Nation at Prayer

My brothers and sisters of the Promise, today at 5:00 pm, our Nation will pray. We shall pray for those who were lost to us from natural and man-made disasters last year - for indeed there were too many.

They were
our fellow men and women;
fellow citizens the LORD intended
for the great labor of this Country
- human beings not unlike ourselves -

who, male and female, young and old, 

dreamt with us a common Dream 

of a better Republic for all Filipinos.  

Living souls whose fruits we shall never now know or taste  -
Promised lives whose fruition we shall never now see or hear -
whose fullness of good renown this world shall never now enjoy.

All of them we shall now commit to the one God of all Nations - each of them by their name - ever by a space in the heart we shall solemnly recall them - and resolve before the LORD as one Nation that their loss shall not have been in vain.

And as we remember them now, let us be sure to remember them as they were - always. So full of the things we shall today - in prayer before God - commit to the memory of our common humanity - so full of the things of life - so certain of the promise of the Peace which is our Nation's original birthright.

For indeed we shall remember them - we shall ensure their hopes do not remain unheard and their lives do not remain fallen. For we shall indeed bury with the past - the evil of those days.

None shall remain behind us but the dust.

For every thing that is to us everything we shall carry with us - in our hearts - into 2014; and the rest we shall commit before God unto tomorrows we shall as one Nation in Peace continue to reach for - together this time.

We thank you LORD God for this time to pray unto Thee!

We thank you God for the lineage, instrumentality and the unique person of our 15th President Noynoy, we thank you God for our Nation and for our Nation's Republic, we thank you God for family and friends, and for this Family of Friends - united in thy Peace - upon a journey of greater belonging and of learning to know each other in Thee.



Salaam. Shalom. Peace. For Thou art God, above and beyond all things, and there is no other, AMEN.
---<--@

Salutation #161

My brothers and sisters of the Promise, I have always stressed both the importance of prayer as well as the universality of prayer.

Prayer is as necessary to the soul of Man as breathing is to his body.

There is no Man on earth - past, present, or future - who, having seen creation in a constant state of prayer, has never thought to look inward and gaze into the depths of that irresistible Silence within himself without asking the questions he knows in his heart he may only address to God.

No human heart is fool enough to resist the power of prayer. Indeed, all of creation around us - seen and unseen - exists in a constant state of prayer.

Therefore, no Man who has ever existed, exists or shall ever exist may ever truly claim to have never prayed; to have never gazed with his heart into the depths of mysteries unseen, to have never experienced the buoyancy of hope, nor sensed the immediacy of faith, nor the timelessness of love.

What is common to all our prayer regardless of externals is that universal human desire to experience the reality of the Divine.

For prayer is a common human need. It is an attitude of the human heart.

In a faithful Republic, prayer is protected and this protection extends especially to all places of holy worship - temples, churches, synagogues, and mosques.



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

(On Prayer)

AS A RULE, my precious Starshine,
prayer is always more
than the sum of all that we can see
with our unseeing eyes.

A soul in prayer is a heart present to its thought;
a walk across the vast, empty deserts within;
a reaching out to places beyond self;
a looking above from within.

It is silence contemplating Silence -
alone with the Alone.

It is a growing, persevering,
often times frustrating work
born of great necessity,
out of thy love of God.

Prayer is an ascent to the timeless,
anchored upon ageless truth,
of all the things we love
and of the Love that all created things hope for,
most especially by the truth of thy heart of love,
and of thy faith yearning to God in prayer.

The way to God is a crooked line,
for we are all but human.
But the way of prayer
makes this way certain.

For the soul that perseveres in prayer
shall indeed profit
from the LORD Who rewards all things,
great and small, known and known to God alone,
when done out of love and fear
of the one common Creator
of all common creation, seen and unseen.

It is not only important that we pray,
and persevere in this way, my precious friend,
in private, above all in community with each other,
it is simply necessary for human happiness
and the well-being of the still small truth that lives,
like a mustard seed,
inside of every self
for all things true and everlasting
depend on a heart of prayer.

Prayer is spiritual.

