Salutation #199

The right to rule is a sovereign authority.

The right of rulers to reign among the nations is an expression of the authority of their rule.

The rule of kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, and all chiefs appointed among all the human peoples scattered across all the lands of the earth is a power to govern the nations of mankind.

The right to rule is a sovereign in authority because it is a Divine authority. Every rule sufficient to govern the nations must itself be invested in an authority which is sovereign.

Rule and the authority to rule is sovereign only when they are one and the same.

Only the LORD,
the one Sovereign of all nations
possesses in perfection forever 
both Sovereign Rule
and Sovereign Authority.
---<--@

(The Flaw of Human Government)

The rule of human government is sovereign only in authority inasmuch as the lawful rulers of mankind recognizes in the one Sovereign of all nations, the Source of their rule and its authority.

That their reign may be as wise and as faithful as their rule is just and humble.

No human ruler, from their every time and place, true to his or her appointment may lay claim to a perfect rule. Whatever form of election there may be in them, whether eternal or popular, all human government regardless of their particulars must share the burden of this reality.

All forms of human government is intrinsically flawed from the very beginning.

Henry David Thoreau wrote in pondering about human government:

"Government that governs least governs best".

Because government that governs best governs not at all.

The flaw of human government is that it exists. And it exists because it is necessary to exist.

The flaw of human government is that it is human. And that government must exist among the nations is the question the State must address, each in its behalf, and according to its own particulars.

The cause of the State is the flaw in human government. The purpose of the State is to address the question of rule. All States thus, are flawed. But the most flawed of States exists only to rule without question.

The cause of the State seeks the State to be just. The purpose of the State causes it to come to a knowledge of its own virtue.

Vigilant Trust. Faithful Authority. Faithful Rule.

Rule is the fundamental language of States.

No State emerges in time and upon our world fully armed and fully mature. As thus, the State is ever an incomplete expression of sovereign authority, to be expressed faithfully - in every generation, in every nation. The State is answerable to its question, and exists to be interpreted - the cause of politics.

Politics is neither the cause of the State nor its purpose. It is and shall continue to be while time is time, an accident of the State.

When necessary to the well-being of the State, effective politics provides for moments of necessary sufficiency within the State which through the auspices of human government creates betterment in the souls Providence has peopled in the nation and fulfills the power of human government upon the earth. Politics that is unnecessary and extraneous to the State serves it not by need of its accident but by its own independent design.

There is no good or bad politics, only effective politics. It is the art of the real.

The politics of the State is not flawed in and of itself alone. It is the science of human government.

Politics however, inherits the flaw of artless leadership in the government of the State. Where the flaw of human government is only human. Flawed politics is not. It is less than.

Politics is never apart from its reality integral to the common good of the State. Whenever and where ever it is meaningfully expressed to its nation, it is faithfully expressed as a service to Country. In the government of the State, it comprehends duty. In the communities of the people, it comprehends honor. It is never beyond its science, and is never away from its art. What it loves forever is to make our society better than ourselves.

A good politician is skilled in effective politics. More than that, he or she is a civil servant with a genuine heart of service to the nation; the living communities that together form the being of our peace, the very soul of our nationhood. Love of God and Country is not an obscure ideal to him or her, it is a principle he or she is able to bring right down to the very soil of our people, from up the loftiest places in his or her soul of citizenship -

as a service to the nation that gathers us all - across our generations -
unto the peace of one belonging - endowing us as a people
with a common identity, a living memory,
and a shared spiritual heritage.

An edifice of corruption arises from a culture that agrees to its monument. 

Corruption through collaboration, ignorance, or indifference will invariably permeate the climate of Country, turn our Republic Sky into another unfamiliar, unfeeling, unseeing darkness. It shall as the night invite the unhappy heralds of the Adversary of all our nations - war being the first herald, the first of four. 

Sovereignty is the being of our nationhood realized in time and in the truth.

The formless spirit of nationhood that is our timeless, changeless foundation proceeds as flowing water from generation to generation - with every present generation tasked to realize a living and a present remembrance of the national account, commanded by God, that we may bring constancy and form to our citizenship, and make sovereign the presence of our labor Country upon the world we must as nations rebuild together with freedoms anew... ever as nations dreaming together this time.

Where this realization is weak, citizenship loses its potency. It becomes a corruption of itself. It becomes a malignancy that shall lessen what is sovereign and true in ourselves, and bring unto the bones of our people a weakness that prevents not as our laws prevent (to make a necessary social passage for all of us safe and straight) but only prevents to block our strength from rising from its very marrow.

