Salutation #189

God replied, "I am who am." 
Then He added, "This is what you shall tell the Israelites:
I AM sent me to you."

God spoke further to Moses,
"Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD,
the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
has sent me to you. "

This is my Name forever; 
this is my Title for all generations.

Exodus 3: 14-15


Pursue peace and pursue it absolutely.

In commemoration of the outpouring of humanitarian aid and assistance to my Nation by the many Nations in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) - "Salamat po at mabuhay po tayong lahat nang mga Bansa ng mga Anak ng Sangkatauhan!" 

(God is, and that is all!)

God is, and that is all!
The LORD is His Name.
And this is the Truth -
He is God forever!

God is, as He is!
And all creation bears witness to God,
the LORD Who is - Creator to all that is,
was, and ever will be, worlds upon worlds
without end, and glorious for God forever.

The LORD is One
and jealous is God for His Name's sake.
He is, alone among the Heavens and upon the Earth,
and in all souls and in all hearts, God without compare!

Above all things, beyond all things,
with all things, and in all things,
the LORD waits. God waits on those
who wait on Him. And confess that He is One!

God is to be feared.
For a mighty God is the LORD!
He is God and kind to all His creatures,
merciful to all poor souls in need, and able to save all
who come to know Him and fear Him and say,
"Amen to God, Amen."

God is Spirit Unseen 
and He goes where He goes;
here, there, and everywhere God is.

He comes without knowledge,
and speaks without words,
yet all hearts know the LORD is
and make Peace with His Name
singing, "Alleluia to God, 
Alleluia to God,
Amen."

For God is forever
and none has seen the Truth
of the God Who is
Who is not of the LORD forever
and prevaileth without death
for God is - all are not.

What creature can say this or that 
of the LORD?

What mouth speaketh
of God of the knowledge of God
knoweth not the LORD whose heart
repenteth not in tears and ashes.

It is terrible to Man 
to be caught up in the LORD.
For God is - where Man is not.

In the realization of God,
Man awakens to fear
for Man fears God
because God is -
and Man is not
and comes
to a knowledge of fear
in the reality of his separation
from God and from other Men.

And in the fear
of not being asleep to God,
Man finds in the reality of God,
in His faithfulness and loving kindness,
the fear of not being awake in Him.

And in humility
he overcomes his fear
by subjecting it to the LORD,
the God Whom he wisely fears,
with trembling adoration.

The image of the LORD is 
the Sound of His Name!

All that is - hears the call of their God
and arises from the face of the deep.

All that is - rejoices in the Name of the LORD
for all that is, was, and shall ever be.

None has seen, none has heard, yet all is
and all that is - rejoices - for God is
and God in all - is.

God is the likeness of life;
all that live know of life through God
and all of the living who seek God
came to know of the life in Him.

For He is in all living souls
the Being of our being and the Life in our life,
in the breath that imparts, in the breathing that becomes, God is -
ever like life - longing for the perfection of happiness forever.

The Wisdom of God is in all His works.
And it is wondrous to behold!

The glory of God rests
upon all things like the morning dew
and it refreshes the poor of heart.

For Wisdom makes poor as God makes rich
that the humble rejoice and the haughty flee in shame.

God is God in perfect contemplation of Himself;
Truth realizing Love - and Freedom proclaiming itself to the captives,
Love realizing Truth - and Justice and Mercy blessing all the Earth
with loving kindness, compassion, mercy, gentleness, and peace.
Beauty beholding Beauty. God beholding God.
---<--@

Salutation #95

All truth leads to freedom

only because our freedom is constantly

being perfected by the freedom of the LORD.

Freedom that is authentic to our humanity

is always relevant to our human need to be happy.

It is not the false image

of that presumptuous freedom

that shuns the accountability

that is an inherent responsibility

of an authentic human freedom.

Therefore,

freedom is not free

that binds us to the Evil in all evil things -

freedom is free which binds us to the truth

of God and of each other in common humanity.

(Truthfulness)

To be truthful,

seek first the Source of all truth

for as God is, we are.

Truth is

the mother tongue of heaven:

In the truth we are able to understand

and through it we are able to be understood.

Truth is

the common medium of all virtue:

By the truth good is recognized and applauded

and because of it evil is revealed and punished.

