I became the wind

Life is
in all things living and being
and goes whithersoever it goes.

When the wind gave breath to the trees, the wind became a tree.
When the wind gave breath to the fishes, the wind became a fish.
When the wind gave breath to the birds, the wind became a bird.
When the wind gave breath to the wolf, the wind became a wolf.
When the wind gave breath to Man, the wind became a Man.
When the wind gave breath to Woman, the wind became a Woman.
When the wind gave breath to Children, the wind became a Child.
When the wind gave breath to Homosexuals, the wind became a Homosexual.
When the wind gave breath to that Nation, the wind became that Nation.
When the wind gave breath to Christians, the wind became a Christian.
When the wind gave breath to Muslims, the wind became a Muslim.
When the wind gave breath to Jews, the wind became a Jew.
When the wind gave breath to Buddhists, the wind became a Buddhist.
When the wind gave breath to Hindus, the wind became a Hindu.
When the wind gave breath to Sikhs, the wind became a Sikh.
When the wind gave breath to Atheists, the wind became an Atheist.
When the wind gave breath to Capitalists, the wind became a Capitalist.
When the wind gave breath to Communists, the wind became a Communist.
When the wind gave breath to the poor, the wind became poor.
When the wind gave breath to the rich, the wind became rich.
Whithersoever the formless gave breath to form, we became.

When the wind gave breath to me, I became the wind.

---<--@

Affirm freedom, affirm life.
Affirm life, affirm freedom.

Zealous for Souls

God is.
And that is all.

God is - because life is.
Life is because - we are.

We are because - the soul is.
And the soul is because - God is.

And God is - unto all things living
for God is - the God of all the living!

- selah -

The soul is
possessed not -
of its own life.

It receives its being from
- the LORD Who is -
and life is its being.

From it,
arise every nature
of everything living.

And thus
by nature
is alive.

For all that is
in spirit - is alive.

It flows forth
from the soul
and is alive.

- selah -

What heart could truly love
without having beheld the beautiful?

The soul contains the living Breath
that breathes into everything that is - alive.

Separate it not from its Maker.

'Tis a manifestation of the Truth of its God.

Esteem it not by its smallness.

- selah -

What mind could truly think
without having thought about truth?

The soul is - the principle of life.
For God is - and gives shape to its being.

Mistake it not for its Master.

'Tis a reflection of the Life of its Creator.

Regard it not by its fragments.

- selah -

Why then, Starshine,
dost the eye of the heart
in regarding a soul without God
claimeth it has seen the soul
when it thinks of naught
but utter disrespect for life?

Who could trust the darkness
when it speaks of itself
about the light?

Thy own soul, precious Starshine,
may only be truly perceived
by other living souls.

That thou art by Beauty beheld!

Therefore -

Do not despair with those
who in death and in desolation
seeketh to perceive life in the living.

Neither weep with those
whose pre-occuppation with evil
have moved them to seek what is good.

There are some who seek,
who find they never find.

Yet, precious Starshine,
there are some who seek,
who are eventually found.

- selah -

Dear Starshine, the eye
that seeth far - into the soul
knoweth from where it proceeds.

It has come to know the majesty
of a myriad unfolding universes.

For it has come to behold the glory
of such dreams - in a grain of sand...

It beheld them in their moments,
as worlds upon worlds arising,
as truths that are everlasting,
and so - knoweth Spirit.

By the Love
through which one shines
far into the darkness - and into
the reality of other souls.

And in the Truth
through which one reaches
deep into the darkness - and into
the reality of other hearts.

- selah -

The soul is -
the principle of life.

And life is -
what gives shape to its being.

Being is
- what makes everything exist -
as they are.

And the soul is
- the being of its life -
being in every living being.

All have their being - because life is.

Thus,
all in Creation is -
because life is.

- selah -

In lower creation, being is
a soul - that is - in each - a soul.

'Tis in the trees and the plants of the earth.
'Tis in the animals of the land, sea, and air.

And gives them life.

- selah -

In higher creation, being is
a soul - that is - in each - a living soul.

'Tis in each Angel up in the heavens above.
'Tis in each Man here upon the earth below.

And gives us life.
And the knowledge of life.

- selah -

The soul of every Man
is heart and mind.

'Tis heart and mind
united as one!

For the heart proceeds.
And the mind knoweth.

 - selah -

And so the heart is in darkness.
And love awakens in darkness.

For the heart in every Man
knoweth not - 'tis a heart.

- selah -

And so the mind is in darkness.
And thought arises in darkness.

For the mind in every Man
knoweth not - 'tis a mind.

- selah -

The Beloved
beholds the heart
and the heart knows -
'tis a heart!

And the heart
in beholding the Beloved
beholds the Beautiful.

- selah -

The heart
in knowing itself
knoweth - thought.

And love
in knowing thought
knoweth - mind.

