At a time of falling leaves...

I asked the leaf
whether it was scared
because it was autumn
and the other leaves were falling.

The leaf told me,
"No. During the whole spring and summer 
I was very alive. I worked hard 
and helped nourish the tree, 
and much of me 
is in the tree.

(Thich Nhat Hanh)

I then asked the tree,
at a time of falling leaves, 
whether it was scared
to be as bereft of its lush greenery
and it said to me,

"No, seeker, 
for I am a tree".
---<--@

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 #130

From the Book of Life proceeds -

   the Eternal Law!

Thus
is the way of all nations
established for all nations by God -

   for our law serves life, 
   and our life observes the Law.

'Tis but one great cycle
of exile and of exile returning -

   proceeding from peace, 
   and leading again into Peace!
---<--@



(The 2nd Cause: The Cause of Law - Unity)

The 2nd Cause
is concerned with Law
- and - the juridical processes
that guide, form, and strengthen
the evolving social consciousness
of the national community.

   (For human law
   as it is manifested - in time -
   is ever imperfect and as thus require
   - constantly - the guidance of the Eternal Law
   written in the hearts of all Mankind.)

- selah -

LAW is
what imparts necessary shape
and requisite strength to human reason
- and - human reason - as it directly relates -
with the LORD God - the one Author of Law -
and consequently, other human beings
(as well as other living beings,
seen and unseen).

Therefore,
Law must first be reasonable.

- selah -

Law must be made meaningful
to human reason - unaided by faith,
and so must draw its binding force (of truth)
out of a desire to advocate and advance
the authentic freedoms, intrinsic rights,
and the sheer quality of life
of those constituent communities
of whose citizens its necessary promulgation
is intended by the legislative branch
of the Responsible State.

- selah -

Law serves all of life.

But Law must - first and foremost -
be placed ever in the service of Sacred Life.

We
of the generations
of the children of Mankind
being both the guardians of the law [of the nations]
- as well as - its beneficiaries must dwell
in constant remembrance that:

   Life is a pre-existent good
   - life is before everything else was -
   the transcendental substance of its Truth
   is of the One Who is both limitless and eternal -
   and law inspired by the LORD
   is one written in defense of Sacred Life
   which is like clothing given for our nakedness,
   sewn as shelter for the needs of all living creation
   particularly human life.

   Therefore,
   law [human] is Law [Eternal] that serve all of life.

      (The intention
      of the law [of the nations]
      is to respond to human needs,
      and in particular, those human needs
      that are needful of its protection.

      Therefore,
      a law can not be written
      to create and/or to exploit human needs
      because this is the reverse of its original intention.

      The reverse [of law]
      can never ultimately hold true
      - against the flowing out of exile time -
      for it shall never hold fast in the one heart of Man
      being naught but a tyranny of words
      and of entire languages of words -
      offensive, empty, and barren.)

One
who beholds the law
and lives to abide with the Law
- in the heart -
must ever be aware
that those common human needs
are forever protected by the Eternal God -

That Law exists
in the service of Sacred Life!

- selah -

A law that serves
is one that is observed.

One must first observe the law
who desire to gain from its original intention.

In this way,
law is no respecter of persons
but is above all persons
(and personalities).

Therefore,
if any human community is to benefit
from the original intention of law,
then it must first be willing
to freely and completely apply itself
to its prescripts and ensure that the rule of law
both extends to all and applies to all
(which is effective promulgation and civic participation
founded on effective civic education respectively).

What precedes
this necessary civic observance
is an inherent public trust of whose original domain
is founded at the very foundation of law.

To be sure,
law was something inspired by God in Mankind
having variously revealed it to our humanity
- throughout Salvation History -
as a sign of our LORD's manifest will
to lead all hearts to the Truth.

It is an extension of His good will for all nations.

   (The highest [noblest] form of law being
   the Law of the Gospel or the Law of Christ-Love
   or the one Law [beyond which there is no more law].)

Since
the purpose of Justice - is -
the restoration of the Original Ideal,
Justice by its own virtue
seeks to preserve and to promote
what goodness there is.