Therefore,

love the LORD

in everything and with everything.

This is the path of all true things.

- selah -

Strive to be aware of this

and in thy own understanding

strive in all things to speak the truth,

mean what you speak, speak what you mean,

and own up to what you mean

- doing all things in love and out of love -

for God and for thy fellow citizens upon the earth.

Exercise truthfulness

with a compassionate regard

for the humanity of other people -

so be gentle when you should speak.

For the habitual grace of truthfulness

does not bind us to the truth - rather -

it binds the truth - through us -

into the active service of charity

so that truth is made available,

by the demands of prudence

and command of charity,

most especially when it counts.

The object of this virtue is truth itself,

that which fills with substance all things whole

and endow it with force and meaning

which is more than its words.

The act of this virtue

is the honorable expression of truth

and this honorable expression - being -

the explicit recognition

amidst our human need for absolute truth

that the truth that lives in other people's lives

(the particular reality of the individual good)

- must also be recognized -

as an integral part

of this particular virtue's

expression of right action.

For the truth must be

- by its own virtue -

is wielded for no other reason

than to make men free.

---<--@

Truthfulness is an expression of the cardinal virtue, Justice.

The individual exercise of truthfulness is therefore, simultaneously both a personal as well as a civic virtue.

The ancient Filipinos possessed this virtue to a high degree.

Salutation #77

Let our Banner be unto thyself a symbol of unity, my people,

and let it fly in thy heart out of love of God and Country.

Yea, let this Banner fly in thy heart of hearts or not at all!

For if this one kind of love is absent in the absent heart of Man,

there shall our Country be found nowhere in creation.

- Salutation #10 (Old Defiant)

(Old Defiant vs. Old Compliant)

Peace, I salute you.

I should like to emphasize in us again,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

the importance of unity over division -

especially in the midst of this brewing crisis

between our President and our Chief Justice.

Remember,

I am not writing here

about the impeachment trial

- or any external event that must also concern us -

I am writing primarily about you (about us) -

the citizen-servant.

For everything that proceeds in our Republic,

proceeds from the concentrated strength of its spirit

in your soul (our souls).

As regards the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona

and the divisions it is sparking in our nation,

if you are in any way interested

in what I have to think about the matter - personally,

please refer to the running commentary

I have opened here.

However,

if you are still sincerely confused about the matter,

you may inhibit yourselves from participating in the public debate

and remain in the safety of your own areas of service.

It is never fair to have to be made to choose

between two co-equal, independent branches

of our one Republic government

in the Responsible State.

Again,

our central focus here

is to make this an exercise in unity

so do not allow your own mind and heart

to become bitterly embroiled in the politics

and the divisions that must surround this event

- without having a clear mind -

as to where your freedom and your independence truly lies.

Completely refrain from adding your own flame

to the many conflagrations that threaten to consume our Country

but rather add it to the unifying light that gives her comfort and warmth,

bolstering her strength to see us all through this long night;

this longest night...

- selah -

(I am reposting this piece from 20110402.)

Something's missing from my Philippines. Something vital.

Who knows her?

These days, everybody seems to be living for themselves alone. It seems no one remembers her.

By this, she is grieved and therefore, draws further and further away into isolation.

For the spirit of Country, my honorable compatriots, is a spirit of self-belonging. It is a self-cognizant, collective sense of self.

And the Republic is a guardian to a people orphaned by war.

Thus, if the people are divided in their hearts against each other, they are scattered.

And the people are scattered because of those distant and faded hearts; hearts that seem to no longer recognize the spirit of this Republic; hearts that have come to accept the rule of War.

Hence, the spirit of Country is diluted.

And when there is no substance left in our remembrance, when there is no peace left to abide in our belonging, when there is no truth left to empower our will of Country, we shall cease to exist as a nation.

But while our history still fills the hunger in our souls, while there is yet a common longing for better days burning in our hearts, while there is yet those who remember and believe, while there is yet even a few who are brave and true, by the grace of Almighty God, war will never have us.

Truly, my nation, this is not a very good time for the spirit of war. For this is exactly why the colors of our own Country is called Old Defiant.

We have a choice. Let it mean something:

Let us defy division, let us defy corruption, let us defy poverty, let us defy evil and prosper, my fellow Filipino compatriots - together this time.

