Valentine's Day 2013

Today we observe the power of overcoming love;
the love of God in Jesus Christ that leads every heart to love all in All.

It might not always mean - in the temporal sense -
the triumph of two lovers, but always the eternal victory of Love.

May we therefore, be blessed this day!

May God cause all our hearts to always, always be in love.

May our hearts and our spirits be glad
as we bear into mind today - the great wonder of triumphant love;
that love with the power to bear for all, to endure for all, and to hope in all.

And may the God Who is Love prevail in our souls forever!
---<--@



Proclaim the message of the Gospel in the Peace of Jesus Christ!

Salutation #172

There is no weaker sex, only the perception of weakness wrought by the division that the sin of the Devil had also placed between the man and his most faithful helper.

There is only man and there is only woman. And there is only man and woman joined together by God in their particular strengths to form the nucleus of every human family.

(Parity of the Sexes)

Listen,
dear Starshine -

Gender equality
does not mean parity of the sexes
in terms of physical distinction,
which is complementary by nature,
the one and the other making a whole
- the nucleus of the family -
but in terms of spiritual endowment.

For man is indeed equal to woman
in terms of human dignity
and human promise.

Man
will always have
a preferential view of woman,
this is so that man can make the world safe
for woman.

Woman
will always have
a preferential need of man,
this is so that woman can make the world less unfamiliar
for man.

These two natures work
to complement each other
- and when taken together -
bonds the human family
in bonds of freedom
and strength.

Yet both man and woman
are the image of God - in that -
their very soul contains the breath of life.
This very life gives shape to their corporeal body
to give a definite form unto a unique person - that -
being made alive in the Spirit of God as living souls
formed in our Creator's very own likeness
radiates it even as the LORD radiates it
- ever like the everlasting Light -
sustaining the living life
of all His creation.

To recognize this image
in the being of each man and woman
is to recognize the dignity of God in all Mankind
and to uphold this dignity of man and woman
is to honor the divine dignity of the LORD
(Who is Being, Whose Image IS Existence)
the one Creator of all Mankind -
and of all worlds, seen and unseen:
This is the basis of all human respect
and is the universal medium of peace.

To recognize this likeness
in the soul of each man and woman
is to recognize the presence of God on earth
(Who is THE Truth, Whose Likeness IS Life Everlasting)
and to nurture this presence in man and woman
is to love the Divine Presence of the LORD
our Holy Sustainer and one Provider - in all Creation -
this is the basis of respect for all human life
and is the universal foundation of earthly justice.

Man and woman
in their spiritual endowments
are the same - yet they are also -
created by God to be different.

To seek to understand the parity of the sexes
is to seek to know it - without opposition -
to the justice of the wisdom of God
in both the image and the likeness
of God in man and woman.

In this way
- the symmetry of its truth -
is made meaningful
to thee.
---<--@

Salutation #171

The First Day,
God spoke Light
and everything in everything
and all that is in all
became for Him.



(The First Day)

Truth
imparts form to the formless.
Knowledge is made meaningful because of it.
Formlessness creates form.
Form allows knowledge to be studied.
The understanding of knowledge is the labor of science.
But the labor of Man is to know the Truth.

Man through his labor learns knowledge.
For knowledge is the reward of study.
He receives it only through his learning
and is taught to his mind only because
it has preceded his being.

For all knowledge have existed before Man
and is possessed by him according to his labors,
it is given him only for a time - and passes away forever.

It is vanity to love knowledge for knowledge alone is vanity.

The learned profit not without a love of learning
and keep it not if they were wise.
For the profit of learning
lies not in an understanding of knowledge
but in an understanding of the truth.

He is one who sees the field
and knows the treasure that is hidden within
and so he sells everything he owned to buy the field
that he may cherish it forever.

Knowledge is received but truth is sought -
one is the reward of virtue, and the other a grace of faith.
All knowledge passes away, it is like time - a thing borrowed,
but the truth once possessed is possessed forever.

Happy those who possess the truth!
They are those whose spirits are poor
who in their poverty shall inherit the earth.

Knowledge is burdensome yet
when placed in the service of the truth
become easy and light.