Therefore,
there are seasons within the soul that range
from sweet to dry or empty
but never must thy heart stay still,
you must gather when it needs gathering
and to know also when to look beyond these seasons;
you must be vigilant,
pressing on till you reach the heart of God
to lay your hopes in the LORD.

So prayer may be long
or it may be short
but it must always be timeless,
its substance is the motion
that lives like a love longing for Itself.

And when the Silence shall to your bowed heart speak,
It shall do so swift as light,
being Spoken without words
and instantly manifest to your soul as winged truth -
then you shall seek to forget all other things
but God and God alone.

And in God you shall range far,
self cognizant of self,
intimate with the Intimate,
to dwell in holy remembrance of all things.

For far may your wandering heart be
but to love and in Love
you shall forever remain
when you shall in prayer persevere.

So do so, dearest Starshine,
and say AMEN:
Know for thy own self
why the heart that believes
believes only because it prays.
---<--@

(produced 20090223)


Prayer is the first thing. It is also the last thing.

Salutation #150

A Christian without prayer is like a soldier without a rifle.



(Rosary of Hope)

My people -

Do not be afraid
neither be confused.

Dark have our times become
so we have to let the darkness be...

Let us busy ourselves
not with the darkness.

Let us busy ourselves
with the things of the light.

And learn
of the coming of the morning
even in the midst of the night.

In these times,
we have a need to shine
ever as the stars promised of old
to our Father Abraham -
together this time.

Therefore,
I will share each with you
(though I feel most unworthy to do so),
my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
the horizontal aspect of the vertical rosary -

The rosary of hope.

   I need your help in praying this rosary.

   Let us intercede for each other
   with the Blessed Mother.

   Let us pray as a nation.

For
we now
have reason
under this season
to pray harder,
hope brighter,
love kinder,
and believe truer
than we ever
have before.
---<--@

Rosary of Hope (condensed)

I have gleaned from this rosary
many of the things I have come to know
about our undertaking of Country
in relation to our own nation
and in relation to our kindred nations
though I am not perfect in my prayer habits.

This is so
because God is merciful
and our Lady loves this nation
and through our nation wills to extend this love
to all the nations of the children of Mankind
through the liberation of the human heart in prayer
   (the ultimate expression of which
   is the Eucharistic Reign of Jesus Christ
   in and across all Christian hearts)
and the gradual strengthening of the human spirit
in and across all our kindred nations,
making us all one human family - in hope.

Begin with the intention to begin:

Lord Jesus, let me offer to You, this rosary of hope.

+Sign of the Cross

The Apostle's Creed -
meditate on Christian unity
and harmony among the churches.

The First our Father -
meditate on the unity of the LORD, our God.

The first three Hail Mary's -
meditate on the distinct Personages
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The first Glory be -
meditate on the glory of God;
the culmination of all our faith,
the realization of all our hopes,
the perfection of all our love -

Identify (intimately) with the Kingdom in thee,
seek to bring it forth into the darkness of the world.

The Five Meditations

1st Meditation - True Self
2nd Meditation - Family
3rd Meditation - Friends
4th Meditation - Nation/s
5th Meditation - Mother Church

The our Father -
obedience and submission
to the will of God for you.

The 10 Hail Mary's - lineages of hope -
here you will take your petitions with our Lady
into the Presence of God, our Father.

The Glory be
meditate on the glory of God;
the culmination of all our faith,
the realization of all our hopes,
the perfection of all our loves -
here you will now lovingly surrender
the fruit of thy thoughts
with our Lady
into the hand of Jesus Christ,
our one Savior.

After each Meditation pray:

"O my Jesus
zealous for souls
thirsting for the love of Mankind
Come, Lord Jesus,
be Thou the God of my heart
and accomplish in me Thy will of Peace."

Here you will take
positive personal responsibility
to freely act on the fruits of thy prayer.

You may finish with a Salve Regina
or any Marian Salutation.

Remember,
the rosary is a house.
It is the house of the Immaculate.
Respectfully thank our Lady for allowing us 
entrance into intimacy of her home.

+Sign of the Cross

Gradually come out of your mediation...

Some Personal Notes:

When people ask you for your prayers
or when your heart is inclined by the Spirit of God
to intercede in behalf of other people,
needful as thou art needful,
you can now include these
in a particular mediation in this rosary.