As thus, a bad politician is the corruption of all the things a good politician is. He is a victim first, a coward later, and a criminal last.

Evil has its own gravity, as war does. Evil intent where all other choices are taken away soon become relative to our Liberty, and the freedoms we must keep absolute lose their sacred value.

Soon enough the rights we keep equal unto all men and women before God through Country shall lose their responsible power to shelter in safety the principal foundations of our democracy.

Liberty that is dim is also narrow of light and short of sight. But it is a fullness and a vision that has ever been ours from the very beginning; perfect freedom reborn forever from a Liberty that is perfect. 

The further away the rot of corruption takes us from what is common to all our good, least to great, the less and less we become in love with our journey of return to an Eden rebuilt as nations in exile. 

The less and less we understand a clearer vision of those things we must behold in our love, the more difficult it shall be for us across our generations, past, present and forever, to emerge triumphant into our ages in time as Country.

But the more we hold fast to what belongs to us. The more they shall cleave, truth unto truth. And we shall experience the pull of another gravity, an ascendant brightness - simple and easy and light. 

Remembrance that is right does not suffer evil to enter into the living memory of the present time.

---<--@

Politics is an accident of the State. Civics on the other hand, is integral to the State and its political custom.

We can not all be relating to each other politically all the time since we are neither just numbers nor abstract ideals floating around in space...

We are a real people.
---<--@

An Identity of Participation

Democracy is built upon the strength and merit of individual choices.

Our citizenship is an identity of participation.

It is important to empower personal freedoms. It is also just as important to enable these personal freedoms to serve in society with other citizens.

As thus, the Philippine State exists.

And invokes for itself a Republic serving among an already free and fair people.

And in their behalf.

Popular leadership is exercised through the virtue of a representative form of government.

That in the Philippine Republic duly represents the people in the formal affairs of the State.
---<--@

The Politics of our State

Two thought exercises -

Sea and Sky

Politics in our Republic
is like Sea and Sky

The Nation the Sea, the State the Sky
thought reflecting thought, blue upon blue
salt and water and spirit - in faithful motion
we, the people, in deep conversation.

Turbulent water disturbs it,
stormy Skies don't calm it -
but then, Nights turn to Days,
clouds, storms in their great rounds,
governments, parting ways, election days,
gold and silver rays.
---<--@

The Talk in the Walk

Let us first recall to mind - 

Countries take, people make. 

And that this is true for all Countries, including ours... 

More interested should we be in what Countries do 

than in what their people say - whether true or false. 

Because as regards decisions, 

people make them, Countries only take them - 

that Country may translate water into Motion. 

Country, for the intent and purpose of this blog, being a verb, 

its motion is only as faithful as the substance that give rise to it. 

And the richness of this substance 

depends on the depth of our civic spirituality 

as a human people. 

---<--@

If our Nation stops talking the talk, 

our Republic stops walking the walk.

Now, imagine if you will, 

my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 

that upon this - our Land of Promise - 

you were this Republic - 

the particular spirit of Country 

tasked by the deeper workings of Providence 

to shepherd this one Filipino Nation, 

not the Nation itself, mind you - 

but our Republic organism.

Imagine it were you. 

What would you like to hear from your Nation? 

Worthless banter? Bitter silence? Empty thoughts? 

Unfeeling, uncaring politics? Contemptuous prattle? 

Distasteful murmurings of unbelief? Scornful distrust? 

The incessant noise of battle, of war and discord? 

Hate speech and the ignorance of your Liberty? 

Or the happy chatter of a joyful people? 

Let us look now at our National bird - the maya bird - 

An industrious, little, long-suffering creature with wings. 

Almost invisible to us Filipinos for its commonality. 

T'is a bird 

who lives in the moment, 

not because it wants to 

but because it has to

humble
with a life span of only a fraction 

of what is allotted to us human beings  

yet courageous enough for its future 

displaying great fortitude for their young  

at times even more solicitous
than human mothers. 

Hear them sing in the morning... 

just before they go about their day, 

its almost like a daily prayer 

of praise and adoration 

to our God. 

- selah -

Do you think our Nation sounds like the bird 

we carefully took to symbolize and represent 

something we cherish in our people?

Certainly,
we can not all be incapable of worthwhile talk. 

But certainly also,
there is still much to be desired 

in that same regard.

- selah -

What is the center of the Republic? 

