Salutation #97

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

Because when the Morning comes, my beloved people,

our common generations will ask -

"where is the darkness?"

(Do Not Entertain It)

The spirit of War desires

the ultimate destruction

of our nation -

Its lie shifts here and there,

hither and tither the darkness goes -

everything, a sinister and intelligent design

to carry our hearts far from the truth

of who we are, my people.

Do not entertain it.

Rather,

wax full in thy own heart of understanding,

the peace that is native to all Filipinos -

let us drink of it freely.

And let War drink its own poison.

---<--@

My brothers and sisters of the Promise,

no matter what you hear, no matter what you see,

it really doesn't matter when you know what you want...

Therefore,

we're going to build a Republic worthy of all Filipinos

- together this time.

PERIOD.

Salutation #96

But rather, let him who glories, glory in this,

that in his prudence he knows me, knows that I, the LORD,

bring about kindness, justice and uprightness on the earth;

For with such am I pleased, says the LORD.

(Jeremiah 9: 23)

(The Glory is the LORD's)

When God delivers us, we are all delivered.

Therefore,

does it matter who gets the credit

when it is God Himself Who wills it?

The LORD Himself

calls out to our nation,

"become thee restored

to thy one, true self!"

Indeed,

as God will's it, my people,

the soul of our nation cries out for peace

- we all know it by heart.

Shall we not labor and pray

for what God wants to give us?

When God delivers us, we are all delivered.

Therefore,

does it matter who gets the credit

when it is God Himself Who wills it?

---<--@

God love us all.

What War Expects?

Go now and do what War does not expect.

What War Expects?

Go now and do what War does not expect.

What War Expects?

Go now and do what War does not expect.

What War Expects?

Go now and do what War does not expect.

Salutation #95

All truth leads to freedom

only because our freedom is constantly

being perfected by the freedom of the LORD.

Freedom that is authentic to our humanity

is always relevant to our human need to be happy.

It is not the false image

of that presumptuous freedom

that shuns the accountability

that is an inherent responsibility

of an authentic human freedom.

Therefore,

freedom is not free

that binds us to the Evil in all evil things -

freedom is free which binds us to the truth

of God and of each other in common humanity.

(Truthfulness)

To be truthful,

seek first the Source of all truth

for as God is, we are.

Truth is

the mother tongue of heaven:

In the truth we are able to understand

and through it we are able to be understood.

Truth is

the common medium of all virtue:

By the truth good is recognized and applauded

and because of it evil is revealed and punished.

Therefore,

love the LORD

in everything and with everything.

This is the path of all true things.

- selah -

Strive to be aware of this

and in thy own understanding

strive in all things to speak the truth,

mean what you speak, speak what you mean,

and own up to what you mean

- doing all things in love and out of love -

for God and for thy fellow citizens upon the earth.

Exercise truthfulness

with a compassionate regard

for the humanity of other people -

so be gentle when you should speak.

For the habitual grace of truthfulness

does not bind us to the truth - rather -

it binds the truth - through us -

into the active service of charity

so that truth is made available,

by the demands of prudence

and command of charity,

most especially when it counts.

The object of this virtue is truth itself,

that which fills with substance all things whole

and endow it with force and meaning

which is more than its words.

The act of this virtue

is the honorable expression of truth

and this honorable expression - being -

the explicit recognition

amidst our human need for absolute truth

that the truth that lives in other people's lives

(the particular reality of the individual good)

- must also be recognized -

as an integral part

of this particular virtue's

expression of right action.

For the truth must be

- by its own virtue -

is wielded for no other reason

than to make men free.

---<--@

Truthfulness is an expression of the cardinal virtue, Justice.

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

The ancient Filipinos possessed this virtue to a high degree.

Salutation #94

One life lost to War is (always) one life too many.

(Human Promise)

O my nations, listen -

Human lives

once willfully cut short and stolen

in the midst of our communities

do not just end, they linger -

They linger because

by each life lost to War,

we are truly diminished.