Prayer requests feed into this rosary.

If you pray them
in the atmosphere of each meditation
with an open and loving heart,
you will gain certain insights
on the hopes that other people bear
for self and for others like the self
and these insights will serve to strengthen
your own sense of charity.

This likewise holds true with your own hopes.

You must never again
say yes to a prayer request
without meaning yes!

Never offer to pray
for the hope of another
without will or understanding.

Remember,
prayer is in your spirit
it is an attitude of thy heart -
as far as your soul is concerned
it is the first thing and the last thing 
for it begins not and it ends not
you feel it motion when you are still
and when you are disturbed, it is calm
stirring up only the darkness in thee
that you may soon remember
that you may soon know
that you may soon be.

So always give thanks 
to the Holy Spirit Who loves us 
to no end.

A Sample Schedule:

Mon - Joyful
Tue - Sorrowful
Wed - Glorious
Thu - Luminous
Fri - Hope
Sat - Hope
Sun - Hope/Holy Mass

Click on the Label "Rosary of Hope" below for further reference.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Prayer to God as First Defender of the Republic

Look upon us this moment,
O LORD, God above all things,
and abide with us now
in our necessary struggle
as First Defender of this Republic
to obtain for our people
the remembrance of Thy peace
and the blessings of Thy freedom.

Bless our one Filipino nation,
O LORD and Giver of all good things,
each and every Filipino heart,
that yet believes with conviction
in this endeavor of Country
that we may by our own willingness
be transformed by Thy abundant mercy.

Tarry with us in the darkness
O LORD and Sovereign of all nations
help us, teach us, bless us
that we may prosper in Thy sight
and in Thy grace and in Thy counsels
remain secure in Thy commandments
walking upright in Thy ways
that we may become the light
that You want this nation
and every nation to be
upon this, our midnight world,
so much in need of Thy presence
like the daybreak twilight is
so much in need of Thee.

For us, Christians, we must add:

This we humbly implore
in the Name of Jesus Christ,
our most loving Lord and Savior,

AMEN.
---<--@

For all the rest:

This we humbly implore,
O LORD and one common Creator
of all things, seen and unseen,

AMEN.

---<--@

Salutation #59

Dakilang Liwanag,

halina't manahan sa aking kalooban.

Hubugin Mo kami upang maging debotong misyonero/a;

ang maging liwanag sa mundo,

ang maging ilaw sa aming kapwa.

- A Prayer from the Candle Chapel

at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Shrine in Baclaran

(That Point of Forgetfulness)

When in our prayers we forget, we proceed to remember.

- selah -

When in our seeking the LORD in prayer

- our efforts suddenly cease -

and for a moment - just for a moment -

all our thunderous longings, all our anxious needs, all our turbulent wants -

they dissipate like so much gray clouds

into the infinite embrace of God

and there is a calm in thyself

that moment is Peace.

God comes to us and just for a moment;

a mere instant in time - in a twinkling of an eye -

you are struck with the realization that God is and He is God

that moment is Peace.

It is as if one is sitting outside of time and of self,

detached from all thy human worries - in the quiet of thy heart -

when at the rising of thy heart and mind in prayer -

as thy freedom ascends to the freedom of God

every need, every care, every fear is vanquished from thought

and you lose sight of everything - everything but God -

that moment is Peace.

You will ask to stay in that one moment

- forever and for always - and forget everything but God -

immersed in a luminous sea of unconsciousness,

but just as soon as you are in it,

just as soon as you glimpse the limitless vistas of the timeless,

just as soon as you feel yourself wanting to stay -

you emerge back out of the unseen waters

into the dimness of consciousness.

These moments are like desert oases

meant to sustain thee in the wilderness of everyday living.

O my beloved Starshine,

so (just) be with Jesus in the quiet of thy prayer - walk with thy God -

especially at the pauses within Holy Mass, during Holy Communion, in the rosary,

in thy daily commune with thy Creator in His garden of waking dreams

and in thy every prayer of the heart open to wonder.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

And be gentle when you do. Be slow but certain in pace.

For practice makes one patient and patience makes one persevering.

