Song of the Warrior Soul

A smiling soul
beautiful and fragile,
is like a flower in spring.

Strong and resilient,
like a carefully fashioned weapon.

Thus,

A warrior's sadness,
that finds the soul in darkness -
is a song of strength.

Never of despair.

Life is a sadness.
But we must live in gladness.

And fight to overcome
the fighting and the overcoming.

That in the summer
we may rest.
---<--@

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

Salutation #162

My beloved, it will be remiss of me not to speak what I feel about this...

Here is a priest blessing weapons - what feels wrong about this picture? 

(Mind you, I have seen priests of other denominations as well as holy stewards of other honorable religions doing the same thing - but I choose to be represented by my own shepherds within my Mother Church - so let he or she who has not sinned cast the first stone.)

(On the Blessing of Victory)

Since we tend to bless only those things that have an everlasting value -
the blessing of weapons seems to imply to the human heart that War
(and the suffering that war and its abominations - murder, hatred, genocide -
has continually wrought in and among the nations of the children of Mankind)
is a thing that may reach out and across into Our Eternity
to do us more ill - which is not the truth.

For in heaven, there is no War.

We may bless the individual soldier along with their kit - weapons included -
since the weapon (or weapons platform) is only an extension of the soldier
who hopes (as all soldiers across all the major arms come to hope -
through his or her submission to freely serve in the defense forces
raised by his or her particular undertaking of Country, Republic or otherwise,
to preserve his or her own nation - family, friends and communities -
from the ancient curse of War) not for the continuation of war but
for the consummation of peace).

Or we may bless the soldiers in his or her own position and place
within a particular weapons platform - terrestrial, marine, aerial, or space.

Or soldiers arrayed as a unit whole - being within their organized teams -
from the very basic maneuver element to the one whole army itself -
complete with individual kit and organic combat, combat support,
and service support attachments.

We may do this (and bless their victory) - but know and understand -
that the weapons - in and by - themselves are ultimately destined for destruction
and should never receive our blessing outside the context of the noble military
and apart from the person of the soldier.

Let us then reflect upon this and pray about it.
---<--@

Farewell to Arms

The Myth of the Magic Sword

Starshine, do you know the myth of the magic sword?



The myth of the magic sword is that the magic does not come from the sword.

:::Think and Unlock:::

Salutation #148

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.



(Nemesis)

Listen!

There are
two sources of nemesis
for any Country, republic or otherwise -
one is man-made, and the other one,
natural.

Of these two sources,
the military has a distinct role
in mitigating the damages wrought
by each their particular evils.

   (All our civilian first response teams
   integrated into police and public safety institutions
   also have a purpose and responsibility
   to carry out and fulfill
   in times of national duress
   but these purposes and responsibilities
   remain and have remained
   both clear and un-obscured hitherto.)

Now,

man-made sources
give rise to armed conflicts
but natural sources also does
give rise to armed conflicts.

Both
are of a paramount concern
to the Responsible State.

What is important
- is to remember -
which one is which.

For "peace-time roles", as such,
which are actions meant to intervene for the nation
in response to the Country's enemies of a natural source
   (i.e. floods, typhoons, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.)
through seemingly diminished
in contrast to the war-time responsibilities of any military,
   (necessarily utilized and evolved through the last great age of war)
shall have a great emphasis
in this new age.

Mabuhay!
---<--@

Prayer to the King

The Last Fading Away

Who can bear the loss of our soldiers? From all services, they are this Republic's most obedient sons and daughters... Never forget!

O Soul of Army!

Defender of our Peace -
when in battle we weep
for those whose time has come
weep not because of anguish,
our tears are meant not for grief.

Cry not because they have fallen,
those sons and daughters of Country;
valorous souls who gave to us their utmost
and have bled their everlasting witness
to the universal mission of the eternal Army
from which all honorable armed professions
draw their great lineages of victory
Here, at the last fading away -
the quest for that one final sacrifice
the very last soldier to fall

before the breaking of the Day
in the name of Peace and for Sacred Life
in a relentless war that have lasted
from the dawn of Our exile time.

O Soldier of the Peace!
Noble Defender of Country -
You are life preserving life itself
for what is Country but a work of life.
Know you not why you respond
when duty calls you to battle?
Vague at times may your reasons be
especially amidst the desolation of war
and the darkness of war's attendant evils
but forget not what you love
and love shall forget not why you live
and none shall forget you if you shall fall
for in thy Country is thy longevity
Life itself shall be your resting place
and God will forever remember you
His Peace shall forever honor you
for the time you have given others -
more time for building,
more time for sowing,
more time for loving,
more time for hoping,
for kinder days to come.

O when shall the wounding stop
and the healing begin!
O beloved Soul of Army -
when is our last fading away?

Until mankind learns
to be better builders in peace
more than wanton destroyers in war;
until humanity learns
to value Sacred Life
than to seek those paths of death
Heaven and earth shall weep
with thee, O Soul of Army,
but never for those whose time has come
for the lost are never lost
so we must seek them not in vain.
Seek not our fallen with the dead
for life is life and death is death
so let the dead bury the dead!
Let us look for those who are triumphant
not with the defeated enemies of the Peace
but with the living as well as the everliving
for God Himself has declared Peace is over War.

