she died is unknown (it was the first two weeks of March 1945). But her sister Margot reportedly died a few days before she did. Both sisters are now buried in a mass grave. The location of this grave is unknown. The marker in Bergen-Belsen is only a marker. A reminder that this is a place of passing away. What it ushers in depends on how you view time in the heart.

Because the way I see it, 70 years is just a number.

I truly believe what really matters is that we truly remember. That we remember rightly. Firm in the truth. Because when we do, 70 and one thousand years don't make much of a difference.

Time in the heart is not a distance. It is a quality.

There is a kind of time that descends into oblivion. There is a kind of time that remains. What remains ultimately ascends with what we love (unto the God Who Loves us all).

Time and its quality is revealed to us in those moments in life we want to stay forever. Or that we want to live in and experience through for an eternity.

In the fleeting is discerned through time in the heart, the quality of the everlasting.

Those moments seem fleeting because time on the outside - that we all commonly perceive - that makes place relative to itself - physical time, dominates us. For a reason and only for a season. 

Time should teach us remembrance - at the heart of the Eucharist and in the memory of the Nations, it is the same - that time as it truly matters should not be a quantity (should not be a measure of its count).

The imperishable treasures that the Gospel promises that neither thief nor tyrant may steal should never be of those things measured by their count alone.

Time seems distant only to those with distant hearts.

And so to love... and a right remembrance of the beloved in all things... And so to hope... and a memory of true things washed ashore unto those beaches within the soul with the ebb and flow of time - as truth abiding in the heart (as dew in the morning).

I most certainly remember my Anne. 

It was some years ago when I started calling her my Anne... maybe 5 years ago. I'm grateful for the life she lived. I regret she wasn't able to live that life to the fullest.

Her sufferings while she was here upon our world I would not in any way justify as right. Even with all of the inspiration she gives to me. I would not console myself in this way. For I'd rather she had not suffered at all. Always, that she did not have to suffer. But past is the past and that is the truth.

I know now that the LORD intended to shroud such things with the power of His mystery... so that time to every human heart seems everywhere a veil of shadow and tears. Who am I not to trust in the Wisdom of God? Such is such! I understand only that none may deny the truth without sin.

The past, present and all of forever when seen through the eye of the heart are qualities not measured by the count of their years but by the substance in those years... in this way, time is as it should; a way of living instruction, a path that opens up to God's commands - an account of the heart.

The simple truth is without my Anne, I would be a much darker person... But I am not.

And because I am as I should, I will remember.

And I do not think I shall ever forget.

Never again.
---<--@

Peace be with you, sister

I too am for peace. It is my hope that peace shall one day be the rule in this Republic of ours rather than the exception. I believe that if we are patient, and we are a patient people, peace for all of us shall be inevitable. For now, let us not lose hope.

Thoughts on Religion and Political Moderation

I am a Catholic. Not a moderate Catholic. For there can never be a moderate expression of the faith I hold dear and holds me dear as well. I am simply a Catholic (though not always good at it).

What we love that is for always can never be served by moderation. Religion and its virtues may only truly prosper in ourselves only by full spiritual expression. And this democratic expression of freedom in religion and of religions may only be accommodated in an atmosphere of national peace.

It is an atmosphere long denied to our world. This brokenness has left the house of humanity broken and bleeding. We are today a world of broken nations; a broken peace prevails among the order of our unity as a family. Thus, the human family is scattered. 

This dysfunction at the heart of our nations serves not a single soul. It is unconscionable to the listening heart to allow the nations of the children of Mankind to tarry in the darkness in this way.

And so I say, I am a Catholic. Proud to be one. Properly proud to be in the service of the Peace of Jesus Christ. Ever may it prevail!

In the same way, I understand there are no moderate Muslims or Jews or Buddhists or Sikhs or Hindus, etc. when it comes to the religious profession of the faiths we all hold dear and holds us all dear as well.

What I shall ask is for us to be moderate in the duty and practice of our politics. 

What does divide religion are not the truths and the virtues of its revelations but the politics of which we, through right remembrance of a long history of suffering and loss, may now at present discern separately and distinctly from the lives of faith we each must live, according to our freedoms, with truth in the heart.

The world has not become smaller. What our world at present has really become is wider. It has become more not less. Its horizons more expansive than ever. We have to have the heart to be able to embrace it as a human family. Lest the immediacy of the spirit of present tidings remain to many of us strange.

We perceive a landscape of things that may be in our common tomorrow as nations so open and so wide, we discern a darkness foreboding. And instead of going boldly forth to conquer together with cultures of light, retreat into the comfort of past molds.

The can be no living the past. What it is when we choose to so commonly retreat from the face of our right remembrances is a denial of the present. Where there is no peace in the now, there is no now. 

We can not be like this, in particular as children of our Father Abraham; we can not deny the present (and be absent from the now) while holding true to the true living that ours, along with all religious wisdom prescribes to our common humanity.


Peace to us is a time. That time is now.