Knowledge profits not the soul yet
when understood in the truth
is the gain of wisdom.

Science profits not the man yet
when understood in the truth
is the gain of all men.

For all knowledge
that is kept like a treasure rots -
its everlasting value lies in the giving away,
ever like tears shed for love of others
ever like a light shone in the darkness of the night -
but the wisdom of this freedom
shall ever return to thee, darling Starshine,
for ever by the grace of God,
truth shall set men free.
---<--@

Salamat po

I should like to sincerely thank HRH Abdullah ibn-Saud for his magnanimity. In providing the remainder of the blood money on behalf of my brother Filipino, Dondon Lanuza, you have saved his life. For this I, and my nation with me, am deeply grateful. May you and your house be blessed forever for this kindness.

I learned about the plight of Dondon on the Internet and felt his sadness. There was a great longing in him, a desire to be free and to live out his life in freedom, but there was great pain and a loneliness also.

He and his family and friends made a great effort to solicit the generosity of others to aid Dondon in his hope. For he and his family, the same with many of my compatriots at this time, were not capable by themselves to raise the necessary sum (Php35 million) to fully compensate the family of Mr. Mohamad Al-Qahtani for their pain and loss.

The struggle to raise this money has already been long and hard the day I learned about Dondon. And as he directed most of his petitions to his fellow Filipinos at home and abroad, to see the slow progress of his cause seemed to me to be the most painful to bear - for it is a most human cause - so I resolved, by what available means I can, to help him gain back his faith in our people. It was an uphill battle, your excellency.

Through it all I know Dondon never lost his hope, he never wavered in his faith, never gave up trusting in the Providence of God and he never stopped believing in the strength of the humanity we all share. He persisted where many would have fallen into despair.

So it was with great relief that I came upon the happy news! Before this, your majesty, it seemed almost impossible to complete the necessary sum in time. You truly did save his life and I will always be amazed at this most admirable act of virtue. Magnanimity is the humility of greatness and it raises up the lowly.

It is an uncommon truth in a world where truth seems no longer common; that to save a life is to renew the world for it is but one and the same act. It is an act man by himself alone can never make.

Peace, I salute you. Salaam Aleikum. Mabuhay po kayo.

May God bless you and may God bless the Kingdom of  Saudi Arabia.
---<--@


You did it, Dondon! Wala nang kala kalahating ngiti.
Bless the LORD, our God and Deliverer, you can smile again.

Share thy Sunshine, Sunshine

Whenever
the sun shines
high above heaven,
- it may said that -
it smiles upon our earth.

Starshine,
when you too shall smile
- and let thy own heart shine -
do so like it were the sun.

So that,
my darling dear,
ever as thy smile is real,
not only is it warm -
it is golden...

to bless
all the living,
wherever it may touch.
---<--@

Our Divided Pond

"While the tree craves calm, the wind will not subside." This is a proverb the PRC media frequently quoted last year when commenting on the rifts between the PRC and the Philippines over the South China Sea.



Our only fault is not having a credible air-sea military deterrent to enforce our core national interests concerns within our territorial waters as well as the primacy of our economic interests within our own EEZ's alongside our international legal obligation to keep these outlying waters secure from piracy and free from lawlessness.

I always come back to this weakness in our own national defense when I ponder on the bilateral equation between the PRC and the GPH.

We did not unilaterally draw these lines on the map, we accepted them from the community of nations. We accepted them along with the rights and responsibilities that our nation must undertake along with them.

We did not harass the Chinese fishermen (PRC) in Scarborough shoal in April of last year, we were enforcing our maritime laws as we should - not because "we can" but because as a Republic, we must.

After all what is a Republic without law but a sham against the people and a lie against the nation it is commanded by God to shepherd.

But what is law without the truth? For the former arises out of the latter and drives it constantly against its limits, not to destroy it but to make it perfect.

But what is the truth? It is - in its ultimate form - certainly not a thing that Man may create for himself, else all law become void and the universe itself unmade.

It seems to me that when the truth is made to be arbitrary, as it is with Beijing's insistence on keeping all claimants cornered, regardless of the avenues of international legal remedy, it all will boil down in the end to raw force and in this regard, the time is late.