It is for the oppressors of Country
and the enemy of Peace and Sacred Life
for whom the bell tolls
as we sing the songs of our fallen heroes
and their potent remembrance stir
in the hearts of those who yet believe
in the victory of the eternal Army
and in the timeless vision of God
to bring to bear in the name of All that is life
the final wrath that is to come
and bring to pass
Our last fading away;
that one final hymn of taps
at the joyful dawn of the Everlasting Peace
and the breaking of this midnight world.

So cry not because of the passing away
weep for loneliness but never for sorrow
for life is life and death is death.
Let us save most of our tears for those
who yet stubbornly cling to the lie
and believe in the heart in everything that is false
giving rise to all things that inflict evil to our poor world
and bring war and death to our suffering humanity.

For it is always for the reprobate that the bell tolls
to remind to those who sow in War what they shall reap.

---<--@

20110718

Salutation #38

(Purity of Arms)

Peace can not be won by arms

but by remembrance.

Our Republic undertaking of Country

is never ennobled by the strength of arms

but by the purity of our arms.

So if we are too hasty to bear them,

if we mistake one path for the other,

my honorable compatriots,

Providence Itself will grind us

into dust and ashes.

What Divine Providence defends

and what our Nation chooses to defend

through our common Republic endeavor

(especially through its military arms)

must be one and the same

- Benignity, Harmony, Unity and Sacred Life -

that Almighty God may restore freedom

to our one Republic as a whole

- that the Peace of our one Republic undertaking -

may likewise restore

its own native protections

upon the virtues of our people.

So let us be aware -

Every nation in the world of our present day

- from the least to the most responsible of nations -

is emerging from a deep darkness;

our world as a whole is questing for this Peace.

What is unique to our present time right now,

is not the perennial nature of armed conflict

- within and between our nations -

but the sharp contrast drawn

by the sheer weight of collective human history

between the presence of War and the absence of Peace.

That we may as one nation among a family of nations,

urgently know that -

by our arms, War is delayed.

It is never hastened.

Lest we forget. Lest we forget.

---<--@

Salutation #39

(The Necessity of Soldiering)

They say,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

that the most ancient of professions is prostitution.

The most ancient of professions is soldiering.

Of the two,

my honorable Filipino compatriots,

soldiering have always existed out of a necessity

- temporal in its mission, Eternal in its scope -

to defend the necessary Peace

that, in God's own turn, work to preserve

within our Republic undertaking of Country

the promise and dignity of our nation.

Prostitution only seems ancient because of our neglect

- the utmost width and profound depth of it -

to constantly fulfill, each in our own times and places,

the promise we bear as citizens to each other.

- selah -

They say,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

that the most ancient of professions is prostitution.

The most ancient of professions is soldiering.

---<--@

The above Salutations - taken together - form my official entry into the AFP writing contest in the Team AFP facebook page.

Go Team AFP! Go Army!

Adversity Tempering Hope...

The senate hearings that exposed to the greater national dialogue the prevalence of the cultures of corruption and betrayal in our AFP is disheartening.

I could not help but feel sad about the whole thing - a necessary process, mind you - but these are sad days indeed for our military services.

It is painful to watch.

Being sad however is a far cry from being in despair.

I am of the conviction that it is normal for one to feel sad about these proceedings who loves the Filipino profession of arms. What is not normal is to feel bitter about it or to grieve as if our AFP institution is beyond all hope.

Our Republic is not dead yet, my honorable compatriots.

You know this to be true who can feel its spirit stirring in your heart, calling you to care and to start believing again... in ourselves as ourselves.

---<--@

Why do I care about our AFP?

It's not complicated.

I am a citizen of this Republic endeavor. I understand it.

When I say, I love my Country, I mean it. I love my Country with a love that is not vague. I love my Country with a heart that is able to see by the light of my faith in God and in my fellow Filipinos the profound riches of the great destiny that the LORD has entrusted to our keeping.

I intend to cherish this gift and protect it from all takers.

I will defend this love as far as I am able, together with all my fellow citizens, utilizing whatever talents God has given me, because I understand - despite myself - with an unfaltering conviction that If I lose this love, I stand to lose everything.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

A Prayer to the King

20110623

Salutation #20

(Freedom and the Filipino Dream)

My fellow Filipino compatriots -

Is the Filipino truly free?

Not while Country flounders

and ignorance of it reigns...

Not while our one Republic sky

remains shattered and broken

and our Peace is left unspoken.

- selah -

What is thy vision, O my people?

Is it so difficult to dream

- nowadays -

that we have forgotten the dreaming

that in ourselves as ourselves

require our constant true believing?

Have we forgotten the daring

that must accompany the dreaming

that can not take to its flight

without our surrendering

to the greater dream of Country?

- selah -

Shall we be forever fettered

by this lingering gloom, this unbelief,

this stultifying lack of conviction

in the nation in ourselves?

