Cross.
O Christ, my Savior!
Why do You allow suff'ring
to burden mankind?
To free us from sin
by our dying from evil
upon Thine crosses...
...O so kind,
God of mine.
---<--@
Posts
A Catholic Life Podcast: Episode 99
1 day ago
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Haiku #08: Smile x
Smile.
Smile, be of good cheer!
Why let gladness be
thy forsaken memory?
Smile, let the sun shine!
Let thy sun shine near and far!
Smile and remember:
Share your sun,
keep smiling.
---<--@
Smile, be of good cheer!
Why let gladness be
thy forsaken memory?
Smile, let the sun shine!
Let thy sun shine near and far!
Smile and remember:
Share your sun,
keep smiling.
---<--@
Haiku #07: Hers x
Hers.
Cheerful wild flowers,
fragrant summer blossoms,
O whom could it be?
Fragrant like my sweet...
Hmmm, beauty and industry,
that's my Anne Frank!
Immortal
Beloved.
---<--@
Cheerful wild flowers,
fragrant summer blossoms,
O whom could it be?
Fragrant like my sweet...
Hmmm, beauty and industry,
that's my Anne Frank!
Immortal
Beloved.
---<--@
Friday, August 29, 2008
Haiku #06: Time x
Time.
Where are we going?
How did we get here today,
where is yesterday?
Time is a twinkling
Light and Shadow, by and by,
seasons of the Sky.
Time is now.
That is how.
---<--@
Where are we going?
How did we get here today,
where is yesterday?
Time is a twinkling
Light and Shadow, by and by,
seasons of the Sky.
Time is now.
That is how.
---<--@
Haiku #05: Noise x
Noise.
Where art Thou, O LORD?
O where art Thou to be found,
my God and my All?
Thou art here, my love
In the quiet of your heart
far from all the noise.
Here with Me.
Here with Me.
---<--@
Where art Thou, O LORD?
O where art Thou to be found,
my God and my All?
Thou art here, my love
In the quiet of your heart
far from all the noise.
Here with Me.
Here with Me.
---<--@
#11 The Peace of Ramadan
...
---<--@
Sequence #11 of the Pax Pilipinas Series
Far be it from me to oppose official government decisions, but for the sake of our common interests as one Filipino nation, where I believe I can add to the national debate, especially concerning peace with our Islamic compatriots, I feel I should express to you, my honored Filipino nation, what is in my heart:
Ramadan carry great significance to Islam. It is their season to be intimate with the Intimate. As Christians, regardless of denomination, we should not be the last to understand what joy it is to have a living relationship of faith in and with God through God's love in each and every one of us. We have our own seasons, this is their time.
If we are to be truly sensitive to the needs of our Islamic brethren and sisters, we should show them that even conflict itself will bend it's course in deference to those holy things and holy days consecrated to the one, holy and eternal God of our Father Abraham.
Let us give to them our peace and let us learn to trust in theirs and there is no time to better exercise this than here in this season of Ramadan.
As regards to the atrocities committed to our common citizenry, those who have offended the peace of the innocents, justice requires that they must be held to answer for their offense.
Lest we tempt the God Who require from each nation, an account for each and every human life, to the last hairs on our heads, a covenant of Country made with our patriarch Noah in Genesis 9: 5-11.
Justice is virtuous that is restorative and not vengeful, for justice that is meritorious inclines to mercy where mercy is applied but justice that is false knows no end to it's wrath.
Those who have offended the peace of the innocents must still answer for their actions. But that hour can wait for in reality justice is eternal and there is no place in heaven, upon the inhabited earth or in hell that has not heard of the Justice of God.
Thus, do we honor those lives who were abruptly taken away from our midst, for we must live up to their hopes, their hopes for life, peace and common Country.
Law serves life, only then is jurisprudence meaningful.
The law should always defer to the needs of our common humanity, be it material or spiritual.
And this season being the season of Ramadan, this is one of those times.
Our military should stand down and adapt measures to perform containment operations, conduct the deep defense and refrain from active offensives. Localize the specific threat and area contain it.
Establish in the deep ground, meaning at all levels of national power, sectors of the ready defense with military units that are short-warning, intelligence-enabled and combat capable to actively interdict where there is a breach in the line of the defense. ROE is fire discipline at all times. Protect the public peace and respond only to those who break the peace of Ramadan.