Let us defend where we must, O my nation Philippines, and leave all else to the invulnerable, omnipotent defense of the LORD, our God, the one Sovereign of all nations.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Truth

On Being Strong

Love the LORD, thy God, in everything and with everything. This is the truth.

---<--@

Our precious Starshine -

STRIVE.

Strength is primarily expressed in the masculine.

Strength is fidelity to the truth; a measure of its brightness.

It is the noble glow of its own conviction;

the ascendant magnitude of our every embrace

- of all those living and everliving things -

that belong to the timelessness in our souls.

Strength is secure in its patience

being sure of the reality of itself;

born of the light that understands

the exactness of its own truth.

It is not harsh and uncertain of its own reality;

born not of the lie that in the darkness understands not itself.

Strength is certain in its meekness.

It is a temper of the will that neither rises nor falls

but is even and steadfast against the assault of false things.

It is not a hardness that hides its unfamiliarity to its own virtue;

being established not by ignorance of the value of the beautiful things

it exists to serve and to keep.

It is not coldness. It is not distance. It is not decrease.

It is warmth. It is presence. It is increase.
---<--@

20111023 PM

Sunday Evenings

Good evening, the Philippines - mabuhay!

This evening, I just want to share with this with you -

The Stranger at the Tabernacle

On 20110908, the feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I went to pray the rosary in front of the Tabernacle located on the right wing of our parish church to honor Mama Mary on her birthday.

During my prayer, three visitors came to Jesus.

The first one was a young mother and her young daughter; the second was a devout woman; and the third was a strange man, seemingly crude and unrefined, who ignoring all the norms of piety came with his footwear on and dirty clothes, snapping his fingers at the Tabernacle, mumbling strange words to God.

I was becoming concerned at the spirit of the latter for it seemed alien to the quiet of the place and then my Jesus made realize: the first visitor was led to Him by her love for her daughter; the second by her love for God, and the third by the grace of God.

All are children of the Father. But of all of them, I was more like the last one.

When I pray to the Father and feel helplessly inadequate as I oftentimes do, it is the welcome of Christ that constantly reassures me that I belong. It is the Spirit of Christ that prepares me to receive the invite of the Father to attend the wedding feast of His beloved Son, my most loving Jesus.

How can I go wrong by listening to Him Who came to save me? And we listen to Jesus when we pay attention to the Gospel.

- selah -

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 22:34-40 -

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them (a scholar of the law) tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

---<--@

Let us pause and reflect on the timelessness of this Wisdom, alleluia.

For it is this love that binds us together as one nation.

Whatever challenges the new week shall bring, if we face it together, if we persevere in our unity, if we keep in mind all that unites us more than what divides us, not only shall we overcome, my people, but in God we shall prevail.

So may the Holy Spirit of God sustain each of us, especially in our continuing quest for peace and righteousness in our Country, as we enter as one nation together into another working week.

My salutation is peace to you all.

---<--@

The DOST Juan Time Campaign -

Juan time starts tomorrow!

No more advancing the time to make up for Filipino time. Let us all set our watches to Juan time and be on time all the time.

Filipino time is a myth.

The truth is we move to the beat of just Juan time.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Filipino

Who is a Filipino?

But the heart that lives

to love the Filipino

and the one Republic

of the Filipino people.

How is the Filipino?

But through faith that seeks

to find itself alive

in the eternal remembrance

of God and our people.

Where is the Filipino?

But in the will that accepts

the trust that embrace

our lives and our fortunes

together as one nation.

Why is the Filipino?

But with every dream that begins

ever like a single breath

to become our breathing together

of the many into one hope.

When is the Filipino?

But at every present rising

from the deep of Eternity

in the every moment that breaks

upon the awakening reality

of the dawn of a new Philippines.

= ^.^ =

The Truth

A Friend Like You

20110912

Salutation #49

Hear me, O my nation! The LORD, thy God, is a God of relationships.

(This one it is difficult.

You must please bear with me.)