If we can not make the moment ours, together this time and with all people of good will - as one human family - this world, our world, might so remain where it was, so receded into the spirit past things, so absent from the present, so much obscured from the view of Heaven, it falls again and again into the embrace of the defeated Enemy.

We must not allow this vicious cycle to continue...
---<--@

Time to develop a planetary sense of good will

If species survival seems our most common reason to finally venture out to conquer the depths of space, I must say it isn't the finest. After all, who are we surviving against on this one planet?

We need time to develop a planetary sense of good will. I think we have the time, a lot of it.

However, can we choose to make the time - together this time?

In the Universal Record of the Recorder of Universes, it takes an average of 500,000 years worth of recorded history for any species of living souls to successfully evolve their civilization and ascend all it's attendant worlds from unnamed to Named.

That's a lot of time to think about... a lot of empty space to fill... space substantially better utilized more through time spent in good thought and the fruits of good thoughts which are good acts.

If the present spread of time-space is to be filled with 500,000 years worth of good thinking by any form of extant sapient planetary civilization - on the average, it would amount to brilliant energy equivalent to the lifetime collective stellar output of a single, medium sized, medium age, yellow star.

(Yes, that star. Our home star without which we may not have a home world at all. From our home star we learn that light output is our ultimate measure not darkness.)

If the universe we were to truly inhabit were a container, that particular amount of brilliance would be so incredibly minute and fleeting especially in the midst of all that is to us, dark (matter and energy). 

The fact that it really and truly does matter immediately implies that the Creator of All does not look at any of us from afar. But is very near.

And there exist a lot of darkness out there that remains to be filled and transformed - right here.

The evils of our history may seem like darkness overwhelming, true. 

We live in a universe of big violence and small truths...

Therefore, let us also be aware that in spite of our past, there might likewise exist in our universe a lot of room out there in space for more kindness right here on earth.

Choices we as a particular species of living soul has yet to make, times we have yet to fill, ages we have yet to enter, and infinities we have yet to cross - together this time, if we are peaceful and wise.

Half-a-million years less twelve thousand approximately.

(A concept excerpted from a fictional book I'm writing... truly spooky action from a distance)
---<--@

Love this view from Interstellar. It provides the beholder with a truly awesome sense of scale.

Love this view of my kitty cat co-pilot (lol.)

                                                 Love this song just because...

Peace is not a place

Our exile is not a place.

Our exile is a time.

Therefore,
peace upon the earth to us
is not a place.

Peace to us is a time.

Peace to us is a truth.

Peace to us is a season under heaven
and the knowledge of this season on earth

Let us seek peace therefore, not as a place.

Let peace be for us a willing choice... 

And let this be the time.

Filipinos,
if in each our hearts there is no peace,
there shall be no peace to be found for us
upon this earth under heaven.

Unless there is no peace in our hearts,
we shall find no peace here in our nation
nor among the nations to whom we are kin.

And shall persist to wander this world
without a home... restless of heart, 
restless of hope.

Home is where the heart is!

Whenever peace is in the heart -
everywhere love shall lead us,
we shall always find a home
and shall never be left
wanting of rest...

Most especially here 
in this Country of ours.

So let peace
be our inspiration
to renew our spirit
and build!

Let this time be the time
we make ourselves belong...

One lineage of hope,
7,107 islands strong.

Let this time be our time.

Let peace be everywhere we are.

Because 
if not here, where?
If not now, when?
---<--@

Let Peace be -

The Despoliation of the Sword

Fallen humanity
in following the Devil,
upon the bones of their fellow human beings,
shall worship their swords saying,
"O look how mighty we are,
how glorious is our arm
upon the earth!"

Repentant humanity
in obeying the LORD,
upon the Remembrance of His Nations,
shall cry out to the heavens and pray,
"O look how weak we are, O God,
that we need weapons
to live."
---<--@




Broken is thy Earth, in Sin overrun. 

The Sin of thy original wounding,
bearing the spiritual weakness of thy temporal undoing,
a mortal fear of the God of thy Holy sustaining;
a rupture in the human soul that bleeds with thy blood
unto death, and upon evils manifold and diverse,
upon sins many as the seeds sown for thy dispersing,
thy human lineages exiled from Life
for their own life's preserving.

Broken is thy Sky, in War overcome. 

The Beast of thy ancient pursuing,
seeking the devouring of thy every living soul of National doing,
that the living of each Man may sink ever near the sword of War's despoiling,
and undo in Darkness, the Light of thy common human obtaining  -
a rupture in the human spirit that caused the Sky above our world
to shatter into an endless Night without Twilight;
the long march of the Nations fallen in time begun
with each Country's spiritual Ascent
unto the Summit of a new Morning Bright.

Therefore, let Peace be - upon the three great lineages
of the faith and fatherhood of our Father Abraham -
unto the children of Ishmael - let Peace be,
unto the children of Isaac - let Peace be,
unto the children of all our kindred Nations
who bear in their hearts, in Spirit and in Truth, common witness
to the Incarnate Word of God in Jesus Christ, Who is Emmanuel,
the one Redeemer of all Mankind - let Peace be,
and unto all children of good will who among us persevere
in friendship and in their faith, one with the other - let Peace be.

