Salutation #83

A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.

- Andre Gide (18691222-19510219), French Novelist

(Straight Path)

The straight path is not a straight path.

It will have its own twists and turns

and it does have its own ups and downs,

but it leads somewhere.

It leads somewhere - because -

those who travel on it are committed

to see the journey through.

It is a straight path - not because of the path -

but because of the walker on the path.

---<--@

Salutation #82

2012 is going to be a very difficult road.

Our only safety is our unity.

Remember,

a nation is meant not only to overcome these trials

but to prevail against the unknown earth

- and - as one family,

transform it into a world

so full of living lights.

(2012)

A short word on 2012 -

First of all,

do not be overly anxious.

Do not trade reason for superstition.

Neither allow your faith be undone with fear.

We all know there is much to be concerned about this year of years.

So let me assure you - here and now -

even at the headwaters,

that despite all of these fears,

2012 shall be what we make of it.

For we are a nation, my people - we belong.

No nation upon this earth is ruled by random chance.

Neither is our Eternal belongings - one to another -

established by our God and true Sovereign

for purposes that are manifestly evil;

that lead to our ultimate undoing.

For all things come together for the good

for all who love and fear the LORD!

And we are a nation, my people - we belong.

So welcome 2012 -

bring on your troubles and your trials,

let in all your overcast days, your doom and gloom,

let loose your tempest and your buffeting fury

and let this temper us in our nationhood.

Let your uncertainly make us certain.

Because the journey toward all our tomorrows

must now begin today.

---<--@

Ngayon

Only For a Moment

We live only for a moment - and -

that moment passes away all too quickly

so that if we do not pause to remember it,

it shall be as if we never lived at all.

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

I know that in this life,

I can never fully express nor explain

how much I love my Anne.

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

---<--@

One life lost to War is one life too many.

The Ascent

In those great sweeps of ambiguity,

the framers of our present Constitution defined for this nation,

by the ideals they have established for our Republic,

that great and abiding paradigm

of liberty for our people.

For these ideals guide,

as a unifying sense of vision and direction,

and give us counsel

according to (1) how we interpret our freedom,

(2) how we live it, and (3) how we learn it,

ever ascending with but one ascent to the truth.

---<--@

Gathering Sense

My fellow Filipinos,

how shall we know each other?

We shall know each other

by the love that we profess for this Republic - and -

to the people for whom we, together, stand

to serve and defend forever.

Fly Old Defiant,

arise like a swift and sure sunrise,

arise in hearts of all thy servants,

making us ready, making us one.

Salutation #81

Kung walang corrupt, pwede na uling mangarap.



(Dream the Dream)

Dream the dream -

Encourage each other.

Expel the spirit of War

even while we are in the midst of it.

Expel the sins of the last great age of War

by our common ascent into the unity of Peace.

Re-establish the Republic from its roots

and know thy own Country to the last fruit.

Re-constitute our culture of peace and good will

and stretch it forth across all our 7,107 islands -

Reclaim our beloved archipelago from the darkness:

A Country led by a vision, bound by law -

An undertaking of human civilization wrought

upon the unknown earth by a people, faithful and true -

One nation, virtuous and free -

One nation fortified by history, unified by charity

and made meaningful in the truth.

One nation united across all our generations

into one labor, one heart, one destiny.

Strengthen this one nation - from the center -

manifesting a responsible citizenship, each to another;

one true belonging from among many other true belongings

faithful to God and to each other as keeper and friend.

Nurture the sheltering wings of our one Republic peace

growing in thy hope and in thy love and in thy labors

embracing all in All - until all is one vision -

and the rest is darkness.

Disown the darkness.

Defend against it.

Do not fight it.

Defend.

---<--@

Think about it -

It is human to fight for right causes. It is not human to fight against Justice.

It is human to know when to stop fighting. It is not human to forsake the cause of Peace.

It is human to hope for self and for others. It is not human to despair of either self or of others.

It is human to fight for love. It is not human to fight for hate. For when we fight for love, we defend. When we fight for hate, we only fight.

Where is the Darkness?

My fellow Filipinos,

brothers and sisters of the Promise,

do you know why this is the Land of the Morning?

Because when the morning comes, my beloved people,

our generations will ask - where is the darkness?

---<--@

Hindi po nabubuhay ang bansa natin dahil madilim ang gabi.

Towards the Morn

The journey of a thousand years

begins with just one day - and that day is today.

Towards the morn, O ye nations,

towards that awakening dawn!

Towards the peace, O ye peoples,

towards the twilight of the new!

Towards the LORD, O ye numberless stars,

towards that promise made of old!

Towards the Light, all ye living lights

away from the darkness,

where all our roads,

lead back to you, Jerusalem.

---<--@

Salutation #80

I saw a vision of two worlds -
two paths leading away from each other...
two choices - with nothing - in between;
one is a freedom that leads to a future bright,
the other a return to the darkness of the night -
a choice begun in every human heart
a choice to return us again from the start.

(Crystal Blue Sphere)

I SAW IN A VISION,

a crystal blue sphere,

shining with a multitude of living lights.

The vision came to me quite abruptly

while I was awake in the day,

riding a jeep home from work.

The vision stayed for a time before me as I wondered.

I wondered at how wondrous and beautiful beyond imagination it was

that I thought I was seeing through the eyes of angels.

Then a darkness came over the vision

and it seemed to me for an instant that it was no longer there.

- selah -

But it was, O my nation,

before me was a world so overrun by sin and war

that it was no longer distinct from the nothingness of the void -

an unknown earth bereft of light,

forsook by heaven,

and forgot by God.

---<--@

My New Year 2012 hope -

I pray for more leaders who are accountable to God first that the LORD may craft them into proper instruments of a government wholly dedicated and responsible to the people they serve.