Shall God forever deny us

the Peace of our one Republic whole?

- selah -

Does our freedom consist in chains?

Indeed, freedom is a bond

but it is a bond of truth

- as a vow -

forged in the fire of brotherhood.

It is a liberating, expansive experience

of all that is good in the ascent

toward the unity of God

and the perfection of our humanity.

It is not a fear of responsibility

for our freedom is not the so-called freedom

of tyrants and cowards

but a courageous acceptance of the same.

It is simply the happiness of knowing

you are who you ought to be

in the LORD and among your fellows,

a citizen, true and true.

- selah -

If this has resonance in you,

let it rekindle in your heart

- a willingness -

to make this Republic of ours,

according to the freedom of our gifts,

truly a home away from Home for all Filipinos.

Is the Filipino truly free?

Do not look for the answer in others

seek the the answer in thyself!

---<--@

Salutation #21

(A Revolution of the Heart)

My fellow Filipino compatriots -

If it is so

that the need for adaptation

has outpaced the agility of our Republic to react

- as it is being evidenced now -

by our vulnerabilities to disasters of a natural source,

we must take this concern to heart,

my honorable compatriots.

Because if we are now being outpaced by these

what more of man-made calamities

which are much, much more unforgiving?

Or is it so

that these natural sources of nemesis for our Country

are being presently aggravated

by the willfulness of persons

who desire for our nation no good will at all?

Persons who from motives

ranging from blind self-interest

to a complete and utter collaboration with the evil in all evil things,

bring down upon our common folk

untold suffering at our expense?

All the more must we endeavor

to awaken to the calling of God and Country within ourselves,

O you of noble Filipino heart

- because -

if we can not preserve ourselves against their scandal,

we shall lay ourselves prone against their evil

and will fall with the very same cohort

as those who seek to overthrow

the rule of God in our lands

and sow confusion in the hearts of our people.

For the War to liberate the soul of this Country is in our hearts

- let us remain vigilant -

and let us complete our remembrances with each other,

invoking the LORD for His guidance

and His most efficacious assistance - always.

As the slogan from my home Province of Cavite goes -

Let us make this is a revolution of the heart.

---<--@

Salutation #22

(A Nation with a Soul of Submission and a Republic with a Heart of Peace)

To each of you, my honorable Filipino compatriots,

and to all our generations, Peace - mabuhay!

Our original line of eternal election* lost (to War),

(*that is, our hereditary rulers - kings, queens and princes of old)

we are survived still by the nation in ourselves -

for we are a nation, O my people,

born and bred in battle

and as thus, my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

our hearts can no longer be divided

for we are a people

inclined by the Providence of God

in our heart of hearts

to an understanding of His peace -

one lineage of hope, 7,107 islands strong.

A Republic undertaking of Country

is like a phoenix

born out of the ashes of fire and revolution -

it is therefore,

an endeavor of our generations

established not in War

but in Peace.

Our Republic therefore,

must be built up from the fostering strength

of its own abiding will of Peace.

For as no human hope may be realistically built

upon foundations wrought in War,

a Republic that must prevail

must prevail first from the fire of its own revolution

and emerge from within

its own ashes where from

this Country must eventually emerge

from War into Peace.

Our Republic must therefore,

for it to serve as a guardian to an orphaned people,

be brought up

- here in our heart of hearts -

in the spirit of the absolute defense.

And so the best indicator of the Republic will

to preserve itself (at any time)

- in the first instance -

is the prevailing state

of its national military forces,

its spirit as well as its capabilities,

namely the entirety of its willingness

and ability to fulfill its constant mission

as well as

- in the second instance -

the watches of its community police

who are the custodians of the civic peace

and all of its first responders

whether professional, reserved, or volunteer

who are the extensions of the good will of the state.

Now, the watches of the community police -

more than enforce the law,

deter criminal activities,

and combat criminal structures,

must be custodians of the peace of the community

and are therefore

free agents of the cause of justice

inspired by a sense

of the vision of the nation in themselves

who more than quash evil by force of law

promote by personal example

as well as by extension

of the instrumentality of the policing institution

the whole individual good

- human dignity as well as human promise -

in the spirit of the community good

for the law and its prescripts belong to our courts

but to our own national police services

must primarily belong the order of the peace

of our civic communities.

Blessed indeed is the nation served

by the unblinking vigilance of the watches

of their own loyal police, fire, rescue,

and various civil defense services,

including its rehabilitative institutions,

- at all levels and at all times and places -

professional, reserve, as well as volunteer.

As to our noble military services,

charged primarily with the defense of this nation

standing faithfully with the Republic favored by God Almighty

with the Sacred Life and common good of our generations

to the very last of our generations

and so by equal extension

our national peace and good will

with all the other nations

of our one family of the nations of Mankind

especially here in our region, in our continent of Asia,

and across all the continental wholes of our needful world

caught adrift between heaven and earth -

Preserve the sense of the person of the soldier in yourselves.

Do not be influenced by evil affairs!