Let Peace be - and divide it not! 

This one Peace.
---<--@

Together this time...

What will happen when the wood is dry?

Our world is as dry
as a tinderbox, Starshine -

For
- everywhere -
there is a thirst for water,
water this world can not provide.

And
everywhere
- across our earth -
our Nations are drying up
turning to ashes from the inside out.

Starshine,
can you now see - that -

peace anywhere
is peace everywhere?

In our hearts first, Beloved -
...and then, in our Nations,
...and then, in our needful world.

Truly, truly,
it shall only take a spark,
but one spark to set things afire!

But what kind of spark,
our precious Starshine,
what kind of fire?

God's grace alone 
is sufficient, alleluia!
---<--@

The Great Radicalizer

Who is the great radicalizer but the spirit of War?

Consistent,
persistent states of violent war
that reduce to meaningless suffering
unto despair -
the labor of our nations,
destroying the living fabric of our national communities,
and displacing the spirit and the memory
of entire peoples
from their own sense of common humanity.

War
that eventually calls down
an atmosphere (strange and unfamiliar)
that attracts radicals (i.e. political extremists)
from all walks of life -
and from all ways of religion.

But we, my people -

The Peace we shall share - together this time - shall be a great producer.

The Peace we are striving towards shall be a great producer of leaders, builders, farmers, fishers, merchants, artists, healers, craftsmen, and soldiers.

It shall be a Peace that sustains our common humanity and a Peace that obtains from God and All Heaven, every form of gift and blessing the LORD has promised our Father Abraham of old - for this Nation and all our kindred Nations in our one Family of Nations.

Learners we shall each be unto one another, knowing wonders - under this new Season and Sky.

It shall be our shelter in these times, and the overcoming strength of our generations.
---<--@


Keep Calm and Support the Bangsamoro

Peace in Russia

Human constructs  
- systems, institutions, corporations, etc. -
fielded across each their necessary applications
to bring form and order to the purposes
of all human endeavor
within the Nation,
where these fail against their own times - is -
because these constructs inherit also
what weakness there is in Man.

But Nations are not human constructs.

And Russia is a Nation.
---<--@

The first act of Peace is always Good will.

All Nations destined by the LORD - unto the gathering of the Times, in the here and Now of today - before this planetary crossroad, are all the Nations of the Children of Mankind.

And all the Nations of the Children of Mankind, commissioned by God at the Autumnal Dusk of our faded Eden, stand together to strengthen and preserve the life and the labors of Man through his lineages in time across all our generations to the last of our generations.

For we are upon this world to fulfill the First Command to build up the Earth (into the Inhabited Earth - a world not only rich in temporal life and in the living but in light and limitless spiritual wealth).

All the Nations of the Children were equally commissioned by God - together - and are symbolized by the Angel that the LORD placed at the place of our beginnings - at the East Gate - where we together left for our long march into exile - which is also the direction of our common returning.

Thus, our sovereignty is part of the endowment granted each of us by the God of all of us - and indeed, this sovereignty is realized - at all times and places - in the people -

...the peoples of this world - whose lineages entire the LORD entrusts to each of us, their Nations, to safeguard and prosper - and ultimately to return back into Him - much enriched and in better forms of communion with each other - and through God's own mysterious actions in time - individually as well as collectively worthy of His Salvation, being upon this visible universe - a brilliance that to the LORD is - "very good".

This, the LORD did in our living Assembly before His Throne in Eternity - and is always true.

The common roots of our sovereignty arise from the order by which God has from all Ages intended for Man - for his own good's sake - to accomplish before Him, the command to build up the Earth - for Man.

Thus, Nations are small or great - as Trees are trees in the Garden of our World - not for tending the Tree which is not our own - but for loving that which God has intended us to love (Peace) and in this love growing through Remembrance of our selves and in each other in the knowledge of the Truth of our selves and each other (Good will).

We have and we maintain borders not because of limits to human potentiality or because of a reality which is fragmented but because there must be order and purpose to the work.

To safeguard this order and purpose is the craft of all our Nations - and this craft is Peace.

(In the Sun Tzu - this in not just the first consideration when we consider "Moral Law" - it is the first and the final consideration - and is more than just Moral Law - it is the ultimate form of the "Sovereign" and embodies a living Spirit of present Remembrance.)

Hence, at the time we were together commissioned in Assembly before Godl, we also received as well from each other a priori, a recognition of our sovereign selves - and this is always true.

Because the first act of Peace is always Good will.

Therefore, sovereignty in all our Nations is always a reality in ourselves - realized (in our citizenship) as well as recognized (in the citizenship of other sovereign Nations) - our reflections in Heaven, as they should be in the truth - upon our Earth.

Truly, as Nations among each other, we have said our "Peace" unto each other - in Good will - before the LORD, our one Sovereign - long before our Time upon this world came to be - a Time that was upon this time - inaugurated by the LORD through the Noahide Covenant.