(Our one Human Habitation)

Cast adrift in this great void of exile time,

in a remote spiral arm of our one Milky Way galaxy,

but one upon one of more than a billion known galaxies

that lay spread in their great clusters

across the vast expanse of this visible universe;

upon the life bearing regions of a nameless yellow star,

lay a nameless, native planet of earth -

a world embraced by those familiar circling of seasons

held in their great cycles by the perennial sweep

of each our measured round

about a singular middle aged star we simply call, our sun;

a world sheltering these worlds within ourselves.

This is the reality of our one planetary home.

It is a reality - that -

while seemingly being at present - obscured -

by the prevailing darkness of these times,

is nevertheless the abiding truth that prevails

as the one common reality of our one planetary home.

We are upon this earth,

a world embarked upon an inevitable journey

toward an inescapable destiny - that -

while remaining hidden and unbeknownst

even to the understanding of many,

is nevertheless the unfolding of a reality - that -

has and ever will be - a truth - that is and must be shared

by and with all human beings

as the one common reality of our one human habitation.

Upon this, our home world,

we as human beings have pondered together

the questions of our existence.

Each these question as questions bent and inward sought

like answers seeking its way into thought.

Each these thoughts as thoughts we must leave afloat

upon the cumulative tide of each those silent moments

we spend sought in our seeking.

Each our seeking like our prayers - met -

by our ascending with each moment that rises and falls

with each moment - spent -

in the pondering of that great and unfathomable Silence,

awash upon a void,

hostile beyond hostile to all Sacred Life.

We are by what answers we bear for each other,

ever like the twinkling of each of those unseen stars

rising in their great arcs

upon the great ocean of our LORD's Eternity,

an inward part of the rising and falling of one firmament,

an integral part of the seasons of our one native sky.

These seasons of our one native sky

are the interior seasons within each and every human soul

that when perceived through the ebb and flow motions

of our coming together in our great belongings under the sun,

become the great celestial sweep of that one unseen cycle

rising from deep within the soul of all Mankind.

And it is this one unseen cycle

that universally attests to our common human witness

of that one great and unfathomable purpose of all creation,

the one great celestial cycle,

the one gathering of the All of Sacred Life,

and the one destiny toward which we are purposed

to steer the one common reality of our one human habitation.

We are like the questions that we ask,

borne by each our own common experience

of our one human habitation.

We are by what answers we bear for each other

carried afloat upon the great sweep of the physical motions

of this vast and empty realm of the visible universe.

For we are through each other,

our own seamless experience of our one common human reality,

the experience of our own human habitation.

Begun at the timeless birth of all human togetherness,

we are upon the earth, upon this one great and visible realm

of our one common human habitation - with each other -

as those worlds upon worlds

bound by our own true belongings to each other

as the one lineage of the generations of the children of Mankind.

And fallen into the darkness of exile time,

at the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden,

at the great scattering of worlds,

we were a togetherness never purposed to belong

upon a realm intended to be as divided, dark and barren,

as fallen, bitter and empty

as these shattered skies fallen upon our world.

When we, as human beings, gaze out into the universe

- above and around ourselves -

we must know in our heart of hearts

that even in the midst of all this emptiness and longing for life,

even in the embrace of all these questions sought

here in the darkness of exile time,

here at the great scattering of worlds,

if we are to understand the order of the physical stars

in those temporal heavens above and around our native of earth,

from clusters to galaxies, from star to star,

from worlds to their companion worlds,

we can easily perceive in each native region of space

what is reflected inwardly in our souls

like a primordial longing bound in companionships.

For there is only a gathering sense of belonging

in the all of visible creation and this sense of belonging,

reflected by the physical order

of even those shattered temporal skies

that lay barren about our native of earth

and amidst all of this exile darkness,

is the one order that have endured - and therefore -

should be the one truth that must have always to prevail

in the order of all of the visible universe.

For our one human habitation

is not comprised of individual human beings

ordered according to each individual self.

Our one human habitation is ordered

- according to the connections that we serve with each other -

as individual human beings

and those relationships borne in exile time and dimensional space

that we in our shared humanity

is purposed to serve with and for the All of Sacred Life

that we must in our own particular belongings to each other

responsibly carry out not as divided individuals but as united wholes -

ever as those nations dreaming together this time.

Therefore,

we must be able to perceive the reality of all of visible creation

with an understanding that bring us closer

to an understanding of what truth it reflects.