We are then left with the reality of evil.

Now,
the intention of law is to bind evil
(and defeat the Evil in all evil things) -
to deter, deflect, deny, and expose it.

Therefore,
the purpose of law is - also -
to preserve and to promote the good
but this law wills to achieve
by the discouragement of evil acts.

Law is what deters evil
from afflicting all who
are covered by law.
---<--@

The Circular Relationship of the Causes

Ikaw at Ako

Pilipinas, ano ito?

Ito ang lupain ng pangarap,

Bayang hinirang ng araw

sa puso nating lahat -

isang bayan, isang diwa

isang layunin, isang puso

isang kapatiran, isang gawa

isang umagang pangako sa atin

nang Diyos nating Maykapal,

at nag-iisang Kapayapaang namumuno

sa lahat ng mga Pilipino.

Pilipinas, ano ito?

Atin ito: Ating lahat,

noon pa man, dito sa Ngayon,

at sa kalahatan nang panahon -

dito sa lupa, sa ating karagatan,

at sa lawak ng mga kalangitan,

atin ito, ating lahat,

mga kapwa ko Pilipino -

kapwa kapatid nang Pangako.

Pilipinas, ano ito?

Atin ito: Tayo ito - ikaw at ako,

ngayon at magpakailanman:

Bayang dakila, Inang kandungan,

Tahanan ng ating mga bayani -

punong puno nang kabutihang loob

at pananampalayaya sa Diyos.

Matamis ang magsilbi

sa malaya mong mga kalupunan.

---<--@

On Loyalty

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.
---<--@

On Friendship

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.

---<--@

Beauty and Industry

Hang on to the things in your life that doesn't change. Hang on to them till it hurts. For if life is all about change then the secret to living well must be this - stand still.

Starshine, dearest Starshine,
the labor of our heart - must -
always preceed the work of our hands.

So if you shall desire happiness
you must first know in your heart
what it is that you seek
even before you shall desire it.

For desire in and of itself offers
neither sight to thy heart
nor light to thy understanding
which you must require,

Beloved of God,
to know thy own truth by heart.

And seeking it not by sight
but through the eye of thy love
that in thy seeking believes

with conviction of faith
you will come to know thy happiness

by the grace of God
even before desire bears thee away
to where thy feet must follow.

For you work hard, dear Starshine,
you deserve to profit from thy labors.
But yet many are the times
that you fail to find thy love
which reduce thy labors into tears
and deprive thy heart of life's purpose.
Yet while there is yet longing in our life
precious Starshine, believe -
there is nothing in this world
that can ever undo
in thy heart of hearts
what Love for thee has already done.

So return again to thy longing
but know also to trust this time
in the Love that longs for thee back
and work hard, dear Starshine,
knowing to be happy with every hope
striving to always be free
to find thy peace and to prosper,
far into yonder horizons,

our beautiful forever.
---<--@

20110805

Man is a creature of possibilities. Therefore, know your limits. But do not allow yourself to be defined by them.

Salutation #45

(The Gift)

You know in your heart, dear Starshine,

you belong to something greater than thee!

Now there is a dream that lives in thy every spirit

and this truth in thee gives thy soul its powers of flight.

It is present in all thy reaching out to both heaven and earth

for thy dream is an irreplaceable fragment of a greater dreaming.

You are a person called to the labor of the earth;

a citizen purposed by God for the peace of thy nations;

a promise born into the great dreaming of the exile children of Mankind;

thy soul summoned by Our Creator from the nothingness of the void;

a unique fragment of what once was now reside as a mystery in thy own self.

In thy every heart,

you long for thy own place in time,

in so many ways of expressions unique to each of thee

yet each equally true according to thy reaching out

for that same timeless seeking for answers

to the one question that lay at the very beginning of thy being

beckoning thee unto a memory exceedingly sublime

- neither past, present, nor future -

when the Heavens above thee were one,

and the Earth was at one with its own native Sky.

When the portals of Eternity were open and attentive to thy humanity

and the Throne of the LORD burst forth with a golden radiance

embracing all things everywhere with the splendor of the glory of God.