We have to accept responsibility for what we presently lack and build upon it in a way that is befitting the necessary and the real. And we must do this not for anything else but our own true sense of well regard for this Republic undertaking of Country of ours and our love for our nation as a whole.

We have to be firm in the right. Defend where we can and get our own act together as one Republic whole. The elections this year affords our people a chance to act upon our national longings, one of them being to live in the safety and security not only of our own peace but also with the peace of the nations in our region, their strength added to our own and ours with them.

We do not want to make an enemy of the PRC. I myself as a citizen of this Republic do not believe in enemies, for as a nation, it is my conviction that we must only believe in friends and potential friends. Not because we are weak for this is not a time to be weak. Now is a time for strength.

We must always be ready to answer to questions regarding matters of peace, whether they are of our own creation or is a thing created for us by circumstances within our world or through the dynamics involved in our necessary relations with other nations for we have constitutionally renounced the use of war along with all its potential for abuse.

This is not to say that we will not defend ourselves, this is to say that we must make it clear that our heart lies only in our defense and that we are answerable to the answers we as a nation have determined to allow for ourselves about these matters.

The real question is, has the PRC already made an enemy of us? Who is the tree and who is the wind?

Where there are more questions than answers, the truth is valued. When there are more answers than questions, there is no certainty.

The Code of Conduct, as I foresee it, being a document largely defined by the economic nature of the issue as regards the South China Sea-West Philippine Sea, must answer for our region - the question of wealth - is not peace and friendship between the nations in our region a form of wealth in and of itself?

Did not the Chinese also say that the angry can be made to be happy again but the dead can not be brought back to life? Indeed, not unlike this saying, I also place a high value on human life. This is why I place a high value on peace. For in its most complete and absolute form peace is truly over war.

Never must this issue take away our common hopes for a better Asia and from our Asia, a better world - for all nations... dreaming together this time.
---<--@

War is not the test,
O nations of the children of Mankind -
war is the tutor!

Peace is the test -
and to pass this test brings success.

The Interlude

Found in the interlude between hope and hope - is a prayer
and this prayer is lifted by those wings both left and right
that from both near and far they may soon take flight
unto God and the Light, and an end to the night.



I wrote this and posted it on my Facebook page around Christmas time -

Believe me, Connecticut,
the hurt you feel is bigger than yourself
and this is not such a bad thing...

It only means that it must be shouldered
by something much more than
just your own community.

We feel it here too...

I feel it when I think about the things
that must be done to rightly remember the fallen
after this season is over...

It is indeed confusing
to experience such a thing,
especially during a season
such as Christmas.

(We had a Yuletide typhoon [Pablo]
that took and orphaned many of our own children;
it struck us in the south but was felt all over my nation.)

If only we could forget it all...
even for just a moment.

But since we can not forget,
we certainly may (and must) rely on the shelter
of the peace of our togetherness
in this hour of suffering.

So
may the words,
deeds and prayers
of all people of good will
be with you...and with all of us.

That God may soon
bring us peace.
---<--@



Things today, they stir... as they always must.
For the nation must now endeavor to right itself.

As the survivors struggle to piece together their lives -

may we all find strength in the quiet we found in the interlude;

in that solemn silence, at each somber vigil, by that respectful calm

let the actions demanded by the needs of the day be always tempered.

If there is a means to be found,
to advance the end by which every citizen
is empowered by the Bill of Rights to bear arms
let this be a solution that works,
let it be a national solution.

For if the worst happened in Sandy Hook -

if things are not now made right in their memory,

(and the memory of all who under similar guises 

have been so brazenly stolen from our midst)

how shall next one be... but unbearable?

Grounds for unity in hope must be broken 

that common foundations may be established
in the building up of new mores and strictures
sanctified by the remembrance of these things
- if they are not yet made - must now be made.

Thy togetherness, America, as a nation

not thy lingering divisions - is the only force -

capable of making it right - for all of thee!

Be thus, O Land of the Brave,
that thou may ever know
this is for certain -

Unity is Eternal.

