20111021

Reflections on the 20111018 Encounter in Basilan -

I am reading the statements and hearing the news about the recent clash in Basilan and it hurts me to think that all these political correctness seems to have so quickly overlooked the fact that we have lost good people over there - real people with real families and real friends, with real hopes and dreams and a real potential to realize in our nation.

We can never bring them back nor recoup what promise they once stood for in our behalf but we most certainly must never lose sight of their remembrance.

If we can not honorably accept the hope they have left for us in death, how can we say we have ever really, as citizens of this great and noble Republic, truly valued them in life?

For every soldier's death belongs not to him or her but to "we, the people". It is to us, the people, across all our generations, for whom they now offer their eternal sacrifice before the assembly of the nations before the LORD; to us, the nation he or she served in life; to our nation, to this one, great Filipino nation - who by any other name on earth - remains its true meaning and value in our heart of hearts.

So as regards our fallen soldiers, let's just say it straight and not use euphemisms that only serve to further the hurt.

Let us also inherit their courage as well as their hopes.

(Lt. JD Khe - one of the 19 soldiers who fell last Tuesday - via con Dios.)

For there is no such thing as an accidental clash or a misencounter - every death received, every wound inflicted, every drop of blood shed for the cause of the peace of our one Republic endeavor is real. Indeed, all the love that is everyday shed for God and Country is more real than the money we hold with our hands. For virtue is currency.

Therefore, I respectfully, completely and decisively disagree with the usage of words like "accidental clash" or "misencounter" that serve only to indicate to me that the position we are endorsing is weak. It is weak because its remembrance upon which it must draw its truest and most reliable strength is found lacking.

I am an ardent supporter of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process and so I shall not inflict upon this Office a great disservice by choosing to stay quiet about what I feel needs looking into at this point in time. For I value this Office and all it stands for too much to withhold my loyalty at this decisive juncture of our common mission. I know of how hard this Office works, the sincerity of its people, the vitality and requisite nobility of its mandate, and how difficult the task set by God and our nation before it.

However, we can not as one Republic whole appease criminals - especially war criminals - in times of greatest trouble and in times of deepest calm - either within the ranks of the MILF or the NPA but above all, within our own ranks.

Appeasement of transgressors never serves the purposes of meaningful peace for appeasement is not the forgiveness we seek when we speak about reconciliation.

Most certainly, there can and there should be reconciliation within the nation, among our common peoples - but there can never be reconciliation with War: Those who in their hearts have slept with War and means to repent not of their adultery will always face the Angel of our Remembrance sword first.

I am for peace. But I am for a disciplined observance of it and I realize it will not come cheap.

I realize that this peace will and must involve Justice for all and that this Justice itself demands sacrifice.

For we can never atone for the loss this conflict has inflicted on our people as a whole. Human promise once lost to War is lost forever.

We may only seek to accept the impoverished realities dealt to us by the presence of War in our midst, learn from the depth of our privations, sincerely seek the Peace within ourselves and reconnect with each other as one nation - together this time - under the aegis of Almighty God - through the peace process.

The peace which is our right by honor and blood can never be built on differences nor does it seek to banish the diversity which is our strength.

It is to be built on the steadfastness and potency of those agreements crafted in the spirit of truths about ourselves that ascend higher than the divisions that presently plague our nation, sapping the marrow from our bones, eating up the material as well as spiritual riches of our Country like so much unseen and unwelcome locusts.

Truly, it is not the loss of our soldiers that somehow inclines me to think that the peace process is presently under assault, it is fear of the truth.

The mechanisms of this peace process must first of all involve agreements that limit and control engagements such as these. I have many questions in my mind about last Tuesday's incident in Basilan which is why I am actively seeking to become more informed about it.

But let me tell you this, I will never stand for civilian casualties - AT ALL - the peace process must first and foremost be implemented to protect our non-combatant civilians - Filipinos to the last, especially the very least - the littlest Filipino - and work to establish the norms that seek to treat the common people with the utmost respect as human beings and fellow citizens, brothers and sisters of the Promise, equally engaged in our Republic endeavor without which this peace is worthless.

Both sides when entering into the threshold of the Republic peace from where we must all begin in negotiations must agree to share in the responsibility to protect what we all deem to be worth protecting - the life of our nation - without which this peace is worthless.

When it comes to cases of legitimate military engagements I will never stand for war crimes. But while cases of civilian deaths must proceed through our justice system with the utmost diligence and haste, the losses that our military absorbs while also requiring the application of Justice, must never take precedence over the strategic mission of winning the peace for all Filipinos.

This concession is part and parcel of the sacrifice our national military undertakes to carry upon itself; an essential character of the profession of arms that underlines the value of our military remembrances. And I also expect the same professionalism and determination from the side of the MILF as well as the NPA - especially from their leadership corps.

Verily, we can not seek to merely exhaust ourselves in endless battle without a cause and also claim the dignity of a soul that is rightfully human or the honor of a purpose that is worth all this grief.

We must be just as determined as the spirit of War in our perseverance in the cause of our one Republic peace and as vigilant as War is reckless.

- selah -

My beloved people, let me speak to you for a moment from a place without divisions. Let me speak to you now from a standpoint that care not which camp or faction or side you profess to belong within our one Filipino nation:

We have been harboring what the nations of the world now almost unanimously consider to be the longest running internecine conflict in Asia. If one considers also the extent of the troubles of our Asia, it might perhaps be also right for us to say we have been nurturing in ourselves as a nation, this great and abominable internal division that for the longest time have caused the one Filipino heart to be eclipsed and left wanting in itself; our one Republic skies left as shattered and darkened like the undecipherable confusion that the everyday Filipino is ordinarily subjected unto on top of our daily economic struggles.

These conflicts that divide us reflect the divisions that prevent us from prospering as a nation and these in turn feed into those hidden cycles that spiral down into the void of things that have failed to ascend with the ascent of the truth into the Truth - all that never was - oblivion itself seen from outside of itself.

Indeed, there is a darkness ruling in our midst that is like a tyranny without a tyrant.

I realize I sometimes speak with words that are difficult to grasp - even for myself - (as I might be doing right now) but let me put it this way for us:

Let us please remember, my brothers and sisters of the Promise - for the sake of all we have lost - and strive to validate this truth within each ourselves today, through watchful observance, through unfailing prayer and sincere repentance, that a nation is happy first before becoming materially rich and this happiness will never come by way of the darkness that scatters but by way of the light that gathers.