When the Presence of the LORD was upon the face of the Earth,

ministering freely to all thy worlds, within and without,

calling forth all creatures to God, and fruition, and constant felicity;

blessing all the realms of creation with every abundance and in all truth.

When the Light of the LORD filled thy Earth and Sky,

uniting all living beings, seen and unseen,

into the glorious Peace of the one great belonging of God.

Your happiness is a freedom to search for the answers

to that one longing that lives in thy every heart -

a longing that the LORD has for thee lovingly invested

born of a promise thy Creator has laid at the seat of thy own soul;

a freedom to give shape thy every life's purpose

and a hope to whet thy faith for the things of heaven

to stir thy heart unto a remembrance of God

and in God a remembrance of all things in each thy behalf.

For thy common salutation is Peace

so mean it well for this Peace is of a truth;

a good that is beyond all understanding.

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! Peace. Salaam. Shalom. God bless all His nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

Everybody have a great weekend!

Heartsong

I AM the unsung song
that lives within a dream;
the seed within a soul.

Every infinite universe
embraced from within
the heart of God.

I am the road
not the destiny,
I am the journey
not the destination,
I am the dreaming
not the dream,
I am the becoming,
not the being,
I am the singing,
not the song,
I am the climb
not the peak,
I am what soars!

I begin with a praise -
I breathe the air,
and cry out loud:
Alleluia to the LORD!

I end with a praise -
I lift my head,
and bow my heart:
Alleluia to the LORD!

I am heartsong.

Virtue of Truthfulness

Now please, here is our challenge for this month - 201108

Defeating Homophobia

IGNORANCE breeds fear for lack of understanding. What's strange about it all is that people seem to fear the understanding more than the ignorance itself.

Now we come to a complex issue - gay rights.

Some people find this issue too difficult hence, homophobia. What is it?

ho·mo·pho·bi·a [hoh-muh-foh-bee-uh] –noun: unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality.

Take note, homophobia is an unreasoning fear or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality.

Like I said, it is a complex issue and herein lies its difficulties. It is simply too unreal to say one is pro-gay or anti-gay.

I myself consider my convictions about the issue to be centrist because I find myself advocating both liberal as well as conservative positions. My main argument though and one that I will not compromise with is the issue of human rights for gay people.

First of all, let me put this argument in the proper context -

The last great age of War thrives on a mindset of division. Where these mindsets have become firmly entrenched in the people, some cultures of persecution will persist.

Here in the Philippines, my honorable compatriots, we shall make every effort to successfully enter into the door that will lead our nation to promise in this new age.

We shall, as one nation, work to prosper our peace. This means we shall both clearly define and continually safeguard individual human rights as a vital element requisite to our integral sense of a national common good.

Because, honorable Filipino brothers and sisters of the Promise, without the real development of individuals there can be no true national development and there can be no real development of individuals without individual rights.

- selah -

In this sense, speaking for myself as a citizen, I am more concerned about the fear and ignorance that feed the phenomenon of homophobia than of homosexuals per se as a minority segment of our common humanity.

It is easier to reject than to respect and to forsake love rather than to embrace it. Hate blinds the faith that causes our reason to see further than it normally could, by the grace of God.

This is why in the case of minority human rights issues, above all other considerations, force of law is a requirement we can never do without.

This means that - especially in the case of the weaker segments of any society - the force of free human choice must be augmented by the prevailing law of the land.

But we can not have law without resort to reason and we can not use our reason (naked or otherwise illuminated by faith) without first accepting that homosexuality is not the problem, the phenomenon of homophobia is.

As a Roman Catholic Christian, though my stance on the matter is the traditional one and is well known to all, I am also additionally concerned about the abuse of my Christian faith by those who seek to use it to persecute my fellow human beings (homosexual or not) first of all, and the protection of my faith tradition from the excess of those who for selfish reasons, seek to make it more or less than what it should be (homosexual or not).

I do not believe in same-sex marriages. As far as I am concerned, we should just politely leave church weddings out of it.