And perseverance in prayer makes prayer perfect.

And not because there is a from of power in thy prayer

but because of the God Who hears all our prayers of the heart.

So persevere in thy prayer, my darling Starshine,

through the longing God plants in thy heart, persevere in thy prayer -

like the dream desires to become itself, persevere in thy prayer -

like the sapling hopes to become the oak, persevere in thy prayer -

like the stars strive for every journey's end, persevere in thy prayer -

like the Night seeks for the Day, like the love pines for the Lover -

shut yourself from the rest of the world and pray.

Remember the calm in the storm?

The Stillness is in the stillness - so be calm -

develop a constant awareness of the God in your life

- be gentle and be certain and be thoughtful -

for the Master is asleep in the vessel of thy heart.

If you feel out of place, if you feel undeserving,

so much more should you feel the need to understand -

- one must pray -

one must pray because one has a need

to pray and to pray well.

It is the needy who calls out and not the satisfied.

And ours is a God of infinite mercies!

---<--@

The Love of God in government is the safeguard that preserves the bond that must exist between the Nation and the Responsible State, without it our freedoms become troublesome.

---<--@

This is why Tibetan culture is precious -

Wisdom is timeless

who in the midst of darkness

illumines to the one heart of Man the way back into himself

that he may live complete.

"Practice. Practice. Practice."

- The Dalai Lama

---<--@

Glory to God the Father!

Adoration to Jesus Christ!

Alleluia, peace be unto our nation

and peace be unto all our nations;

good will to all men and women of Peace.

20111007

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary

"A Christian without prayer is like a soldier without a rifle."

My brothers and sisters of the Promise, I have always stressed both the importance of prayer as well as the universality of prayer.

Prayer is as necessary to the soul of Man as breathing is to his body.

There is no Man on earth - past, present, or future - who, having seen creation in a constant state of prayer, has never thought to look inward and gaze into the depths of that irresistible Silence within himself without asking the questions he knows in his heart of hearts he may only address to God.

No human heart is fool enough to resist the power of prayer. Indeed, all of creation around us - seen and unseen - exists in a constant state of prayer.

Therefore, no Man who has ever existed, exists or shall ever exist may ever truly claim to have never prayed.

For prayer is a common human need. It is an attitude of the human heart.

In a faithful Republic, prayer is protected and this protection extends especially to all places of holy worship - temples, churches, synagogues, and mosques.

Prayer is the first thing. It is also the last thing.

- selah -

Brothers and sisters in Christ the Lord, the Roman Catholic feast we celebrate today is perhaps, the only feast that celebrates the power of prayer. It is significant in our times in that, it has the power to bring our nation into a state of more perfect unity.

As nations, we have been formed in battle - the history of the feast of the Holy Rosary is witness to this fact - War is the reason for which we now exist as nations.

As nations, we have fought each other for so long it has become difficult to accept that Peace, not War, is the Cause for which we have always existed as nations.

War gave us our fiery births. But God is our beginning as well as our last end.

I bid us to reflect on this and to also reflect on our Rosary of Hope. October is after all, the month of the Most Holy Rosary.

In this new age of peace, the Rosary will take on a new significance. It shall serve to combat the greatest nemesis of the Queen of Peace - the beast of War.

So let us honor our Lady by learning to be strong in Christ, our Savior, and let us begin this by a persistent, almost suicidal bent on Christian prayer.

After the omnipotent and invulnerable prayer of Holy Mass, let us cling to the humble, trusting and thoughtful recitation of the Rosary of our Lady as a choice weapon in the spiritual combat.

Let us become proficient in its use!

---<--@

Please also read: A Remembrance of Fatima

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Mama Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Mama Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Mama Mary, Refuge of Sinners, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Patron Saint of the Suffering Addict and Refuge of the Recovering Addict, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Blessed Jacinta Marto, Courageous for Sinners, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

20110815

The Greatest of Marian Knights

Yesterday was the feast day of one of the principal Saints in my life, Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe.

You will notice that I take my name from Saint Maximilian.

This is so because I have a great devotion to this Saint of God. To Saint Maximilian, I owe much of my Roman Catholic formation.

In many ways, he is to me the greatest of all Marian Knights.