If not today, when?

Peace, I salute you all.

---<--@

And so, as we enter the end of another week and the nation pauses to reflect upon the significant happenings of the past week, I sincerely hope to have been of help to each of you.

Let us all have a meaningful and relaxing weekend.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The one Code

REMAIN TRUE -
to our peerless LORD
to the one God
of our Father Abraham,
the one common Creator
of all common creation,
seen and unseen.

To your own sacred remembrances
and the memory of your peace
with God and with each other.

To the overcoming of your War
and the advent of your hope
at the dawn of our new dreaming
as nations together.

To thy own universe within
and to the riches therewith
those treasures that
neither thief nor tyrant
can deprive.

To thy own calling
to serve in the way
of virtue and of peace
and to thy own ascent
upon the one mountain path
whereupon all good things
find their meaning and merit
in the prayer of the heart.

To thy own labors
upon this necessary life
and to the hardships also
that this inhabited earth brings -
May you be satisfied
knowing in your heart
what you truly strive for.

To thy own endeavor of Country
and to the trust of thy own nation
may you embrace with your embracing
these wholes upon wholes
as far and as wide as you could
and with courage
and steadfast persistence
bring all your love
as near as it takes you
to the one Love
that unifies us all
with the one LORD of All.

To our Lord's poor
and to each other
as keeper and as friend -

May we all remain faithful
from always to always
until the final gathering
at the end of days
and the beginning
of all things new.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

20111020

Salutation #60

Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness.

- Genesis 1: 3-4

(Objectivity and Justice)

It is not in the present nature of the earth to be neutral.

The unknown earth - in and of itself -

is greater than our natural powers to subdue and perfect

and bring into the dominion of God.

This dominion of earth,

selected for the stewardship of our one family of nations,

being the visible universe entire and particularly this one home world

upon which our humanity and all its generations is planted

as seeds by the will of Providence Divine,

is a barren and hostile realm.

It is a realm of exiles.

We exist as transients in a realm of imbalances, fickle and fleeting.

Absolutely speaking,

objectivity can never freely exist - unbound and unlimited -

in a realm that is as strange and unwelcoming to Mankind as the unknown earth

for if it did, Law and its derivative forms would become unnecessary

and the peace of our nations forever undone!

- selah -

All human constructs inherit from our own humanity,

our own human characteristics, including our own weaknesses.

Collective experiences of a common reality is subjective as a whole

because this same subjectivity also applies

to each individual experience of a particular reality.

Our collective experience of reality

- as a nation among nations -

can be said to be like an all-embracing sea

of whose invisible waters are constantly - refreshed and replenished -

from the culmination of individual choices that flow out as a river

- from every past to every present time -

from each our own individual experience of a particular reality

and this germ of national consciousness

- that every present generation inherits as a whole -

may be said to be naturally predisposed to the intrinsic subjectivity

that is native to each our own particular experiences.

The greater these remembrances,

the stronger the inclination exists to remove ourselves

from the pain of an original ignorance

we can no longer enjoy.

It is therefore, difficult - the greater the view of reality -

to even begin to establish a common foundation

upon which a sense of judicial objectivity

may be said to be ascertained.

Objectivity,

as far as our experience of reality goes,

may only be guaranteed to be certain as far as it is viewed

from within the confines of a controlled environment.

Objectivity in Law

draws from the letter of the law

which at times leave no room of the interpretation of Justice.

For Law as itself is objective only insofar as it is unapplied -

in this sense, law is neutral;

its potential locked until such a time as it is interpreted and applied

by the right juridical authority.

Justice is not objective.

Anywhere that Justice is said to be impartial, it is only to persons.

For Justice by its virtue deals with the restoration of the Truth.

It is therefore, by its own nature partial always to the good.

- selah -

Justice and its application in time, I personally believe,

in its widest sense, must depend not by complete objectivity in interpretation

but by complete impartiality in judgment.

Law is a constraint meant to restrict

what harms the public order and impugns the civil peace

but Justice is not a constraint - it is an act -

meant to restore and preserve the good, the common good, and the absolute good.

It uses the constraint of law in order to preserve

and the virtue of its nature in order to restore.

Since Justice is never inherently objective and Law is never freely subjective,

objectivity where juridical interpretation is concerned, I personally believe,

must draw its common foundation from ethics and the moral sciences.

---<--@

A Soldier's Heart -

No matter the politics - No matter the differences - No matter the cause - When it comes down to it - When the thunder and the confusion sets in and the killing and the dying begins and the whole world seems to shrink - Soldiers fight only for each other and this picture says it all...

NEVER FORGET - go team AFP - go Army.

(Farewell to Promise)

I believe the greatest protection from the psychological and spiritual trauma of the battlefield is the peace of knowing you are fighting for something you personally love; something near to your heart and mind - something you can connect to everything you hold dear and connects you to everything you hold dear.

A love that is a constant assurance to your soldier's heart that you are not fighting in the blind; that you are not fighting just for the sake of fighting alone; that your individual actions are never inspired by mere hatred of the enemy but by a personal commitment to duty, honor and a glorious adherence to the martial virtues.

---<--@

A Call to Memory -

O my Philippines, ALL you brothers and sisters of the Promise, we can not allow the future to be derailed by those who seek to pull us back into the gravity of the last great age of War!

We can not be the enemy we claim to fight - the peace process must draw its lessons from this last encounter, define itself more closely, include and involve all our communities more broadly, and proceed fortified and not weakened by the nobility of our soldiers and the sacrifice of those whom we lost yesterday in Basilan - from both sides of the one side of the one Filipino nation.

Verily, it is the spirit of War against whom we ultimately struggle against before whom we are all, as nations of Mankind, enemies to the last of our generations!

---<--@

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.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Brokenness

Promise of Old

Salutation #59

Dakilang Liwanag,

halina't manahan sa aking kalooban.

Hubugin Mo kami upang maging debotong misyonero/a;

ang maging liwanag sa mundo,

ang maging ilaw sa aming kapwa.

- A Prayer from the Candle Chapel

at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Shrine in Baclaran

(That Point of Forgetfulness)

When in our prayers we forget, we proceed to remember.

- selah -

When in our seeking the LORD in prayer

- our efforts suddenly cease -

and for a moment - just for a moment -

all our thunderous longings, all our anxious needs, all our turbulent wants -

they dissipate like so much gray clouds

into the infinite embrace of God

and there is a calm in thyself

that moment is Peace.