And I would that we should deeply consider this as we remember again today, our Peace with each other.
---<--@

We did not emerge in physical time together as we were commissioned. Israel was the first - the tip of the spear - first among equals. How God fashioned the Nation Israel is how each of us are also fashioned - being a people first - before and above everything else.

(So that each of our sovereignty is always a reality that emanates from the life of our people - and this life is a concentration - build upon human dignity and human promise - whose strength relies upon how well and how faithfully we each come to realize, recognize, sustain and develop our Peace).

And today, we have all arrived - so that we must accept the status quo of our world from 2009, and work to change our hearts that we may see far into our Nation's hearts.

And let us again remind ourselves of the reality of our Nationhood and together understand that this is not a religious labor but a very, very human one. And that a broken Spear - anywhere and in anytime - is useless against the charge of the Horse.

Indeed, the most prudent and visionary of our leaders - in our kings, queens, princes, presidents, ministers, and captains, have ever always understood for the sake of the many, that all National Remembrances are ultimately Human ones - and that Peace is over War.

And in this Age of Spirit and Thought - it is Now incumbent upon all of Mankind to realize what the best and greatest of us have been made to realize - that the enveloping global darkness that is the Siege of War may be broken and a new door and a new path may be opened before our world - as a planetary community entire.

We did not emerge in physical time together as we were commissioned. But where we do emerge - alone, the pattern of our commissioning always reflects the pattern of our emergence upon this world. So that in Peace and Good will - we always have stood by each other - and with each other before God - and from always to always - this shall be so - forever.

We just have to remember.
---<--@

After the Cold War, the Peace was won. But the War that nearly annihilated all life in this world is not yet fully subdued. And so the Peace that was won is not yet completely ours.

Bewilderment and confusion always follow in the wake of major conflicts - this is most especially true in the case of a total, global War.

Even as our corporeal eyes hurt to emerge in the Day when the passing Night for us have become too deep and too uncertain a Darkness, there are times likewise when the sight of our hearts have largely forgotten or forsaken too much of what Peace in us sustains and what Peace for us in the LORD obtains - to become mostly blind to what is - for every Nation, an absolute - and therefore, absolutely worth fighting for.

(As the generations living now in my own Country have never known internal peace and have never tasted its promise must remember the Darkness that we may move toward the Dawn of a new Light.)

(In the external sense, this is what is happening in South Sudan now. And we Nations who recognized that Nation emerging have an obligation to assist that Nation to secure herself from the Darkness.)

(And in the CAR, an absolutely dishonorable religious division is again taking hold against our Peace. This is also why it is difficult for one to take sides in Syria - for ultimately, there is no side there but - our side - the human one vs. the one who would make us all inhuman.)

(Indeed, we shall all account for these losses.)

Battles may always appear won in the first four spheres of Military involvement. But War itself and as itself can only be withstood in the fifth.

That the Cold War was not brought to conclusion - and thermonuclear annihilation at the global scale of all things a hundred times over - is already a gain of Peace.

Who yielded and who did not shall be the gain of our Remembrances together - for "that war" was the War among all past wars, the one to be withstood.

The past is bitter drink indeed where and when it holds the present hostage and the future to ransom.

But Nations never drink from the cup of the past - our cup is always held out for the water of present things - here, in the Now.
---<--@

We are today not as we begun. For Nations (in each their being) are also their particular motions (in each their becoming) in time, a labor of Country - a Tree among many Trees.

(If one were to be presented with an image of the Garden of many Trees, at the center shall always be what particular Nation the LORD has from all time intended to be, for each of us, our own Nation - and - the one Tree of the Desolation War, the Dominion of the Devil whose Sword is the Despoliation of all Sacred Life.)

For we are a growing and reaching out - a journeying, if you will, in and across time.

And sometimes, we pick up some travelers along the way. As the parable of the Good Samaritan, when applied to the community of Nations, will invoke in our hearts - We are to welcome the Stranger that the Stranger to us be Strangers no more.

For this is what the LORD requires - that all Men and Women be equal citizens before God and all Nations before the LORD stand shoulder to shoulder equally -

...the grieving widow to comfort,
prisoners to safeguard and to lovingly correct,
orphans to kindly and freely embrace -
and to multiply these persons
upon our human world
no more.

So Peace be upon you, Russia, do not be bitter. Hold no one and nothing in contempt. For thy life and thy future is yours - all the rest we shall together learn and remember together.
---<--@

I remember Beslan, a terrible thing among many terrible things that this little world of ours should not have to endure. But we all do - for Beslan is everywhere. Volgograd is too.

For hatred was in the 9 o'clock blue of New York, shattering that morning September sky - it was in Bali, Mumbai, Madrid, London, Amman, and in all Continents present save for perhaps, Antarctica (who if we do not turn course, may also fall), as the sin of the Devil's pride persists.

It is also here in my own Philippines, something I am working and praying hard - with all my brothers and sisters of the Promise - to battle and overcome - together this time.