One can not expect

to eat the fruits of a forest,

benefit from the shade of its wood

as well as rest within the protection of its multitude

if there are no trees left.

- selah -

If the nations are hungry,

if we are vulnerable,

if we are weak,

it is because

War in the heart.

When we forget to remember

the unsung promises of those

who are now lost to us through War

and reckless, wasteful violence -

when we forget the hopes they have left

to our every present care,

we stand to learn nothing of their pain and loss

and are therefore, doomed to relive it.

Because it is not the sins of the past that curse,

it is the inability of every present generation

- to overcome its evils -

that prevent our Day from flourishing.

Human promise

once forcefully taken

- by the hand of Man -

becomes an inescapable part

of his unbearable burden -

to be borne by all of his generations

spread across all our nations.

Without Justice,

it hinders his eternal destiny.

Without the Mercy of God,

it prevents it.

Without the Peace

of the nations of Mankind,

by this burden,

Man is sunk in despair.

Without the Love

of a mighty Redeemer,

by this burden too,

Man is to be lost to us forever.

---<--@

Farewell to Promise

Vanquished Forever

O Holy Michael,

by the power of God,

the dragon prevailed not!

O Heavenly Hosts,

by thy swift and powerful ascent

to the unity of the LORD,

Satan and all his fallen angels

lost their place in heaven.

War is vanquished forever!

---<--@

Revelation 12: 7-9

War Came

The War in heaven is in the heart.

War came for Palestine

- and I did nothing -

because I was not Palestinian.

War came for Israel

- and I did nothing -

because I was not Israeli.

War came for America

- and I did nothing -

because I was not American.

War came for Mexico

- and I did nothing -

because I was not Mexican.

War came for Europe

- and I did nothing -

because I was not European.

War came for Russia

- and I did nothing -

because I was not Russian.

War came for Africa

- and I did nothing -

because I was not African.

War came for India

- and I did nothing -

because I was not Indian.

War came for Korea

- and I did nothing -

because I was not Korean.

War came for China

- and I did nothing -

because I was not Chinese.

War came for Vietnam

- and I did nothing -

because I was not Vietnamese.

War came and I did nothing

for I am neither of those...

Then one day,

War came for the Philippines

and now,

I couldn't do a thing.

- selah -

My brothers and sisters of the Promise -

When War comes - repel it!
At the door of thy heart - hear it not!

Throw back its lies to its face

and make it drink its own poison.

For when the spirit of War

seeks to enter our world

it is through the human heart

- willing or unaware -

that it gains an entrance.

If you know War,

you know Peace.

---<--@

Revelation 12: 7-9

Walker of Worlds

O Walker of Worlds,

Scion to the Dawning
of the First of our First Magnitudes -
remain Now from always to always true
to thy one Universe of universes,
ever as thy one eternal Remembrance
spread in myriad glimpses
awash within the tidal flows of time:

Those numberless lights,
luminous and varied, singularly unique,
twinkling in their broken arcs
wheeling upon the one celestial Way
and concealed amidst the darkness
of those worlds within worlds,
near infinite in their wonders,
being constantly born and reborn -
upon the firmament of the Deep
ever as the ages of the comings and goings
of the ageless seasons of life
and carried aloft by thy quickening soul
swift unto the realization
of all the beautiful for being
beheld by Beauty Itself.

O Walker of Worlds -
born to the quickening of the Now,
ever in thy infinite prayers be one, ascendant
like incense arising unto the sacred Presence
of the one Sovereign of the seen universe
and Sustainer of all unseen universes
in solemn memory of thy holy witness
of the Visitation of thy one Peace
through the infinite glory of the Name.

O Walker of Worlds -
kindred to the celestial sky
and called to the one gathering
remain Now from always to always true:
Two-thirds of the Stars of Heaven bring
glad salutations unto thee!
---<--@

Salutation #93

We have a need to look out into the horizons.