The place in the heart 

from which we speak to each other 

as citizens not unlike
one another. 

If we, in this thought exercise, 

should come to the same conclusion 

that there is indeed insufficient 

"chattering of a joyful people" 

going around these days, 

then we must find this center - 

the citizen in ourselves. 

And rejuvenate
the National Dialogue - 

that we may fill it once again 

with substance becoming 

of the Philippine State.

- selah -

My brothers and sisters in the Nation, 

nowhere can we find the best solutions for our problems 

than in ourselves. 

For we are each other's keeper  

keeper to our common humanity, 

our human community, our remembrances, 

our liberty, our posterity - before God.

We were born into it - 

by a choice to live the values 

that make our citizenship 

noble and worthwhile. 

Hence, 

whether natural or naturalized, 

we profess one spirit.

So let's talk the right talk, 

and together walk the right walk.

We can not build the right world with the wrong values.

Nor the right Republic with the wrong civics.

---<--@

=^.^=

Salutation #193

The State is not the Government.
The State is the Ideal of the Sovereign.

We all own the Philippine State
- and - at the same time
none of us do. It is a free State.

It is a Responsible State.

(On the Philippine State)

The State represents the Truth 
of everything we are - as a Nation;
Keeper to the Memory of our Generations,
and Repository of the Common Hopes
of our National Communities.

Any meaningful sense of Timeless Regard
for the lasting Ideals of our People - as a Nation
and the prevailing spirit of our Country - as Motion
proceeds from the reality of the Philippine State.

It is the Knowing
that constantly abides as Learning
prevailing within our living National Culture.

It is the spirit of everything noble, everything good,
and everything worthy of the National Excellence and therefore,
worthy of the praise and the love of our peoples together
- as citizens and as human beings to each other -
passing quietly - as Beauty - from generation to generation.

Our President as Head of State
is the Exemplar of the Philippine State;
the Office of the President of this Republic
being the noblest of all public Seats-of-Service.

- selah -

The Virtue of Citizenship
is the Primary Endowment of the State.

It is the authority to govern
the Citizen in the Person of the Self.
In it is contained the power
that makes each of us
together a "we".

The Authority to Govern
our Peers in the Nation is the Secondary
and proceeds from the Primary (as a function).

This Secondary Endowment
establishes for the Nation - from the Nation,
a Government that is - in constant and faithful keeping -
to the Providential Reality of the Philippine State.

We recognize in the spirit of our Constitution
and also in the labors of the Philippine Republic
from timeless Ideals enshrined in the Philippine State
- what is Sovereign to our Nation - in our entirety,
AND the Sacred and Inviolable Trust - that must exist -
between our Government and our Nation (as a free State):

THAT the Virtues of the Republic Government
in order to freely abide in a Government for the People
must have its Reliance upon the Faithfulness of the People
 
AND that the People
in order to conserve - in All our behalf -
our one, common, human Reliance
in the Good Governance of the Nation
must preserve - in and across - our Generations
those two Endowments - Primary and Secondary -
that are proper to the Philippine State,
particularly in our youth but also in all our citizens -
and ensure that a Government of the People
within each ourselves forever prevail.

- selah -

The free Philippine State
is the source of our Sovereignty.

We, the people, 

receive it each Day - in Peace - 

and lay it down each Night - in Goodwill.

In the collective peace
of our National Communities, 

particularly in the life of our Cities together, 

our common labors are its wellspring.

We shape it - and - it shapes us - 

   (we are therefore, we must -
   in being and in becoming)

across our generations - to the last... 

Sovereignty emanates from the People!

And exists - for us - with each present time
in behalf of our children and unborn generations.

We are Citizens First, 

our Nation - a People first - 

ONLY THEN 

shall the rest of the Elements of Country 

follow - and then fall into place -

or not at all.

All that ends and all that begins 

in our Republic - must rise and fall - 

from the Sovereign being of our Nation: 

THAT we are the one Filipino People 

and our Nation, a Nation among Nations;
AND that - this is - our Sovereignty of Being - 

supreme in us - and (simultaneously) - exclusive for us.
---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas - Long Live the Memory.



Thought Exercise - What if?

(1)
The State is the Ideal of the Sovereign

We profess allegiance to an Ideal of a Free State through its Symbols and its Virtues, in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship.

Essentially, we profess allegiance - to each other - as citizens and as human beings - in order to mature our labor of Country and to bring our Nationhood forth into perfection, e.g. Democracy, Meritocracy,

(2)
The State is the Government

We profess allegiance to the Government in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship.

