Peace be with you, sister

I too am for peace. It is my hope that peace shall one day be the rule in this Republic of ours rather than the exception. I believe that if we are patient, and we are a patient people, peace for all of us shall be inevitable. For now, let us not lose hope.

Reflections: 20150312, Thursday

Sea as a reflection of Sky. Sky as a meditation of Sea

Nakakalito ang panahon, mga kapatid. Muddy water... How long is it going to last? We have to wait till things settle down... ganun talaga ang tubig.

What is driving the confusion? I think it's politics. Saludo ako kay Walden Bello. I lean toward the right pero when it comes to principle - everybody should be drawn toward the center. It is politically gutsy what he did. He stood on principle, acted his convictions and resigned from his party. Bakit? Kasi nakakainis na talaga yung nangyayari sa taas.

All this blaming is weak. President Ramos was right when he said that the President is not being very Presidential right now. If insiders, our own citizens, can recognize it, what of outsiders. Both our friends and those who we have not yet won over to be our friends must be of their own opinions on the matter of Mamasapano, the Peace process, and the BBL. But as for me, what is of central importance right now is for this Republic to sort itself out. Muddy water must be made clear again. Ganun talaga ang buhay na tubig. Clarity. Truth (with love as the highest truth). Everything else will follow.

Think about PNoy's advisers and appointees. What the hell have they been up to. My attitude is they should at least consider the dignity of the Office of the President. Even when they should disagree with the prevailing politics of the person of the President, I think they must always be mindful of the prevailing reality of that intangible truth upon which he, the person of the President, as well as they, his political appointees, stand upon - in the seals, symbols and titles of our Republic.

Because these are the things that will outlast them. The Office will outlast the person of the President and the Office of the President shall outlast his or her appointees too. These seals, symbols and titles will outlast because they were meant to outlast. For the truths that live within them are as vessels that contain and serve to bear forward in spirit that sense of continuity (1) for our Country in ourselves, and (2) of our Country in time. Certainly, these truths will outlast the politics of any present time and deserve to retain their own honors distinct from their successors through a lineage that is intact.

I think about PNoy himself. I do not think it wise for him to resign. I do not think it wise for him to persist in absolving himself either. Sabi nga nila e. The buck stops there. If not accountability, take responsibility to ensure accountability, Mr President. The guilt you will bear if you were not to blame in any of this is not because something was done but because nothing was done. Or because something was done after the fact that falls short of what must be done. Do I still believe in our President? Yes I think so. Pero please sir, assure your people.

Also, why does it feel like there are too many secrets here. Cover up nga daw. Pero secrecy daw is not deceptive. It should not be. Because secrets serve the truth and the truth serves the people. The State is never served by believing in a lie: Kaya umamin siguro si Washington dun sa Cherry Tree. Sino ang pinagtatakluban kung meron. At nino? At bakit? Our striving for truth must always be mindful to preserve honor but not hide incompetence. US involvement? Side issue lang yan. Intelligence cooperation is essential in operations in the nature of Oplan Exodus. Lalo na at ang NICA natin ay hindi pa up to par. Hindi pa front-line agency.

Isa pa. Gripes go up not down. Kaya siguro nasasaktan si Napenas kasi sabihin na natin na may lapses siya. Perhaps, he expected some amount of amor propio to survive in the bearing of the burden of the Fallen 44. And I do not think it was unrealistic of him to expect it.

I have a term: Conservation of Citizenship. I think we all know this concept by heart but have not given it a name. We all want second and third and fourth chances at happiness. In fact, I believe in a Country where these chances are unlimited for those of us who honestly and humanly work at being happy.

Public servants who serve at the Nation's behest up and down our Republic do the vital job of facilitating the awakening of these dreams of personal happiness within our larger awakening Dream of Country (or what I call "Republic Vision"). When these individual dreams awaken, they become real ha... Hindi po tayo parang tulog na nananaginip lang ha. The Republic Vision is a waking dream... it is like something in the horizon we have to return to, something real. Something awesome. We do not fall asleep into this Dream, we live in it. And because we do, most of us implicitly understand we can not fully "be" all of this while war is in our midst. That a house divided will not long endure.