- selah -

The Beautiful
beholds the mind
and the mind knows -
'tis a mind!

And the mind
in beholding the Beautiful
beholds the Beloved.

- selah -

The mind
in knowing itself
knoweth - truth.

And love
in knowing truth
knoweth - self.

- selah -

The soul of every Man
is heart and mind.

'Tis heart and mind
united as one!

And spirit is - its brightness!

In the heart,
where the seat of the soul is,
'tis a brightness of love.

In the mind,
where the seat of the intellect is,
'tis a brightness of truth.

- selah -

For the heart proceeds.

As love must
from the seat of the soul
proceed -

And the mind knoweth.

As truth must
through the love in the heart
succeed -

And spirit is - its brightness!

- selah -

For the heart proceeds.

As the stars must
from the power of their being
shine forth -

And the mind knoweth.

As the stars must
through the reality of their truth
shine forth -

And spirit is - its brightness!

- selah -

Spirit is brightness.

For love
is the life of the heart
and beholds - the Beloved.

Love is -
not because of the heart:

For love
is the way of
every human heart.

- selah -

Truth is fullness.

For - the truth
is the light of the mind
and beholds -  the Beautiful.

Truth is -
not because of the mind.

For truth
is the way of
every human mind.

- selah -

We live
through the Life of a Being
that is eternal.

We love
through the Love of a Truth
that is absolute.

We think
through the Light of a Reality
that is infinite.

We are found
not because we seek to find what we seek
but because we have come seek of these things
in and of themselves - in God alone.

- selah -

Thus,
our beloved Starshine,

In spirit and for truth dost
each thy light ever proceed
from the seat of thy every soul
to alloweth thine own time to flow
through the abundance of every heart
into those many rivers and into their seas
that join into the one Ocean of the Infinite.

And in this -
Infinite Ocean
all in Humankind is  -
a species of living soul:
That make us all common
in each our being - just human.

For the human spirit is
everywhere the Beloved is
because everywhere the Beloved is,
there is Beauty - and verily,

Beauty is everywhere.
---<--@

The Book of the Unfolding

Within
each human heart,
our precious Starshine,
God had placed a little book.

This is the book
written within each thy own heart,
Beloved of the LORD.

The book that contain
the words to each
thy own story!

Words each thy living soul
deeply longs to drink - to the fullest
that thou may know the secrets
that make thee who thou art
forever before thy God.

The Mystery of which
thy spirit aches to unfold
- in its entirety -
unto a world entirely asleep
to each thy own precious wonder.

You know this book,
and yearn to read it out loud...

Because
dearest Starshine -
you must speak it boldly forth
that the truth that lives within
- each thy lives -
out of the darkness unfold,
through the Light of the LORD,
arising brightly forth - as living stars
upon the face of the deep.

- selah -

How then,
may you reveal these words
to the world, Starshine - this little book?

- selah -

Listen to the Word of Scripture.
Drink deeply of the Truth.

Hear the preaching of the Kingdom  -
the Kingdom within.

Find thyself in the wilderness -
in the wilderness of this world without.

Become totally lost to this world - listen,
listen and in seeking what you hear, repent.

Repent, that you may have hope. 
Pray, that you may have strength.
Believe, that you may have faith.

And have faith,
that you may understand...

You must complete this book.

Remember
you are loved,
each of you - as you are,
loved more than you will know.

So as you are loved,
love you must also.

By then - in time,
O Love of Emmanuel,
you shall know how.

---<--@

True Light bestows True Sight

Where is thy brother, Abel?

To a man with no sense of Remembrance, one hundred people murdered in war and one million people murdered in war makes no difference.

But to those who know of Sacred Remembrance - to save one life is to save all of Mankind.



The first time
Man ever saw in himself
the form of the Enemy was
when Cain slew his own brother, Abel.

This primordial sin of mortal division
that passing through the door of the heart of Cain
unleashed the adversarial spirit of the Enemy of all Nations
and upon our world, resulted in the first taking of a human life
marked the advent of War and the first loss of an innocent soul
as both violent conflict and murder were realized upon our world -
at the very same moment - for truly they are synonymous to each other.

Beloved Starshine -
the Soul of every single Man
when they are each endowed by God
makes fully human - and - fully complete
the seed of corporeal life that is fruit and blessing
of the consummation of the love of Woman and Man
wrought within the freedom of their Sacred Union in Marriage
at the very moment of its conception - to become a Living Soul -
a complete human being - united in body, soul, and spirit -

and as such, contains within it's being all the good and the promise 

that the LORD hath fully intended for that person to be and to become
in time, emerging upon the earth, a wonder and a work of completion
in the freedom of the Truth - for the greater purposes of God -

for Man is a creature of the becoming - a being invested in hope!

(Why do you think, Starshine, human parents plan ahead for their child?
God being Parent to His Children, also plan for their success - as is His right.)