---<--@

I have my own proposal
to add to the growing pool of ideas
toward a workable solution to the problem
of gun-related violence in the US
as well as in the Philippines...

It is called Gun SMART 
and it's still a work in progress...

Awesome vs. Not Awesome

Estee Ackerman is awesome.

This dude ain't.

The Alienation of Hatred

2013 to 2022 is the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures

Starshine,
when nations are angry at each other,
the reasons could be many things,
but it could never be because
they are nations.

They are angry
at the reasons they're angry
and this could indeed be many things
- true or untrue, right or wrong -
but it could never be because
they are nations.

Lest we forget,
lest we forget.

The craft of all nations is peace.

As a tree may only be destroyed from the roots,
a nation may only be undone by its willingness
to forget its own remembrances.
---<--@



A Hindu saint who was visiting river Ganges to take bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled and asked,

"Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?"

The disciples thought for a while, one of them said, "Because we lose our calm, we shout."

"But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner", asked the saint.

The disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples. Finally the saint explained,

"When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.

What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small..."

The saint continued, "When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other."

He looked at his disciples and said,

"So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, do not say words that distance each other more, or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return."

(from the Internet)

In a world as small as ours,
and getting smaller each day,
do we have to keep on
shouting at each other?

Indeed, 
these distances 

can become quite near.

---<--@

Starshine,
if you understood the words of the saint,
you must now also realize - within your own self -
that this distance that prevents us
from seeing each other - as human beings -
is a spiritual reality.

For this unseeing is a form of darkness.
And this distance too is a form of darkness
the cause of which is our persistence
to choose true-blindness
over true-sight...

A darkness that (both) prevents
as well as seeks to prevent.
---<--@

Those who live for anger
know that the alienation of hatred
is permanent.

For theirs are those whose spirits move
from wilderness to wilderness
finding neither company
nor safe abode.

But those who live for love
know that, through one may become angry
and restless for a day,
one may always return to love
and find peace.

Excepted from Love that thou may live
---<--@

Starshine,
remember the impassable divide
between the rich man and Lazarus?

Truly, it is far easier for the soul of Man
to travel from one end of the universe to the other
than to bridge a spiritual distance as permanent
- as that which divides -
(the golden realms of) heaven
and (the bitter desolation of) hell.

Pray not to remain
a fugitive to thy own heart.
Release thy self (to love) and be free.

- selah -

In the end we are all wildflowers...
In the end we belong to each other...
In the end we belong to all nations...
In the end all nations belong to us...

Love is the perfection of nations.
---<--@

Remember:

When nations make war 
because they are nations, 
endless shall be our strife!

When history forgets and
its spirits live for no regret
the ruin of Man shall be rife!

Meeting in the Middle in a Post-RH Philippines

There must be a time
in every political dialogue
that we must as - one nation - step back
and allow for the necessary choices to be made, for good or ill,
and for the changes to implement themselves.

We have to trust in our democracy.

We have to trust in our ability as a Republic
to make either the wrong or the right decisions
and to profit from them both.

Our collective freedoms of self-expression in the Republic forum
must naturally be complemented by an abiding respect
for our individual rights to choose freely -
without fear of final judgement (of our peers).

The foundation of our electoral culture
which raises from among our midst,
at appointed times in the life of our Republic,
a government of the people, for the people,
and at-one with the people,
relies on our ability
to both freely express as well as
to responsibly defend our common freedoms.

One of our inherent strength as a liberal democracy
is our ability to self-reflect as a Republic whole;
we are a people capable of following old and proven paths,
of creating new ones, or of forsaking the wrong ones.

All of this is threatened by
a partisanship in our political life
- that - when it is allowed to endure,
becomes a thing above the liberty of our nation
and a hindrance to the freedom of the individual citizen,
most especially the very least of us all -
whose needs are the most urgent
but whose voices are
weakest of all.
---<--@



I have always thought that the RH issue is all about the empowerment of the right choices; that these right choices must be enabled through education to bend to the will of the God of life.

And that there can be no clear cut answers that will fit every situation.

Every incidence may only be judged by their individual realities.