He and my darling Annelies Marie share a connection in my life that have proven to be more than mere coincidence.

He is the patron Saint of the suffering addict and refuge of the recovering addict.

My own Marian character was taught to me by Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe.

Glorified be God forever in all His Angels and in all His Saints!

---<--@

The Feast of the Assumption

Today is the feast day of the Assumption of our Lady.

It is the focal Marian feast that reveals through the life of our Lady the immense joy of our Christian faith.

It is equivalent to the Transfiguration in the life of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in that both of these are a preparatory experience in the Christian life.

Simply put, a Marian character in a Roman Catholic soul multiplies joy.

This Marian joy lends its strength to Christian endurance. It prepares our hearts to live the hope of ordinary time.

- selah -

Now, if there is anything our Lady desires of thee, O my Philippines - it is thy own heart at prayer.

You know this in your own hearts, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that God has set a labor before our hearts and a challenge for all the world to repent unto Peace and forsake War.

For these are defining times indeed, we are living in a transition from age to age.

Prayer is a battle we can not refuse to fight.

But our prayers can not ascend to the unity of the LORD, O my nation, if War is in our heart.

- selah -

We have to learn to pray as a nation:

We have to learn to desire what a nation desires.

We have to forsake the divisions that have prevented our unity.

We have to let go of the bitterness that have fed these animosities.

We have to stand up against the despair that have shackled our dreaming.

We have to see our generations through this midnight darkness

ever by the light of our faith in God and in each other as citizens together.

We have to understand -

A nation that prays as one, stays as one.

And a nation at one with its own truth is a nation at peace.

Verily, as a nation, we can not be anything else but one.

So let us pray to God for the gift of prayer for our nation. Let us desire it from God as our Lady desires it from us now so that in time we may all profess to the LORD as one the truth that the prayer of the Philippines is Peace.

---<--@

Closing Reflection -

The common religion of every Man is peace - it is that mysterious desire dwelling deep within all of us to be able to somehow return to the happiness and perfection of that one common belonging written in each our heart; the Peace of the LORD, the one God of All creation.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Hope Taking Wing

An Act of Unity

20110717

THE 21ST CENTURY shall be a century shaped by the decisive strength of our civic convictions on human rights issues. The more decisive these convictions are, the clearer the way ahead shall appear for our nation/s.

Bear in mind and heart, my honorable compatriots, that the 19th Century was the century of chemistry; the 20th, of physics; the 21st, as we shall see, will be one of biology (or to be more precise, Sacred Life).

- selah -

Salutation #37

(Silence, Self-Expression and the Human Potential)

PEACE be with you, Starshine -

Man is an expression of the language of creation.

We are, therefore,

creatures meant to find our own unique ways

to express the creative ideal in ourselves.

To cultivate and nurture our talents

and bring it out into our nations and into our world.

And there are many means and mediums

for adequate human self-expression in our visible universe.

Indeed, our ways of expressing the language of God in ourselves

is as wide and varied as our own individual uniqueness

- and even so -

there shall always remain more than enough room

in all the realms of creation, both seen as well as unseen,

for every free expression of the human potential

- in all its limitless forms -

BUT only for the work purposed for and to our humanity

by the will of God and the common needs of our Mankind.

If there is a perceived lack of these, Beloved of the LORD,

if the wonderful boundlessness of human expression is at present

seemingly constrained and constricted

- in our times and in our nations -

we must understand it is not yet

due to the lack of a necessary technological progress

in the craft of the sciences of Mankind

- as many are inclined to think nowadays -

because until we have learned to examine first

the progress of human potential in our communities

as nations among nations

as well as our own potential to express the creative ideal

as citizens to each other

as a way of giving expression

to the language of creation in ourselves

as individuals and as nations under the LORD

what knowledge we may obtain from our sciences

will only prove futile and deeply frustrating

in the constant pursuit of happiness.

Because creation is not an event

- it is a process -

and this process is a continuum

that began as One and shall end as One.

It requires the consistent development of the human element

as a free and active expression of the boundlessness of itself.