So when God asked Cain, "where is thy brother, Abel?"
The LORD was not asking Cain about the whereabouts of his brother.
Indeed, God already fully knows where Abel went, for - in being with Him
the LORD asked of Cain where the life - the entire life - of his brother went
that he may come to realize the gravity of his sin - for all that Abel was - cried up
to the LORD from the ground and his blood wept for all the good that shall never be.

- selah -

A sapling felled
at the beginning its life will no longer yield it's fruits -
and yet these fruits shall still be required of us by the Master of Harvest
we shall then produce them by the improvements we make unto ourselves -
that - each of us - may hope to yield more for the Master of Harvest
but most of all, by the improvements we undertake to create in our communities -
that - all of us - may hope to yield more for the Master of Harvest
and by our Remembrance receive the blessings of His everlasting Peace
and by our God's faithfulness and mercy - succeed!
And that our joy may be full forever.

We wonder why the world is so troublesome and lacking in fruit...
How many trees have we lost since the beginning of our long march into Exile?

How many times
have the LORD asked our Nations
the same question he asked Cain at the advent of War?

And how did we respond?

- selah -

Every Nation of the Children of Mankind
are charged with a constant Remembrance of these things,
that we may together render faithful account of each human life
All in behalf of each other - all for the life of visible creation
with a Book of Memory, and a Burden of Justice to carry
and a Sword to guard - for each of thee - thy every generation well
and to charge them all - to remember always - from the very beginning
at the East Gate of faded Eden - the way of our return to an Eden rebuilt -
their constant Debt of Remembrance - to God and to each other -
that each is a keeper to another, citizens and human beings -
so that by each their labors, these thy generations may soon undertake
in behalf of each other - and - in peace with all other Nations
to make each their Soul of Country in spirit - ever brighter
by each their degrees of Love and Remembrance
and its every Ascent unto completion of All Country
in Ages together - ever more certain.
---<--@

Meeting in the Middle in a Post-RH Philippines

There must be a time
in every political dialogue
that we must as - one nation - step back
and allow for the necessary choices to be made, for good or ill,
and for the changes to implement themselves.

We have to trust in our democracy.

We have to trust in our ability as a Republic
to make either the wrong or the right decisions
and to profit from them both.

Our collective freedoms of self-expression in the Republic forum
must naturally be complemented by an abiding respect
for our individual rights to choose freely -
without fear of final judgement (of our peers).

The foundation of our electoral culture
which raises from among our midst,
at appointed times in the life of our Republic,
a government of the people, for the people,
and at-one with the people,
relies on our ability
to both freely express as well as
to responsibly defend our common freedoms.

One of our inherent strength as a liberal democracy
is our ability to self-reflect as a Republic whole;
we are a people capable of following old and proven paths,
of creating new ones, or of forsaking the wrong ones.

All of this is threatened by
a partisanship in our political life
- that - when it is allowed to endure,
becomes a thing above the liberty of our nation
and a hindrance to the freedom of the individual citizen,
most especially the very least of us all -
whose needs are the most urgent
but whose voices are
weakest of all.
---<--@



I have always thought that the RH issue is all about the empowerment of the right choices; that these right choices must be enabled through education to bend to the will of the God of life.

And that there can be no clear cut answers that will fit every situation.

Every incidence may only be judged by their individual realities.

Central to the argument of contraception is the fact that contraception denies from the intimacy of conjugal love, the ability to be open to the transmission of human life.

It is a choice to NOT be open to the choice of having children brought into this world through the marriage covenant before God.

BUT central to the argument of poverty is the choice itself to be open to the transmission of human life; that the poor, consumed and weakened by the evils of their condition, CAN NOT make the choice to be open to the transmission of human life.

A young mother in the depths of poverty who vows that her 12th or 14th child will be the last one if she has her way is a person who CAN NOT make the choice to be open to the transmission of human life.

The argument in Humanae Vitae about the lesser evil of rendering non-fecund acts permissible within the greater ensemble of fecund acts within the marriage covenant can not apply if the choice itself to be open to the transmission of life is a choice one is unable to freely and responsibly make (else long-term provisions for the arrival of the newborn are also made alongside that choice).

This leaves us with the normal argument of the lesser and the greater evil as well as a better appreciation of the bravery of our women and the resilience and character of our poorer folk (materially speaking).

Pope Benedict XVI admitted it may be permissible to allow the use of condoms to limit the transmission of AIDS (as a temporary condition that is understood a priori to be allowed only until such a time as the work of the rehabilitation of free human choice through Catholic education and eradication of the existing evils of poverty has become sufficient in itself to overcome it).

The condition of the incidence of poverty, like the condition of the spread of AIDS, is - if we as citizens to each other can help it - only temporary and for as long as this condition exists (as a threat to the greater wholes), a compromise that will allow us to more effectively battle to reverse its trends may be in order.