Our legislature should learn to adapt from these events the necessary juridical requirements so that the necessary legal innovations that will assist our national whole in the prevention and deterrence of these kinds of atrocities are promulgated and our public covered at all times by the protection of our laws.
My beloved Christian brethren and sisters, we must avoid believing in the evils that a few people do to describe the whole of Islam, believe in the good that many Muslims do in spite of evil, for that is how it must be, we live to better our lives and our days not by our conviction that these days are evil but by our trust in the good within each of ourselves and in the one Source of all that is good in God. And if we dare extend this to apply to all of the people in the world, one will have found what is truly worth finding in our being human, in the beautiful for being beheld by Beauty Itself.
Thank you very much for your time and your attention.
I hope to have added to the strength of the argument for the peace.
---<--@ for our Father Abraham and those numberless stars...
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Jose Maria of Manila, Capuchin priest and martyr, pray for us.
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Next: Sequence #12: The Conduct of the Peace
---<--@
Sequence #11 of the Pax Pilipinas Series
Far be it from me to oppose official government decisions, but for the sake of our common interests as one Filipino nation, where I believe I can add to the national debate, especially concerning peace with our Islamic compatriots, I feel I should express to you, my honored Filipino nation, what is in my heart:
Ramadan carry great significance to Islam. It is their season to be intimate with the Intimate. As Christians, regardless of denomination, we should not be the last to understand what joy it is to have a living relationship of faith in and with God through God's love in each and every one of us. We have our own seasons, this is their time.
If we are to be truly sensitive to the needs of our Islamic brethren and sisters, we should show them that even conflict itself will bend it's course in deference to those holy things and holy days consecrated to the one, holy and eternal God of our Father Abraham.
Let us give to them our peace and let us learn to trust in theirs and there is no time to better exercise this than here in this season of Ramadan.
As regards to the atrocities committed to our common citizenry, those who have offended the peace of the innocents, justice requires that they must be held to answer for their offense.
Lest we tempt the God Who require from each nation, an account for each and every human life, to the last hairs on our heads, a covenant of Country made with our patriarch Noah in Genesis 9: 5-11.
Justice is virtuous that is restorative and not vengeful, for justice that is meritorious inclines to mercy where mercy is applied but justice that is false knows no end to it's wrath.
Those who have offended the peace of the innocents must still answer for their actions. But that hour can wait for in reality justice is eternal and there is no place in heaven, upon the inhabited earth or in hell that has not heard of the Justice of God.
Thus, do we honor those lives who were abruptly taken away from our midst, for we must live up to their hopes, their hopes for life, peace and common Country.
Law serves life, only then is jurisprudence meaningful.
The law should always defer to the needs of our common humanity, be it material or spiritual.
And this season being the season of Ramadan, this is one of those times.
Our military should stand down and adapt measures to perform containment operations, conduct the deep defense and refrain from active offensives. Localize the specific threat and area contain it.
Establish in the deep ground, meaning at all levels of national power, sectors of the ready defense with military units that are short-warning, intelligence-enabled and combat capable to actively interdict where there is a breach in the line of the defense. ROE is fire discipline at all times. Protect the public peace and respond only to those who break the peace of Ramadan.
Our legislature should learn to adapt from these events the necessary juridical requirements so that the necessary legal innovations that will assist our national whole in the prevention and deterrence of these kinds of atrocities are promulgated and our public covered at all times by the protection of our laws.
My beloved Christian brethren and sisters, we must avoid believing in the evils that a few people do to describe the whole of Islam, believe in the good that many Muslims do in spite of evil, for that is how it must be, we live to better our lives and our days not by our conviction that these days are evil but by our trust in the good within each of ourselves and in the one Source of all that is good in God. And if we dare extend this to apply to all of the people in the world, one will have found what is truly worth finding in our being human, in the beautiful for being beheld by Beauty Itself.
Thank you very much for your time and your attention.
I hope to have added to the strength of the argument for the peace.
---<--@ for our Father Abraham and those numberless stars...
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Jose Maria of Manila, Capuchin priest and martyr, pray for us.