For the human potential

and its free and adequate expression

- in ourselves and in our nations -

is the only potential singularly capable

of producing and sustaining for all of visible creation,

through the Providence of God

and the free and necessary actions

of the willing instruments of the LORD

- physical, spiritual or both -

the allied Peace of the one family of the nations of Mankind

which is the governing principle of the Providence of God

as it is established by Him in this realm of the visible universe.

Left largely unrecognized and under-developed,

all forms of civic order and value will soon be forgot,

and our world shall be imperiled.

Hear me now, Starshine -

happiness is a gift gained by the labor of individuals

from the necessary field of a community of individuals.

So if you will to save the dream for one, as they say -

you must go and save the dream for all.

If we can not as citizens agree

on how to be a human being to each other,

the earth itself will rebel against the labor of our nations;

the silence of our skies will fall into utter meaninglessness

and all the Sacred Life of our planet will flee us.

Time will cease to flow

from the timeless in the human heart,

remembrance shall wither,

and all of human history shall seem

an unremitting retreat

into the darkness.

To the everlasting regret of all.

Now,

because of our human need for the human expression,

- we seek -

and from our seeking, we labor.

There is much noise in our world because of this - and -

amidst all this clamor of living life

- be it good or bad -

it is quite easy to lose ourselves entirely

in the pursuit of everyday living.

Amidst this is Silence.

For what is important to all human beings,

Beloved of God and citizen of all common creation,

is not always what one can see

or hear with external senses alone.

The most basic of human citizenship, precious Starshine,

is a sense of belonging to the one whole of all creation, seen and unseen.

From this all other citizenship draw their legitimacy.

To lose sense of this belonging is to fall away from Sacred Remembrance.

Because there are larger expressions of reality that yours alone.

All are aligned towards one manifest purpose.

The gravity of the last 2000 years or more

will instinctively attempt to paint in your mind and heart

a different picture of ourselves,

as human beings and as human nations

- inhuman, divided in the Heart by the spirit of War -

but the visible universe itself will witness to all human hearts

that there are no divisions in creation, there is only true belonging.

This is an integral part

of the universal patrimony of our humanity as a whole.

We are one whole one with all of creation.

It is part of our being human.

Something that may only be understood in the Silence.

When we are silent,

we are inescapably met with a motion to cease and desist

in the necessary work of finding ourselves,

and for a moment, even only for a single moment,

something seem to beckon our hearts to pause

and to leave the noise and the haste of this realm of creation.

Inwardly, we move toward the timeless, towards a realm of absolutes.

This can only be a choice.

It dawns like dew upon the heart, certain as certain can be,

inclining the free will of Man to bend to its beckoning.

But it is never a choice begun by Man.

So when we are silent, precious Starshine,

we are only silent in response -

to God and the Sanctity of All that is in the LORD.

It is this choice to respond

- to the Sacred Silence -

that is singularly ours to make

that we may each begin again anew

the communicative union that work to continually realize

the expression of the creative ideal in ourselves

(in God and with each other in Him).

Truly,

prayer and quiet thoughtfulness

form part of our authentic human freedoms.

Silence itself is an absolute.

It dawns upon our realization as dew is distilled upon the heart.

It is a medium of things that exist

beyond the totality of all human experience.

Here in exile time however, it has a false image.

For there are two human choices that open the way to silence.

But only one leads to Peace.

The other leads to sin.

For as far as the freedom of Man is able,

our souls must be led to reach out

to the only other freedom

that reaches out to us - the freedom of God;

the singular source of all our freedoms.

And the exercise of Silence, in its own due season,

tempers our hearts tactful to the truth of these things.

For there always shall remain in Man,

something that resists human expression,

something permanent, something sacred,

an accolade to remembrance...

When we are silent - in those times, O my heart,

let us be mindful of that initial choice to respond to the LORD

that we may know by Whom our silence speaks.

That our silence may never bend

to the evil in all evil things.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Service is a call (not an ambition)

"First They Came for the Jews"
By Pastor Martin Niemoller

First They came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

20110703

A New Dream

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

A world without you is an unfamiliar world indeed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Birthday, Old Glory.

---<--@

Salutation #27

(A Prayer for America)

For sundry times -

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

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

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

Thy noble cause of Country.