Do not be so swayed by those present things,

passing and obsolete in themselves

- empty of promise -

being manifestly vain by their very nature;

things that you know so very well

in your own heart of courage and peace,

have absolutely nothing to do with the good in yourselves

which though vulnerable is of a nobler and lasting substance,

more in keeping with the virtues of your profession.

Therefore,

Beloved of God,

do not be so swayed by those present things,

so as to become bitter

or fall into the darkness of despair,

neither allow your soul to become fraught

so needlessly by anxieties about tomorrow

for tomorrow is here now

with you today.

- selah -

For you are the path that opens

who know by your own heart

the Republic belongs to those who love it

and the nation to those who take this love to heart.

If the times are dark, it is not because of the true:

As every lion waits for its time, so must you.

Indeed, however long the night,

it can not last forever.

---<--@

Peace is original to our state. It can not be won in battle nor can peace ever be attained through war.

Peace, as it concerns our nations, can only be re-established among the hearts of the people.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Two Questions

20110622

Salutation #19

(The War in Heaven, the Person of the Soldier, and the Responsibility of Peace)

Mankind was never meant

by the one LORD of all heaven and earth

to face the darkness and the desolation wrought by

the Adversary of God and of All Sacred Life.

Mankind was never meant to fight these battles.

War was never part of the plan for the nations of the children of Mankind.

Therefore, the craft of Peace

which is the craft of all human nations

is not a wholly human obligation.

Humanity (as the nations of Mankind)

shares this role (the person of the soldier)

and responsibility (the craft of soldiering)

of Peace with the Holy Angels of the LORD

for the mission of the Absolute Defense is a ministry

empowered and blessed by the victory

of our one, invulnerable and omnipotent God.

The War in heaven is in the heart.

But this Peace is just as ancient as the ancient of War.

If we forget this, O my beloved nations,

in this midnight darkness, we will lose our way.

For War takes responsibility only for itself.

But this Peace is the responsibility of All.

All Soldiers fight from the heart

alive to the eternal mission of the one Army

this is the person of the soldier -

it is a ministry of the defense of Sacred Life.

Blessed is the nation served by them.

For thou art a nation of Peace!

And truly, truly, truly,

the LORD prospers all of His own.

The uniform of every military service is sacred

but the person of the soldier is held in the highest esteem

by the noble military of all nations.

For the person of the soldier

does not dwell with War in the Heart.

He does not stand from a view

of permanent and irreconcilable divisions

that believes that the causes for conflict are many

and the enemy is everywhere.

He does not draw his elan vitale

from a will dominated by blind hatred

of vague and faceless opponents.

For all soldiers fight from the heart

but the person of the soldier does not fight

to maintain and advance the causes of a divided Mankind.

Nor exist to propagate the flames of conflict.

For he is not a taker of life but a preserver of the life of nations.

Truly blessed are those nations served by them.

For thou art nations of Peace!

And truly, truly, truly,

the LORD prospers all of His own.

(NOTE: The use of the word "soldier" in this body of work is always inclusive of all members of the armed services but specifically pertains to the Infantry).

---<--@

The Quest for Sustainable Peace

THERE IS NO OTHER TIME in human history where the need for peace is greater than our present time.

With the passing of the last century, we have seen the great tumult brought about by three global wars - the First, Second and the Cold War.

It must not be lost to our humanity that a war that is global in scope is a significant evolution in the nature of warfare.

For conflict and its paradigm run parallel in their course. War and its outbreaks in our world being determined both by the actual viability of waging war and the will to make war is indicative of the relationship between conflict and its paradigm.

The paradigm that exists today in our world is one of War (in the heart).

And this paradigm is prevalent not only in terms of the conflicts that plague our nations, this paradigm is now present also in our societies, in our markets and even in our places of worship - the one place where War should have no footing, it has entered.

Thus, because the paradigm of War is an absolute whole and as this paradigm has come to cover the whole of the earth, the very word, "peace", it can now be said, is both under appreciated and misunderstood in its meaning (i.e. it appears eclipsed to the eye of our souls).

To understand War as a paradigm whole, we must return to our roots.

To understand Peace as a paradigm whole, we must awaken to the eternal destiny of our nations.

If we are to include spiritual considerations with regards to War as a paradigm whole, it would be more sobering. But since I should like to make this a primarily secular statement, I thought not to include it as much as possible (without damaging or distorting the reality of our humanity) in this post.

For the reality of the times and the obvious trending of these things are indicative enough of the consequences to make the choice for Peace, a very reasonable one.

With the passing of the last millennium, after 2000 years of dwelling with War, we must (as nations dreaming together this time) complete our remembrances and bring our hopes forward for the favorable season for Peace is Now.

At the waning of the Industrial Age, there are yet problems that exist in our world that belong to that age, problems which shall prevent or preclude what benefits our world stand to reap from this Information Age as well as understand more closely the challenges that await us which are proper to this new age.

But the siege of War must be lifted even before our nations shall have the capacity to effectively address these problems.

We are nations because our responsibility to our world and to each other require us to dwell in the strength of our human communities.

And we will take this responsibility with us in this life and, if I may, in the one that is to come (for we shall also individually stand to final account before the bar of the Justice of God in Eternity for this manifest gift of nationhood).