Because it is our most fundamental of responsibilities as a Nation commissioned by the LORD to serve and preserve both human dignity and human promise of the Children of Mankind upon this fallen world - that to the extent we are faithful to our commissioning, we together preclude evils of a social nature from setting its foot upon the soil of our Earth.

But where we are in the soul of our citizenship together weak of compassion and sympathy for the human condition, War gains a foothold upon our human world in order to make it inhuman against our will.

The Savior of all Mankind came to deliver this world from its sin - the sin of separation - which is the original and fatal wounding all Men suffer - and to allow the human lineages return (according to our repentance from personal and moral sin) to an Eden rebuilt - even while Man is still upon this world and gain for ourselves together an everlasting place in a Kingdom that neither in splendor fades nor in glory ends - at the consummation of time as we know time to be...

...so that Now, with every present time, we must as individual citizens and individual Nations together work to deflect and remove this alien and inhospitable Darkness (of sin and War) from our own human world, to the extent God allows, our humanity permits, and the times require -

particularly in this Age above all ages past.
---<--@

Self-immolation is an act of protest - sacrificial to the most - and bound not by ordinary human freedom. In all of these cases, where there is an abiding, legitimate and human cause - the object of Justice is for Justice to be done unto Justice herself. These are therefore, purely the domain of Law and legal redress. To redress it, Law must come to understand it - from the source.

Suicide bombing is a species of self-immolation, louder in expression, and profoundly more deeper in voice - and in all cases, extreme in the eyes of all living souls. Invariably, for its indiscriminate violence against the life of our innocents - it is always an act of terrorism and in so being, demands our urgent attention.

Terrorism is always a political act. And so it gains from any political uncertainty on our end.

There must exist a cycle of pain and loss here that works to progressively destroy the normal course and outcome of authentic human freedoms that until this cycle effectively is broken by Law and its protections - will ultimately exact a terrible toll against our Nations - a price measured by the sum of human lives lost - for in all acts of terror we lose them all - save for the bomb and the conditions that allow the political will of terrorists to be married up to the means of terror.

Where to draw the line of the defense is the question. Remove and redress the prevailing conditions and the will and the means shall divorce themselves permanently.

This is a law-enforcement led process. Prevention here is in the Law. Justice here is a reaction. Military means may in many cases only exacerbate the matter and may only be employed in the tactical, where all proactive means have already failed.

And as War, there is no better deterrence to terrorism than to prevent it from breaking through into our world.

Meet the ever so wearisome politics of division with the better politics of human unity and know at the heart where to draw the line where the defense may be well fought - not in support of War but for the sake of the Peace.

Even the same Peace, we shall this winter in Sochi celebrate together.

I pray and I hope for a safe, secure, and memorably meaningful Sochi winter games - for all our Nations! The time is not yet late. May all Nations come together under the warmth of the Olympic flame in Peace and in Good will with each other and in friendships compete in the sport and in the spirit of these modern games - to know and to honor what is best in each ourselves across all our Nations.



Remember, when War draws near - it seeks from our Nations a confrontation.

Do not confront the Dragon where it approaches, defend. 
---<--@


Didn't know we're celebrating June 12 together this year, cool.
---<--@

Spot the diff? This is the Flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

---<--@

Salutation #188

Crafting a new order in the Middle East
requires the Nations of the Children of Mankind
to return to their deepest spiritual roots -
to the fundamental Human, Angelic,
as well as Divine purposes
for each of our Emergence in Time -
as a Family of Nations upon this world:
Peace, Good Will and the Building up 
of the Inhabited Earth.


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!" 

(Greater Israel)

Thou art a people, Israel -
before all things, before thou wert,
thou wert a Nation raised by the LORD!

At the Gates of Eden, thou wert!
Before the long march of exiled humanity,
thou wert a Nation among Nations, chosen.

In thy spirit, thou art a lineage -
born of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob -
a people united by the faithfulness of the LORD.

O beloved Israel, thou wert -
the first of the Nations of the Children

delivered from weakness unto strength in God.

Remember, thou wert - O Israel -

the first to know of the Truth of the LORD -

that God delivers, God provides, and God saves -

that all Nations may come to a knowledge of Peace.

---<--@

Personal Reflection:

All Nations are a people first. 

I too believe in a dream of a Greater Israel - Eretz Israel.

But the dream that I believe in - can not be begun -
if it is a dream bound by the limits of the Land of Israel.

For the Greater Israel I believe in resides
in the spirit that lives within the one heart of the Jewish nation -
Greater Israel as an Nation absolutely dedicated to Peace -
the Peace of God which is the common salutation
of the children of our Father Abraham
to all human Nations.

In this spirit is rebirth - for we can not return in time -
along the way that time itself has left us - in our common reality -
like it is to return to the womb - we can not experience physical time twice.