Our dreams are reflections of each other. They only become real because they are reflections of each other. The larger Dream of Country is a fabric of a forever woven from all of these awakened dreams. In a real sense, we owe each other something because of each other's dreaming. Consider along the line of this thought, the water we drink, how we should be thankful. We should recognize in this, our "intrinsic value". Nationhood teaches us to accept, appreciate and to ultimately love the human being because he or she is a human being. Hindi dahil ang taong ito ay may silbi (dahil nga tayong lahat dito sa ating bansa ay may kanya-kanyang silbi) kundi dahil ang tao ay tao. Love the player. Change with the game. 

Not one of us expects their virtue and their worth in this Republic of ours to be wiped out by a single mistake. For as long as these mistake are human, they should stand the scrutiny of our civics. Ewan ko lang kung pinulitika na ha. Politics nga exist at the level of the State and is wholly subsumed by it. It is however, always underpinned by the spirit and strength of our civics.

Human morality, our right remembrances, and the fruits of a good religion in turn inform, empower, and enlighten our civics. Kaya nga I believe a good religion should speak to us as a human nation not so much through our politics but through the art of our citizenship and help us - teach us - to build a culture of light and a dominion of life.

Since a lot of us talk at the same time in the National Conversation and policy being an expression of the present will and vision of the Chief Executive of the Filipino State. Magulo talaga ang pulitika, pero lagi dapat maka-bansa't - makatotohanan at makatao. Politics exist to make things clear. Pero nga bad politicians use politics to muddy up the water. Wala namang bad politics. Bad policy oo kasi nga there are bad politicians - by calling talaga or by accident lamang. Pero ang pang balance po natin dito ay ang ating free expression. Kaya importante ang Free Press. Kaya madalas ako kay Ted Failon sa umaga. At hindi lamang dahil nandun si Tina Marasigan sa medyo huli... yung cat.

Kaya nga bilib din ako sa speech ni Senator Alan Cayetano, I disagree with the good Senator from Taguig at times. Katulad nung pagkukuwestyon niya kina Iqbal at sa pagdidiin niya kay Sec Deles at Ferrer. Masyadong PG kung baga. Alam mo yun? I think Sec Deles and Ferrer must work with the tools they are given. If they were negotiating from a position of weakness - which was my significant take away from the Senator's well-prepared privilege speech - we should be more diligent in going over the BBL. Because the BBL is the present sum of the whole peace process as far as the GPH-MILF track is concerned. Thank you, Senator Cayetano, for your inspired efforts.

Let me say that I make my peace right now with the common people. Walang kwestyon that there is civic peace in the Philippines. Citizenship is not so well defined in the Constitution. Only its legal parameters are mentioned there. Pero we have a deep tradition of citizenship. Malalim ang balon at marami ito laging imbak na tubig na malinaw at presko. I have attempted in this blog to define and to clarify some of its principles and characteristics. Dahil sa tingin ko importante.

Many of us are asking "who or what is a Filipino?" And many of us do not find readily available answers. Tama ang tanong. Pero dati rati kasi walang masyadong nagtatanong kaya ang diwa na nangdadala nang liwanag sa mga katotohanang pinagsasalukan natin nang mga sagot tungkol sa sino tayo ay hindi ganung kalakasan pa para maramdaman nang marami. Para itong hangin, pag pakonti-konti lang ay konti lang din ang makakapanisin nito pero pag dumami na at lumakas, may makakadedma pa ba dito? E ang dami na ngayong nagtatanong... e signal number 3 na.

Let me just say, to find out who a Filipino is, one has to make peace with the Nationhood that is ours. The answer to this question of who we are is not something we should just hear from other people. Citizenship is never an opinion. It is a conviction. It is something we must live by. Something we must realize by the power of its own truth. Hindi sa salita lamang ang sagot kundi sa katotohanan. And so I have found that my peace is fullest when it resides with the Nation, with the common people. Our Nation - Under God. And our people - With Him. We, as an integral part of one Family of Nations. For as long as you and me remain human beings with common human needs, we belong. So peace be unto us, in the service of our common humanity.

