Salutation #121

The Lord Christ said,

"The poor you will always have with you..." (Matthew 26: 11)

Starshine, there will always be a minority.
---<--@

(The 4th Cause: The Cause of Minorities - Benignity)

BENIGNITY is the practice of goodness.

Now,

goodness

in the company 

of the great, the strong, 

and the powerful, 

is not an extraordinary virtue.

Therefore, 

this Cause must concern itself 

with (1) the preferential treatment and care 

of minorities (i.e. the weak and the vulnerable)

and (2) the just distribution 

of the material goods of this world.

In the person of the stranger, 

the orphan, the widow, the unborn, 

the disabled, the elderly, and the poor 

whether transient, semi-permanent, or permanent, 

there shall always exist within our midst, 

a minority.

Indeed,

at one time or another 

in the lifespan of individual human beings 

as well as in the lifespan of individual human nations, 

we all become part of this minority.

Let us always bear this in mind and heart...

- selah - listen, think.

Have we forgotten our own roots, 

O numberless stars of our Father Abraham,

O ye children of the Peace, of the Light,
promised by the God of old 

to bless the national communities 

of our needful Mankind?

Were we not all 

drawn up by the LORD

from the poverty of the minority?

Were we not all 

uplifted from our lowliness

by the mercy and beneficence of God

to people the nations of the earth?

Let us always bear this 

- in mind and heart -

especially in these present times.

For this is how 

we shall fill the earth 

with living lights.

- selah -

We are by our poverty indistinguishable! 

How we shall each 

- distinguish ourselves -

in the midst of the darkness

is through virtue and the continual refinement 

of each our inherent human nobility.

This is important to remember, 

my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 

because the victimization (by the strong) 

of the marginalized (or the weak) 

will ultimately result in the implosion 

of our national communities 

and in the Last Day, 

it shall also bring about 

its final and irreversible destruction.

The marginalization 

- in any society - 

of any of one of its parts 

is always the effect of divisions 

(overt as well as covert) 

in the one heart of the people.

A social order built on disagreements 

(abiding in prejudices, misconceptions, fear and ignorance) 

is ever like a tyranny without a tyrant -

a culture of national self-destruction!

In this hostile atmosphere, 

the spirit of the nation itself

feels ever trodden underfoot 

until the burden of Justice 

becomes unbearable.

Indeed,

the will or the spirit of War 

always takes the easiest entrance 

into the midst of the people... 

And this it always does 

by subverting the 4th Cause.

- selah -

The one sin 

a nation can not abide by 

is the presence of War in the heart.

Indeed, 

we all shall stand before God 

to account for our gifts of nationhood! 

So let us not forget
to ask ourselves before God in prayer - each day -

what we have done or chosen not to do

to improve the life of our communities

and prosper the native peace 

of each our undertakings of Country.

Because Peace is our only path - 

it is the only choice we can really make

both as human beings and as human nations.

- selah -

The 4th Cause explicitly espouses 

the first principle - that -

the strong exists in defense of the weak.

The entire hierarchy of the Angelic realms 

is ordered by God around this first principle.

And since our nations (as they are) 

are a natural extension of the unseen realms, 

we too are expected by the Providence of God 

to faithfully imitate the heavenly order 

by formally uniting ourselves as a people 

to the will and the governance of the LORD, 

our God - the one Sovereign of all nations.

What the majority does in behalf of the minority 

dictates a nation's fidelity to the 4th Cause!

Wealth generation and long-term national prosperity 

is entirely dependent on the 4th Cause!

It is from the 4th Cause that we enter 

into an understanding of the higher Causes!

---<--@

The Circular Relationship of the Four Causes

Salutation #120

Mazel tov, Israel -

mabuhay at maligayang bati!

Binabati kita bilang tanyag at modernong Sambayanang-Kilusang payapa
nang may buong kaalamang ika'y tunay na matanda pa
at kagalang-galang sa iyong mga taon kesa rito.

Kapayappan sa iyo ang aking alay:

Sana maghari na rin
ang kapayapaan sa Gitnang Silangan
at diwa ng pagkikipagkaibigan sa mga bansa sa puso ng ating Asya
bawa't isa bilang kanya-kanyang Sambayanang-Kilusang payapa
lalo na ang pinaka-mahina at pinaka-nangangailangan sa lahat -
ang mga Palestinong biktima na rin ng lumang diwa ng galit at dibisyon
na magiting na tumatangan sa pag-asa ng kaninlang adhikaing
makilala at makipagugnayan sa atin bilang bansang isa.