Our human habitation is not just this inhabited earth, it is the reality that includes both spirit and earth, body and soul, for thus were we created, only thus can all things truly human be effectively understood.

Human reality is our habitation - our one visible universe and those universes within every human being. Our habitation, like ourselves, forms a one, indivisible whole. Therefore, there is nothing truly human that can be divided - much less the earth.

It is material possession not the truth that is relative. This is not to say that we should not practice prudence in our temporal affairs - it is a good thing to be able to hold on to material wealth for it is a reflection of entrepreneurial skill and virtue, but above all things, we should ever be mindful that our ultimate belonging is to each other.

True and lasting human happiness, in all realities, can only be achieved as a common destiny. And this destiny can never be won by ends that are purely material, entirely selfish, self-serving or willfully evil.

Our nations with their Responsible States respect borders not because our reality is divided but because this responsibility must be shared by all nations.

Nor does human responsibility end at every limit of a nation-state's sphere of influence. In fact, if I may, our human responsibility stretches ever onward across our generations and into eternity.

Our responsible stewardship of creation requires Mankind, in all our generations, to be thus arrayed - as nations. Indeed, our nations, albeit imperfect, were meant for more noble and worthwhile purposes than breeding grounds for those conflicts which in the end shall defeat the cause for which they were at the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden established - to prosper the Peace of the LORD, our God and one, true Sovereign.

The paradigm of War makes meaningful the lie that war can somehow be good - all war is evil - only human beings can obtain the grace to be good, no war is just, but there are just people who from every nation must fight in them.

War preys on other truths, corrupting them for its own ambitions in order to gain a footing in the human soul which shall otherwise perceive as incomprehensible the meaningless lie which is its one, true form and substance.

Neither War nor its agents, seen or unseen, can ever truly be good - for War, by nature of its violence and aggression as witnessed by all our nations in our history, must involve the willful taking away of human life, the destruction of created things, the annihilation of entire nations - the very definition of complete evil.

The spirit of War revels in meaningless opposition, division, deception, discord and blind hatred - everything that is foreign to our original human belongings both as nations and as individuals. It mires the people in despair and poverty.

Indeed, even our nations shall fail to take their flight if their spirit is afflicted by the descendant gravity of War.

There will be conflict, for we live in an imperfect reality, but it should not have to bear any more significant a weight so as to reduce any nation-state's capacity to provide for itself, advance the common good, make provisions to better aid other nation-states and secure the Peace that shall help mature its own Sheltering Wings to serve and to prosper all the generations of Sacred Life entrusted by God to each its own nurture and protection.

The sum total of all the ill will that humanity can muster on its own can not match the evils we have witnessed in the last 2000 years (or more if remembrance serves us well, right to the time of Abel when the Beast of War first entered into the earth).

And this Beast of War may only be gathering in force and maturity - at our expense.

Therefore, this is not to say that we will not employ military force in our defense as nations. For defense is the natural duty not only of every human individual as citizens to each other but also of the Angels of the LORD. Truly, even God Himself is committed to this cause (Sacred Life).

But no defense can ever survive if it arrives last and does not hold the ground.

For defense by its own nature must be fought from grounds that are understood and therefore, held by the line of the defense being certain of its own truth; ordered, organized, lawful and arrayed as thus, being noble in spirit and in form.

And Peace as a one paradigm whole is the grounds by which this defense shall be undertaken.

We must quest for sustainable peace in our world. Drive back the darkness of War and make room (in our hearts, in our lives, in our communities, and in our times) for a better, more worthwhile, albeit imperfect world for all the nations of our one family of the nations of Mankind.

Our humanity (in our nations as nations distinct but not apart from each other being bound by spirit and covenant as one family) must become alert to the fact that the generations that are to come after us depend on us today.

Their song must not remain unsung.

This is our fight, our longest night.
---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat nang mga bansa! Long may our remembrance serve us. May God bless all the nations of our one family of the nations of Mankind.

The Hero of Tirad Pass

Remember,

O noble Filipino soul -

you gallant keepers of the peace,

the virtues that keep thee steadfast

in the spirit of the defense.

Love of God,

love of Country,

love of Sacred Life

even to the point of giving it

in the midst of the nation in thy selves

and the assembly of the nations before God

- freely and with joy -

with courage and honor intact

for that same cause.

Remember our own

General Gregorio del Pilar,

the Hero of Tirad Pass!

THE LAST FADING AWAY

O Soul of Army!
Defender of our Peace -
when in battle we weep
for those whose time has come
weep not because of anguish,
our tears are meant not for grief.

Cry not because they have fallen,
those sons and daughters of Country;
valorous souls who gave to us their utmost
and have bled their everlasting witness
to the universal mission of the eternal Army
from which all honorable armed professions
draw their great lineages of victory
Here, at the last fading away -
the quest for that one final sacrifice
the very last soldier to fall

before the breaking of the Day
in the name of Peace and for Sacred Life
in a relentless war that have lasted
from the dawn of Our exile time.