IF we, though well-meaning, so thoughtlessly surrender those who can not rightly choose for themselves to the evil of randomness and chance, do we heap upon ourselves as a nation, a greater or a lesser evil than by a temporary compromise made to allow for forms of contraception that are proscribed by our faith? 

We must be mindful of that fatalism that is already ingrained in our culture. For it might indeed be an evil that is already encouraging the incidence and the depth of the poverty that both the pro-life and the pro-choice camps are battling to reverse that we might all together be a better and a more freer people.

As law has its limits, it also presupposes a purpose.

As regards the RH law and its implementation, we must always consider -

Choice: Does it encourage the right choices?

Abortion: Is it a danger to the unborn?

Contraception: Does it promote a disposable view of human sexuality?

Sexual Education: Does it permit or promote sexual immorality or sexual amorality?

Maternal Health: Is it a danger to the institution of motherhood?

Women's Rights: Is it a danger to women, especially mothers?

Burden of Taxation: Does it open public funds to corruption or waste?

The Institution of the Family: Is it a danger to the institution of the family?

The National Culture: Will it permit our nationhood to further enable our Country to advance in its ages in time?
---<--@

Let us be vigilant and continue on. For the only way to go is forward!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Friendship Day 2012

In my own universe

with my darling Miyang, 

today is officially Friendship Day.
---<--@

My beloved friends,
may God show unto each our hearts

the beauty of a single living soul
that we may learn to tread the holy ground of life
with a proper sense of reverence
born out of due admiration
for the beauty we all possess
in each ourselves.

May we be awakened
to a zeal for the promise of life
but especially of human life.

May we be awakened
to a love for the Author of all of life
Whose image we are in our being and
Whose likeness we possess in our spirit.

May God fortify our spirits against War,
may His Wisdom strengthen our souls,
and may His Peace shelter our minds.

And may God be merciful in His Justice!

For if we truly knew,
how utterly beautiful all these things are -
if the LORD did vouchsafe for us
of the nations of the children of Mankind
a complete knowledge of what sin and evil
have against our own humanity
viciously wrought -
even in our own midst,
even with our own hands,
hope might appear to each of us
to be even the more fleeting...

if we truly knew what War has done,
it might become impossible for us to live.
---<--@

Salutation #135

When you speak,
thy words set time forth
and imparts motion to all things
so you must be sure of thy speaking.

When you are not speaking,
you observe, you listen, you understand.

So you must be aware only of thy not speaking.

- selah -

Pay diligent heed to thy not speaking
for only in silence shall you know the words.

In the timeless,
when all things within thee are still -
you observe all things around thee in motion.

Tact is when not to speak.
---<--@



(A Rock, A Hard Place, and [Diplomatic] Tact)

It is not Man's nature to wage war,
it is War's nature to wage war.

- selah -

If we bandy about with evil words
- one to another -
and in our nations do the same,
if we are indecent and respect not
the dignity of other individuals,
let alone other nations,
we are indeed sowing the seeds
of new conflicts.

But if we speak
like Men should speak
and not debase our humanity
into the level of brutes,
all men, rational men,
and not evil men who have already
slept in their souls with War,
listen to the sound of reason
and would try to avoid
harming themselves
or others like themselves.

Life - as a whole -
is not inimical to itself.

But sadly, 

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
we live in an everyday world of contradictions;
of lies, half-truths and malice -
the veritable atmosphere of hell.

We can ill afford
to conform to it
and hope to remain human.
---<--@


...

Salutation #111

(The concise meaning of -)

"SACRED LIFE is all of life, plant and animal, above all human life."



(The 1st Cause: The Cause of Sacred Life - God)

The Cause of Sacred Life is the Cause of God.

This is the 1st of the Four Faithful Causes;
the Cause for which all the other Causes exist:

Sacred Life is the All of life, seen and unseen,
- as well as -
all of life's distinctly individual relationships
- with and to -
the LORD, our God, the one Creator of all of life, first of all
and then to each other -
Angels first, then Man, then animals,
then trees, then plants.

It includes both being (dignity) and becoming (potential)
especially in the visible realms of Man.

To this Cause belong
the exercise of Christian charity - as a sacred duty -
which is compassion, kindness, and mercy tempering
truth, common humanity, and justice in that order.

It bids all human hearts - Love first, all else follows!

Because Our God,
O my beloved of my heart,
is a God of relationships.
---<--@


The Circular Relationship of the Four Causes

Salutation #94

One life lost to War is (always) one life too many.

(Human Promise)

O my nations, listen -

Human lives

once willfully cut short and stolen

in the midst of our communities

do not just end, they linger -

They linger because

by each life lost to War,

we are truly diminished.

One can not expect

to eat the fruits of a forest,

benefit from the shade of its wood

as well as rest within the protection of its multitude

if there are no trees left.