Kapayapaan na inyo na ring kanlungan,
mahal naming bayang Israel,
at kanlungan na rin nang lahat ng ating mga bansa
dito sa mundo nating pagod at nanganganib
at kasalukuyang nangangailangan
ng ating pagkalinga at pagmamahal.

Maghari sana
ang diwa ng bagong panahon
at maging liwanag nawa ito
sa pagnanasa nating lahat -

Kapayapaan, Israel,
ang iyong tunay na karunungan!

Mahal kita - nawa'y kupkupin ka ng Diyos
at pagpalain nang Diyos ang lahat nating mga bansa -
maligayang kaarawan!
---<--@



(Free Israel!)

Mazel tov, Israel -
long may thy remembrance serve thee!

I greet thee, Modern Israel, as an undertaking of Country
recognizing that thy age as a nation is far more better in their years.

My hope for thee is peace:

Let there be peace in the Middle East
and goodwill to all the nations at the heart of our Asia
- each arrayed as their own particular undertaking of Country -
not forsaking all, especially the most vulnerable of all:
the Palestinians caught between the poverty of their exile
and the strength of the nationhood they keep in their hearts.

The peace which is to thee 

thy own shelter, beloved people Israel,
as well as to all our kindred nations in this world
so much in need of respite and repair.

May the spirit
of this new season under heaven
reign upon the souls of all our peoples
and may it be as a light unto each of us
that guide our way back to peace -

Peace, Israel,
which is thy real heritage
and the fruit of all thy wisdom.

I love you - God keep you

and God bless us all -
happy birthday!
---<--@



O Israel, can you see what lies just ahead? There is nothing there...

For we have ALL been by the spirit of War deceived.

Salutation #119

In the Ages of Country,
that necessary and vital transition
from emerging to developing
(as well as from developed to mature)
- is a purely internal shift -
'tis a definitive change of spirit;
a repentance of the heart.

---<--@

(Growing Great)

IT IS EASY
to flaunt strength
when a nation is blessed
and outwardly strong
but this outward strength,
my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
however awesome it may seem,
must soon be surrendered
to an inward awareness
of what is truly forever abiding
in the life of our nations.

It must gain the profit of its grace.

Else it is all vanity.

- selah -

It is said,
precious Starshine -

"Half the victory is knowledge of self."

For one who desires
to obtain the victory (of God)
must first understand the self, 

master the self, overcome the self -
before one truly learns
- how it is -
to live and fight
and die for others.

The other half then,
is just enduring.

(This is true 

for individual human beings

and for individual human nations.)
---<--@


The Ages of Country

Salutation #118

We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.

Romans 8: 28



(Whatever They May Be)

THERE ARE EVENTS
beloved Starshine, 

in the life of individuals

and in the life of nations

that God permits to happen

for purposes the LORD,

in His infinite Wisdom,

did decisively foresee in Eternity

which for reasons

He has reserved to Himself alone

He has deigned fit

to reveal for us

for our own safety and progress

through various instruments

only at appointed times.

If we learn to discern

these moments in our lives

and in the life of our nations -

If we learn the lessons

Providence is trying to teach us

through these choice events -

whatever they may be...

If we understand how it is to listen, 

and if we remain willing to learn, 

alone or with others -

we may only profit from them.

---<--@

Salutation #117

A citizen is not a citizen 

- if it were not for other citizens -

not unlike him or herself.

---<--@

(Focus)

NO MATTER HOW DIFFICULT 

the evils of the present time 

may be allowed by the LORD, our King, to become,

my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 

as one Filipino nation, as one Republic undertaking,

there are only two ways we can go - 

two summits we can set our hearts upon -

two lineages we can willingly follow -

two visions we can from heaven obtain -

two freedoms we can humanly share -

two clocks we can live to abide by -

two destinies we can fight and die for.

And of the two -

only one is superior to the other,

only one is faithful to our keeping,

only one is real.

Focus determines the outcome.

People are poor 

- who have accepted -

the reality of being poor.

A nation is defeated 

- who have come to accept -

its own defeat.

Truly, truly, 

no nation can so thoroughly deplete the spirit 

and exhaust the will of another nation 

as completely as it can 

its own self!

Therefore, 

abide in thy fellowship 

as human beings and citizens to each other -

a keeper and friend:

Do not be too quick to judge,

do not expect rights you are not willing to give others,

do not rail against the humanity of others

while feigning ignorance of your own,

harbor neither hatred nor division in thy one heart of hearts,

and never ally thy own soul to the adulterous will of War

and assume evil against the nations of the children of Mankind

(for all nations, as they are purposed and made by God,
exists singularly for the LORD's own human causes
for reasons other than the triumph of evil).