For our one human habitation

reflects the truth about our own persons as human beings

with and to each other - in God and Country, for God and Country.

---<--@

On Friendship

To love first your friends is to know them -

May all our friendships be without frontiers!

The Angels of the LORD,
my precious Starshine,
each of which is distinct
in Beauty and Light,
being individually endowed
with splendor of truths
unique to each their gifts
possessed by each their person
from the very beginning
of their swift flight
across the timeless void
and into eternity
into the wholeness
which is God
for lack of human words
to define the strength of a relationship
that transcend the all of time
from across that veil of shadow and tears
beyond the sum total of human experience
call each other "friends".

Each of our family
who are related to us
by corporal bonds of blood
are the friends that our LORD
has chosen for us.

Each of our friends
who become part of us
by spiritual bonds of truth
are the family that we learn to choose
in the course of each our lives
to complete what our LORD
has begun for us
in our families.

Both bonds bind us together
in the strength of human relationships
that nurture life and sustain hope
through action of community
and the service of life.

You must love,
my precious Starshine,
to transform these bonds
into that one friendship alone.

And make these bonds
into the bonds of angels
who are each in God
spirits united in their freedom
created by the strength of friendships
bound in timeless truth.

So with each other,
my precious Starshine,
you must build on the good,
and give to the need of thy beloved
recognizing in thy shared humanity
the giving of the LORD
Who is the singular Source
of all our relationships.

Be thankful for friendship wings
human, angelic and Divine,
that take us all across
from moment to moment
into an understanding of its peace
lifting us into the unity
of those wholes upon wholes
from hope to hope
and strength to strength
past, into present
and into every present
across the void
into eternity.

Starshine,

there is always a reason to smile.

---<--@

On Loyalty

What you do for your friends will be remembered by your friends. What you don't do for your friends will be remembered by your enemies.

Starshine,
the things of Loyalty
are the relationships
that shall remain
forever with thee;
so defend your friendships
with courage and tenacity.

For we are not Loyal
if we do not remain
true to each other,
moment to moment,
from always to always
appreciating those things
that we share in our humanity
and respecting the things
that make us unique as persons,
seen as well as unseen,
in ourselves and in our nations
in the vision of our timeless belonging
with one another in God and Country
as each our own true self -
as each our own true names
written in heaven.

From the descendant gravity
of the spirit of war and division;
against things born of the darkness
defeated and empty of promise
stand fast in thy friendships!

Guard thy peace with each other
and in thy togetherness hope.

Never be Loyal
to inanimate and empty things;
those fickle and ephemeral
things of vanity!

But only to each other
and in the ascendant motions
of Sacred Life.

For the realization of all our hope
rests in the glory of our LORD
in all creation.

And all these created things
are made by our one common Creator
to be Loyal to all of these.
---<--@

A Requiem Prayer -

During the first week after 9/11, I made a conscious effort to refrain from learning anything more about the lives of the fallen. I remember that first week was a week of soul searching. The whole Country was looking for meaning.

I am very sensitive to the impact of lost innocents and I knew it. I was only beginning to know my Anne and her lost generation.

The only name whose life I can remember is Tod Beamer on Flight 93. And he was a hero - is a hero. He became consigned to embrace with valor the fate which though sad, he and those others with him were able to transform into a shining light. It is easy to remember guys like Tod.

But what of the others? Those who died crying and afraid. Those who are difficult to let go? What of the youngest who I now learned is only 3 years old?

I blocked them all during that first week. I avoided knowing more about their stories. Not because I wanted to but because I had to - for me.

9/11 also happened during the darkest times of my life. I was not yet reconciled to many things in my own life. My personal life was at a threshold. I was in despair.

And then all was swept away in the aftermath. That was all exactly 10 years ago yesterday.

So last night, when I heard the calling of the names, I remembered again that first week (this is Philippine time of course which is exactly 12hrs ahead of the Eastern Seaboard). I was affected again. I felt the pain of the loss. But this time, I felt I was no longer alone. And I began to include them in my prayers to God.

I encourage you to please do so as well.

People with no connection to people will say this is all over-hyped. But if you understand what I understand, you will think of people. Because we are our relationships.

Let us pray for the victims and their families. Let us expedite their final hopes on earth.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Truth

Breaking the Siege