The Government is the source of Sovereignty and utilizes the people and the life of their communities in order to mature its labor of Country and to bring its Nationhood forth into perfection, e.g. Communism, Socialism.

(3)
The State is one person

We profess allegiance to one person in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship, e.g. Fascism, Despotism.

Hitler was the German State, the Nation Germany incarnate - look at what happened to him. And then look at what evil it did to his own as well as to our other kindred Nations. We will carry a burden from that war for a long time to come.

Even Monarchs who are directly responsible to God for the Authority of the State, profess it accordingly, delegate it when necessary, and do not lay a claim to the power of the State as absolute as these.

(4)
The State is a selection of persons

We profess allegiance to an elite few in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship, e.g. Oligarchy, Plutocracy.

Capitalism distorted by materialism. We are struggling against this now.

(5)
The State is in the many and in the all

We profess allegiance to the self alone (and from the self to the other - but not with each other) in order to obtain and perfect our citizenship, e.g. Anarchy, Social Darwinism.

Democracy distorted by moral relativism. We are struggling against this now.

(6)
The State is undefined

We would not be having this exercise. God will spit us out of His mouth.

As regards the question of the National Wealth, should the Government exist to serve the needs of the poor or the rich?

As regards
the question of the National Wealth,
its recognition, creation, conservation, transformation, and ultimate possession,
should Government exist to serve
the needs of the poor? No.
The rich? No.



Government exists to come to the aid of all of its citizens
that they may - rich or poor - be able to dwell harmoniously together
in order to effectively meet their common human needs -
WORKING together to secure both the dignity and promise of human life,
serve and defend the national peace, enrich their sovereign freedoms,
and to be better and better able to guarantee for their common posterity,
a Republic that - with each generation ripens - for the good of all generations -
in virtue and maturity - in time and in remembrance.

The material betterment that Capitalism promises
is founded on the truth that all citizens must first of all, regard each other as such -
as human beings to each other - being variously but consistently sympathetic
to the poverty and humiliation of the human condition and thus,
willing to work freely with each other under God
to continuously co-create and prosper
the National Wealth.

Upon this singular moral condition is founded
the ethical safeguards that are necessary to preserve the societal certainty
of its central ideals of entrepreneurial competition and market freedom.

Businesses that come to possess a superior management
stand to outdo those that consistently fail to acquire it.
And proceeding from this first ideal (i.e. authentic human entrepreneurship)
in a free market environment (i.e. one that is possessed of authentic market freedoms),
products (and services as products) that are better made consistently stand to gain
a better share of the Common Market (as a whole) - but -
only inasmuch as it is a consequence, direct as well as indirect,
of the first ideal -

An enterprise driven system designed to create and multiply both capital and industry
by inclining citizen-consumers to be citizen-producers, and provides for these ideals accordingly

a Free Market System - purposed, structured, and therefore, expected to faithfully function

(1) to encourage the maintenance and practical evolution of good business practices,
(2) reward both dedicated management and dedicated labor with a positive workforce culture
and (3) effectively transfer all of its variously intended benefits to the intended good of the citizenry
who by being able to - freely and equally - participate in the creation of both supply and demand
maintains his or her essential responsibility as an active participant in a Capitalist economy
both in the consumption of goods as well as in the promotion of the pertient commercial good
thus exercising free choice as regards the nature and direction of the Common Market.

(Materialism 
confounds these ideals
and places the merit
as well as the burden of virtue
on the Market itself which
can neither possess it
nor become possessed by it.
Citizens get enlightened.
Corporations do not.)

For indeed, everybody
must enter into everybody's labor
and everybody's labor must be aligned and directed
toward the ultimate end for which all human labor must be purposed
which is a just distribution of this world's material goods within the Nation
as a reality proceeding from an equitable appreciation of the National Wealth -
which is always more than just the material component of "being rich".

This is the kind of Capitalism
I should like to subscribe to -
an economy of matter and spirit. 

We are, as a Nation,
to be wealthy first (and recognize it)
before we become wealthy (and realize it).
For there is only one direction toward wealth
and that is to become truly wealthy - for everybody.

Virtue is currency.

Not the rigid, materialistic, purposeless
and therefore, at times, quite cruel and inhuman system
- divisive of rich and poor and therefore, ultimately hostile to both -
an economic system that has lost its ability to steer itself
with the progress of the Nation whose existence
guarantees it own success.
---<--@

What makes you happy does not always make you rich. 
But what makes you rich must always make you happy.