God comes to us and just for a moment;

a mere instant in time - in a twinkling of an eye -

you are struck with the realization that God is and He is God

that moment is Peace.

It is as if one is sitting outside of time and of self,

detached from all thy human worries - in the quiet of thy heart -

when at the rising of thy heart and mind in prayer -

as thy freedom ascends to the freedom of God

every need, every care, every fear is vanquished from thought

and you lose sight of everything - everything but God -

that moment is Peace.

You will ask to stay in that one moment

- forever and for always - and forget everything but God -

immersed in a luminous sea of unconsciousness,

but just as soon as you are in it,

just as soon as you glimpse the limitless vistas of the timeless,

just as soon as you feel yourself wanting to stay -

you emerge back out of the unseen waters

into the dimness of consciousness.

These moments are like desert oases

meant to sustain thee in the wilderness of everyday living.

O my beloved Starshine,

so (just) be with Jesus in the quiet of thy prayer - walk with thy God -

especially at the pauses within Holy Mass, during Holy Communion, in the rosary,

in thy daily commune with thy Creator in His garden of waking dreams

and in thy every prayer of the heart open to wonder.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

And be gentle when you do. Be slow but certain in pace.

For practice makes one patient and patience makes one persevering.

And perseverance in prayer makes prayer perfect.

And not because there is a from of power in thy prayer

but because of the God Who hears all our prayers of the heart.

So persevere in thy prayer, my darling Starshine,

through the longing God plants in thy heart, persevere in thy prayer -

like the dream desires to become itself, persevere in thy prayer -

like the sapling hopes to become the oak, persevere in thy prayer -

like the stars strive for every journey's end, persevere in thy prayer -

like the Night seeks for the Day, like the love pines for the Lover -

shut yourself from the rest of the world and pray.

Remember the calm in the storm?

The Stillness is in the stillness - so be calm -

develop a constant awareness of the God in your life

- be gentle and be certain and be thoughtful -

for the Master is asleep in the vessel of thy heart.

If you feel out of place, if you feel undeserving,

so much more should you feel the need to understand -

- one must pray -

one must pray because one has a need

to pray and to pray well.

It is the needy who calls out and not the satisfied.

And ours is a God of infinite mercies!

---<--@

The Love of God in government is the safeguard that preserves the bond that must exist between the Nation and the Responsible State, without it our freedoms become troublesome.

---<--@

This is why Tibetan culture is precious -

Wisdom is timeless

who in the midst of darkness

illumines to the one heart of Man the way back into himself

that he may live complete.

"Practice. Practice. Practice."

- The Dalai Lama

---<--@

Glory to God the Father!

Adoration to Jesus Christ!

Alleluia, peace be unto our nation

and peace be unto all our nations;

good will to all men and women of Peace.

20111016 PM

Salutation #58

Lead me, Lord Jesus, to where I end and You begin and all these things shall fall into place behind Thee, my God and my All.

(The Peace of Jesus Christ)

The Peace of the LORD escapes human comprehension

- God encompassing God -

but the Peace of Jesus Christ is given to you,

O Beloved Starshine

of the Christian communities from among all the nations,

- as a blessing, a sign, and a promise -

and with it, a joy without limits.

May the Peace of the Lord Christ be to you, a blessing.

For the Peace of Jesus Christ is the one whole peace

unto which All of living creation forever belongs.

May the Peace of the Lord Christ be to you, a promise.

For within it, you acquire a foretaste of the things to come -

the restoration of the reign of God at the consummation of time.

May the Peace of the Lord Christ be to you, a sign.

For through it you gain strength in the unity of all things -

a truth in thy heart that give thy prayers their ascent to God.

Cherish this gift entrusted to you -

embrace it freely and with an understanding spirit

that thou may stand at one with Christ and the victorious hosts of God

against the War in thy own heart

and the divisions wrought by it upon the earth.

Multiply the Peace of the LORD, thy God

- in all thy Churches, in all thy Masses, and in all thy prayers -

that you may pray to God, beloved Starshine,

- united - as one nation among a family of nations.

For the Peace of Jesus Christ is not a cause of division

but of strength for our national communities.

Neither is the Name of Jesus Christ

a source of division, discord, dilution and dissolution

among the nations but of peace!

- selah -

The beginnings of a better world

begins with Jesus Christ in our heart of hearts.

Therefore,

incline thy hearts to Peace -

forsake War today while it is still today.

As it was before must never be again!

---<--@

Sunday Evenings

Good evening, the Philippines - mabuhay!

Today's Gospel: Matthew 22: 15-21

To give to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar and to God what belongs to God is the usual Biblical reference for the Separation of Church and State.

However, the doctrine of the Separation of Church and State does not mean the exclusion of the reality of Man from the reality of God.

- selah -

To God belongs everything first. Know this, O my nation, and all things shall fall into their proper places before the face of the LORD.

---<--@

God never fails -

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus the Lord, I am not the most suitable of persons to proclaim to you the Word of God or the Peace of Jesus Christ which is the Peace of the Times so know ye that I am like you utterly reliant on Jesus Christ!

I know my failings and I know my short-comings and because of these I have no reason to boast and so, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, let me offer to you instead, this one, abiding truth about my little life - our Lord, Jesus Christ, has never failed me - not once!

Truly, my greatest desire is and must always be to serve the Lord, Jesus Christ, in whatever capacity He assigns to me and to fulfill this vocation with a constancy of devotion worthy of the title Christian - an Alter Christus!

Though I want to return to the safety of my previous ignorance of God, there is no more holding back once the Spirit of God calls thee from the heart. How can one resist the one Irresistible!

My refuge now is the LORD!

I must repent of my sins and if I fall a thousand times over, it shall always be the same with me - for I want my repentance to bear fruit for Christ Jesus, my Holy Redeemer, my God, my All - He has never failed me!

It is I who is a constant failure to my Savior. But never again shall I fall into the pits of despair - my Savior has never once failed me!

I have already absolutely determined to give to God what belongs to God - not I but He, I will decrease and He will increase until I am no more - God never fails!

Not I but He - the LORD, He Who Is, He is God and God never fails!

Therefore, if you are a fallen-away Christian of whatever denomination, know this now - come home to Jesus:

Give to God what belongs to God!