Iba itong kapayapaan na ito sa BBL. Let me just make that clear. But the BBL if it serves to facilitate the national peace, is essential. Pero kung power play lang ito and it fosters a sense of exceptionalism in just a single community among our national communities, it is not democractic. And will remain so until the means are made equal: Uncommon Exceptions. We owe it to our fellow Muslim Filipino brothers and sisters to help them craft a peace that is meaningful and lasts and this peace is only this when it is a peace that is compatible with the Peace which is for all Filipinos for all time. Hindi lang Constitution natin ang basihan. Dahil ang Constitution natin ay may basihan din. Kapag umuwi tayo lahat dun sa basihan na iyon. Ito yon.

The National Peace is like the Dream, made up of the peace of many living communities within our Nationhood. I've written before that to salute the life of any individual with peace, one has to implicitly salute also the life of that individual's community with the same peace. Because the dignity of a human person and the dignity of a human community are goods reciprocal. One arrives in peace, one leaves in the spirit of that same peace. Damage one and you damage the other. Deny one and you deny the other. To love one, therefore, you must also know to love the other. Dahil tayo'y Bansa. Lupang Hinirang. Land of Promise. Brothers and Sisters of the Promise.

Citizens must recognize: Salok sa tubig ng langit ang diwa at buhay ng ating pagka-bansa dito sa lupa. Tubig na dati'y dito sa lupa ay delubyong pumatay at sumira, sa ati'y nitong naging sanhi ng isang samahang bayang payapa. We can not build up the living earth without these water ties. For these are the ties that bind us into the freedom of one human nation, one among a family of nations. Blood ties strengthen our families and form the foundation of our communities but only our water ties (spiritual) make us into citizens. Water is ancient.

Ako po ay para sa kapayapaan kaya po ang tingin ko importanteng busisiin ang BBL at ipasa ito dahil sa kapayapaang naririto na... na layunin nitong palawigin. Ito po ay akin lamang: Peace for me does not depend on the BBL, rather it is the opposite. The BBL for me depends on our peace. On how well it has considered it and on how well its vision (as the BPE) aligns with it. Kaya nga when Senator Cayetano brought up his points during his speech and then he asked the question whether we were negotiating from a position of weakness, it made me think. Peace is always through strength. Not of arms, but of truth. Strength of spirit. Filipino spirit. Ito ang pinanggagalingan nang ating kasarinlan. And so, we can never lose our sovereignty by accident, only by ignorance.

So the talk as regards the BBL is not the humanity of our fellow Filipino Muslims brother and sisters, they are like us, human beings with human needs. And it is certainly not their religion we are talking about, they are like us human beings with human needs i.e. Meaningful Existence. In these, both our peace and our freedoms as a nation are already established truths. It is the politics of it. Important but distinct. And I think it is important that we make the distinction. Para medyo luminaw ang tubig. Kasi marami ang nagsasabi na ituloy ang usapang pang-kapayapaan pero pag dating sa BBL, ayan na po... dito tayo uli sa pulitika nito nagkakasanga-sanga. Ganun talaga dapat. Kaya nga ito pinag-uusapan - sa Bansa at nang Estado.

Kaya hindi nakakatulong ang malito. Iisa lamang po ang Republika nating Katigan. Kaya kahit na sadya nga pong nakakalito ang panahon ngayon. This too will pass. Because if we should stay true, it will. My hope is this: After the storm, we will have a deeper appreciation of the calm. Meaning a deeper sense of who we are. And when I say we, I mean lahat po tayo. Lahat.

Kasi kung ibabato pa po natin ang tuon natin sa mas malayo pa sa Bayan nating sinilangan... e di ba parang mas magulo? Kasi nga po magulo talaga. Kaya huwag na muna. Magulo po kasi ang mundo ngayon. Bakit kaya? Diyos lamang po ang nakakaalam nang Kanyang layunin para sa sansinukob.