Come into today!

We can not live on the past,

the past can not feed and shelter our people.

Neither can we live on our problems,

our troubles by themselves do not make us complete.

There is only the present...

And so -

IF we are complete in our remembrances

- the good in our every moment shall be complete -

and today shall be sufficient
for all our tomorrows.

Alleluia!
---<--@

Soul of Country

Salutation #116

Our world has changed and is still changing...



(Free Palestine!)

O people Palestine -

If it were but a simple choice,
would not our troubles we shall wave away
and shall not hope, at its soonest moment,
welcome us all home now, today.

But home now is nowhere to be found but here...

For what is home
but a certain togetherness, a particular belonging,
and a humanity which is complete?

Here is where we shall hope together
ever as those nations dreaming together this time.

Here,
apart from the darkness
which sees only in darkness
is where you are seen,
O beloved people Palestine,
as the rest of the world must soon see.

Here,
where thy own heart begins -
here is where all thy songs shall find again
their own rhythm and voice.

I shall never identify thee with War, O Palestine.

For I see you - as you are -
as the rest of the world must soon see.

You are a threat to none
but those who seek to harm thee.

And though I hope thy exile was over,
in truth, we are all exiles to this world,
and so we must live to belong together
and be bound by one dream of peace.

No one is to blame
for the presence of War
in the heart of our Asia -
the Middle East.

But everyone is to blame
for the absence of Peace
in the heart of our Asia -
the Middle East.

Therefore,
freedom for Palestine - the region!
And freedom for Palestine - the nation!

Peace for Palestine with Israel
at the heart of our Asia.

Peace for Palestine and Israel
at the heart of our Asia.
---<--@

From the deception, the division,
and the deterioration of War,
O LORD and God of all nations,
deign to deliver us in all thy nations.

AMEN.
---<--@


Support Palestinian Human and National Rights!

Who Are You, Syria?

Who are you, Syria?

Why are you trying to murder your own nation?
Why do you seek the final overthrow of thy own soul?
Have thou forgotten the justice of thy own peace?

What for art thou, O Syria - who are you these days?

What are you laboring so vehemently to become, O troubled Republic?
Who for are you pledging all these pain and suffering?
What do you seek to reap for thyself in the midst of all this blood and tears?
What do you seek to gain from your undying sacrifices?

Return to a memory of thyself...

Shall you stand alone 
in the midst of all this clamor and din 
only to find for thyself 
a sword aimed at thy own heart?

Return to thyself, O Syria!

Thou art at the brink of a million-year crossroads.

Come back to thy own reason, and reclaim thy own peace...

Make the choice to be one once again -
O beloved nation, kindred to my own peace,
let not the spirit of War deceive thee in thy heart of hearts!

The void has not overcome thee yet.
---<--@

Standoff at Scarborough Shoal

Everybody seems to be concentrated on how weak we are, on how under-equipped our Navy and Coast Guard is, but what we don't immediately realize here is that it takes greater courage to confront a stronger nemesis, which in this instance, in Scarborough Shoal, are those Chinese marine surveillance ships. 

Let me reiterate here that we are not at war with China (PRC), however, in this particular instance only, our Armed Forces, in particular that arm to which is entrusted by our nation, the security and wholeness of our seas, finds itself on an opposite disposition, out of sheer necessity, with that Country.

Just this morning, it was asked in a current affairs program if those Chinese vessels were armed. Of course they are, at the very least, one has to assume that these vessels are defended by weapons, these are after all, reconnaissance ships.

Therefore, our sailors were and still are in real danger. This to me is not weakness - it deserves recognition in the highest order. 

Indeed, it could have turned out badly. It still could. However, chances are if an incident like this one does not immediately escalate, it will de-escalate.

We must remember things aren't always as fortuitous in the South China Seas or West Philippine Sea (depending on which parallax of war we subscribe with - fact is, everybody knows there is but one sea in question).

My brother and sister Filipinos, we can not rely on the workings of Providential grace exclusively for our national defense. 

We have to forge a plan for the credible defense of this Republic. And we must stick to it.

China, it seems to me, is becoming what she hated in the past; that thing of War that she knew and hated and suffered under... it makes me sad to think about it.

Now, a diplomatic solution that would preserve the dignity of both our sovereign Republics must be worked out. 

Compromises have to be made and given in order to secure a longer term solution to the much larger, more powerful Spratly divide that threatens to suck the whole of our region into conflict (and mire the whole of our continent of Asia in War for an indeterminable amount of time, further depleting what stores of human spirit and human potential our nations have managed to preserve thus far). 