Seek a deeper knowledge of thy faith and cling to Jesus Christ believing in the Word despite thy own self and in spite of all things and you will surely come Home in thy heart first and in Eternity with God forever when forever comes around again.

---<--@

Before You, O Christ,
I knew only darkness!
I was a child of the void
destined for destruction.
Until Your Spirit came
I knew no Peace, my God.

But You came to me
to make me anew...
I do not understand, LORD,
but You came to me.

And as Thy Love hovered

over the waters of my heart
to calm the raging storm
I began to see... myself.

- excerpted from Foundling

---<--@

Everybody have a great working week ahead! Remember, there is always work in the vineyard of the LORD - do not be worldly-wise, be wise with Jesus in thy heart and God in thy world and all will be well for thee - God never fails!

Glory to God the Father!

Adoration to Jesus Christ!

Alleluia, peace be unto our nation

and peace be unto all our nations;

good will to all men and women of Peace.

Justice for Given

The color black is the color of hope. Green is the color of the perennial nature of hope.

For hope is upon the earth, in a constant state of subtle transformation, rising and falling as all things ascend to God, in steady cycles of loss and fulfillment.

When black is used to remember death, it is not used to signal the finality of death, but to remind us of the hope that is invested in death - for black is also the color of the expectation of life.

- selah -

Justice for Given

This hurt is bigger than UPLB...

When God made Woman, the LORD fashioned her as a companion to Man; a faithful helper, equal in dignity and promise, without which Man shall never be complete as himself. For there are no creatures upon the earth like Woman is to Man. From this new community God fashioned out of Man in Woman comes the lineages of all the generations of the children of Mankind.

The truths established by God in the story of the joining of Man and Woman form the common foundations of the institution of the human family.

It is the strength of the family that determines the strength of the nations unto which the preservation of both human dignity and human promise is universally entrusted by God for the sustenance and protection of all our generations to the very last of our generations.

Why do I say this? Because the ripples felt by the stealing away of the promise of Given Grace Cebanico touches exactly those truths. When the criminal case is presented, it shall be animated by the fact that this crime affects all Filipinos.

When the dignity of Woman is left unprotected and her promise is left undefended, Man is not elevated but diminished. When Man and Woman exist in conflict with each other, no nation will hope to survive the test of time. That is the truth.

I am saddened by the loss of one so young and promising because we can never take back what she stands for - there shall always be a missing life that our nation has to account for in time as well as before God in Eternity.

For us as one nation, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, the pain of this crime shall never go away but we can as a Republic work as one Country to assist in the healing and recovery of Given's family, pray for her soul, convict the transgressor/s, and protect our community from this evil.

This is why Justice for Given is vital. May she find her way back to God and through God to our Home in Eternity with the LORD. The only way that remains to show our love for her now is to expedite her final hopes on earth.

---<--@

To all my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, let us please take all of this to God in prayer especially at Holy Mass today.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Peace be with you, Given Grace - via con Dios -

taken so young, now young forever.

You hope is now our hope.

Salutation #57

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.

(What if?)

What if next year,

we draw a line in our hearts

- together this time -

and agree to belong again

as human beings and citizens to each other

under Almighty God

as one nation?

What if next year,

we leave the darkness of the past 2000 years

completely behind us?

What if next year,

we let go of our divisions

and hold on to our belongings

to each other instead?

What if next year - we begin again -

the labor of building upon the strength of our nationhood

and work to unify our one Republic peace?

What if next year,

we learn to reach out to each other

- more and more - as Filipinos than as anything else?

What if next year,

we make an effort to understand the plight of our minorities?

What if next year,

we stop making fun of the least of our brother and sister Filipinos

and try to share with them the meekness of our spirit?

What if next year,

we capitalize on the freedom of our gifts

and work together to build a better Philippines?

(On an election year: What if next year,

we work together to ensure a free and fair election?)

What if next year,

we mark the beginning of our labor of hope

and the end of our labor of tears?

- selah -

It will not be easy.

The taming of the unknown earth

- was meant to be difficult -

and the building of the inhabited earth

- shining with a myriad living lights -

near impossible.

The peace that we are tasked to observe

- one with the other - is not a perfect peace.

There will be adversity

and there might also be conflict...

But deep may this long night be,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,

its darkness shall yield to our unity

for the darkness is but the darkness

if it does not lead to the truth.

Let us always remember,

we are a forward thinking nation!

And a forward thinking nation

is a nation guided by the light of its own truth.

---<--@

May Peace be in Egypt -

"A warlike Republic may seem unified but where the foundations by which the State unifies it's elements are not only unjust but also untrue, it shall never advance to fruition."

My beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise -

Let us pray for the unity of Egypt and for the Christian minority in that land...

Truly, the evolution of the Egyptian Republic shall not be easy. For all undertakings of Country is a labor vehemently opposed by the spirit of division.

But if they must succeed, they must do so by securing the 4th Cause and closing the gate of their Country against the spirit of oppression that wages a constant war against the weakest and most vulnerable portions of their common citizenry.

For if their Republic allows this horseman a free hand upon their land, it shall work its way from the weak to the strong and shall mean to one day overthrow even the noblest of their folk until - by and by - there shall be no one left to defend the liberty of that Republic.

So let the peace of Egypt be in our prayers - for all Egyptians.

And I especially ask my own Roman Catholic brethren and sisters to take this prayer to Holy Mass this Sunday - may Peace prevail in Egypt and in the Middle East!

---<--@

No State exists to fail but all States that fail exist only for itself.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Republika ng Ehipto! God bless us all.

Exceeding the Defense

Salutation #56

If I say "yes" to Israel and "no" to Palestine

then I only promote the division that will eventually consume both...

Its like saying yes without really meaning it.

When you say "yes" to Peace,

you do not say "yes" to War as well.

(Shining as the Stars)

The peace in the Philippines

and the peace in the Middle East

are equally important.

Each is connected to the success of the other.

They go in sequence.

For us Filipinos, Peace must be won here first.

For we can not shine as one nation with skies divided by War.

Winning the peace here

adds to the strength of winning the peace

in our ASEAN and outward

shining as the stars into Jerusalem

at the heart of our Asia, the Middle East.

So be guided: Do not be confused.

The peace in the Philippines

and the peace in the Middle East

are intertwined, within as well as without.

One can not prosper without the other.

Each one forms the other to become one whole sky.

So if we love one, we must also love the other.

In the former, we secure the blessings of unity for our nation.

In the latter, we secure the blessings of unity for our one family of nations.