Just the same, it is really up to us to take away from all these troubles what is ours to take away. And we will never know what ours is until we have a deeper appreciation of the community - the common human unity - we call the nation in ourselves. 'Yang Inang Kanlungang na ang tawag po nating nakasanayan ay Pilipinas na ang tunay pong pangalan ay sarili - na ang bigkas po sa ating langit ay katotohanan - na ang katotohanan po sa lupa nati'y kapayapaan.

Pasensya na po kung medyo napakahaba at medyo nakakalito ang mga saloobin ko na ito. Pero para po sa akin - iyan po tayo. At nandito pa rin po tayo kaya mabuhay po tayong lahat!

Salaam. Shalom. Peace.

---<--@

Thoughts on Religion and Political Moderation

I am a Catholic. Not a moderate Catholic. For there can never be a moderate expression of the faith I hold dear and holds me dear as well. I am simply a Catholic (though not always good at it).

What we love that is for always can never be served by moderation. Religion and its virtues may only truly prosper in ourselves only by full spiritual expression. And this democratic expression of freedom in religion and of religions may only be accommodated in an atmosphere of national peace.

It is an atmosphere long denied to our world. This brokenness has left the house of humanity broken and bleeding. We are today a world of broken nations; a broken peace prevails among the order of our unity as a family. Thus, the human family is scattered. 

This dysfunction at the heart of our nations serves not a single soul. It is unconscionable to the listening heart to allow the nations of the children of Mankind to tarry in the darkness in this way.

And so I say, I am a Catholic. Proud to be one. Properly proud to be in the service of the Peace of Jesus Christ. Ever may it prevail!

In the same way, I understand there are no moderate Muslims or Jews or Buddhists or Sikhs or Hindus, etc. when it comes to the religious profession of the faiths we all hold dear and holds us all dear as well.

What I shall ask is for us to be moderate in the duty and practice of our politics. 

What does divide religion are not the truths and the virtues of its revelations but the politics of which we, through right remembrance of a long history of suffering and loss, may now at present discern separately and distinctly from the lives of faith we each must live, according to our freedoms, with truth in the heart.

The world has not become smaller. What our world at present has really become is wider. It has become more not less. Its horizons more expansive than ever. We have to have the heart to be able to embrace it as a human family. Lest the immediacy of the spirit of present tidings remain to many of us strange.

We perceive a landscape of things that may be in our common tomorrow as nations so open and so wide, we discern a darkness foreboding. And instead of going boldly forth to conquer together with cultures of light, retreat into the comfort of past molds.

The can be no living the past. What it is when we choose to so commonly retreat from the face of our right remembrances is a denial of the present. Where there is no peace in the now, there is no now. 

We can not be like this, in particular as children of our Father Abraham; we can not deny the present (and be absent from the now) while holding true to the true living that ours, along with all religious wisdom prescribes to our common humanity.


Peace to us is a time. That time is now.

If we can not make the moment ours, together this time and with all people of good will - as one human family - this world, our world, might so remain where it was, so receded into the spirit past things, so absent from the present, so much obscured from the view of Heaven, it falls again and again into the embrace of the defeated Enemy.

We must not allow this vicious cycle to continue...
---<--@

The Separation of Church and State

No perfection without God



God made Religions many but the Waters that nourish them, God made one.

The LORD when He gifted with Free Will, the First Man, deigned to multiply his freedom - and secure his happiness forever, but caused Adam to grow only upward - unto Him - that He may know of the freedom of God and that God is his Freedom.

This was disrupted by the Devil (but not without the foreknowledge of God) and now we are, for our own safety and the forbearance of all human hope, exiled from our own Eden in a long darkness that is dark because the Truth to each our hearts is now veiled. But we are not without help.