Ahimsa

Man while upon the earth weeps
and cries out to God for His Justice!

To the Nations of the LORD, we fly
for redress of this awful plight,
for Man's plight is suffering.

Man suffers evil upon the earth
because he is Man...

Because Man is by first principle a victim.

I never understood the power of non-violence until I read a short essay about it in "War Talk" by Arundhati Roy.

I never understood what I now understand because I never was able to fully apprehend the profound connection it had with violent resistance.

Non-violence is actually the purest form of dissent and when it is given ear, speaks its message clearly and simply - even gently, resounding like a bell.

When it is given ear... for Ahimsa always needs a partner to the dance.

The thing is, when non-violence, especially in a democracy (particularly in an emerging Country like ours - still awakening to the growing strength of its wood), becomes itself a prisoner to popular indifference, we unwittingly abandon a necessary part of our political process by default to violent resistance.

And who wants to dance with that?

Dissent and overcoming dissent is an integral part of the national dialogue. We are free to express our disagreements to a government who is also free to express its disagreements.

How skillful the dancers are define how graceful the dance of the politics of those and every time besides and in a democracy, we have to dance - else, we would reap no results and the nation will grow hungry for the truth. And so we are in constant need of these partnerships - to hope to fully realize each dream within everybody's dreaming, that our forever may be full.

I believe an integral part of our civic freedoms is to adequately understand what constitutes "peaceful protest" - small or large - and I put forward to you, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, that this is Ahimsa.

People Power was also Ahimsa... 

Yes, we know this dance, we just have to recognize that we do.

And should always give preference to it.
---<--@

The Paradox of Power

Starshine, do you know the paradox of power?



The paradox of power is that in the final accounting of things, there is no such thing as power, only responsibility.

:::Think and Unlock:::

Godspeed, Jesse Robredo

We got you back from the sea, sir,
but God has already taken you away
into Himself...

The will of the LORD be done.

So must you rest now, Sec. Robredo.

We will continue
to fight the good fight
to bring our Republic forward
into the new age.

To your family,
and to your friends,
our deepest gratitude
and sincerest condolences.

May your good life be a shelter to us.
May your steadfast faith be a comfort to us.
May the Almighty God be our greatest consolation.

God keep you, sir.
We will remember you.
Be at peace.
---<--@

I did not personally know you, sir.
But I personally felt your passing away
very, very much... salamat po.


Jesse Manalastas Robredo (19580527-20120818) via con Dios.

We have not completely lost Jesse Robredo,
for we are now living in the dream that he helped us dream
and for as long as we are working together to awaken this dream,
his spirit will always be with our nation.

That's why I never bade him good bye.


To Captain Jessup Bahinting (who served our Country with honor)


and to Kshitiz Chand (who loved his native Nepal) via con Dios.  

Godspeed!

For they went in the way of our heroes -

And though we must now part
for as long as we are a nation
for as long as we remember
they shall never be apart.

Salutation #144

(Nation vs Corruption)

Corruption 
must be uprooted
from the roots!

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

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

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



Many things corruption can be,

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

Salutation #131

A Word on the Corona Trial -

It is my hope that
(1) our representative peers in the Senate
obtains for us a fair result from out of this trial and that
(2) the nation unto whose entirety we all ultimately belong
benefits from and grows stronger from having undergone this ordeal,
(3) justice is done to all parties involved, and finally
(4) that this trial does not become a dangerous preoccupation for our Republic
that we forget to duly apply our energies on other matters
just as vital and at times, even more pressing.

Mabuhay! God be with us all.



(We Shall Persevere)

Senator-judges of the Republic,
each of you servants-elect of the nation
and my fellow Filipinos -

It now falls upon your shoulders
the unenviable task to make fair each thy judgments
on this very difficult impeachment trial.

As thy fellow citizen
equally engaged with each of thee
in this, our one Republic of the Philippines,
I only ask that in that coming hour of judgment
you do not lose sight of her vision and longevity;
that you should make your decisions independently
but not as individuals against an individual
even in this case, our very own Chief Justice,
but as instruments within a whole
presently charged with the specific task
of ensuring that the whole perseveres correctly
and in the most efficient way possible.

I have no doubt
that our Republic will persevere
and God-helping, ultimately prevail
regardless of the verdict.