Indeed,

we must shine for peace

and if it does not happen today

when?

---<--@

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.

---<--@

Mabuhay po tayong lahat! Peace. Salaam. Shalom. God bless us all.

The Peace of the Brotherhood of Mankind

Breaking the Siege

20111010

Salutation # 55

"Saints and Addicts are the same -

both are born of great loves;

one is a love born of things below,

the other a love of all things above.

And freedom is to know.

(13 Responses to the Evil of Drug Addiction: A Salutation to Recovery and Personal Transformation)

These 13 Responses I write

for all who suffer from drug addiction,

the victims and their victims.

To those who prayed for me,

my thanks and appreciation -

I send you all my love.

I write this primarily for those

who are suffering as I am

from the scourge of drug addiction.

For your inspiration...

(1) To the Addict Soul -

So may Peace be unto your heart

- as pristine as the dew of the early morning -

my heart speaking unto your heart, O my precious beloved,

about the evils inherent to the global problem of drug addiction,

addressed to relevant segments of our suffering humanity,

as an aid to our one whole understanding

in behalf of those who still suffer in the darkness -

for the danger of drug abuse affects all human beings.

I do not blame you

nor do I pretend to judge you

for I am to you as I really am,

a peer and an equal in common creation.

I am here not for your sins but for your hope.

Do not empower the past.

Whatever the cause of your addiction to drugs,

it belongs - Now - to the past.

Let the past go and accept it as it is, gone.

It shall never serve you to dwell on things

- that have already moved on -

for there is nothing to be found by looking back,

we stand only to lose ourselves in the attempt.

Never forsake the choice that leads out of the darkness

even though it is difficult to see where the darkness ends.

Believe in your recovery and your recovery will believe in you.

Never believe in your addiction,

however deeply you find yourself mired in it,

it is an illusion that will rob you of your chance to be truly happy.

Look deeply into the present

and you will find hope where you once had none.

For many people in this world suffer - as we do -

and from various ills and pains

but it is not the severity of their suffering

nor the degrees that we are better off than others

that should console us - it is their common hope;

a hope all human beings may meaningfully understand.

For in the hope of our family and friends

we are empowered - despite ourselves -

to give remedy to the evil that plague our soul

making us blind to our own need to recover.

Believe in the person who believes in your recovery.

For hope empowers hope,

hope being the very language of the human spirit,

it is communicated freely among our souls

as a network of common relief

that save against despair

the truth that lives in other people's lives.

As our ability to accept help from others grow,

we witness our own hopes begin to grow.

There is a certain solidarity in human suffering

but there can never be any consolation to be had

from every and all forms of human suffering

whether one suffers more or less than others.

Suffering does not serve to empower

those who are outside it's fold of experience - as a matter of fact,

it is a cause of much of our complacency.

Those who do nothing in the name of anything

- in the face of human suffering -

do not understand what it means to be human.

For to be human is to be defined by common needs.

- selah -

What then is above you

and what is there below you, O Man,

that you should forsake yourself?

Shall you be what you are not

and relinquish the hope of your existence?

Drugs are an evil,

commit that this evil shall meet it's end with you,

never introduce this evil to other souls.

Pray and then pray for each other.

As human beings,

we are powerless against the overwhelming evil of drug addiction,

let us humbly admit to this powerlessness

and willingly relinquish control of this part of our lives over to God -

to the LORD Who knows

- when and how -

to deliver Man from every evil.

And commit to do this sooner than later.

(2) To the Unconcerned world of empty promises -

The world at large is a vast and empty wilderness,

- it is a desolation of war -

dangerous for our isolation

as wild and as rugged as the tracts of our inhabited earth

and made even more dangerous by the predatory malignancy

of the cognizant evil that intelligently prowl

the darkness of this open landscape

for those souls - who -

with complete disregard for it's own safety

have wandered too far away from the LORD

and the shelter of our communities.

Will the world show concern

- for those unhappy souls -

who have wandered too close

to the gaping maw of the beast?

Perhaps it will

- but often -

with a certain flimsiness that betray it's true colors.

For in principle,

- the world at large -

will never side with the weak.

There is a kind of superiority

in the world at large

that with much thunder and noise

hide the cowardly will

behind the shallow action and token gestures

that does so little for the Sacred Life

of the very least of our one family of humanity.

It will be foolhardy to place our sacred trust

onto the unproven conventions of the Unconcerned world;

a world that without us, become empty of it's own promise.

Until we have regained a sovereign majority

- under this greater season of heaven -

until we have reclaimed those vast tracts of the human spirit

that we have in the past been compelled to abandon

- to the ravages of war as a whole -

we will never be sure about this world and it's conventions.

Therefore,

the world as it is today - will never understand -

that the evil that is endemic to drug addiction

- is not the human being -

of whose hopes we wish to redeem;

it will see the evil, condemn it, stigmatize and ridicule the victim

and push it out of way and out of sight.

(3) To the Broken Family about the aftermath -

Those so-called modern trends

the degrade and devalue the synergistic strength

of the complementary unity between male and female

- are just that - they are trends,

an indication of the fickle nature of the world at large.

Those who are deceived by the easy convenience

of these so-called modern trends

resort to bargain away

the infinitely precious calling of the human family

in exchange for an uncertain future that one perceives to be happiness

- all because of a failure to meet the Beloved -

in those private precincts of the timeless heart

within those specific places where it really matters.

As a result,

these families will never attain to their greatest potency.

And the children will suffer through what in these evil days

are called social sins and will be weeded out

not according to our common spirit of humanity

that believes not in depriving them of their dignity and promise

but according to the law of the jungle.

This failure of the family - will then -

become transmitted onto the greater communities

as a certain subtle belligerence pervades

like a hidden, festering, spreading rot

borne by the greater body of any society

of whose significant potential for the future

that it entrusts to the human family

has already been effectively precluded

from the reality of our common human hopes.

The stronger the trend, the greater the effect.

Indeed, to sum it all up,

divorce trends are nothing more than failures

that are enabled to perpetuate itself.

Who bears the burdens?

(4) To the Family who is concerned about drug abuse -

Indeed,

this is an evil that all concerned human families

must be able to effectively defend from

and completely repel right at the very threshold of the family home.

(I have significantly dealt with this subject in my previous work.)

(5) To the Youth who questions the evil of drug abuse -

Hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil.

Have your parents ever told you

that this saying goes for a particular form of evil?