- selah -

Wars of religion and the Remembrance they have - at such a great and terrible cost - afforded all our present generations, are not conflicts that are of the ordinary sense known to our Nations, nor can these Wars be contained by the Power of our States - these Wars, when they are allowed to break into our world and impose its will on the Peace of our Nations, are automatically wars of utter annihilation - their lust for violence, one that  burdens our need of Justice to such an extent that entire peoples lose sight of the Debt we must owe to the Memory of the lost and the fallen, who are our kin forever and responsibility under God as free Nations upon the earth and as such, one that only an act of Heaven - one short of tempting the LORD Himself, can bring to an end.

Religion is a requisite of the life of Man, through religion Man does Justice to God and God deigns to bless with truth, the faith He has sown in the Soul of every Man - the fruits of this intimate encounters from within the Soul of Man brings him to an understanding of Peace and this knowledge nurtures wisdom and the spirit of our humanity is made bright by it - all in its natural course, every variety of Religion musts produce fruits that withstand the darkness of time and the corruption of evil things; their strength, a necessary element of Nationhood, and their natural functioning, integral to the Peace of every Country.

Heaven and Earth can not be one Power (before the Last Day): To preclude the appearance of Wars of religion (and save our posterity from their unbearable burden of Justice) and to preserve the freedom of our religions, in the individual as well as in their necessary corporate exercises in human community, and the blessings of each its noble fruits necessary to the health and well-being of the spirit of our great and honorable Republic, it musts be necessary that Church and State are made distinct in their purpose and power and that their functions especially from within the State remain clear and separate from each other always.
---<--@



No religion shall be the State religion of the Republic nor shall the government require religion as a standard among themselves, whether elected or appointed, nor shall religion be a measure of the excellence of public service nor favored over each other in matters of State or through affinities, formal or informal, with any of the Offices Executive, Houses Legislative, Chambers Judiciary, Commissions Constitutional, and each their necessary Institutions and as a whole or through each their individual representations be given to transgress their equality in particular with each other being apart from the Powers and Purposes of the Republic State.

The government of the Republic shall reserve religious freedom as a distinct freedom granted to the exercise of individual choice exclusively and forever prohibit any form of grant within the State and among the religions that prevents or distorts the plurality, the fullness, the harmony, and depth of religious expression in the national community, that together enriches distinctly the human spirit of a common people - each their ageless wisdom strengthening the inherent Truth embodied by our Liberty through a unity in diversity that strengthen the freedoms integral to the functioning of our democracy and necessary to the well-being and civic virtue of a free and enlightened citizenry.

Therefore, religious prejudice, religious hatred, and the carrying on of the dishonors of the divisions that have marked with untold death and terrible suffering the memory of the past in all religions shall be the right or the province of no one.

All places of Religion shall be protected and preserved, all forms of prayer shall be allowed at all times to endure and persevere as a personal recourse - in private and public places together, religious equality and plurality and harmony being recognized and upheld by the government of the State - with neither fear, nor favor, nor prejudice - of or against any and all religions to their fullest expressions granted - save those who endanger these same freedoms and empower the past against which this Separation of Church and State has been established for the safety and progress of the life of the Nation and the Peace of the Republic that stands in its defense forever.

Thus, a Christian is to govern by the fruits of his or her religion and enriched by the common experience of the national community, establish by the virtue of its truth, him or herself in Public Service by a calling to serve all souls without distinction particularly in the State.

As such, the same degree of respect and courtesy of Republic Ideal and Tradition shall be required of faith traditions and their religions when they are likewise called to respond to the same life vocation to serve in the government of the State - to be human beings and citizens to each other alike - without any religious syncretism or hypocrisy but in fullness of truth; a faithful keeper and a loyal servant - bound to each other in peace and kinship by the freedoms that bind us together through all our generations, past, present and future, unto one Nation distinct among one great family of Nations - under God, the LORD, our one Sovereign.

For this is intended the Separation of Church and State - not to cause more confusion but to end it, not to make us vulnerable to the sins of the past, but to repent of it and, God-willing, be ever spared from a recurrence of their insufferable evil in our times and in every present time, preserved by the strength of human community and defended at all times by our Republic, prevailing as citizens together.
---<--@

Salutation #79

The freedom of Man

and the freedom of Angels

are not unlike each other!