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Next: Sequence #12: The Conduct of the Peace
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Some Thoughts: The "Purong Pinoy" Label
OUR LOCAL COMPANIES has to care more about our people and our people has to care more about our home grown, Filipino-owned companies.
From this mutual concern, we have the opportunity to invest in the good will of our local brands.
It would be a good idea, I believe, to implement in our market a "Purong Pinoy" label to distinguish the products of our native businesses.
This campaign in turn, must be supported by investments toward enabling the public awareness through public education that run along the lines that connect the people with each other e.g. "be Filipino, buy Filipino" and make clear the benefits of supporting our own.
Let us demystify Filipino pride and make sure that this pride is the right sort. Better yet, let us begin to speak of our "national honor" instead of "Filipino pride", and let us show one another that our growing sense of patriotism is one that is founded on love for each another and our mutual concern for the greater good.
Pride is impugned only by those things it doesn't do. It is angered because of other people's mistakes but never admits to it's own.
Honor is impugned only by those things that it does. It is never angered by any mistake, never surprised by those who make mistakes, never harbors it's own mistakes, being constantly appreciative of the good things in other people not in spite of but because of our shared humanity.
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
From this mutual concern, we have the opportunity to invest in the good will of our local brands.
It would be a good idea, I believe, to implement in our market a "Purong Pinoy" label to distinguish the products of our native businesses.
This campaign in turn, must be supported by investments toward enabling the public awareness through public education that run along the lines that connect the people with each other e.g. "be Filipino, buy Filipino" and make clear the benefits of supporting our own.
Let us demystify Filipino pride and make sure that this pride is the right sort. Better yet, let us begin to speak of our "national honor" instead of "Filipino pride", and let us show one another that our growing sense of patriotism is one that is founded on love for each another and our mutual concern for the greater good.
Pride is impugned only by those things it doesn't do. It is angered because of other people's mistakes but never admits to it's own.
Honor is impugned only by those things that it does. It is never angered by any mistake, never surprised by those who make mistakes, never harbors it's own mistakes, being constantly appreciative of the good things in other people not in spite of but because of our shared humanity.
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
On the Choice of the Good
EVIL IS NOT A CHOICE. Evil is a always a consequence. It is a consequence of the wrong choice which is sin. For it is sinful when we wilfully and intentionally choose a course of will that afflict with evil the reality of self and others through the self.
Evil is a destruction of something real whether physical (physical evil) or spiritual (moral evil) and where this destruction is the direct result of our human willfulness and malicious intent, we sin for by this course of action we give evil it's place in our time and in our world and by so doing transgress the law of God which is truth. By thus are we given to sin where the wages of sin is eternal condemnation which is an everlasting death.
---<--@
THERE ARE PEOPLE in our world today who believe not in evil and they are right to do so. For evil hath no power upon those souls where evil is consistently uninvited and forever made unwelcome.
However, where they disbelieve also in the good which is the sheer truth, this disbelief not only undoes for them their prior denial of evil's own power, it also unhinges for them God's own reality which is the singular basis for which the one divine order present in heaven is universally founded upon the earth as a common moral order.
We believe not in evil for evil is not a choice to be believed in by our reason and subscribed to by our will. Evil is primarily a consequence of our disbelief in God and secondarily a consequence of our surrender to our inclination to sin.
Those who believe in evil either misunderstand what evil truly is or are themselves victims of either the vanity of the vainglorious world or the greater malice of other people who have succumbed to sin and have thus, made a welcome place for evil in their hearts.
Those who misunderstand evil and those who are victims to the vanity of the vainglorious world sin by obstinacy to the truth but those who knowingly and wilfully lead others into sin by their own evil are damned already.
Recall to your heart the words of our Blessed Savior:
"WHOEVER causes one of these little ones who believe (in me) to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea."
Mark 9: 42
---<--@
Those who are ignorant of the real nature of evil are not yet in sin unless they obstinately reject the needful truth that comes as a light to deliver them out of their captivity to the darkness.
There is evil in our world but it is not to be believed in, it is to be endured. Evil therefore, is not a proper impetus for right action. For if evil were our constant motive for right action, in our resisting evil, we will soon find ourselves bound by the very bonds we are trying to sunder. For we resist the very course that our LORD had intended to temper our human acts with divine virtue.