This is the evil of drug abuse;

an evil whose allure is it's greatest peril!

Of the many evils in this day,

this one is dealt with specifically by our ignoring it's presence

where it directly concerns our lives.

Hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil.

However to ignore this in the lives of others

without even connecting to - even a glimmer - of their hope

is inhuman.

(6) To the Addict who still doesn't know -

If you give in to the void of illusion

and accede - in your will -

to the slavery - of the lie -

at the core of every evil,

specifically the evil of drug abuse,

- you effectively commit -

one of the greatest crimes you may inflict

- against your own humanity -

for you will stand to lose yourself

within the confines of the darkness

within your own self.

You will become the lie within the lie.

The void of illusion

- once the choice waxes absolute -

is a hellish existence;

completely empty of any glimmer

of a meaningfulness that assure the soul

and gives breath to the body.

Amidst even the deepest of darkness

where the grace of God is greatest

thou shalt be unmindful of thy salvation

being unable to reach out with thy own power

- to the freedom of the truth -

that there is a wonderful reason for thy being;

that thy life is meant to fulfill thy purpose of happiness

- upon our native earth and sky -

and that this purpose has our good in Mind

because the LORD is God!

What have led you to betray your own self;

what have caused you to commit this treason?

Admit to the problem

and acknowledge thy own confusion

and let yourself be grounded upon the truth

before your own realities turn into those falsities

that will imprison you and throw away the keys.

No one will be cognizant enough

to know where you really stand

- within your own heart -

to be able to help your soul.

(7) To the Addict who is still suffering -

Do not empower the habit.

Let go of your own rational control

and admit that you are powerless against this evil.

This habit responds by degrees

that we draw near to this evil

- it has great allure -

but at it's core is an emptiness

- which is actually the body of the lie itself -

commensurate in size

to the greatness of it's temptation.

(8) To the Addict who admits to the problem -

Admit to Almighty God the problem.

Admit to Almighty God all of the problem.

Surrender control of this part of your life

to the care of the Divine Will and cling to this trust,

taking it day by day, moment by moment,

rebuilding and regenerating your integral whole,

with hope upon hope, grace upon grace,

and strength upon strength.

Prepare yourself.

It will be difficult - before it gets even close -

to getting any better.

Speak to a safe person.

(9) To the Addict who seeks for solutions -

This evil escapes the power of reason

- and eludes faith -

do not seek for answers

- by searching for it -

for in so doing you empower

- it's temptation -

to cast it's adulterous stench upon your soul.

Admit to the problem

and forgo all understanding of this evil.

Make it an integral part of your necessary surrender

to the will of the Almighty Who knows

when and how to deliver all men from evil.

Repair all relationships -

vertical and then horizontal.

(10) To the Addict who aspires to greater evil -

Do not become the illusion that you pretend to be -

we are real human beings

who live in a real world

with real concerns

and a real potential with God's grace

for doing an infinite amount of good.

Have We become your own illusion

or have the tiny confines of the lie

become your one absolute reality?

Never be compatible with evil - actively resist it,

even where your are in the very thick of it all,

even when it seems you have exhausted all ways and means,

until your realize the truth,

you must never cease to struggle against

the evil in all evil things.

(11) To the Addict who deceives the innocent into drugs -

A murderer who deceives his or her victims

- into the snare -

in order to take away their lives

is about the same in terms of gravity

to one who deceives others into losing

the completeness of their integrity,

for it is an integrity you can never bring back.

A human being has three lives,

one is the life in the soul,

the other is the life of the body

and the third is the life of his or her name;

the honor of a person's reputation

- that enable and empower -

every person's connection with other persons.

All three once taken away,

as one does who recklessly murder the innocence of our youth

and plunder the integrity of our brothers and sisters in Creation,

only an act of God, can ever restore.

Think about your own incompatibility with evil

and where you are deceived into thinking that you are

one of those who are compatible with evil,

think about your own incompatibility with death

for that is the permanent destination of all evil things.

(12) To the Pusher who deceives the innocent into drugs -

Why do you forsake your own nobility?

Or have you already lost your own sense of humanity?

You pretend to speak in the tongue of the truth

while the intentions within your own heart

contain something else completely!

Have you two hearts to contain your double mindedness?

Or a forked tongue that is sundered like the peace within yourself?

- selah -

Ponder your own thoughts

and return to your own sense of honorable remembrance,

DO NOT disturb the waters of our common community.

(13) To the Dealer who profits from dangerous drugs -

Everything turns to ashes eventually - but as for evil,

it has been a decree from Eternity,

your Satan will turn into ashes from the inside,

and the Devil who is your defeated lord

will stand as your own tormentor after he leads you

and all the reprobate angels and men into very bowels of hell.

For the wages of thy sin is thus - unless thou repent -

you will die an everlasting death.

- selah -

Glory to God the Father in the highest

Adoration to Jesus Christ

may the LORD restore - all addict souls -

to sanity and may the Spirit of God

bring us back to the hard and narrow way of salvation;

a way that though - as hard and as narrow -

as the old way of our active addiction

is the only way that leads away from the past

into to the life and the happiness

that we all desire - and desire so intensely -

so as to burn with the overwhelming power of our addictions.

May we learn to love the right things -

may we learn to be truly free

and to find happiness and security

- in the knowledge of the Truth -

that to love the LORD is to forsake the idolatry of drugs.

Ultimately,

after our convictions are proven in time

- by the grace of God -

and the help of family, friends, community and nation

we shall become who we must be...

---<--@

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Patron Saint of the Suffering Addict and Refuge of the Recovering Addict, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

---<--@

A Bruised Wing

I saw half an angel wing once...

glimmering in the quiet of a corner;

I sought to fight off the vision -

or I thought I could for I was an ignorant fool

now I know what the vision was for.

God gave me a bruised wing

that I may be able to more sweetly sing

of His great love for me.

He fettered me with pain

to see me through the storm

and limited my powers of flight

to see me through the night.

God gave me a bruised wing

that I may be able to more sweetly sing

of His great love for me.

---<--@

If my recovery is the only gift I can give, then let it be the greatest gift I can give.

---<--@

Mabuhay ka kapatid ko, at mabuhay ang Pilipinas nating lahat. God bless us all!

Hope Taking wing

NOTE: For more on this particular issue (addiction and recovery) please refer to my secondary blog: My Recovery First Journal

My Miyang believed in my recovery long before I ever did.