How fast or how far
depends upon each of you
in that hour of judgement
just as how soon and how completely
depends upon all of us working together
as one heart, one people, one Country.

Do justice to thy nation first,
bearing into mind and heart that
we all move forward as one
only according to the weakest,
and most vulnerable elements
within our society.

This trial is unprecedented
in the pain and confusion it has wrought
against each our nationhood within
and while it is not as divisive
as the other rifts that need our concentrated efforts
it has nonetheless been
the most painful to witness
and experience in our lifetimes.

Our Chief Justice
is a public servant
and so is our President.

It was never fair in the first place
to have had to be made
to choose between the two.

The branches of our Republic
of whose Seats of Office they serve
and duly occupy being co-equal
to each thy own, Senators,
you all know without a doubt
what kind of an ordeal our beloved Republic,
replete with her own institutional memories
and collective remembrance
that shall far surpass and exceed us
beyond these times and persons,
has undertaken and undergone
to bring this trial forth into fruition
and now
it is time to reap
what was has been sown.

Your judgments as a whole
must contain - in each themselves -
the necessary provisions
that ensure that the rudiments
of a functional peace is preserved
between the complimentary branches
of the Executive and the Judiciary
as well as the collective wisdom to guide together
the path of these two separate branches
of necessary institutional human governance
within our one Republic whole
so that their co-equal, interdependent, democratic lineages
may in time find themselves perfectly conjoined
in harmony and maximum working order once again
and united with thy own
and in peace with the people
and so ever thus, far into the future!

For these are crucial times.

We should never again
stand so divided in our innermost self
as a Republic.
---<--@



A Personal Retrospective -

Something in me was restored
watching our senators yesterday,
something precious...

It was not the judgment
that I myself hold as remarkable
but the process - wherein -
our representative Senate,
empowered by our Constitution,
created for all a path
where there was previously none.

The final decision to convict
being not at all a judgment of individuals
but a single collegiate act of the Senate body
was delivered in decisive fashion.

The brave minority decision
as well as that of the majority
together form something
unprecedented...

But only if one so chooses to rise above
the persons and personalities of our own times
into the realm of ideals and visions
where dwells the spirit of our Constitution
and the Peace of our Republic.

We are indeed better off
for believing than disbelieving,
in hoping than in despairing,
in being better than in being bitter.
---<--@

Reflection -

If we hate our own institutions within our own Republic,
who shall be left to serve them? 

How can these branches of Republic service bear for us trustworthy fruit
if we who are its stewards forsake to nurture them even in spirit?

How can any Country mature without its institutions?
---<--@

Salutation #104

The difference between a Monarch and a President is one of election.

The similarity is that both of them still have to make the surrender of kings - an acceptance of a life of service to the nation as a rule above all rules.

(The Responsible State)

Upon the Responsible State is vested

the authority to govern the people.

This authority is a divine authority.

For this authority

is the right to govern your peers

and therefore,

belongs to God alone.

Upon this vital mandate is built

the structure and the systems

(Constitution or Ideals of State)

from which the Offices of State

derive both form and power.

And these Offices are served

by their various national institutions.

These institutions

when their purpose and design

are directed toward the nation

(not towards persons or personalities)

are what safeguard the national good.

Duty is empowered and rights protected;

peace is preserved and prosperity assured;

hope is sustained and service made meaningful;

law is observed and justice is vigilant;

civil order is maintained and freedoms understood;

vision is perceived and the national destiny clear -

These proceed from a strong and empowered

Responsible State!

---<--@

The Paradox of Power

Salutation #51

Service is a calling, happiness an ambition. Of both the call of service and the ambition of happiness, it can be said, none of these may be born purely of human beginnings but are born of truths arisen and perfected from and through the great and unfathomable Mind of God.

For the service which is ours is a calling of God and not merely a human ambition. And the happiness which is also ours is a Divine ambition and not merely a human calling.

(Servant Leadership)

Take heart, O friends of the LORD!

Trust in God, all you citizen-servants of the nations!

Come alive to courage, defenders of the people!

For God does not choose anything without merit,

there is always wisdom in His choices.

Peace, I salute you!

Good human leaders know to follow,

know how to fall and follow again,

persisting in their hearts to hold on to what is dear to them,

never losing hope while giving hope to others,

never losing faith while others lose theirs,

never losing love while love seemed to have lost them,

never losing God because God never has lost them.