But we can experience
in our own memories - a rebirth of timeless Remembrance -
and obtain in our understanding, a spirit that leads the way to a newness of time
upon our hearts, upon our lives, upon our families, upon our national communities,
and upon our world - an age where we all can hope and work together - to become
the greater Nations in ourselves - one to prevail in Maturity over our lesser selves -
and rejoice in the shedding away of former things by our turning away from them
that we may indeed become the light unto each other that God hath intended
all human Nations to be - kindred in His Peace over War - forever. 

Loyalty that Preserves

I spoke to a mother whose son recently passed basic training, there was a sense of a mother's pride in her voice but also, a hesitation, a need...

I congratulated her and blessed her for raising up before God, a solider in the service of others... but I also felt her need and her hesitation.

Because when you bless, you only invite life. And when you congratulate, you only invoke happiness in life... So I said a quiet prayer for her, her son, and for our world... so much in need of peace.



The truth is
the more soldiers we have, in principle,
in a world awoken from the last great age of war,
the more peace we should enjoy.

- selah -

There are established limits in the defense -
the minimum is safeguarded by the virtue of arms
and the maximum is guaranteed by the peace of the nations
so that in our nation's conduct of the common defense,
to fall short (of the minimum limit) is to find defeat
and to exceed it (i.e. the maximum limit) is to become
the enemy (of our peace) that we claim to fight.

Therefore,
what is required to maintain the balance of peace
in our family of nations is not more and more arms
but less and less - a balance of peace -
until the Last Day, when the purpose of arms
will have utterly and completely extinguished itself.

And so
if today we remember -
what was before those times,
spirit and energy wasted in the quest
to annihilate the life and promise of our nations
- in the name of "peace" -
shall then be brought to genuinely serve it
to prosper our needful world
and bless all our nations as one family
to the hundreth generation.

- selah -

Why is it - during these evil days -
that the more soldiers we have,
the more war we suffer?
---<--@


War is the monster! Do not look into it's eyes - or thy spirit will be lost. 
Rather, understand peace - that you may also understand why we fight.


The Fate of Arms

Human Nations

To be human or not be human? That is the question for the nations of this age.



Into this age, we shall not fight over distinctions in ideologies or religions or ideals or culture or race... No, the times will require us to produce the common fruits of all of these...

For we shall be tested by the challenges of this age by our ability to remain human beings to each other, not only as individuals but as individual nations - able to persevere in the strength of the human spirit and prosper in the one peace of our sacred remembrances.

We shall be tempered and refined by the obvious practicalities of these unfolding times through evils that only we, together as the one Family of the Nations (of the Children of Mankind), can hope to surpass.

The Advent of War

The first time Man saw in himself the image of the adversary of All Nations was when Cain killed his brother, Abel. It was not coincidental that the killing of the first innocent human life upon our world also inaugurated the Advent of War upon the earth.

Now is the time to see through the illusion of the Adversary to find in the reflections of the Evil in all evil things, a way to make peace with ourselves in our world - for this is our world (redeemed by Christ and preserved by our Nations) - and in finding our peace with each other, an understanding of the truth worth defending together - in each other with each other...

...the truth of our common humanity.

Freedom's Common Pursuit

Democracy is like a tree, and so like all things that grow and live and breath, must begin from the roots. It is a natural system of living life born of the seeds of remembrances that must grow where it is sown.

No one tree is the same in the Garden of our world... each of our nations grow at different paces, is found at different ages, yet all are born for purposes that are both fully human and fully divine.

We bear different fruits - each edible and good for the sustenance of All - and all worthy and lasting in the eyes of our LORD, everlasting fruits born from timeless works that glorify with seeds that share - knitting together with the fabric of visible creation, the truth that will prevail at the consummation of time.

We learn from each other not by making each other the same but by seeing in each other what is familiar in All - trusting in our differences, and sharing in our strengths - so that, in choosing to believe in our diversity, together find, in the familiarity of our unity, the peace which is shelter to all mankind; the one Peace of the one LORD.

If thy Peace is God's then know ye it belongs to All Mankind.
---<--@

Salutation #182

None of the Seraphs have joined with Satan in his War
and the LORD has, prior to the time of the Children
(which are these latter-day times, beloved of God),
utterly destroyed all evil and fallen Principalities
in the Great Deluge for our good behalf.

So we are
in our every belonging preserved
by Love and Remembrance...

(Love and Remembrance)

Love and Remembrance
when each their truths are realized -
breaks upon thy heart, darlingest Starshine,
clear as the dawn and draw thy spirit decisively
in great ascending motions - leading thee steadfastly
forth and away from the midnight darkness...

For
Love and Remembrance
once realized by thy seeking soul - as truth in the heart
have no parallel midnight - the advent of each of their realities
once it has risen in the horizon of thy mind - separate themselves cleanly
as light is from darkness and leave no trace of shadow nor confusion
to the being and thought of any Man as to which Twilight path
leads to the Morning.

Glory to God therefore, all ye Nations,
sing to the LORD a song of love and thanksgiving;
a hymn of adoration from thy hearts, O Children of Mankind
for the wonder our God has done for us!
---<--@

Lucifer with all his wit,
was not able to convince and commit,
a single Seraph to his fight
for who could make love itself choose
to burn for anything else
but the one Beloved.