If we were impatient and choose not to passively endure the evil which is the consequence of our own sinful acts or the collective burden of the brokenness of our being human, then how else can we love our enemies? For evil itself is our enemy and where evil is our enemy, sin becomes a thing of contempt and where sin is rejected, God's grace abounds so much so that as evil brings the pain of consequence, we are given the strength with which evil is to be withstood and the peace that serve as a constant reminder of the enduring good and in so reminding us of the enduring good, God's peace awakens in us by sure degrees of wisdom those truly human freedoms that arise to create for our will that other, correct choice, the good one.
For all things turn to good for those who love the LORD and revere Him with a holy fear.
Lastly, recall to your heart the words of our Blessed Savior:
---<--@
I am of the conviction that "to cut off" in the words of our Savior means to absolutely deny evil's power over our bodies by our soul's unyielding denial of evil's reality as a choice.
We must remember that evil is a consequence of sin, sin which is either the erroneous choice between the apparent good over the actual good borne out of ignorance to the truth or the intentional malicious choice to deny the actual good and it's truth to either the service of the self or to the service of others through the instrumentality of the self.
Truly human choices are paths that lead to two distinct realities, one actually true or a real good, the other apparently true or an imagined good that is actually sinful and therefore, leads to the undoing of something real, into the unleashing of something evil.
To cut off evil means to deny the primordial lie that evil ever was a choice and therefore, expose sin for what it truly is, a false choice.
Those who cut off evil do not consider evil as an impetus for right action, only the good. They do not focus on evil things, past, present or future - in time or in eternity - as if it was a reality with which to react with for they know that this will only mire them in endless cycles of mindless reaction after reaction from consequence after needless consequence, exhausting their sense of hope, profoundly taxing their faith and severely straining their love of the good for the sake of the one Good.
Our Lord the Christ said, "everyone will be salted with fire", to mean that all of who have presently rejected the reality of evil over us must nevertheless endure all the evil that befalls us for in that way we remain salty and keep our mutual peace, one with another.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Evil is a destruction of something real whether physical (physical evil) or spiritual (moral evil) and where this destruction is the direct result of our human willfulness and malicious intent, we sin for by this course of action we give evil it's place in our time and in our world and by so doing transgress the law of God which is truth. By thus are we given to sin where the wages of sin is eternal condemnation which is an everlasting death.
---<--@
THERE ARE PEOPLE in our world today who believe not in evil and they are right to do so. For evil hath no power upon those souls where evil is consistently uninvited and forever made unwelcome.
However, where they disbelieve also in the good which is the sheer truth, this disbelief not only undoes for them their prior denial of evil's own power, it also unhinges for them God's own reality which is the singular basis for which the one divine order present in heaven is universally founded upon the earth as a common moral order.
We believe not in evil for evil is not a choice to be believed in by our reason and subscribed to by our will. Evil is primarily a consequence of our disbelief in God and secondarily a consequence of our surrender to our inclination to sin.
Those who believe in evil either misunderstand what evil truly is or are themselves victims of either the vanity of the vainglorious world or the greater malice of other people who have succumbed to sin and have thus, made a welcome place for evil in their hearts.
Those who misunderstand evil and those who are victims to the vanity of the vainglorious world sin by obstinacy to the truth but those who knowingly and wilfully lead others into sin by their own evil are damned already.
Recall to your heart the words of our Blessed Savior:
"WHOEVER causes one of these little ones who believe (in me) to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea."
Mark 9: 42
---<--@
Those who are ignorant of the real nature of evil are not yet in sin unless they obstinately reject the needful truth that comes as a light to deliver them out of their captivity to the darkness.
There is evil in our world but it is not to be believed in, it is to be endured. Evil therefore, is not a proper impetus for right action. For if evil were our constant motive for right action, in our resisting evil, we will soon find ourselves bound by the very bonds we are trying to sunder. For we resist the very course that our LORD had intended to temper our human acts with divine virtue.
If we were impatient and choose not to passively endure the evil which is the consequence of our own sinful acts or the collective burden of the brokenness of our being human, then how else can we love our enemies? For evil itself is our enemy and where evil is our enemy, sin becomes a thing of contempt and where sin is rejected, God's grace abounds so much so that as evil brings the pain of consequence, we are given the strength with which evil is to be withstood and the peace that serve as a constant reminder of the enduring good and in so reminding us of the enduring good, God's peace awakens in us by sure degrees of wisdom those truly human freedoms that arise to create for our will that other, correct choice, the good one.