Upon the high mountain peaks of our ascent into completion.

We have to become familiar with our own undertaking of Country.

That we may hope to avoid future catastrophe.

We have to find the peace of our belongings together.

And ascend the mount with the sheltering wings of peace.

From hope to hope and strength to strength.

Until we have pierced the unconsciousness of our native skies.

From truth to truth and love to love.

Until darkness has waned.

And the night has fled our souls forever.

(Salutation #6)

(Conqueror of Heights)

The peace process might seem

like an insurmountable mountain,

looming impossibly ahead...

but I tell you, my people -

This is but a small hill that

- once conquered -

shall only broaden our horizons -

for we are a nation, my people!

We were meant to conquer not just hills

but mountains - mountains true,

and much higher than these,

mountains towering and majestic!

My brothers and sisters of the Promise,

we were joined together from Eternity

- to prevail against heights -

not to tower above one another

- as War would have it -

but to know the greatness

of our togetherness.

O what shall our horizons be then!

---<--@

In Unity Dwells God.

Kung Hei Fat Choi 2012

May this year be one of new beginnings - for all the peoples of our needful world - but especially for our Asia.

May this year usher in an even more significant increase of peace in our Asia, particularly here in our region of Asia South East, and here in our own Philippines.

There is only one Asia.

Therefore, there can only be one peace for our Asia.

May all Asians seek this peace - from Israel to the Philippines, from Siberia to Indonesia - and may we all find it.

So from the Philippines to our region of Asia South East,

and from our region of Asia South East to the whole of our Asia,

and from the whole of our Asia to the whole of our world,

so needful of much respite and repair -

Kung Hei Fat Choi - Mabuhay! God bless us all.

---<--@

Be the change.

Salutation #92

What seeks to banish the evils in human society,

what seeks to redress the legitimate grievances of the community,

what seeks to safeguard the individual good and the common good,

what seeks to fulfill the requirements of the creative ideal expressed by the hopes of every nation and mandated by the ideals vested in each its Responsible States,

all of these are acts of Spiritual Justice.

It is what imparts force of truth to the individual will to preserve through human institutions, the peace and the order of civil society.

(3rd Cause - Justice)

(Defeating the Culture of Impunity)

Ignorance is poisonous but indifference is lethal.

This culture of impunity

is like a dragon-shaped shadow

hovering over our captive nation;

it seems huge when taken all together

and terrifying when seen from a distance,

looming like a serpent constantly waiting to strike

but from up close, if we choose to examine it,

it is still made of nothing

and everywhere it is vulnerable.

Like a tyranny without a tyrant,

it grips our society in a parasitic embrace

keeping the people from becoming

and the nation from the truth of itself.

To pierce through its illusion,

our present leadership must remain alert

to the shine (heart) and to the leading (reality)

of the great Providence of the LORD -

serving as servants and leading as leaders

enabling our nation to shine as one whole sky

empowering our people to become as they are

- citizens not unlike each other -

shining for God and mother Country

with sunbeams sharp against the darkness

dispelling the dragon's false embrace.

- selah -

Therefore,

let us confront all of these

individual injustices together

(particularly at this present time,

that of the murdered journalist and

fellow Filipino, Christopher "Cris" Guarin)

- in our hearts, in our lives, in our times -

through varied gifts and stations in life

bound together wholly as one nation

under the eternal vigilance of God

arrayed in time and across time

as one Republic undertaking of Country

and like a multitude of sharp spears -

speak the truth

and stand for the right!

For it shall take all of us to defeat this evil dragon

and overthrow its lineage of weakness and defeat;

prevailing as one work, one heart, one destiny.

Indeed,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

- all that is shadow must always yield to the light -

for it is still made of nothing

and everywhere it is vulnerable.

---<--@

Land of Promise,

Cradle of the Brave,

from the tyranny of oppression

thou shalt never yield.