Thus, save for his lies,
none can love the Devil true...

But
when God utters
a Word of the Truth,
all hearts upon all the earth
and across all of heaven above
come aflame with Love.
---<--@


To not be afraid, love. 
To not be ashamed, remember.

Love for Korea

Listen, starshine -

If you have to love something as big as Korea,
you have to love big... embracing both North and South
saying to thy heart, "peace be unto thee, O Korea".

So lets think Now of all that is lovable in Korea,
let's think of what great wonders ennoble her soul,
let's think of what beautiful dreams inspire her people,
let's think of what great hopes animate her citizenry,
and let's give it all a big, big hug.

"Peace be unto thee, O Korea."
---<--@

Let us pray for peace in Korea, in our Asia, and in our world so needful of peace!

Habemus Papam!

Mabuhay Holy Father Francis!

Let us pray to the LORD a hymn of thanksgiving - alleluia to God - 

a great song of praise to the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, 

in humble adoration of His Son, our Savior - Emmanuel;

a people grateful for the guidance of the Holy Spirit

for the Good Shepherd He has raised among us - and for us -

to lead us back - across our nations - to the path of peace 

unto oneness with our one God - the fullness of the new age - 

and the peace of Jesus Christ to all people of good will.

---<--@

Truth ---> Understanding ---> Action

On the Sabah Issue

Before we make certain our convictions as regards to the Sabah issue, let us examine and reflect on some key points -

The Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo - recognition, relevance, restitution.
The Federation of Malaysia - sovereignty, prestige, security.
The Republic of the Philippines - security, good will, credibility.
The ASEAN Neighborhood - unity, commonality of interests, strength of solidarity.

And some constants of the prevailing age - lest we get complacent with the darkness, let us remember where we are in the history of time:

- No peace without adversity - the expectation that with peace comes the challenge and the responsibility to serve, defend, and protect the meaning of its truth as enshrined and remembered in the hearts and halls of our nationhood.

- The 2009 minimum of the times - accept the status quo from 2009 - this includes all present borders, present disputes, present concerns from 2009 and constitutes the end point of the necessary labor of remembrance required by the season from the year of our Lord 0 AD to 2009 AD or the beginning of the new age of peace.

- The hope of the present season - peace, the real one - the one that ascends against all division unto true and everlasting belonging - and not the false one that is emptied out of its meaning by the darkness of the world or the spirit of war.
---<--@

Reflection:

At the level of the Republic government, the Sabah claim is not a claim of sovereignty. It is not like our existing stakes about the Western Philippine Sea.

At the level of the Republic government, the Sabah claim is a claim on the legitimacy of an historic line of royalty that resides within our sphere of responsible government and united among us by Providence in nationhood.

It is therefore, to us - a local issue - not an international issue - the Sabah issue - which we must moderate with Malaysia at the level of her Federation. Malaysia as a nation is not lacking in her own houses of royal lineages and will understand what this recognition means and how important it is.

Just because we are a Republic does not mean that there are no more of these lines that have survived the ravages of the last great age of war; where they survive they have survived to serve.

For Malaysia, this is an international issue. It is a claim only from Malaysia's point of view.

The Sabah claim ceases to be a claim from our Republic point of view but an historic grievance which has now been brought to the fore. It is something we can neither overlook, nor belittle nor abandon all together.

There is a win-win situation here. 

We feel ourselves under attack without attacking each other because we are in the dark about it. So let us together make the conscious choice not remain there but to emerge.

To do justice to every man, is this not part of the code and culture of our executive leadership? Laws bite hard against evil but it is justice to repair the damage done by evil deeds.

Is it evil to air a grievance? Is it not freedom to have and to hear a petition which is authentically human and therefore, visible and legitimate in the eyes of the nations of our world?

None has done this. If we have truly completed our remembrances, we will find that none has done this - no one. No one is to blame who presently exists in any form or way: none but a shadow of things gone by; a deadly illusion of war - for the truth is that it is up to us now to fix it - ever as those nations dreaming together this time.

We have to be willing to be the children of our Father Abraham once more that we may by the grace of God bless the communities of Mankind which are the nations of the children of Mankind.

It is not just a kindness to promote the good, in all truth it is to do justice to goodness and this, especially in the society of man is an act of civic virtue the nature of which can never be legislated for no law can ever be truly written in heaven and on earth to either bind it or prevent what God has placed in the heart of man - love perfecting justice - love in the truth.

This issue will only cease to be an issue - for all of us - for the Royal House of the Sultanate of Sulu, for their brothers spread among the other houses upon the earth, to the Republic of the Philippines, and to the Federation of Malaysia, only when justice is served - not again in partial or unclear terms, not through force of arms, not by anger nor the spirit of revenge - but by justice - one that recognizes and upholds the good - of all and for all - of nations and individuals together.

It might feel like this came at an inopportune time, I felt it too. I felt the suspicion. For my first instinct is to protect our internal peace process.