Therefore,

Let us always remember that the liberty

of all the nations of the children of Mankind

is established not for the taking but for the giving -

for it is in giving that we receive;

it is in giving that all Men are set free.

- selah -

(Religion in the Public Domain)

Don't be a hypocrite.

Don't be afraid to say it - "Merry Christmas!"

How can we respect other religions if we can not respect our own?

Remember,

a genuine respect for the power of faith - in any person -

only comes from a genuine experience of religion.

So if you are afraid to practice your own - for any reason,

how can you hope to understand

what substance of truth there is to be had

in the exercise of your own faith?

If you do not understand

- with a knowledge of the truth -

the blessings bestowed upon you by your own religion,

how can you understand the hope

that other people must invest

in the free exercise of theirs

however different they may be to you?

There is a place for religion in the public domain -

for so long as (1) it does compete,

one against the other - to the confusion of many,

for a position of dominance in the civic sphere;

for so long as (2) the Spirit of God is given a free hand

to work the work of completion He intends in all human hearts ;

for so long as (3) the spirit of War is denied entry into the heart of our nations;

for it shall be natural for all truth to come together -

not so that all things may be the same - conformity without diversity,

but so that the purpose of God in all things may be fulfilled.

Merry Christmas!

---<--@

Can you see through the cartoon -

If you love humanity, say to thy own soul:

Drink deeply, O my heart, we have much to do...

---<--@

Think about it -

"People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things." (Anne Frank, July 6, 1944)

Take note of how my Anne described the activity of faith in religion - a gift.

---<--@

Shalom, Salaam, Peace - Maligayang Pasko!

Mabuhay po tayong lahat ngayong Pasko at kapayapaan sa darating na taon.

20110604

Salutation #11

(On Honorable Religion, Religious Harmony and Pluralism)

Peace, I salute you.

Religious wars are a perplexing feature of the last great age of war

and one that we ought to guard against in this new age of peace.

Alone or with others,

our nations stand to gain much through honorable religion

but only if we succeed in exorcising the past

and healing the present from the contagion of War.

Alone or with others,

the fruit of all honorable religion is peace

not because they are the same but because they are different.

For despite the unrelenting tide of the darkness of exile time

and the half-forgotten specters that haunt our history,

honorable religion is ever the engine that inspire

the ennobling light of human civilization,

advancing the Causes that like sheltering wings defend

from the relentless gravity of War's final defeat

the heart of every nation of our one family of nations

gathering together the generations of the children of Mankind

ever toward greater peace, true belonging

and universal brotherhood.

As a shelter against War, therefore,

the peace of our Republic undertaking must prove proof

against the spirit of division.

As citizens to each other,

we can no longer dare to extend safe harbor,

in our hearts and in our times,

to the debilitating rot

of religious divisions, misconceptions, prejudices,

than accept the eternal loss of our peace.

If we love as we ought, then we will see -

that fear and ignorance breeds intolerance

and intolerance destroys human community.

Thou must ever so beware, O Man,

guard thee never to behold the LORD, thy God,

as an image of thyself - a limited, mutable, ephemeral, unfinished work.

For the LORD, our God, is not the invention of any human religion.

The LORD, our God, dearest Starshine, is an infinite Reality.

Compared to the LORD,

all of time and all of the timeless,

all of creation whether seen or unseen,

everything that was, is, and shall ever be,

are all but a particle - incomprehensibly tiny.

Remember thee always, Starshine,

only through God's wisdom,

only through His benevolence,

and through His generosity,

may thy little soul attain

to the incomprehensible vastness of Eternity.

Notwithstanding religious distinctions -

You will know the LORD, thy God,

only inasmuch as you allow thyself to love Him.

And even then, O Man,

you yourself know in your heart of hearts

that you can never love thy God

in the way that God ought to be loved.

Because you heart may never behold the infinite -

no creature may do so, my beloved, and hope to live.

The Divine Reality

when one may think it is understood

is understood only because the One and infinite God

is pleased to reveal Himself to thy understanding.

All creatures are limited

but the LORD is neither finite

nor lacking in anything.