But I do believe in the equality of homosexuals (and all human beings) before the law - specific civil contracts should be fine. And I mean this primarily to protect their property rights as fellow citizens equally engaged in our one Republic undertaking.

I believe in the dignity and the promise of the homosexual person as a fellow human being upon this earth but I will never endorse the homosexual act as a legitimate act of conjugal love.

I do not believe in legislating conformity as regards to anybody's private personal preferences as long as both the integrity of the human community and the common good of the nation are not threatened by it.

I am of the religious opinion that the homosexual state is a unique calling to serve in the chaste single state and must be explored in that context. Homosexuality is not a disease. It is a distinct calling to serve. That's my religious opinion.

Furthermore, I believe not in judging homosexuals but in helping them realize also their God-given right to be happy not by a false freedom that will consume them but by the freedom that will liberate them in the truth - that their lives too have purpose and meaning from God if only they shall seek to avoid conformity with the spirit of the world and fall in love with the Spirit of Jesus Christ the Lord.

Besides, how can one help those one has already, in his or her heart, condemned to be beyond help? And the homosexual person is never beyond help - no one is.

"Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins." (2 Peter 4: 8)

Absolutely speaking, I do not believe in using my religion as a weapon against other people.

My honorable compatriots, the future we are choosing to bring forward today belong to all Filipinos - it shall belong to all Filipinos or none at all.

---<--@

Within the week, I shall be issuing our next monthly challenge for this month of August 2011.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. (Ayn Rand)

Others Like Yourself

A Just Equality

20110723

Salutation #42

(The Peace of ASEAN)

To my honorable Filipino compatriots

and to the kindred nations of our ASEAN -

Our ASEAN Neighborhood has the potential for much good

not only for our region but for Asia and the world.

But only if we apply ourselves

to the understanding

that the Peace of our ASEAN

is wrought in virtue and human community.

We are the ASEAN Neighborhood.

A region that is distinct but not apart

from the problems that the nations of our world

must presently confront as a planetary community.

Problems we must work out and confront together as one

to bring about the close of the last great age of War.

If we fail, we shall all fail together.

For the planet itself is at stake.

But if we shall succeed

- as nations dreaming together this time -

we must triumph as ASEAN first.

It is essential that we believe with our hearts

in what strength there is in our unity

over what darkness there was in our past -

The strength of this unity is evident in the Flag of our ASEAN!

O my beloved ASEAN nations -

we can not hope to pull our home region in Asia

away from the descendant gravity

of the last great age of War

if we cast away our unity, covertly or overtly,

and pull ourselves apart in all directions:

War will surely scatter our peoples to the four winds.

If we remain divided in spirit,

O my Philippines,

O my kindred ASEAN nations,

we will have hoped in vain

to develop the inherent potential of our region.

If we hope in vain, we labor in vain.

For we all have inherent strengths

and we all have inherent weaknesses too

because our civilization is not complete

as individual nations in our ASEAN.

We will capitalize on our strengths

and work together to encourage, develop and fulfill them

in our nations for our region.

And we shall through weaknesses become empowered

to rely on our faith in each other and in God - more and more -

with a sense of humility and sincerity.

We will strive to realize - without direct interference -

that our ability to succeed as nations

depend largely on our being adequately cognizant and understanding

of our essential human natures,

its weaknesses as well as its common needs,

invested to the call of each our nations

and entrusted to the care of each our undertakings of Country.

By this we shall strive to be an example to each other in ASEAN

so that while we understand that we can not without coming into conflict

disregard the common experiences of our peoples,

each nation being as unique as each individual human being is unique,

we may also affirm in our own times

within each our own particular undertakings of Country

that the destiny we all aspire for as nations is one and the same

as the Peace we all strive to live in as Countries in ASEAN.

The spirit of War will eventually flee us

by the strength of the Peace of our ASEAN.

Therefore,

peace be to Brunei Darussalam,

peace be to Cambodia,

peace be to Indonesia,

peace be to Laos,

peace be to Malaysia,

peace be to Myanmar,

peace be to Singapore,

peace be to Thailand,

peace be to Vietnam,

and peace be to our ASEAN!