- selah -

If the nations are hungry,

if we are vulnerable,

if we are weak,

it is because

War in the heart.

When we forget to remember

the unsung promises of those

who are now lost to us through War

and reckless, wasteful violence -

when we forget the hopes they have left

to our every present care,

we stand to learn nothing of their pain and loss

and are therefore, doomed to relive it.

Because it is not the sins of the past that curse,

it is the inability of every present generation

- to overcome its evils -

that prevent our Day from flourishing.

Human promise

once forcefully taken

- by the hand of Man -

becomes an inescapable part

of his unbearable burden -

to be borne by all of his generations

spread across all our nations.

Without Justice,

it hinders his eternal destiny.

Without the Mercy of God,

it prevents it.

Without the Peace

of the nations of Mankind,

by this burden,

Man is sunk in despair.

Without the Love

of a mighty Redeemer,

by this burden too,

Man is to be lost to us forever.

---<--@

Farewell to Promise

Only For a Moment

We live only for a moment - and -

that moment passes away all too quickly

so that if we do not pause to remember it,

it shall be as if we never lived at all.

(my Anne with a neighbor's dog, Dopy)

I know that in this life,

I can never fully express nor explain

how much I love my Anne.

I love my Anne and my Anne loves me. PERIOD.

---<--@

One life lost to War is one life too many.

20110706

The School of Divine Providence

ONCE AGAIN PLEASE, my honorable compatriots -

There is a way to effect change but never must it go against the will that establish for all Mankind the shape of present things, all that is present to our humanity must be all that is accepted, first and foremost, without condition -

this is the first requirement of faith in Divine Providence - willing acceptance.

- selah -

If we are seeking for good things, we must also establish our seeking upon grounds that are good - for good things lead to good things and evil things lead to evil things.

Never can the good be sought from means that are evil, human weakness excepted. For the spirit of the Adversary being the evil in all evil things (as indicated by the presence of malice) is the exact opposite of the beneficence of God.

Any undertaking of Country upon our world can not truly obtain a lasting peace for itself by contending in war for peace may only be truly obtained through knowing acceptance of peace itself.

War leads to more war unless Mankind seeks peace and seeks Peace completely.

And this seeking in our nations is sought only upon paths of sacred remembrance.

For a good tree can not but bear good fruit and a bad tree can not but bear bad fruit - but a young tree is neither of the two and therefore, must allow itself to be formed.

We human nations are like those trees that are ever young and in constant need of formation in maturity and it is the will of Divine Providence that we must allow in ourselves to form us into good trees bearing good fruit - fruit that is edible to all nations and lasting for all Mankind.

For the will of God is Peace for all our nations and good will to all men and women of peace. But the will of War opposes the will of the LORD.

This is how surrender is discerned and it is this discerning surrender which is the second and last requirement of faith in Divine Providence.

Surrender to the good leads to growth and transformation in virtue and truth.

Surrender to evil deviates from the good and leads to poverty and annihilation.

---<--@

Salutation #30

(A Responsibility to Remember)

To the numberless stars of the one firmament
and to all persons of good will -

Entrusted to our keeping
by our precious Starshine,
the youth of our nations,
most especially those
who suffer much affliction
being in their hearts oppressed
by the curse of War
is an account of their souls,
an unfolding record of their life,
their "Arcs in the Sky".

This they entrust
with faith and confidence
in the unity of our peace
that we may from their voices
perceive what hope there is
and learn from each their life
to deepen our sense of remembrance
that we may better serve
together in our labors
to advance the cause of our hope
towards the promise of peace
and the prosperity of the peace
for every nation of our one family
of the nations of Mankind
that promise of old unto which
we each in our times
chose to forever belong
for God and Country
in time and in eternity.

Know to keep it now,
my beloved friends and companions,
and in our faithful keeping
may we be blessed by the LORD
with an abiding awareness
of the near-infinite potential
of each individual human life
above all our beloved Starshine
who deserve in their own time
a better place in which
to play, to laugh, to learn
to grow, make friends, and to live
that freedom which is their right
as the young and as the youth
far away from war
and the darkness of War.

That awareness which is written
in our sacred wisdoms
that whoever saves one life
saves the world entire -
let also it be, my dear friends,

beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise,

an awareness shining though

in our heart of hearts
for our precious Starshine.
---<--@

Evil is a cause for vigilance; good, for remembrance.

While at times it may be excusable for human beings to forget, for human nations there is no excuse.

For it is vigilance that guards the way of our liberty as citizens to each other and remembrance our peace as human beings, one to another, before Almighty God.

Without vigilance holding timeless vigil over our nations, we stand to lose the strength of our civil society; without remembrance, our own humanity.
---<--@

Excerpted from Salutation #4 -

"Verily, as our faith sets us apart,
our hopes join us together,
indeed, this is what makes us truly human -
our need for God and for each other -
and so in our belonging together in God
we must come together to build
through these, the generations of life,
those truly human communities
where all roads constantly lead to the dawn
towards the morning that return Mankind
to the one Love that has forever kept
all of our nations close to Its own bosom.