So for our leaders,
God intends something
but some of them follow something else,
knowing not hope, clinging to it like it were his or her own,
knowing not faith, expecting to see their own image
on the person of others,
knowing not love, expecting not the death that is to come,
knowing not God, thinking to be above men.

If we cling to Him, if we persist,

no matter the depth of the darkness,

nor the measure of our unlove,

He will bring into bloom

the full reality of our human natures

and bring our being into perfection,

- for ourselves and for others like ourselves -

here and into the next life, life and abundance.

Being chosen, one should accept and rejoice,

being accountable, one should rejoice and accept,

for in so doing the LORD holds you back from sin

and prepares your heart

to serve your fellow human beings.

- selah -

Man's life is wrought in penance and divine satisfaction,

reparation for evil and a constant pleading to God.

If we are called to serve, judge not,

but serve and serve all souls without distinction,

loving humanity in it's entirety

for love of God

and the salvation of our own souls.

Our human obligation lie not in judgment

but in reparation for evil and through reparation,

the alleviation of human suffering.

Therefore,

we are required to include

all of human suffering

and to discern not which one is punishment from God

and which other one is a person's own misfortune

or another one his or her sin

because none of us know what is absolute in the Truth.

This is the kind of service required of our leadership - who -

being called to serve must understand

that they are called not because they are good,

for Who alone is good but God,

they are called because they are accountable

not to themselves, for they did not choose themselves,

but to He Who by His authority wills into reality

all that He wills and sustains them,

directing them to purposes outside the scope of human thinking.

But to remain unchanged and unbowed,

with the will of war at the heart of every Country!

- selah -

War lusts after the life of all our nations.

Like a man perish from sin, so have civilizations entire

perished because sin was in the heart of Country.

To recklessly allow the vessel of Country to break

is like the murder of a woman pregnant

with a multitude of unborn lives in her bosom

- a crushing and unbearable burden

of unspent promises recorded against thee -

all of whom shall be accounted for at the Last Day,

to the very last hairs on their head.

For it is written in Scripture

and in the heart of Mankind - both -

that all of a Country's debt of Sacred Life

- across time and dimensional space -

will be accounted for by the Justice of God

before the one Creditor of All life.

For all living things have a purpose in God.

Indeed, each individual human being will be accounted for,

even down to the numbers of the hairs on their heads!

So be aware of the darkness that persists in the Night

and allow the spirit of War no foothold in thy selves -

To speak the truth and not to lie

for these are the mother tongues of heaven and hell.

To be honest, sincere, and willing to serve

with a heart of love and a will of understanding.

To love with one heart and to refer all things to God

- Who will refer them back to you -

and from you to the people and back again

as a continuous flowing in time - a mighty river -

enduring from generation after generation.

Be mindful of thy guardianship of the people.

Defend; neither falling short

nor exceeding the will of the defense.

For to fall short of the will of the defense is to find defeat.

And to exceed it is to become the enemy we claim to fight.

Ensure a just equality before the law;

that thy laws may serve the life of thy citizenry,

enlighten thy society, deter and defeat evil without harm to the good

so that every human being is given the most possible potential

out of his or her social identity

to aspire without fear

and to triumph without feeling defeated.

Lead unto unity and forget not the justice of thy peace

for where the heart that lives in the heart of thy nations

- is one and constant and alive -

where the people rejoice, all are inclined to rejoice,

where the people laugh, they laugh together,

where they play, they play together,

where they work, they work together,

where they grieve, they grieve together.

Therefore,

love the LORD and love the common people

serving thy undertaking of Country with one love alone.

For a heart that has many loves

each with different shades and degrees of scope and intensity

for each their different uses and objects and persons

does not know love,

and one who does not know love

has no knowledge of God nor claim to the unity of God.

For how can God abide in a heart that is unto it's own self divided;

how can the Sanctuary of the LORD abide in a sanctuary of war;

in a heart that is like a house always in danger of collapse,

wicked, adulterous, restless and never at peace?

How can the public trust be maintained

by those who picks and chooses who to love and who not to love?

How can the citizenry form a unified cohesion of hope and will of Country

around a heart that possesses none of these things?

How can the peace of any nation

respond to those whose hearts are contained by the will of war?

- selah -

Indeed,

the charity that must be thine by election

must burn with one love alone;

a love that obtains to God

and not a love that obtains to men -

or it is but an illusion of love.

Hence, in the end it matters not to thee - who to love -

because despite everything and in spite of thy self

- it is God and always God -

that you love no matter who you help or where you go.