(And to East Timor

- waiting in the wings -

the Peace of our ASEAN as well)

Mabuhay po sa ating lahat - past is past -

we will ascend with one ascending

as one ASEAN Neighborhood.

---<--@

Attack on Norway

The twin terror attacks on innocent Norwegians yesterday at a youth camp and at the city center is appalling. Initial reports that placed the casualties at less than 10 have now risen into around 80 with people still unaccounted for.

This crime is a condemnable act of terrorism indeed.

Let us stand with Norway in this hour of tragedy, my Filipino compatriots, and let us pray for the victims and their families.

---<--@

SONA 2011

Let us pray for our President Noy. May his SONA 2011 be a sweeping success!

Lastly, let us ask the LORD in prayer (especially at Holy Mass tomorrow) to bless our nation with a strong succession of presidents beginning with our PNoy to lead our Country out of this long night.

Better yet, let us constantly desire this in our prayers to God as a nation that the LORD may bless, preserve and prosper the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines and that God may likewise bless, preserve and prosper the Office of his or her Vice President.

(Yes, we need more than one and so may all of them be blessed by God with a lion's or a lioness' heart. Refer to Daniel 12 since we are running on this timeline.)

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Being Present for Peace

20110517

The Two Clocks

The will of War and the will of Peace can be likened to two clocks.

Either one of these clocks may exist at the very heart of a nation at any time - right at the very head waters.

Each clock dictates the general inclination of the people and works to synchronize the movements of each our will of Country.

One clock inescapably leads to a time of death and desolation and the other to a time of life and abundance.

We move forward only by the weight of the burdens we must bear with each other as a nation and this burden is the burden of Justice.

It is a burden that grows even the heavier under the suffocating crush of War and the lighter under the sheltering wings of Peace.

When we follow or are led to follow the clock of War, the clock of War moves forward as the clock of Peace is stopped.

When we follow or are led to follow the clock of Peace, the clock of Peace moves forward as the clock of War is stopped.

When we allow the will of War to steal away the lives and promise of each our fellow Filipino compatriots

, the clock of War is hastened.

When we allow the will of Peace to work to fulfill the lives and promise of each our fellow Filipino compatriots, the clock of Peace is hastened.

Either clock leads all the way to the higher purposes of God for all creation and in all things, seen and unseen.

But the choice is always ours which one to follow.

For we can only follow one.

My honorable compatriots, this is the clock that a vast majority of the nations of our world have been following for the last 2000 years. It is also the same clock that was begun at the time of Abel.

It is called the Doomsday Clock.

We can see for ourselves here today where it has taken us (by the perilous state of the planet itself and the general brokenness of the nations of our world) and where it shall eventually lead all the nations of our one family of nations.

But there is another clock...

We now have a choice (at a time, times, and half-a-time).

It is the only choice we can really make.

---<--@

Alliances of Principle

No Country in this world matures on its own.

We depend on our relationships with other Countries for many things.

But there is such a thing as an alliance of principle - a relationship based on shared values.

There is also such a thing as a relationship of mere convenience which is not really a relationship at all.

Of the two, we ought to prefer exclusively the former over the latter.

There is no such thing as a false relationship. Either one exists or it does not.

Where it exists, it must be founded on common values. Where it does not, it must be bridged by common values.

What are these values?

Let us establish ourselves upon the first principles at the timeless foundation of our nationhood:

I believe in God, in goodness and the triumph of Sacred Life.

I believe in preservation of both human dignity and human promise.

I believe in the Four Faithful Causes that work to advance the Ages of my Republic undertaking in the one heart of my people across our generations to the very last of our generations.

I believe in peace and human community, a just equality, the inviolability of human rights, and in honorable religion.

I believe in freedom with responsibility, in choice with accountability, in press with humanity, and in meaningful, joyous service to the common people.

I believe (as far as this Republic of ours is concerned) to belong to only one class of citizenry with no elitism, no factionalism, no undue prejudices, and no monopolies on virtue and human morality.

I believe in a free market economy in the truest sense of the word.