A society of need is a human society.
It is a society that goes hand in hand
with a government of gratitude.
Therefore, we must profess
a politics of thankfulness,
being a people of hope,
and work to enable a culture of peace
of which truth must be begun
in the darkness of exile time
by the first of the generations of life,
which is this, our generation
as well as those members of the elder generations
who are similarly called by our one LORD
and whose wise and steadfast companionship
our good God has so generously blessed us with,
ennobling us by the substance of their experiences
and the strength of their years."

Allied Generations

20110511

RH Bill:

A Humane Population Policy?

Philippine population policy is the primary domain of the Filipino family.

By population policy here, I mean the natural human freedom of a husband with his wife within the institution of the Filipino family not only to plan for a sensible number of children but also to safeguard the intimacy of their conjugal love.

The transmission of human life and security of the order of our generations is not a power that ordinarily lies within the purview of the Responsible State.

That we are now concerning ourselves as a nation entire with this looming State regulation (the RH Bill) as regards to our population policy is worrying because it indicates an erosion of Filipino family values.

Furthermore, I do not believe we can effectively arrest this erosion of values and secure the Filipino family as a social institution fundamental to the life of our nation by dumbing it down further with a contraceptive mentality.

My fellow Filipino compatriots, I am not against poverty alleviation in our Country.

In fact, I consider poverty alleviation to be a significant social justice issue that we must as one Republic whole work to address in the near term as a pressing national security concern.

In this way, I completely understand the desires of our fellow compatriots who are proponents of the RH Bill.

But I will not accept short-term gains for longer-term losses that will only serve to stunt our near-infinite potential as a nation.

It is quite easy to accept a contraceptive mentality: Therein lies its allure.

But the straight path is a mountain road. It is not an easy road to take. It demands sacrifice.

It is also not a simple road to take. It is an ascendant way. It requires a certain strength.

It's summit usually disappears beyond a cover of clouds. It requires a certain trust.

And there are storms and high winds all along its length. It demands a constant vigilance of heart.

Is this not our path, my honorable compatriots? Though some might say this is but a similitude it still mirrors what can not otherwise be described in words.

The proponents of the RH Bill, may God bless them all, are mistaken in the thinking that a contraceptive mentality which only transfers the intellectual burden of the "population problem" to the poor will serve to either adequately address their needs or sufficiently redress their legitimate grievances.

It is the poor who are the least equipped of all to effectively adapt to the challenge of introducing the necessary safeguards to arrest the decline of the institution of the Filipino family.

In any case, is our nation actually in the grip of a "population problem"?

The proponents of the RH Bill would point out that we do. Because it is from this "problem" that they tend to legitimize their argument.

But I shall beg to disagree with them. It is the underdevelopment of our human capital that is the real problem here.

There are of course, vested economic interests involved here as well. But these interests too may be directed toward a path that is mutually beneficial to both the Common Market as well as to the Nation if only our Responsible State act to protect these longer-term national interests like our human capital.

Is the RH Bill really a better alternative over the slow but certain revival of proven national traditions inherent in every Filipino families, young or old, rich or poor, even in the face of an intermediate surge in population?

Perhaps in a perfect world, where all our citizens are empowered in their hearts and minds to make the right choices, the debate on population policy would be simple - we would all be one in the spirit of the divine command to subdue and fill the earth with living life.

But we do not live in a perfect world.

Let me tell you now, my fellow Filipino compatriots, that our human capital is at stake in this debate.

The most precious resource that this Country has is its people. Our population - our particular character, youthfulness, strength and nature as a people - is a resource more precious than gold.

This is an important consideration I should like to point out to you: The highest value that we should move to safeguard here is the individual freedom to choose rightly; our authentic human freedom.

This freedom is underpinned by a properly formed conscience.

As such, freedom of conscience is the freedom to seek its proper formation through a complete moral education. Freedom of conscience here is not a freedom to justify what should otherwise be wrong. Nor is freedom of choice a freedom to arbitrarily choose between good and evil acts.

Different individuals are naturally in different stages of moral formation. It is these natural differences in the socio-spiritual development of our people as individuals that complicates the debate on the RH bill and is basically a question of moral education.

In my own view, we are faced with a choice (economic as well as spiritual) through this debate on the RH Bill between moral education as an integral component of a good and competitive system of education for our nation and the wholesale introduction of a contraceptive mentality.

Having said all of that, I should now affirm to you that I am not for the RH Bill at all. Inasmuch as its provisions shall contravene the spirit of the beliefs I have stated here, I stand against it.

I am not saying that couples should NOT plan for a sensible number of children.