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

AMEN.
---<--@

During election seasons -

O LORD GOD and Creator of us all,

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

Favor her, O God,
abide with her

and watch over her,
most especially during
these elections.

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

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

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

AMEN.

---<--@

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

---<--@

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

---<--@

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

The Eagle in the Night

20110619

PEACE be with you, Starshine -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday.

On Prayer

AS A RULE, my precious Starshine,

prayer is always more

than the sum of all that we can see

with our unseeing eyes.

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

a walk across the vast, empty deserts within;

a reaching out to places beyond self;

a looking above from within.

It is silence contemplating Silence -

alone with the Alone.

It is a growing, persevering,

often times frustrating work

born of great necessity,

out of thy love of God.

Prayer is an ascent to the timeless,

anchored upon ageless truth,

of all the things we love

and of the Love that all created things hope for,

most especially by the truth of thy heart of love,

and of thy faith yearning to God in prayer.

The way to God is a crooked line,

for we are all but human.

But the way of prayer

makes this way certain.

For the soul that perseveres in prayer

shall indeed profit

from the LORD Who rewards all things,

great and small, known and known to God alone,

when done out of love and fear

of the one common Creator

of all common creation, seen and unseen.

It is not only important that we pray,

and persevere in this way, my precious friend,

in private, above all in community with each other,

it is simply necessary for human happiness

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

like a mustard seed,

inside of every self

for all things true and everlasting

depend on a heart of prayer.

Prayer is spiritual.

Therefore,

there are seasons within the soul that range

from sweet to dry or empty

but never must thy heart stay still,

you must gather when it needs gathering

and to know also when to look beyond these seasons;

you must be vigilant,

pressing on till you reach the heart of God

to lay your hopes in the LORD.

So prayer may be long

or it may be short

but it must always be timeless,

its substance is the motion

that lives like a love longing for Itself.

And when the Silence shall to your bowed heart speak,

It shall do so swift as light,

being Spoken without words

and instantly manifest to your soul as winged truth -

then you shall seek to forget all other things

but God and God alone.

And in God you shall range far,

self cognizant of self,

intimate with the Intimate,

to dwell in holy remembrance of all things.

For far may your wandering heart be

but to love and in Love

you shall forever remain

when you shall in prayer persevere.

So do so, dearest Starshine,

and say AMEN:

Know for thy own self

why the heart that believes

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

(produced 20090223)

Salutation #16

(Salutation to all Christian minorities among the nations)

To all our Christian communities, Peace.

Take courage,
my beloved brothers and sisters,

peace be with you!

Let us remember each other

as we heed the call of Christ

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

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

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

God is our surest Refuge!

We include you in our hearts,

my beloved brothers and sisters,

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

for God alone provides

and His grace alone is sufficient.

Though you may feel alone

at times, O Beloved of Christ,

surely, you must know

in your heart of hearts

our baptism is for always.

Ever in God then,

my beloved brothers and sisters,
in time and in eternity

we are but

one Communion of Saints.

Ever to God then,

my beloved brothers and sisters,

toward peace and brotherhood

and the unity of God's Perfection

where your hope becomes our hope

your virtue becomes our virtue

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

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

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

Alleluia, Amen to Christ, Alleluia.

---<--@

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

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

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

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

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

God Encompassing God

O LORD,

God encompassing God,

God encompassing All in Thyself!

O LORD,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -

Blessed Unity,

Holy Trinity,

Perfect Company!

O LORD,

there is none but Thee,

there is none like Thee!

O LORD,

Thou art from everlasting to everlasting -

in Thee All draw their being,

in Thee All draw their living life,

in Thee there is no shadow of turning,

in Thee there is neither darkness nor Night,

in Thee there is joy, abundance and peace,

in Thee there is only love and the Light!

O LORD,

Thou desire salvation for all beings

to Whom shall all needful souls turn to,

my God, but to Thee?

O LORD,

Thou art the one Sovereign of all nations

unto Whom shall Thy exile peoples return to,

my God, but unto Thee?

Abide in us, O LORD, be with us!

Be the God of our lives, our families,

and our national communities!

O Goal of all my goals,

I love, I trust, and I adore Thee!

---<--@

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