I believe in authentic human entrepreneurship that is mindful of its roots and of its role in enriching and protecting the spirit and the values that underpin our national prosperity and the economy of our Common Market.

I believe, most of all, in the inherent ability of the least of my brothers and sisters of the Promise to obtain from God and this Country, both the material successes that honest labors provide and the felicity and spiritual communion that a faithful religion gains.

I believe that in and through all these things, we belong as a necessary and vital whole extending across families, tribes and generations as one nation distinct but not apart* from the one family of the nations of Mankind.

(*a nation distinct but not apart - the freedom to be different as well as the freedom to be the same - this is essentially particularity existing within a commonality; both of these are forms of belonging and equally worthy of the absolute defense)

I believe in, we the Philippines, and the one Republic that represents all our hopes - the guardian of our peace as a people and the keeper of the sacred remembrances of my one Filipino nation.

Now, I've only sketched out a very general sense of the values I know in myself we possess as a nation. But the point of the matter is that we should likewise seek to build our alliances based on a sense of shared values and principles.

Because the friendships we should seek to nurture and prosper with in this new age are those that recognize and communicate shared foundations.

They shall be real, living, evolving, even eternal relationships - refreshing, mutually beneficial, and solid against adversity.

And they shall nevermore be as those arrangements of the past - exhausting and frustrating to both mind and heart. That particular age is at an end.

We shall be a friend to our friends and they shall be a friend to us.

That's my thoughts on building friendships - alliances of principle - and I sincerely believe it should form a large part of our foreign policy.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Farewell to Promise

Salutation #4

(Light)

PEACE, I salute you.

Evil which is poison, when once by mischief,
allowed entrance into that Kingdom within
becomes the malice that corrupt the purity
of the human will's intention for good -
dividing the one House of that Man within
against the Sanctuary of the LORD in the heart
making the soul vulnerable against itself
inclining fallen Man to sinful things.

For malice is the corruption that is sown
upon the ground of the human heart
to become those manifold and diverse tares
which are the vicious habits of sin
that overgrow with choking weeds
that evergreen garden of the human soul
where we take our walks with our God
in the stillness of our wakeful prayers;
that same timeless garden
that one must through God's good graces
cultivate with much virtue and light.

And sin is a lie that creeps
upon the threshold of the heart
seeking to assault and overthrow
the reign of our sovereign LORD within
that it may slowly overcome with its darkness
the golden blue of our native skies.

Now, our LORD being the one God Who is
revealed unto all of our shared humanity
in complete and utter finality
through the Sacred Humanity
of the Incarnate Word,
Who is the Second Person
of the one triune Perfection -
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
our one Truelight, our highest Exemplar,
and First of our First Magnitudes,
is the self-same God Whose Presence is
for all creatures, seen and unseen,
that one, holy and sustaining Light,
when once in exile time completely denied
by the arrival in the soul of Man
of an absolute and irrevocable choice
to embrace and to obey the will of evil,
which is the will of sin and the ambition of war,
become in absolute reality manifest
as a smoldering and inescapable wrath
for when the Daystar Sun is completely eclipsed
by rise of Wormwood, that false star of Satan,
this darkness shall by its terrible descent,
completely consume into dust and ashes
all that remains in that Man,
both body and soul,
suffering the first death
which is permanent
as well as the second death
which is everlasting.

What motivates Man in the heart
is either one - good or evil -
and so therefore, that tree of exile
that from our faded Eden cast
the singular lineage of Man
is that self-same malice that
in the garden of our hearts with God
must first be uprooted
and its poisonous darkness
overthrown from within our souls
that evil and its corrupting lie
may from our eternal good be cut off.

This is how we shall acquire
one standard of Liberty for all.

Therefore, let us be good,
beloved friends and constant companions,
let good things motivate us,
let us be a people of the good,
let us seek to dwell on true things,
knowing by heart unto where
and from Whom all good things come,
persevering always in prayer,
both in private but above all together,
with the seen as well as the unseen,
thus, becoming intimate with the Intimate,
and seek no more to profit from evil things
nor make provision in time for evil things
in the timeless abode of our hearts
dwelling with God, alone with the Alone.