For all things turn to good for those who love the LORD and revere Him with a holy fear.
Lastly, recall to your heart the words of our Blessed Savior:
- "IF YOUR HAND causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.
- And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
- And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'
- Everyone will be salted with fire.
- Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another."
---<--@
I am of the conviction that "to cut off" in the words of our Savior means to absolutely deny evil's power over our bodies by our soul's unyielding denial of evil's reality as a choice.
We must remember that evil is a consequence of sin, sin which is either the erroneous choice between the apparent good over the actual good borne out of ignorance to the truth or the intentional malicious choice to deny the actual good and it's truth to either the service of the self or to the service of others through the instrumentality of the self.
Truly human choices are paths that lead to two distinct realities, one actually true or a real good, the other apparently true or an imagined good that is actually sinful and therefore, leads to the undoing of something real, into the unleashing of something evil.
To cut off evil means to deny the primordial lie that evil ever was a choice and therefore, expose sin for what it truly is, a false choice.
Those who cut off evil do not consider evil as an impetus for right action, only the good. They do not focus on evil things, past, present or future - in time or in eternity - as if it was a reality with which to react with for they know that this will only mire them in endless cycles of mindless reaction after reaction from consequence after needless consequence, exhausting their sense of hope, profoundly taxing their faith and severely straining their love of the good for the sake of the one Good.
Our Lord the Christ said, "everyone will be salted with fire", to mean that all of who have presently rejected the reality of evil over us must nevertheless endure all the evil that befalls us for in that way we remain salty and keep our mutual peace, one with another.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
I am Here
The LORD God then called to the man and asked him, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself."
Genesis 3: 9-10
---<--@
I AM HERE, O most merciful and loving Lord!
Thou art my one, true and everliving God,
speak Thy noble truth and my soul will quicken to Thee,
command my heart and my heart shall obey,
beckon me into Thy Light
and bless me that I may follow into Thee,
pray speak to me of Thy holy will of salvation,
forgive my offenses against Thee
as I forgive others who offend against me,
cleanse me from every stain of sin, O Lord,
and deliver me from everlasting death,
and may our poor world
come to a knowledge of Thee
and in Thy infinite love and Thy endless mercy,
reconcile all of needful mankind unto Thy saving grace
and permit us never again to turn away from Thee.
AMEN.
---<--@
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
He answered, "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself."
Genesis 3: 9-10
---<--@
I AM HERE, O most merciful and loving Lord!
Thou art my one, true and everliving God,
speak Thy noble truth and my soul will quicken to Thee,
command my heart and my heart shall obey,
beckon me into Thy Light
and bless me that I may follow into Thee,
pray speak to me of Thy holy will of salvation,
forgive my offenses against Thee
as I forgive others who offend against me,
cleanse me from every stain of sin, O Lord,
and deliver me from everlasting death,
and may our poor world
come to a knowledge of Thee
and in Thy infinite love and Thy endless mercy,
reconcile all of needful mankind unto Thy saving grace
and permit us never again to turn away from Thee.
AMEN.
---<--@
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
#10 The Second Greater Whole of Three
"WHO AM I?" I personally believe each and every human being who ever was born, is living now and is ever to be born until the unveiling of exile time will have, at one time or another, been defined by our insatiable thirst for an answer to this question.
I have put some thought into this question of our being and believe that the answer this question lies in the realization of the "We" in the I am That I am.
For our LORD said to our Patriarch Moses in Exodus 3: 14 that He is the "Eyheh asher ehyeh" or the "I am that I am" and I comprehend this to mean that God is the eternal realization of Himself in us not as we exist in time but as God sees (or have seen or is in the act of seeing) our
existence in His eternity. It implies that God is the very substance of this growing understanding in our hearts that is begun with the faith of our Father Abraham. It implies that if God's Name were to be comprehended by our humanity in It's entirety, we would have to be able to speak His one ineffable Name of Which length is from no beginning to no end.