20111009 AM

“God loves human beings. God loves the world. Not an ideal human, but human beings as they are; not an ideal world, but the real world.

What we find repulsive in their opposition to God, what we shrink back from with pain and hostility, namely, real human beings, the real world, this is for God the ground of unfathomable love.”

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Daily Meditations from His Letters, Writings, and Sermons

---<--@

Good morning!

I'm just going to shoot off some quick thoughts here -

I think we should never have removed Spanish from our national curriculum.

I think we should start thinking about the regional good more often - go ASEAN!

I think our President Noy is doing a splendid job. I think it is not fair to be so short-sighted, the work of reversing the tide will take a couple of generations. We are going to need a succession of strong and committed Presidents after him to bring our Country out of the doldrums.

And release Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani!

---<--@

More on the RH Bill -

I saw a struggling young mother with her baby once. She was trying to figure out if she could afford to get her baby a little pack of Bear Brand. The baby had a cleft lip and appeared to be malnourished. They appeared so poor and so desperate but largely unaware...

To me, her plight and that of her months-old baby girl seemed so overwhelming. I contemplated how she could have managed to conceive her baby through a free and human choice to have a baby. A few other questions came naturally after... what of the father, the family, the future?

I wondered if she could really be held completely responsible for bringing a soul into our world largely ignorant and so obviously unprepared to properly receive such a precious endowment from God. If not her, if not the father, certainly not the child. If not them, who?

I also wondered how many more young women like her will go through such an unnecessarily harrowing ordeal before their consciences become fully formed so as to effectively protect the freedom of their choices from the harshness of blind and random chance.

This is not the first time I've seen the hope of the poor burdened by so much weight.

Now, I look back at the debate on the RH bill and I ask myself, "is justice served to allow a condition like this to endure?"

The RH bill is NOT about abortion.

It is about human choice and about human choices freely and responsibly exercised in the context of Filipino society as a national whole.

The focus of the debates should shift more toward conscience formation and proper public (civic) education in the long-term and public safety, health and protection in the near to mid-term (our time frame still stands at 2012-2045).

If every Filipino were born with a properly formed conscience; if all our freedoms as individuals were - without exception - served enough even by human reason alone, then we would as citizens be completely right to immediately dismiss both the points as well as the failures (if any) of reproductive health practices in our Country.

Because if it were the case, human sexuality would not appear to be so beyond our natural power as human beings so as to consume so much of our time and effort in community with each other. We would have no need to debate the RH bill.

If every Filipino existed on the same plane of moral thinking, we would have been justified as a Republic to unanimously vote down the RH bill.

But since we all must as individuals exist on independent planes of spiritual maturity and since our common humanity must never again unburden itself of its duties and responsibilities to Sacred Life, the debate must continue.

We must agonize, we must fight our way toward a solution.

There should be a middle ground somewhere and somehow we have to get there...

---<--@

Finally,

I am proud of apl.d.ap and I know he's proud of me. Why?

Because we're both Filipino. We know it. We wear it. We flaunt it.

Mabuhay ka kapatid ko!

---<--@

So there. Everybody have a great weekend!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

One Nation

Down with Filipino Crab Mentality!

Salutation #54

Mapalad ang Bayan na ang Diyos ay ang PANGINOON.

(2045)

In 2045,

if we choose Peace today,

if we are patient, if we are persistent,

we will look back at the songs we sing today

and the songs we shall be singing then

and we shall as one nation praise the LORD!

When we realize how God

has turned our mourning into rejoicing,

we will praise the LORD!

When we realize how God

has transformed the pain of our our repentance

into the power of our freedoms together,

we will praise the LORD!

When we realize how God

has embraced all our little crosses

in order to bring our people forth into victory,

we will praise the LORD!

When we realize how God

has answered our songs of hope and longing

- gently, surely, patiently, wisely, mercifully, and generously -

and turned them into those songs of love and heroism,

and hymns of thanksgiving, glad tidings, and constant adoration,

we will praise the LORD!

If we choose Peace today, O my people,

my beloved brothers and sisters of the Promise,

- by 2045 -

if we are patient, if we are persistent,

all the problems that confound us today shall be no more.

If only we turn our hearts to God

- if we listen to Him -

we will find

as our gaze turns slowly away

from the darkness into the Light,

that all the persistent shadows that have plagued us in the past

- will have fled our people -

as the future opens up

into the skies of a new horizon

at the dawn of our new, old Philippines.

If we are to win the Peace of the LORD from God today,

we only have to seek it and to choose it absolutely

and we shall become who we are as we are

- who we must be for each other -

as citizens to each other,

a keeper and a friend.

For we are a patient and persistent people.

And we always have been a patient and persistent people

- since we became a people -

at the beginning of the long march of our nations

at the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden, mabuhay!

---<--@

A forward thinking nation is a nation guided by the light of its own truth.

Let us always remember, we are a forward thinking nation!

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Last October 3rd is German Unity Day.

Mabuhay, one Germany!

20111007

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary

"A Christian without prayer is like a soldier without a rifle."

My brothers and sisters of the Promise, I have always stressed both the importance of prayer as well as the universality of prayer.

Prayer is as necessary to the soul of Man as breathing is to his body.

There is no Man on earth - past, present, or future - who, having seen creation in a constant state of prayer, has never thought to look inward and gaze into the depths of that irresistible Silence within himself without asking the questions he knows in his heart of hearts he may only address to God.

No human heart is fool enough to resist the power of prayer. Indeed, all of creation around us - seen and unseen - exists in a constant state of prayer.

Therefore, no Man who has ever existed, exists or shall ever exist may ever truly claim to have never prayed.

For prayer is a common human need. It is an attitude of the human heart.

In a faithful Republic, prayer is protected and this protection extends especially to all places of holy worship - temples, churches, synagogues, and mosques.

Prayer is the first thing. It is also the last thing.

- selah -

Brothers and sisters in Christ the Lord, the Roman Catholic feast we celebrate today is perhaps, the only feast that celebrates the power of prayer. It is significant in our times in that, it has the power to bring our nation into a state of more perfect unity.

As nations, we have been formed in battle - the history of the feast of the Holy Rosary is witness to this fact - War is the reason for which we now exist as nations.

As nations, we have fought each other for so long it has become difficult to accept that Peace, not War, is the Cause for which we have always existed as nations.

War gave us our fiery births. But God is our beginning as well as our last end.