O Soldier of the Peace!
Noble Defender of Country -
You are life preserving life itself
for what is Country but a work of life.
Know you not why you respond
when duty calls you to battle?
Vague at times may your reasons be
especially amidst the desolation of war
and the darkness of war's attendant evils
but forget not what you love
and love shall forget not why you live
and none shall forget you if you shall fall
for in thy Country is thy longevity
Life itself shall be your resting place
and God will forever remember you
His Peace shall forever honor you
for the time you have given others -
more time for building,
more time for sowing,
more time for loving,
more time for hoping,
for kinder days to come.

O when shall the wounding stop
and the healing begin!
O beloved Soul of Army -
when is our last fading away?

Until mankind learns
to be better builders in peace
more than wanton destroyers in war;
until humanity learns
to value Sacred Life
than to seek those paths of death
Heaven and earth shall weep
with thee, O Soul of Army,
but never for those whose time has come
for the lost are never lost
so we must seek them not in vain.
Seek not our fallen with the dead
for life is life and death is death
so let the dead bury the dead!
Let us look for those who are triumphant
not with the defeated enemies of the Peace
but with the living as well as the everliving
for God Himself has declared Peace is over War.

It is for the oppressors of Country
and the enemy of Peace and Sacred Life
for whom the bell tolls
as we sing the songs of our fallen heroes
and their potent remembrance stir
in the hearts of those who yet believe
in the victory of the eternal Army
and in the timeless vision of God
to bring to bear in the name of All that is life
the final wrath that is to come
and bring to pass
Our last fading away;
that one final hymn of taps
at the joyful dawn of the Everlasting Peace
and the breaking of this midnight world.

So cry not because of the passing away
weep for loneliness but never for sorrow
for life is life and death is death.
Let us save most of our tears for those
who yet stubbornly cling to the lie
and believe in the heart in everything that is false
giving rise to all things that inflict evil to our poor world
and bring war and death to our suffering humanity.

For it is always for the reprobate that the bell tolls
to remind to those who sow in War what they shall reap.

The Peace of the Times

20110507

Our President Noy is in Jakarta for the 18th ASEAN Summit.

As you know, my fellow Filipino compatriots, our nation is an integral part of the ASEAN. And I would that we should always bear this in mind and heart. We rightfully belong to this region and this region rightfully belongs to our ASEAN Neighborhood.

We should preserve a sense of good will and proper pride about our regional grouping in ASEAN. Because no other grouping of nations can build up the earth here in our region but ours. This is our own dreaming together as ASEAN.

If we remain focused here in the Philippines on our own goals of peace and national development, right here within our own Republic undertaking of Country, we should become aware also that we are adding to the strength of our regional community.

There will come a time when we can reach further out of ourselves in peace and good will with other nations in times of need, and with much better means, but until that time, right here is where we must all begin, right here in the Philippines - our Republic as an integral part of the ASEAN Neighborhood.

Depending on which Country one belongs, every Country here in ASEAN is the best place to live on earth. But only if we collectively believe we can make it so.

It is important that we learn to accept the needs that arise from realities that are local to our region. These needs essentially drive our nations together toward its natural goals which lead to peace and prosperity.

Or if we are not yet wise, it could drive our nations apart.

However, the fact that we have ASEAN is good. Because it manifests our common will of unity.

We can not enlarge the horizons of our own world view realistically if we can not learn to grow out of the colonial mindset that seeks greener pastures elsewhere first.

We can not neglect the fact that we live in this region.

Though each nation in ASEAN belong also to the greater regions of the earth, it is here in the Philippines, and here in our ASEAN, where we must always, always think to build first.

My honorable compatriots, that inherent tendency to disown by false comparison, our Country and our Region, is something we have to learn to let go if we are to finally come into our own in this world.

If we can not learn to love our own, we can not love (at all). If we only love our own, we do not love (we hate). None of these attitudes of nationhood are conducive to peace and development.

If we want to love, we must simply do so bravely, beginning with ourselves and like the stars shining outward - love all things without condition, without compare, and without measure.

For we are a nation distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind (which is represented in and by the U.N. of which we are all part).

Two things I should like to write about here in particular as regards to the 18th ASEAN Summit:

Firstly, the Border Dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, I should like to point out, share a similar dimension with the larger, more complex Spratly dispute.

They are both essentially an issue of overlapping claims of sovereignty.

None of these are viable population centers which means the present conflict is not essentially military in nature.

Behind all the rhetoric, in both cases, I think I can safely say that the issue is entirely driven by something else.

In the case of the border dispute between the two member nations of our ASEAN Neighborhood, I do not think it too unrealistic to say that in the interests of both Countries and the greater good of the region, the conflict may be safely contained by delimiting the nature of the engagement away from traditional military means.

By this I am manifesting my belief that this is cultural engagement and therefore, amenable to other solutions of a more ambitious nature.

Furthermore, the military solution can not simply be sustained either so the sooner it is taken out of the cards, the better.

The creation of a Common Trust solution that takes into consideration particular concerns as well as puts the territory squarely in the stewardship of both nations might be the better way ahead for both Thailand and Cambodia.