Being mindful that God require nothing from man or angel there being no decrease in God whether we exist or not, the "I am that I am" or the YHWH or "Yahweh" is a Name that explicitly depicts and reveals God's eternal relationship with mankind.
Its tense is one that implies an eternal unity, as something infinite that no man or angel will ever be able to understand in time and in eternity but is nevertheless there and present for us in the Name.
It is in all that calls to my mind God's most profound immensity and at the same time, at once reveals to the heart, God's own Spirit of intimacy with each and every human being in the "I am that I am."
YHWH elicits in my own heart, deep feelings of divine companionship and at the same time It at once also emboldens the hope in my mind of the promise of companionship with the eternal God in the Beatific Vision.
Thus, gathering from what little I hope to have established from the one ineffable Name of God in it's first recorded sacred revelation entrusted to our holy Patriarch Moses, the existential question, "Who am I?", can not be answered without rephrasing the question itself into, "Who are we?"
For we ARE our shared humanity because our shared humanity really and truly reflects who we are with each other.
For we are each a finite reflection upon which is reflected an aspect of God's infinite truth and so by our being whole and by our whole being, we illuminate ourselves to answer the question of our existence, one with another: "Who are we?"
We are each other's own truth in the whole of our being human ever as an individual unity of both body and soul and ever equally also the truth as the one collective reality that presently defines for us the living shape of the whole of our mankind.
---<--@
Sequence #10 of the Pax Pilipinas Series
4. One Humanity
WE ARE TO EACH other a common peer in our common creation, each of us being a common creation of one common Creator.
We are each the living descendants of our first parents.
We are each created from the primordial clay of deep creation; of the waters of eternity mixed with the temporal soil of our inhabited earth.
Our own bodies were from the soil of the earth and knitted by the unseen Hand of God in the womb of our mothers; our own souls were called forth by the command of His will from the deep of the everliving waters of eternity to unite with our being and breathe us each into life with our body to complete our being human at the very moment of our conception so that from nothingness we have truly become alive in God.
Our whole lives is each a one whole existence that is willed by the Mind of our Creator in eternity. For it is from eternity that God has loved us all by our own proper names.
Our bodies are the instruments by which our invisible souls make it's presence felt in the visible everyday world.
Our invisible souls are the instruments by which our invisible God deigns to let the golden glory of His eternal truth shine forth into the visible universe.
For we are each the individual facet of the great collective jewel that is all of mankind, we are each in our becoming in time as a multitude of starlight reflections that collectively realize the infinitely shining Beauty of the Face of God in eternity.
For we are each supposed to be as the collective and glorious crowning of God in all of His visible creation, each of us being as the crowning of God's infinite genius of creative design and artistry in all of visible creation.
For our souls are made in the image and likeness of God. It can both receive love (or conduct divine virtue) as well as give love away (or transmit divine grace).
Our souls desire things that are for always because our God is for always. For our everlasting happiness is for always founded only in God Who is our eternal life.
Nothing in this world shall ever fulfill us for nothing in this world may truly ever complete us than what our souls deeply desire in, with, for and through God as our only Abundance being the one Source of all that is good.
From this truth is built the bedrock foundation of our common regard for universal human dignity and human dignity which is the one common medium of the basic human respect that both conducts as well as transmits those common values that we share and communicate with each other as one whole humanity as we presently exist in the present moment.
Those truly human values that make us humanly responsible to each other and therefore, a faithful keeper to each other's own humanity.
A universal regard for human life which is the same regard bestowed upon all of sacred life as a whole; all of the animals and plants of our poor world, all of the angels and the saints of God's own eternity as well as for our God Himself Who is an everliving God of all that is living as well as all that is everliving in Him.
One universal regard that consider the all in All of life to be equally important and arranged by order of significance, with God Who is Life Itself at the summit of all that is life, with the unseen angels and the holy saints of God who act on our common behalf in the Name of God, with the common good of every human community above and distinct but never mutually separated from the individual good of each individual human being and all of these human and divine goods aligned so as to preserve and conserve with kindness, wisdom and moral integrity the animal and plant life entrusted to each and every one of us here upon our one planetary whole as they are presently manifest to us in exile time.
5. One Hope
THE STORY of every human life is a promise written in itself.