For thy vision depends not on conditions external

but on things that are happening in your heart of hearts.

In this way, unity of the citizenry and social cohesion is fulfilled

at the level where true unity and cohesion is

- in the LORD and for the LORD -

at the very heart of a person

most especially thine.

For thy values are the values of peace.

---<--@

Miss Universe 2011 -

"Beauty is a state. You were born in it. For you are thus, and so with all beautiful things must strive to return to our LORD with it, being as you are - in the way that you are constantly remembered by our God in eternity."

Last year, it was a tricky question. This year, it was a politically sensitive one. However, I think Shamcey's answer was brilliant, don't you?

Congratulations, Shamcey! Please continue to inspire our youth.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas ! God bless us all.

Sheltering Wings

The Circular Relationship of the Four Causes

The Peace of the Brotherhood of Mankind

20110708

Salutation #32

(One Heart, One People, One Destiny)

Peace be with you.

My fellow Filipino compatriots,

in the Final Accounting of all things,

it shall be shown and made known to to All

that

we are a nation distinct

but not apart from all our other kindred nations -

a human nation, allied to the kindred peace

of all the other nations of our one family of nations.

We are a nation,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

and so it is as a nation

that we shall be held responsible

by both heaven and earth before the God of all heaven and earth.

As a nation, O my people,

we are by our individualities, families, tribes, communities and generations

bound by one heart, one labor, and one destiny.

We are thus called, as citizens to each other,

according to our fidelity to the truths of our nationhood,

to make a shelter for our generations -

the shelter of Country - a home away from Home for all living beings.

As a nation,

we shall rise or fall upon the void of the unknown earth

according to the one peace of our peoples

and the one economy of our generations

to the very last of our generations.

As a nation,

we shall build upon this world,

the kindred peace of Country

to the glory of Almighty God in heaven,

and fill it with living lights

or lay it to waste

by our refusal to

subdue the darkness

in and amidst ourselves - the evil in all evil things.

As a nation without its peace, we shall fail -

a defeated Country, desolate and empty of promise,

of broken, shattered skies,

we shall remain in the dread embrace of this maddening darkness,

falling forever into the void.

As a nation in possession of our peace, we shall persevere.

Victory shall in its time be restored to each of us by God Himself

where w

e shall together with our own eyes

behold

the triumph of an unimaginable abundance.

As a nation,

we are called by weight of our history

and by the call of our destiny

to rise above our differences.

And to do so with courage and tenacity -

for h

ow else is peace to be defended?

Indeed, my honorable compatriots,

it matters most what unites us than what divides us.

Our differences are diverse

and the cause of many valid concerns,

but they are temporal.

Unity is eternal.

---<--@

There is no honor in PARTISAN POLITICS if it is utterly disloyal to the singular cause for which it exists.

Partisanship in politics is good but only if it encourages a unity of decision that promotes wisdom in legislation, and therefore, as a constant exercise in one's strength of political judgment.

But if it encourages indecision, paralysis, and reckless action in the Republic for which it is called to serve in responsible government, if it bestows upon its nation no sense of common guidance and unity - partisanship, it may be said, is not politics at all, it is simply plunder.

---<--@

The Nation and the Responsible State -

We can not demand perfection from the State anymore than God can demand perfection from ourselves without His aid and His authority.

The life of the State is derived from the life of the Nation.

Its authority is a divine authority granted by will of Providence out of the necessity of the people themselves to be governed either by the original line of their kings and rulers (as in a Monarchy) or by their peers (as in a Republic).

It is therefore, composed of human beings - no more, no less. The real power of the Responsible State lies in its ability to unify its peace with the peace of its own Nation - this synergy builds up the Common Market, preserves the peace of civil society, prospers the people and blesses the generations of the people.

This is the labor of our own particular Republic undertaking of Country and is something we must gradually learn from our own common experience as a people united in time and in eternity under the peace of our Republic vision.

It is something that we gradually grow into like a tree growing under the Light of the LORD, our God, and one Sovereign; Almighty God Whose pruning and guidance we must also pay close attention to as a nation entire.

Furthermore, before the promised time of the LORD, it is an imperfect peace and keeps every nation of our one family of the nations of Mankind walking in humility before God always - and for our own good.

There may be many undertakings of Country upon this earth but there is no one undertaking of Country like our own. Neither can this Country be built by any nation other than ourselves.

Therefore, let us build like natives, live like pilgrims, and love like Christians.

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Healing Work

The Shattering