Therefore, I challenge the ASEAN Neighborhood to come up with a Common Trust solution to the Cambodia-Thailand Border Dispute.

A Common Trust solution to this unfortunate border dispute, in my own view, will yield valuable lessons learned that in turn will contribute toward a workable solution to the Spratly issue.

However, ASEAN must first connect the two issues together.

The other thing is the reaffirmation of the essential doctrine of Civilian Superiority Over the Military.

---<--@

The Royal Wedding

Last week, much of the world had a breather...

I am a fan of Princess Diana's advocacy against the use of land mines and I still am. I am also very appreciative of her de-mining efforts here in our region.

I think something went full circle last week... It certainly feels that way to me.

I am certainly not against the institution of the Monarchy as an integral part of the Responsible State, mind you.

That I was - like you - born into a Republic undertaking of Country simply does not make it that way, my honorable compatriots.

I am however, like you, against bad governance of all sizes and stripes.

So congratulations to Prince William and Catherine!

May God bless their wedlock vows that He may keep them always together.

May they always be able to say forever to each other and mean it.

May God prosper their works of leadership and service.

And may God further bless their union with the new life of children.

Cheers to the Royal Couple! God bless the U.K.!

Good on you, Will Wales.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang ASEAN! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Paradox of Power

20101222

Order of Chaplains, Abrahamic

The information revolution as signified by the revolution in military affairs (RMA) at the advent of the information age is clearly and primarily a moral evolution.

To be sure, this information revolution is a planetary phenomenon the effects of which have only been becoming more and more tangibly felt across all the nations of the world as a whole.

Many things may be said about it, so many in fact that it is often difficult to know where to begin to understand its longer term effects.

However, its surest foundation, it may now be affirmed, especially in the universal profession of arms, must only be found in every human heart - the primordial domain of the human spirit.

Therefore, the necessary evolution of our AFP into a 21st Century force must also include, along with the Human Rights Office (HRO), its Chaplain Corps.

That there must be those lingering divisions and present confusion at the heart of the military Chaplaincy in general is in itself a sign of the times.

Because it is precisely this darkness in the soul itself that must first be confronted and overcome to set its will of faith against the greater darkness that plagues the human spirit in general and the noble military in specific.

And we shall do this, my fellow Filipino compatriots - together this time.

Toward this end is conceived the Order of Chaplains, Abrahamic:

The one Chaplaincy

The military Chaplain is a servant of God
and a dedicated instrument of the one Peace of God.

He does not bear arms against men
nor does he exists to fight against the nations of men.

He is an extension of the good will of all nations
and a constant reminder of our desire for better days.

He is faithful to the cause of the noble military
being jealous in the observance of honor and purity of arms.

He is a keeper of our sacred remembrances
lending noble strength to the martial practice of virtue.

He is a shepherd of the souls of our soldiers
and represents amidst conflicts our abiding hope for peace.

He labors to instill in every heart, a will of life,
and gives recourse to sorrow when life itself seems lost.

He brings comfort when despair seem to linger near
consoling spirits by his gentle sense of optimism and joy.

He is patient to understand each need to be understood
and leads the anxious heart toward greater trust in greater things.

He brings the light of God when darkness is deepest
and speaks the necessary truth when and where truth counts.

He provides for the spiritual needs of the soldier
and the Sacraments (Catholic) that strengthen them in the grace of God.

He counsels the doubtful, the confused he guides into reason, he instructs the ignorant in the truth and the lost he helps to be found by faith in God.

He prays for the safety of the person of the soldier at all times, in times of peace but especially in fields of battle, entrusting to God and Country, the victory of our noble military.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Christmas Greetings!

Peace among the nations.

Good will to all men and women of peace.

...from star to star, one whole sky:




Jus Cogens: The Four Faithful Causes

20101221

The President's decisive intervention on behalf of the Morong 43 have paved the way for their eventual release.

I appreciate that the workings of our democracy, imperfect though it may be, and the present executive will embodied by PNoy, being solicitous for each their personal rights, have produced for them the freedom many of us have hoped for.

Thank you so much, Mr. President. That they will be home with their families this Christmas is indeed in keeping with the spirit of the season which is peace and reconciliation.

The Morong 43 were apprehended on suspicion of complicity or active participation in the NPA. Those suspicions, I now hope, shall remain suspicions that, if they are truly unfounded, in time will eventually dissipate from the national memory.

Truth will out, our liberty permits.

Because, my fellow Filipino compatriots, if there is anything that we may all stand to learn from this somewhat confusing and untoward incident is that our democracy, fragile and imperfect as it is, is something worth loving and keeping and fighting for.

Truth will out, our liberty permits: Our democracy works and the timely and judicious release of the Morong 43 illustrates this point.

And they say, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that we're a "flawed democracy". No, we are a young Republic - and time is on our side. We will gain maturity and strength if we ascend with the ascent of time towards God and Country; towards the wholeness of truth that we are but one nation, one lineage of hope, 7,107 islands strong; towards the unity of peace and national destiny.