This is by far not the only way out of this standoff at Scarborough Shoal but this is the only one - the only one - which will cost  less in terms of the ultimate price it shall exact upon the lives and fortunes of both our nations (and consequently, of all our nations). 

Mabuhay. May God be with us all.

---<--@

Salutation #115

Today is Araw ng Kagitingan.



(Araw ng Kagitingan 2012)

Today
we remember
(1) the universal ideals of the noble military,
(2) the virtues of the person of the soldier,
and (3) the common peace that informs the spirit
of all national military remembrances.

Today
we remember these
specifically as it pertains
to the one Filipino profession of arms
that we may each - as citizens to each other -
recall to mind and heart
the timeless values
that make the institution of our AFP
truly worthy of its own distinction
as a defender of our nation 
and of all nations.

Today 
we remember
the sacred friendships of nations;
those eternal bonds of brotherhood
forged through a common experience
of the sufferings and the horrors of war.

Today 
we remember
the friendship between our nation
and the one American nation -
faithful in and of itself,
able to comfort and preserve,
in times of peace and in times of war
if we remain faithful to its keeping.

Today
we remember
friendships that we as one nation
- ever must carefully and diligently seek -
in every age and in every generation
being those belongings that serve
to call all nations ever nearer together;

those friendships that must exist
between our nation
and all other kindred nations
of our one, great family of nations -

that we may, as one people, soon learn
to truly know and understand
what every nation does ultimately seek
through the bearing of these arms -

Eternity. Virtue. Humanity. Universality.

Peace.
---<--@

The Alibata for "Ka" in AFP symbology means "Kagitingan" or "Valor".

VALOR is a kind of mastery, not of fear, but of the self. 

It is an uncertain virtue. For none is sure to possess it save for when one becomes possessed by it in the face of great suffering and terrible danger.  

---<--@

Courage goes from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

- Sir Winston Churchill

---<--@

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear: not absence of fear. 

Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave. 

- Mark Twain 

---<--@

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone. 

- François Duc de La Rochefoucauld 

---<--@

Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world. 

- Walter Bagehot

---<--@

Salutation #114

(Easter 2012)

LET the depths of the earth

and the heights of heaven proclaim!

LET all of God's creatures rejoice

and the souls of all living beings exclaim!

Today is the day!

Jesus Christ the Lord is Risen!

Our Faith became. His Love overcame.

And Hope received from God our Father
her wings and her crown.

Glory to God, Glory to God, Glory to God - 

Alleluia to the LORD on high!
---<--@

Holy Week 2012

Adoramus te, Christe,
et benedicimus tibi,
quia per sanctam crucem
tuam redemisti mundum.
---<--@



We adore you, O Christ,
and we praise You,
because by Your Holy Cross
You have redeemed the world.
---<--@


NOTE: Our monthly challenge for April will have to wait till after Holy Week.

Prayer for Peace to Mary, the Light of Hope

Immaculate Heart of Mary,
help us to conquer the menace of evil,
which so easily takes root
in the hearts of the people of today,
and whose immeasurable effects already
weigh down upon our modern world
and seem to block the paths toward the future.

From famine and war, deliver us.

From nuclear war, from incalculable self destruction,
from every kind of war, deliver us.

From sins against human life from its very beginning,
deliver us.

From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity
of the children of God, deliver us.

From readiness to trample on the commandments
of God, deliver us.

From the loss of awareness of good and evil,
deliver us.

From sins against the Holy Spirit,
deliver us.

Accept, O Mother of Christ,
this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings,
laden with the sufferings of whole societies.

Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin:
individual sin and the "sin of the world,"
sin in all its manifestations.

Let there be revealed once more
in the history of the world
the infinite saving power of the Redemption:
the power of the merciful love.

May it put a stop to evil.

May it transform consciences.

May your Immaculate Heart
reveal for all the light of hope.

AMEN.


by Blessed John Paul II

To the Class of 2012

Starshine, this is for you - if not today, tomorrow.

(You know, for days now, I've been going through what to say to each of you - Class of 2012 - in my native Philippines in particular and across to our kindred nations in general. 

As you know, the year 2012 is a momentous year - it is a year of crossroads and expectations.

I wanted to say something formal, something meaningful, something from me to you. But for days now, I've been struggling to put the words down for you.

So here's what I am going to do - I will speak extemporaneously. 

I will make this message a personal one.)

---<--@

First of all, congratulations! 

Whatever stage in your life you are now witnessing the beginning of, you totally deserve it!

So own up to it - embrace and accept this victory you have gained for yourself - appreciate the moment - humbly, deeply, with gratitude. 