Leaders who at every level of government embody the definition of a popular mandate being interested in neither fame nor notoriety but in establishing in our nation through their persons the divine authority that makes us all equal before the LORD both in dignity and in promise.

Loyal leadership like these may only arise from a nation faithful to its own truth, arrayed in time as an undertaking of Country at one with its own mission and at peace with its own vision.

Therefore, I pray - first and foremost - for our nation: May we now become what we've always dreamed of becoming... mabuhay!

This is my new year hope. God bless the Philippines!

---<--@

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.

Queen Esther's Prayer

Of the two important Jewish Holy Days I tend to personally identify with, this prayer forms the spiritual basis for the first one, Purim.

The other feast is Hannukah of whose main protagonist is Judah Maccabee (of the Book of Maccabees).

Both these feasts celebrate (in eternal remembrance) for all of Israel (i.e. from everywhere and from everytime) the deliverance (wrought by the LORD through His instruments) of the Jewish people as a nation from a particular form of evil that threatened to permanently and irreversibly disrupt God's own relationship with the present generations of that time.

- selah -

Queen Ester's Prayer

Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, likewise had recourse to the LORD.

Taking off her splendid garments, she put on garments of distress and mourning. In place of her precious ointments she covered her head with dirt and ashes. She afflicted her body severely; all her festive adornments were put aside, and her hair was wholly disheveled.

Then she prayed to the LORD, the God of Israel, saying:

"My LORD, our King, you alone are God.

Help me, who am alone and have no help but You, for I am taking my life in my hand.

As a child I was wont to hear from the people of the land of my forefathers that You, O LORD, chose Israel from among all peoples, and our fathers from among all their ancestors, as a lasting heritage, and that you fulfilled all your promises to them.

But now we have sinned in Your sight, and You have delivered us into the hands of our enemies, because we worshiped their gods. You are just, O LORD.

But now they are not satisfied with our bitter servitude, but have undertaken to do away with the decree You have pronounced, and to destroy Your heritage; to close the mouths of those who praise You, and to extinguish the glory of Your temple and Your altar; to open the mouths of the heathen to acclaim their false gods, and to extol an earthly king forever.

O LORD, do not relinquish Your scepter to those that are nought. Let them not gloat over our ruin, but turn their own counsel against them and make an example of our chief enemy.

Be mindful of us, O LORD. Manifest Yourself in the time of our distress and give me courage, King of gods and Ruler of every power.

Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion, and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy, so that he and those who are in league with him may perish.

Save us by Your power, and help me, who am alone and have no one but You, O LORD. You know all things."

(Esther C: 12-25)

I simply love Queen Esther. She is one of my all-time favorite heroines of the Old Testament!

We could indeed take a page from the memory of Israel through the Book of Esther to help guide us through these difficult times.

Glorified be God in all His Angels and in all His Saints - forever!

Salutation #78

Typhoon Sendong is portentous.

It was not only out of season -

it is an indication of a much larger change.

No words can convey my distress at the loss we have sustained

at the passing of this most recent typhoon...

These are ours, O my Philippines, these are ours...

Arise therefore, O my nation - serve -

and pray for the victims of Typhoon Sendong!

(Hidden in Plain Sight)

Each year,

my fellow Filipinos,

our Country is tested

and the endurance of our nation

stectched to a point...

We are -

by the natural cycles of the seasons

and the excesses that the forces of nature

- earth, wind, fire, and water -

a nation yearly inflicted

with much violence

upon our communities

by the evils that arise from

these natural calamities.

But never have we thought,

O my beloved people,

never have we even begun to consider,

the slightest hint of surrender

to the limiting and random nature

of these evils!

Rather,

these typhoons

only serve to strengthen

our resolve

- no matter the pain -

to stand together

as one people.

For in the midst of these trials

we always choose to be the victors

and we always have.

Do you understand this?

We are -

a people whose virtues

have always been - as such -

hidden in plain sight.

So let us bear

- into mind and heart -

the strength and reality of

our own native resilience

as well as bring into the fore

of our social consciousness

- these present days -

the excellence of the virtues

embodied by our national identity

which are all the things that make living

the Filipino Dream worthwhile

as well as possible.

For the greater cycle of the seasons

is shifting -

These shall be times

- unprecedented -

in the history of all the nations

of the children of Mankind.

Winter indeed in coming

(after the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden)

- here in this season of shadows -

and there is a testing ahead

that shall require all our virtue

(as individuals giving freely

and as nations dreaming together

as one family).

Therefore,

let us always have meaningful recourse

to the sacred remembrances

of God and of Country.

- selah -

Our unity as a people

shall be our greatest guarantee against calamity.

Our peace as a nation

shall be our safest shelter against the darkness.

Our vision as a Country

shall be our surest way ahead

out of this long night - this longest night -

and into that new morning of Promise

for our Land of Promise.

2011 have revealed to us our weaknesses.

2012 shall temper for us our strengths.

---<--@

Let us help our brothers and sisters in Northern Mindanao -

Contact -

Tel. (632) 931 - 8101 to 07

Click -

http://www.redcross.org.ph/donate

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

New Archbishop of Manila

Mabuhay, Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle - God bless the Philippines!

Saint Andrew's School Hymn

Beloved Saint Andrew's

the knowledge we obtain

from the Lord God Above

through thy guidance and love.

You inspire our will

to reach our golden goal:

Love God and Country

Proudly we proclaim!

Refrain:

Hail Saint Andrew's -

Endless fountain of wisdom!

We do pledge a life of serving love.

The bright and shining Morning

comes in our lives,

we the Andreans give respect

to Thy enlightening command -

We shall cherish You

from here and afar

with You the darkest road

we'll walk unafraid.

Composer: Mr. Francis Dandan

---<--@