Towards this end, all Filipinos of every generation have but one common purpose. Towards this end of a vibrant, free and flourishing Republic, that awesome vision of a meaningful and lasting peace between all Filipinos among our one nation have its strongest foundation.

What oppresses us is division; what prevents us from obtaining from the LORD, our God, the peace that prospers is the War that we keep in our hearts - against our common humanity with each other. This War did not find a place in heaven, it most certainly must not find a place in the Filipino heart - of one accord, O my nation, must we learn to love with one love alone.

Our unity is an aspect of our liberty as a nation distinct but not apart from the one family of the nations of Mankind; it is part of the intrinsic strength of our democracy. Clearly, it is from a dearth of good will and liberty that we begin understand what it takes to be free. Because to understand our freedom, we must learn to endure its demands...

Today is AFP Day.

Sometimes, when dark and overcast days persist, we must learn to trust that the stars are out there, spread above us, upon the heavens, in the sky - because they are.

It is easy to get lost in this midnight darkness if we have nothing to steer a course in and through this exile time with - but we do.

Because as a nation, we are in ourselves, one whole sky.

Today we remember the vital importance of strengthening our AFP institution.

Our AFP recently established a Human Rights Office (HRO) as part of the HQ Staff of the AFP Chief of Staff. This Office shall oversee the operational conduct of all our soldiers across all three services down to battalion level to ensure ethical standards are met.

This is a milestone in Philippine military history.

Today we remember also the Samar 10 and the person of the soldier.

"Kawal" is a Filipino word for soldier. Our native tongue does not make the usual distinctions between soldier, sailor, airman, or marine. It particularly refers to the land force upon and around which the total force is built. But in a sense, "kawal" also applies to the total force.

It is in this universal spirit that I use the word soldier - "kawal" - or to be more specific, the person of the soldier.

The person of the soldier is the Soul of Army; souls

endowed by the Almighty with the heart that possesses the will that redeem time and again, in the sight of God, Angels and Men, the intrinsic honor and inherent nobility of the universal profession of arms.

The will of the fight is to win. For no one fights for the sake of fighting alone. But a person who hates and fights for what he hates soon forgets the will of the fight. Because what you love and what you must fight for in this world are always one and the same thing.

A citizen who knows in his heart and in his mind what he loves, who is willing to fight for what he loves, and has the means to fight for what he loves - that is a soldier.

Soldiers always fight to win.

THE LAST FADING AWAY

O Soul of Army!
Defender of our Peace -
when in battle we weep
for those whose time has come
weep not because of anguish,
our tears are meant not for grief.

Cry not because they have fallen,
those sons and daughters of Country;
valorous souls who gave to us their utmost
and have bled their everlasting witness
to the universal mission of the eternal Army
from which all honorable armed professions
draw their great lineages of victory
Here, at the last fading away -
the quest for that one final sacrifice
the very last soldier to fall

before the breaking of the Day
in the name of Peace and for Sacred Life
in a relentless war that have lasted
from the dawn of Our exile time.

O Soldier of the Peace!
Noble Defender of Country -
You are life preserving life itself
for what is Country but a work of life.
Know you not why you respond
when duty calls you to battle?
Vague at times may your reasons be
especially amidst the desolation of war
and the darkness of war's attendant evils
but forget not what you love
and love shall forget not why you live
and none shall forget you if you shall fall
for in thy Country is thy longevity
Life itself shall be your resting place
and God will forever remember you
His Peace shall forever honor you
for the time you have given others -
more time for building,
more time for sowing,
more time for loving,
more time for hoping,
for kinder days to come.

O when shall the wounding stop
and the healing begin!
O beloved Soul of Army -
when is our last fading away?

Until mankind learns
to be better builders in peace
more than wanton destroyers in war;
until humanity learns
to value Sacred Life
than to seek those paths of death
Heaven and earth shall weep
with thee, O Soul of Army,
but never for those whose time has come
for the lost are never lost
so we must seek them not in vain.
Seek not our fallen with the dead
for life is life and death is death
so let the dead bury the dead!
Let us look for those who are triumphant
not with the defeated enemies of the Peace
but with the living as well as the everliving
for God Himself has declared Peace is over War.

It is for the oppressors of Country
and the enemy of Peace and Sacred Life
for whom the bell tolls
as we sing the songs of our fallen heroes
and their potent remembrance stir
in the hearts of those who yet believe
in the victory of the eternal Army
and in the timeless vision of God
to bring to bear in the name of All that is life
the final wrath that is to come
and bring to pass
Our last fading away;
that one final hymn of taps
at the joyful dawn of the Everlasting Peace
and the breaking of this midnight world.

So cry not because of the passing away
weep for loneliness but never for sorrow
for life is life and death is death.
Let us save most of our tears for those
who yet stubbornly cling to the lie
and believe in the heart in everything that is false
giving rise to all things that inflict evil to our poor world
and bring war and death to our suffering humanity.

For it is always for the reprobate that the bell tolls
to remind to those who sow in war what they shall reap.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Christmas Greetings!

Peace among the nations.

Good will to all men and women of peace.

Remembrance: The Ages of Country