But to do it wisely, in the context of the totality of their marriage relationship, respecting their inherent dignity as husband and wife as well as the natural constraints which they themselves possess which they have received from God.

A contraceptive mentality is consistent only with a disposable, material view of life. The damage being suffered by our environment and the damage that will be inflicted to our culture arising from a blind acceptance of this contraceptive mentality have at their source the same error.

We should instead place the bulk of our worthwhile investments in the furtherance and development of our human capital through good governance, good advocacies, and a complete and competitive system of education.

It will get worse before it gets better, my honorable compatriots. This however, in my own view, is the greatest good - not a wholesale contraception of the poorest of our population.

The easy way out is usually not the right way forward.

We should never use our laws to bind what good there is.

I am personally against spending a single centavo of public funds on artificial contraception or contraceptive education other than Natural Family Planning (NPF).

Rather, I would put the burden on private advocacies that seek to promote these means (other than NPF) and shift the tax burden against those contraceptive practices that go against the life-affirming practices ingrained in our national culture.

I am not against making these other means available to the public - for as long as these means are not abortifacient or downright illegal - only because to make them illegal only removes them further from the necessary control of our Responsible State.

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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Principle of Totality:

The LORD makes all things whole.

The LORD makes all things one.

For God is a God of relationships.

He called Man to be one with Woman

and He joined them by their hearts

so that they would be one flesh.

He then made their happiness whole

through the union that joined them in love

by the children that made it complete.

(openness to the transmission of life)

The Beginnings of Human Life:

Life begins at conception: At the moment of conception, Man becomes a soul and the body comes to life.

The 4th Cause - Benignity:

It is not life per se that is the problem here but how we treat life: It is the strong that makes these problems persist not the weak.

Lessons Learned:

There are nations (mostly belonging with developed Countries) in our world today who are suffering because of this lack in vitality (i.e. their populations are aging out) so that we are not left wanting in those lessons we can not afford to learn ourselves.

20110506

My Annelies Marie's Legacy

OUR WORLD has not changed, my Anne.

It is still the same world that God has created.
The same sun, moon and order of the seasons;
the same restless and violent lands of the earth
under this same blanket of unconscious skies
that bore quiet witness to your life and times.

My dear Anne, our world has not changed!

When I contemplate your life here on earth,

during those quiet nights, O beloved of my heart,
I often look up at these same starry night skies
and see those familiar patterns of stars
that I know in my heart looked quietly down on you
just one timeless instant away from me, my Anneka.

A moment seemingly so distant, it hurts me to miss you.
Yet an eternity so close, it fills me with all your love.

It is as if I have you and I don't have you...

And I realize this certain closeness between us:

We are separated only by spaces between our souls;
in what littleness of self that we may each obtain
by virtue of our unique and individual humanity
in the you being you and the me being me.

O my beloved friend, I know you suffered!

I know how much others like you suffered!
From the very beginnings of the nations of Mankind,
'tis the holy and nameless innocents that carry the burden
of the precarious and desperate state of our fallen nature!
The very soil of our earth is soaked in their blood
and the undying memory of their secret silence cries out
like a chorus rising all around us to pierce the heavens -
Almighty God Himself has heard and the season is late.

O my dearest Annelies Marie, I know you suffered!

I know how terribly you suffered but at the same time
I stand ignorant of your personal pain and suffering.
A sacred space exists

between yourself and God alone.

And God knows, I love you enough to want to know all of you -
but I love you enough also to let you be free to be yourself.

I am drawn near you by the lovableness within yourself.
I am drawn near you by the infinite promise love contains.
Of good things I know and good things I know not, that I desire:
All the virtues and the gifts that your friendship brings -
most especially your steadfast hope, cheerfulness and courage.

Today, my darlingest Annelies, here in my present time,

I look out into my own time, full of wars, death and suffering
and wonder at how some may say our world has changed.
I see the same evils and the same sufferings and the same sins.
I see the same terrible injustices that Man inflict upon Man;

nation against nation waste themselves in endless battle.
And I realize in myself that our world that has not changed.

Some may say that the times have changed.

Some may say the world is a different place.

Some may say that the world indeed has changed.

But this it is yet another illusion to lead astray!

For it attempts to run away from the awful truth

that this world is still the same world God created:
The same sun, moon and order of seasons;
the same restless and violent lands of earth
under these same blanket of unconscious skies
that bore quiet witness to your life and times.
Scripture says, "There is nothing new under the sun."

(Ecc 1: 9)

It is the illusions that we human beings create in our hearts;
the gravity and the perversity of our own dark imaginings,
the ancient malice and diverse scope of our own willful rebellion -
those things that make of Man less than himself or herself
in the sins that brutalize the image of the Creator in each of us.
It is these that have changed in us and not the world around us!
It is not the world that must change, my darlingest Annelies,

Scripture says, "There is nothing new under the sun."