Central to the argument of contraception is the fact that contraception denies from the intimacy of conjugal love, the ability to be open to the transmission of human life.

It is a choice to NOT be open to the choice of having children brought into this world through the marriage covenant before God.

BUT central to the argument of poverty is the choice itself to be open to the transmission of human life; that the poor, consumed and weakened by the evils of their condition, CAN NOT make the choice to be open to the transmission of human life.

A young mother in the depths of poverty who vows that her 12th or 14th child will be the last one if she has her way is a person who CAN NOT make the choice to be open to the transmission of human life.

The argument in Humanae Vitae about the lesser evil of rendering non-fecund acts permissible within the greater ensemble of fecund acts within the marriage covenant can not apply if the choice itself to be open to the transmission of life is a choice one is unable to freely and responsibly make (else long-term provisions for the arrival of the newborn are also made alongside that choice).

This leaves us with the normal argument of the lesser and the greater evil as well as a better appreciation of the bravery of our women and the resilience and character of our poorer folk (materially speaking).

Pope Benedict XVI admitted it may be permissible to allow the use of condoms to limit the transmission of AIDS (as a temporary condition that is understood a priori to be allowed only until such a time as the work of the rehabilitation of free human choice through Catholic education and eradication of the existing evils of poverty has become sufficient in itself to overcome it).

The condition of the incidence of poverty, like the condition of the spread of AIDS, is - if we as citizens to each other can help it - only temporary and for as long as this condition exists (as a threat to the greater wholes), a compromise that will allow us to more effectively battle to reverse its trends may be in order.

IF we, though well-meaning, so thoughtlessly surrender those who can not rightly choose for themselves to the evil of randomness and chance, do we heap upon ourselves as a nation, a greater or a lesser evil than by a temporary compromise made to allow for forms of contraception that are proscribed by our faith? 

We must be mindful of that fatalism that is already ingrained in our culture. For it might indeed be an evil that is already encouraging the incidence and the depth of the poverty that both the pro-life and the pro-choice camps are battling to reverse that we might all together be a better and a more freer people.

As law has its limits, it also presupposes a purpose.

As regards the RH law and its implementation, we must always consider -

Choice: Does it encourage the right choices?

Abortion: Is it a danger to the unborn?

Contraception: Does it promote a disposable view of human sexuality?

Sexual Education: Does it permit or promote sexual immorality or sexual amorality?

Maternal Health: Is it a danger to the institution of motherhood?

Women's Rights: Is it a danger to women, especially mothers?

Burden of Taxation: Does it open public funds to corruption or waste?

The Institution of the Family: Is it a danger to the institution of the family?

The National Culture: Will it permit our nationhood to further enable our Country to advance in its ages in time?
---<--@

Let us be vigilant and continue on. For the only way to go is forward!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.

The Path of Plenty

Starshine,
the path into the way of many trees
is the path of plenty.

It is also one path.



Love your own and others like your own.

Love of Country

Starshine,
you can not love
what your own heart
does not understand...

This is why Country to thee
must be as the truth understood.

Because by our love of this work,
we shall by our own peace be sheltered.
---<--@

Crossing Over into 2013

I believe we're coming to a point as a species of humanity where 

what we don't know is becoming more and more important 

than what we do know.

Remember,

what's ahead of us in 2013 

shall largely depend 

on what we shall be willing to leave behind 

in 2012.

This - in turn - shall depend 

on the completeness of our remembrances 

as a nation; 

on how much of ourselves 

we have managed to gather up 

into the present - together this time -

as we cross the line of today 

into tomorrow.

Are we ready to cross over?

---<--@

No Peace without Adversity

Peace does not mean we shall not be challenged.

It means we have resolved to overcome them all - today.

Remember, 

no peace without adversity -

the peace of our nations is an imperfect peace!

For it is this remembrance 

that allows us to walk in humility before the LORD

that we may by His redeeming Light 

know our way ahead.

It is this remembrance 

that makes us strong in our unity.

It is this remembrance 

that makes us brave in the defense.

---<--@

Refer also to Salutation #138 - No Peace without Adversity