But at least now we have the initiative to actually do something with the Sabah issue - a boon in the midst of all this difficulty - let us then also recognize that if we overlook this or if we wax undecisive about it - we lose the opportunity.

We must state our position clearly first, and do this singularly from a national interest standpoint - in a way that is conducive to a meaningful and peaceful solution to the matter - privately if necessary - for the benefit of all - but especially on behalf of the Sultanate of Sulu, and in a manner that preserves the gains of our own internal peace process, and then ask them all to come home so it can be further worked out to a conclusion in concert with all concerned parties - officially and without Malaysia feeling untowardly threatened by any perceived intrusion and inadvertently even waxing hostile to our OFW's presently in their territory who only want to earn an honest living and nothing more.

Malaysia as a whole after all has invested time, prestige and treasure in the development of that region even enough perhaps to claim sovereignty rights but we should not abandon the claim of the Sultanate of Sulu and their grievance as regards to it neither must we compromise our friendship with Malaysia - we, the people, as represented by our government in the Republic state, should pray look for a more permanent solution to this pressing old problem to further make complete our present peace - together this time.

Above all, and highest of all - the Sabah issue can not be resolved by force of arms. It would indeed be an incredibly wrong turn of events to allow this to develop into open conflict; even a form of forgetfulness on an unpardonable scale, one that undoes the grace of nationhood.

Let us be patient. Let Malaysia be patient.

For I trust and believe we are better than the challenges that we presently must confront; that our peace together now is stronger and brighter here in the darkness than the darkness itself; that we, ever as our nations, are stronger than the night, this longest night, and therefore, truly belong to the morning and the coming day.

Peace is the test and to pass this test brings succees.

What ennobles is not might but right.
---<--@

Because it is also my personal hope that this issue is soon resolved - peacefully, for all:

Salaam. Shalom. Peace. Mabuhay po tayong lahat!

What is your world view?

Our Philippines,
when we emerge to become a developing Country
(and we will because we must)
will emerge into a nascent family of nations -

each of these nations endowed by God with both
- a hope that is in common with ours
as well as an experience particular to each their peoples,
shaping for that nation also
- a hope which is particular to them.

Our emerging in these present days,
as we are now just learning,
depend just as much upon our own strength and self-reliance
as upon our national view of the world -
how we belong to it, and how we plan to integrate with it -
therefore, one of the first things I should like to ask our candidates,
both executive and legislative,
is this -

What is your world view?

For if, God-helping,
we become the mature Republic
the LORD is calling us to be,
this sense of a world view shall guide us
in our treatment of other nations -
so may the LORD preserve us from vanity
that we may as a nation hope to prevail
against the errors of the past age.
---<--@

The Alienation of Hatred

2013 to 2022 is the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures

Starshine,
when nations are angry at each other,
the reasons could be many things,
but it could never be because
they are nations.

They are angry
at the reasons they're angry
and this could indeed be many things
- true or untrue, right or wrong -
but it could never be because
they are nations.

Lest we forget,
lest we forget.

The craft of all nations is peace.

As a tree may only be destroyed from the roots,
a nation may only be undone by its willingness
to forget its own remembrances.
---<--@



A Hindu saint who was visiting river Ganges to take bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled and asked,

"Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?"

The disciples thought for a while, one of them said, "Because we lose our calm, we shout."

"But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner", asked the saint.

The disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples. Finally the saint explained,

"When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.

What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small..."

The saint continued, "When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other."

He looked at his disciples and said,

"So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, do not say words that distance each other more, or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return."

(from the Internet)

In a world as small as ours,
and getting smaller each day,
do we have to keep on
shouting at each other?

Indeed, 
these distances 

can become quite near.

---<--@

Starshine,
if you understood the words of the saint,
you must now also realize - within your own self -
that this distance that prevents us
from seeing each other - as human beings -
is a spiritual reality.

For this unseeing is a form of darkness.
And this distance too is a form of darkness
the cause of which is our persistence
to choose true-blindness
over true-sight...

A darkness that (both) prevents
as well as seeks to prevent.
---<--@

Those who live for anger
know that the alienation of hatred
is permanent.

For theirs are those whose spirits move
from wilderness to wilderness
finding neither company
nor safe abode.

But those who live for love
know that, through one may become angry
and restless for a day,
one may always return to love
and find peace.

Excepted from Love that thou may live
---<--@

Starshine,
remember the impassable divide
between the rich man and Lazarus?

Truly, it is far easier for the soul of Man
to travel from one end of the universe to the other
than to bridge a spiritual distance as permanent
- as that which divides -
(the golden realms of) heaven
and (the bitter desolation of) hell.

Pray not to remain
a fugitive to thy own heart.
Release thy self (to love) and be free.

- selah -

In the end we are all wildflowers...
In the end we belong to each other...
In the end we belong to all nations...
In the end all nations belong to us...

Love is the perfection of nations.
---<--@

Remember:

When nations make war 
because they are nations, 
endless shall be our strife!

When history forgets and
its spirits live for no regret
the ruin of Man shall be rife!