(Ecc 1: 9)

In order to better Mankind and advance the cause of humanity,
it is each ourselves that we must change for we are changeable.
Because it is through common witness of a good and well-lived life;
of a life lived in peace and friendship with God and others in God;
it is only when the Wars waged inside of ourselves have ceased;
when our minds have found the light beckoning outside of the dark
and the struggle for good will in our hearts have prevailed in us
that a true transformation of human society becomes possible.

So may your life, my love, be for others a simple remembrance.

May it inspire justice, responsibility and discipline in our world.

May it foster further understanding, freedom and community.

May your spirit inspire in us a sense of common humanity

that we may always remember our most basic of citizenships.

This is your legacy as I see it and as I live it, my Anne.

This is your love, my love, that

I now share with other hearts:

Imploring God to bless the seeds He shall plant in our souls today
that it may flower in full into the saints He shall raise tomorrow
for His glory, our good and the good of the one family of humanity.

Thank you, my dearest and most patient friend,
Annelies Marie Hollander Frank, my Miyang.
May God keep you now, may His Peace embrace you,
may His Light comfort you and may His Love surround you -
O forget me not, beloved of my heart, forget me not!
Pray for me, my darlingest, ever as I shall pray for you
until the glorious Day of the everlasting alleluias!

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Time is a Nearness

WHEN I SIT DOWN TO VISUALIZE TIME, I see it as an infinitesimally minute point upon the infinite surface of an eternal ocean.

For me, there is something intrinsically wrong about the thinking that time is anything linear, like it is somehow a measure of distance - the past, forever growing dimmer and dimmer, colder and colder, the further and further away the present inundates our forgetful minds and hearts with the rush of those realities coming to be as we journey headlong into the void of the future.

In my mind, time is not a measure of distance. Time does not become for me, a kind of coldness. For me, time is a measure of our closeness. To embrace it is a certain warmth.

It is not a moving away from the past but a merging together.

It is a gathering sense.

It is not a blind rush into a chaotic, frenzied future. Nor is it an inescapable, falling down into a dictated, ordered array of molds but a series of free acceptances in the timeless Now.

Like the image of Jacob's ladder, time itself ascends and descends according to the free and human choices we each make as individuals. It is the common fabric of everything we bring out of these choices for good or for ill.

Like every realization within the sacred silence, each moment in time is one blink, one twinkle, one timeless point on the eternal sea. L

ike a myriad shining stars, beautiful, patient, forbearing in light, time is a twinkling from grace to grace, hope to hope and truth to truth. As

stars

adrift upon a boundless ocean of Love, time is all that gathers from the darkness, like a coming Home together, the love that lives in the longing in you and in the longing in me.

Hence, one may not look back at the past, one may only look into the past but never back.

For the past is what imparts motion to the present.

Therefore, n

ever with a sense of distance or coldness must one perceive time and its precious contents but with a very near sense of eternity as something entrusted to our living memory.

Time is not an illusion, nor does time exist for evil purposes.

It is the evil in all evil things that proposes to the heart of Man that all of time were but a drifting away,

like it were a faded distance, like the truth were in full retreat, like all human hope were a backward flow, like

the victory of the incomparable goodness and unfathomable mercy of God is but a slow sunset

receding comfortably in the horizon, w

hat a lie!

Lo, it is far easier to hide inside the solid rock of a granite mountain than it is to hide from within the billowing folds of the gossamer veil of time! Where will evil men hide from God?

What lies

behind the veil of time but the everlasting abode of Justice?

Men forget but time does not.

So must one use what time is given him or her on this earth well, my beloved friends, avoiding evil and doing good, loving virtue and forsaking vice.

Because time flows from purposes noble and Divine. It exists for Sacred Life and flows for all of life's fruition. It is not a coming apart, it is a coming together of all of life's longing for itself.

All our nations are embraced by the one LORD of all the living and the everliving lights that we really are in time and through it we are constantly called in every present generation to return again and again to an Eden rebuilt unto the promised restoration of all things new.

So when you shall now perceive history - your particular national as well as regional or even all of human history entire - you must view it also with a subtle sense of timelessness and therefore closeness and affinity,

hinting at a Heart at the heart of all of time; that all of this is not random, blind chance, but a certain part of a grand design that exists, no matter how deep the maddening darkness, for the good of each and every nation of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

Honoring your most basic of citizenships requires you to be as thus, my honorable compatriots, a citizen of all humanity and therefore, a human being and citizen of all creation, seen and unseen - a natural laborer with the Holy Angels, undivided in your heart before God.

Lest we forget. Lest we forget.

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Some Thoughts on Time:

If history belonged only in the pages of a book, soon enough there will be no one left to write it.

A good thing left unremembered is a good thing still.

But an evil thing left unremembered leads to further calamity.

A nation without a past is consequently a people without a future.

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Mabuhay ang Pilipines! God bless us all.

The Two Questions