I bid us to reflect on this and to also reflect on our Rosary of Hope. October is after all, the month of the Most Holy Rosary.

In this new age of peace, the Rosary will take on a new significance. It shall serve to combat the greatest nemesis of the Queen of Peace - the beast of War.

So let us honor our Lady by learning to be strong in Christ, our Savior, and let us begin this by a persistent, almost suicidal bent on Christian prayer.

After the omnipotent and invulnerable prayer of Holy Mass, let us cling to the humble, trusting and thoughtful recitation of the Rosary of our Lady as a choice weapon in the spiritual combat.

Let us become proficient in its use!

---<--@

Please also read: A Remembrance of Fatima

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Mama Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Mama Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Mama Mary, Refuge of Sinners, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Patron Saint of the Suffering Addict and Refuge of the Recovering Addict, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Blessed Jacinta Marto, Courageous for Sinners, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Salutation #53

(A Dream of Daybreak)

O my Philippines,

if I could take my dream of you

and make it come true today, I will...

Day by day

- I gaze at you -

like a slow but sure awakening dawn.

You were never that easy.

You were never that cheap.

Your vision, O Pearl of the Orient,

- as it appears to the eye of my heart -

is a dream so fraught with difficulties,

it must be a hope worth living and dying for.

Indeed,

many of thy greatest lovers have gone to their rest

bearing with them this - one hope -

of making thy dream come true.

(Truly, their flame is our flame

for the rest of us desire what they desire.)

Your allure is that overpowering...

Your beauty, my Country,

was never taken away from me,

but always here,

waiting to be found,

passing quietly from generation to generation.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Fly Old Defiant:

Defy War. Defy Darkness. Defy Evil. Defy Corruption. Defy Poverty.

Prosper the Peace! Prosper the People!

20111003

The Last Quarter of 2011

We have now reached the last quarter of 2011. Let's start with a little review.

At the very beginning of this year, we set out in this blog what is to be expected of the year 2011.

I made it clear to each of us that 2011 is a time set aside for preparation and that 2011 is going to be a year of remembering what it really means to be the nation in ourselves; a year of choices.

Truly, we are the nation in ourselves - the love in our hearts for God and Country makes our one Republic undertaking visible to the eye of the spirit. It places us on the map so far as the Angels of the LORD are concerned.

It makes us easier to find in the darkness.

- selah -

I want you to recall all of the lessons we have learned so far...

Love creates the conditions for peace and our peace is a love of common good will. For the peace we profess as a nation is an affinity to unity and the highest unity of all is the unity of the LORD.

Therefore, the peace of the Philippines is a peace that must ascend being a peace that is beyond our understanding. What is meant by this is that our belonging is a unity that obtains to all of creation and more.

It is a religious peace. It is an economic peace. It is a political peace. It is a cultural peace. It is a social peace. It is a generational peace. It is a human peace.

It is the peace we offer to each other as citizens.

It is also the peace we offer to others like ourselves as a nation of citizens.

And all of these things repel the beast of War for all of these things draw us close to the memory of our people. It brings us near to the LORD, our King, Who remembers us first. Light attracts light. Love attracts love. Truth cleaves unto truth. Abundance creating abundance.

War can not understand Peace and so this peace professed is the end of the spirit of division.

This is what I mean by completing our remembrances.

All these things must begin with peace in the Filipino heart - your heart, my fellow Filipino compatriots, and mine. This one heart makes us children of the Promise.

It binds us to the dawning of our Land of Promise.

For the War in heaven is in the heart. And as War found no place in heaven, it certainly has no place among the nations. For the earth is not the abode of War: Peace is the responsibility of all.

I am telling you this because by 2012 there shall be many more crisis and conflicts that shall take on the outward appearance of anything but the central proposition being made to us by the Providence of God under this season of heaven: That (1) the problems Mankind currently face is a problem of the human heart and that (2) all of these crises and divisions find their root in the spirit.

God is making a call for the exiles to return.

If we do not heed the call of these present days, we shall certainly lose our way and our nations shall plunge deeper into the embrace of War. For how long shall our generations linger in darkness and in division, I can not tell you. For I do not know.

All I know is that if it took 2000 years for us to arrive at this choice for peace, how much longer will it take for us to listen to the LORD?

Nay, my brothers and sisters of the Promise.

We must shine in the Night as one whole sky.

- selah -

Remember this now, Beloved of God, for the time shall come when you shall seek to understand these things:

These are all external manifestations of a spiritual requirement...

...and that the answers to these questions are within ourselves.

For the core issue of 2012 phenomenon is the peace of the human heart.

---<--@

An Application of the Heart -

Having said all of the above, I take it these two previous facebook postings of mine will wax all the more clearer to us today.

The first one concerns the national peace:

"Never take your focus off the peace process, do not delude yourself in thinking that war and poverty is the reason we stand together as one nation.

Peace is the reason we are Filipino. It is the purpose for which Providence brought us forth through our parents into this time and place.

If we fail to believe it now, how then shall this generation be remembered?

But if we succeed in turning the tide today, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, how many generations shall tell of this gift when indeed, peace is at the beginning and peace is at the end of the long march of our nations?

We only have to choose and choose absolutely."

- selah -

And the second one concerns the regional/continental peace:

"This Spratly Issue could become a thing of War or a thing of Peace; a thing of War if we miss the bigger picture and a thing of Peace if we succeed in grasping it."

- selah -

Let us try to pray and reflect about these things.

Also, let us try to validate in ourselves this week the fact that all our nations, being born of the one lineage of victory, also subscribe to a common wisdom and this is the wisdom of peace.

I am not aiming for all to be convinced. I am aiming only for each of you who are called by God to be convinced to be convinced. God be with us all.

---<--@

One who understands War understands Peace.

---<--@

We will stand with each other. We will stand with our friends.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Revelation 12: 7-9

20111002

Sunday Evenings

Good evening, the Philippines - mabuhay!

I had wanted to speak to you about many things this evening. But now that I've sat down to put the words to my thoughts, there is only silence.

A moment ago, I thought to write you about the things I thought to write you about. But now, I realize I only want to enjoy this moment with you.

Let us share this moment with someone we love.

Let us tell them from the heart -

"There will be plenty of time to talk about plenty of things."

"But now is not the time for much speaking."

---<--@

REMEMBER: Most of the things that love says is never said at all.

---<--@

Everybody have a great working week ahead!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

Moment