Do not forget to review the virtues that brought you to this moment and make a memory of them as well, praise the LORD for His enabling grace that God may multiply your successes.

Plant your feet firmly upon the ground of the truth, as they are made plain, present and manifest to the eye of thy heart, and rise upon the wings of thy prayer towards God and the realization of all thy hopes. 

Dear Starsine, commencement exercises imply by their very essence - a beginning. It is a way for you to remember well a great milestone in your life. For life is lived in stages, each leading to the other. 

Thus, however long each of these phases, good or bad, seems to each of thee - every ending continues on to a new beginning. 

For it must. 

Therefore, forward looking is what you must always be. Remember, your youth is in thy spirit and learning is forever.

Looking back will serve only to embitter thee. 

Indeed, there were good times (as well as bad) and necessary farewells, but the past (as it was precisely experienced by thee) is not a place in which we can visit. 

Long for good times and reunions but align these longings with the flight of thy hopes; anchor them not onto the sinking of the void.

The past, once it is lived, is forever no more - everything is in the Now. It is here in the Now where constant remembrance dwells, to carry all true things forward and across into tomorrow.

In this way, all true things carry all true things into the reality of the present time. In this way, we carry each other by each good ideal we represent and by each good thing that we do.

You must always remember this - those places in thy past are places still and the people in thy past are people still regardless of the intervening years. Time is allied to the meek and the humble. 

Come alive to the reality of unseen things!

Bitterness is not for thee, precious Starshine, it is for those who refuse to learn and to move forward into forever. It is for those who stubbornly seek to strive alone and without counsel; entangled in the snares of their own making - theirs is a useless, seasonless, tasteless, flightless existence. 

You are to love them anyway, pray for them especially, and be a sibling to them still.

Be spiritual. Do not be divided in thy heart. Be whole. 

Exercise a prudent discernment and let go of the past times and past hurts without letting go of all thy past loves - for verily, love as it pertains to itself knows of neither limit nor time. 

Be brave enough to carry all that you love into thy present and therefore, into thy future and you shall make of yourself, by the grace of God, both wise and happy, in that order.

Yea, uncertainty.

I want you to savor it.

For this uncertainty exists for each of you.

There is an air of uncertainty - here - that surrounds and permeates each of you, Class of 2012, like an invisible embrace. It is the atmosphere of your expectations. Remember always, it is yours.

This uncertainty exists for each of you, because you - and only you - can muster the courage, virtue and determination to break through its infinite layers and discover your own powers of flight.

For whether you know it or not, this air of uncertainty is the air you breathe to give texture and shape, feeling and intesity to your own dreams and life to your greatest ambitions.  

This is the breathe that transforms - The breathing of the brave. 

It is the aspiration of hope that propels the cycles of faith and love to empower with reality those prayers that move the arm that moves the mountains.

Therefore, may your prayers bless your spirit with the strength to rise above the challanges of these times.

No one has the right to burden each of your life with expectations than your own indomitable spirit. So know yourselves. 

Present yourselves before God lovingly. Be true. Be happy. Be always in love. 

Be peacemakers.

---<--@

Dreamer of Dreams

Generation X

Generation Choice

TO ALL MY PEERS,
Salutations of Christian peace

and common good will
to our Generation X.

It seemed as if it would never come

But now the world awaits

What virtue we shall impart

To the nations of whose hopes

We shall soon inherit.

O my generation!

What distinguishes us

from the past?

Is it the hurt,

Is it the lack,

Is it the want of heroes' fire?

Who are we

and what defines us

as a generation?

We are here.

We are here now.

What shall soon define us

is not our past.

What shall soon define us

is not in the future.

What shall soon define us

in the eyes of heaven and earth

is our being here now

our being here in the moment

our being present for the peace.

O my kindred spirits,

O my generation be aware

of the wide, awakening twilight

of the time, times and a choice

at this void at the threshold

of the third Christian millennium

a space between our common human hopes

for peace and a better world

caught between tears and shadow

and God's infinite ocean of mercy.

The reality of our times exist

between the autumnal dusk of faded Eden,

this midnight world of war,

and the springtime thawing

of the new dawn from on high,

that bright new morning of peace,

before the noontime reign of Christ,

the Splendor of the Truth

and the Sun of Righteousness,

arising here in the wintering of our times

in the glory of God the Father,

the one common Creator of all mankind

on behalf of suffering humanity

and our poor world.

We must begin today
what no other generation can.

We must quicken to truths
that no lie can ever deny.

We must open doors
that lead to new horizons.

And we must shut the gates
so that no one may be left behind.

This is our time.

---<--@

(Produced 20080420)

Allied Generations