We know Him only by the tiniest of degrees

and even then, always indirectly.

For no creature

may truly know God, dear Starshine,

and hope to survive.

What thou understand therefore

is never God Himself as Himself

but God as He is pleased

to become so intimately related to thy soul

through the freedom of thy faith.

God pours into thee like a tiny vessel

an essence thou can never hope to contain

without His Face beholding thee always

and so only with love, mercy and compassion,

from the LORD and His instruments -

the Angels and the Prophets,

the Incarnate Word of God - Christ the Lord,

Our Emmanuel through His Sacred Humanity,

may you attain to the object of thy faith -

The God Who is, the LORD.

Be this way unto all beings, therefore,

thou who have attained to God in truth and Spirit -

loving, merciful, and compassionate.

Worship none but the LORD - God and God alone!

Honor and respect all of God's instruments

all the Angels and the Prophets,

the Incarnate Word through His Sacred Humanity

Who is Christ the Lord and Savior of All

without any confusion or division of heart -

let there be no cause in thee for War in the heart

and say thee truthfully thy peace to All of creation.

Be thankful always and be glad, being humble in heart,

tremble and work out thy salvation in virtue and good works

for the Reality of the LORD has become a reality to thee!

So let thy faith bid thee

seek, serve and love God

and in thy heart, be at peace.

Our dearest Starshine,

what all creatures will to safely and meaningfully comprehend

whether great or small, seen or unseen,

from the noblest of Angels to the least responsible of Man,

are our distinctly individual relationships to the One.

The LORD's unchanging will for all of Sacred Life is Our business:

How this will of salvation is revealed to all creation

is the universal labor of all faiths.

Now, a faith that is universal is one that must also become particular.

For no one faith may truly hope to represent the totality of the LORD.

Religion is the structure that makes a particular faith present.

And the fruit of all honorable religion is peace.

- selah -

As a Roman Catholic Christian, most especially,

I do not consider myself at odds with any honorable religion

most especially with Judaism and Islam.

For I must practice my peace to keep it - not to lose it.

For I shall be held to account by my Lord Christ for this grace;

the grace of belonging to God and to my Country

and of prospering in the faith and obedience of my Holy Mother Church

helping to add to the life of my own nation,

and hoping to grow into a peace this world can neither provide

nor truly ever understand without God

and God in Christ Jesus the Lord -

the one Redeemer of All.

---<--@

On Religious Harmony

Religious toleration seems to me, an oxymoron - what is there to tolerate?

It implies a sort of truce. But what if there really was no conflict to begin with...

To build harmony among our religions, there must be interdependence - a common ground.

This common ground is the labor of peace-building - primarily, the work of its inspiration within as well as between our nations.

It is the work of fostering hope in the people and also of realizing these hopes for the benefit of the greater good, competing in good works.

This is religious harmony.

---<--@

Moving Forward...

Congratulations to our President Noy on the success of his recent trips to Brunei and Thailand.

Peace be to Brunei Darussalam and to the Kingdom of Thailand - It is always a very good thing indeed to foster relations with our friends in ASEAN.

What is good for one in ASEAN is good for all in ASEAN.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

God Encompassing God

O LORD,

God encompassing God,

God encompassing All in Thyself!

O LORD,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -

Blessed Unity,

Holy Trinity,

Perfect Company!

O LORD,

there is none but Thee,

there is none like Thee!

O LORD,

Thou art from everlasting to everlasting -

in Thee All draw their being,

in Thee All draw their living life,

in Thee there is no shadow of turning,

in Thee there is neither darkness nor Night,

in Thee there is joy, abundance and peace,

in Thee there is only love and the Light!

O LORD,

Thou desire salvation for all beings

to Whom shall all needful souls turn to,

my God, but to Thee?

O LORD,

Thou art the one Sovereign of all nations

unto Whom shall Thy exile peoples return to,

my God, but unto Thee?

Abide in us, O LORD, be with us!

Be the God of our lives, our families,

and our national communities!

O Goal of all my goals,

I love, I trust, and I adore Thee!

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