For it is human weakness that is forgivable
but malice once by the Spirit of God challenged
when yet willfully and unrelentingly embraced
become that final, festering, poisonous rot
that shall turn into ashes
the timeless life of the spirit from within
that it may forever join Satan
and all that condemn itself to the hell
that shall soon claim all evil things.

Sin that is embraced with such utter finality
is indeed, truly unforgivable
not that our LORD is not merciful,
for our God is a merciful LORD
and kind to all creatures,
large and small, seen and unseen.
It is evil that is without virtue
and once made into a god
in place of our most beneficent LORD,
shall then execute its lethal reign
upon that unhappy soul.

Verily, none of us
should like to question motives
yet when motives are questionable,
indeed, one can not help but question them.

This is a root cause of division.

And so let us ever be mindful
of that constant counsel
that any division within our one peace
is the beginning of all evil.

What we should always question,
my beloved friends and constant companions,
are our methods together,
that we may never cease from seeking
to refine the many ways in which
the abundant grace of our God
that we though unworthy of such a good
have so abundantly merited through our Lord,
Jesus Christ, the one Redeemer of mankind,
that we by our willing hands and loving hearts,
may become increasingly useful instruments
that diffuse as light into the darkness
this unmerited grace of God
shining for all souls without distinction
that God's loving Presence in time
may be a paternal comfort and a constant help
to our suffering humanity here in our poor world
so needful of heaven's timeless embrace
that hearts may be one in God,
and peace may be all in All.

We are human beings
and therefore,
we are a becoming in time.
We share in our humanity,
a lack that can only be filled by the timeless.
A lack that is felt in our souls
as a reaching out to God
and manifest in our bodies
as common human needs.
And so, lacking, needful, bereft,
we are come to a knowledge of God
and of each other in God.

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.

War is a tension that is insufferable in this new age.
But hope is also a tension,
my beloved friends and constant companions,
and one that is more apt to liberate our nations
from the mire of poverty and despair.
It is an expression of God's own peace
which is the Peace of Jesus Christ
and an extension of the one paradigm of the peace
which contain in the one whole truth of itself
the reality of a promise of old to all our nations
made by the one God of our Father Abraham
that the numberless stars that we are each called to be,
shall bless the communities of mankind -
when we shall in the darkness of exile time
by each of our own life's width and breadth
through our LORD's unfaltering Light be made to shine
for each other in, with, through and for God and Country -
here upon this, our poor world,
upon this inhabited earth in the grip of the midnight of war,
as a labor of hope upon this last wintering,
upon a time of falling tears.

Finally, as regards to our one peace,
we can not, as a whole, abide by lukewarm halves -
we must each enable each other through God's grace
to profess this as a one whole paradigm,
one whole truth in the universes within our souls,
one whole truth in our families,
one whole truth in our local communities,
one whole truth in our national communities,
one whole truth in our regions,
one whole truth in our continents,
and one whole truth in our one planetary whole -
in reality, wholes upon wholes aligned towards life,
built on winged truth, an ascendant motion in time,
advancing the cause of life which is lasting happiness
through civilizations that with our nameless and honest labors
rise like incense to give glory to the God of all life
as the one family of the nations of mankind.

If we shall give war an inch,
my beloved friends and constant companions,
if we shall willingly allow
a segment of our shared humanity
to become vulnerable to evil things,
if we freely and recklessly abandon
our Lord's poor,
in the weak, the defenseless,
the displaced, the dispossessed,
the widow, the stranger, the orphan,
we shall indeed soon find
that war and the ambition of war
has again overtaken us all
with the final defeat which is its curse.

For what war does to one, war does to all.
So let our one peace forever remain, one whole one.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Pay attention to the deeper workings of your own heart, O my nation, for thou has a guardian spirit; an angel of the LORD, a keeper of all thy sacred remembrances -

There is a reflection of thyself written in heaven; of we as we should be as citizens to each other, across all of our generations, under the eternal vigilance of the LORD, our God.

Therefore, pay closer attention to the inclination of these present times and you will understand:

The name of thy angel is Peace.

Common Human Needs