We do not need sacred revelation to know that our being human is our being incomplete and that our lives are meaningless unless we find our completion in our becoming complete.
Because none of us is ever complete without first understanding what our completeness is all about and we are never complete unless we have become complete which we never will because we all have to suffer through our death in the midst of our becoming complete.
This is an existential human conundrum: That we are incomplete and that it is through our human acceptance of our being incomplete that we each realize our completeness in the midst of our becoming complete.
This dilemma is the motive for our profoundly forbearant search for the divine Reality.
From this dilemma is born the most primordial and enduring of all human hopes, our common yearning in the promise of our humanity's completion in and by God, ever as God is made understood by God, through an unyielding faith in God's unyielding mystery.
Hope is the inclusive revelation that is produced not by our faith in God but by God's Love for us and we merit our hopes in the same degree that we embrace God's Love and endeavor through our faith in God, despite all of our human imperfections, to make God's divine Love perfectly our own, ever as a love longing for Itself.
Hope and it's very inclusivity is the underlying impetus behind every virtuous missionary work that has ever been done on behalf of the divine Truth. It is also the one thing that Cain did not have any recourse to when he allowed despair to completely occlude his vision thereby allowing the darkness of Satan to enter into his heart.
And if the times seem so dark, it is because we have allowed that same darkness that have entered into Cain to hold captive our hearts in that dark and dismal prison of despair and from the issues of our hearts, so it is the same with our times, dark and foreboding.
For just as we are intended by God to be each other's keeper, we are likewise intended by God to be the bearer as well as the receiver of each other's shared hopes in each other through Him.
For we live and breathe by the atmosphere of our human hopes. And there is but one quickening truth that can restore into life all our shared human hopes and that is the bright and shining reality of God's infinite ocean of mercy.
Hope is as faith, a trusting belief or an obedient conviction in the truth of things that are as yet unseen.
However, faith is not hope in that faith consists of a sincere release born of a sincere desire for a promised release but hope consists of a sincere embrace born of the promise of a faith that is sincere.
Faith is not hope in that faith consists of acts of releasing, acts of surrender of the human will to the necessary will of an unseen Truth that is defined by our need as a limitless promise of an abundant and eternal Good, the immovable divine Will of God.
As such faith is the exclusive act of the free will of the human person and as such, our experience of faith can never be within the same particular domain as any other person's experiential reality. For though we each experience the one sacred Reality, faith is a personal communion with the Divine will and as such, because of our free will, we will each find ourselves invariably in different stages of friendship with God where no one friendship is ever the same yet as with all true friendships imbued with the same substance, divine Love.
Faith and it's exclusivity is the motivation that draw the believer into a supernatural relationship of love characterized by divine intimacy and an ever growing sense of mutual concern for the good of all in God. The symbology of our own Christian faith is full of this intimate portraits that is proper to our particular Christian faith. To our Islamic brethren and sisters, the Quran grants the divine title "most compassionate and most merciful" to God and our Jewish brethren and sisters stress love of others as evidence of a divine and living faith in God for much the same reasons we Christians do, because our faith calls us to intimacy with the Intimate, to be alone with the Alone, to be at one at once in, with, through and for God.
Outside our Abrahamic traditions, there are those honorable religions as Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, etc. that also stress kindness and compassion to all living things as a reflection of the divine immanence in them ever as a manifest reflection of God's own truth as God allows Himself to be revealed in their souls.
And this is true for all honorable religion but this is untrue for those religions that are dishonorable and therefore, fake and without faith in God being without mutual trust and concern in the life of all things that are living in our one and everliving God of all.
There is but one God yet many valid expressions of the one, same faith in the one, same God.
There is but one God yet many valid expressions of the one, same hope in the one, same God.
The only difference is that faith is a thing shared with God alone and hope is a thing shared by all of those whose faith is a thing shared with God alone.
For as our individual faith makes our living more and more divine, our shared hope makes our loving more and more human.
And as God makes us more and more responsible for our common humanity, we become more and more the faithful keepers of one another in God in the way that God intended us to be, to be who we are, to be complete in the midst of our becoming in God.
We are in each our living as bright moments of eternity interspersed upon the darkness of our life's becoming ever like the twinkling of numberless stars wheeling away the seasons of the night unto that one final daybreak twilight and the dawning of the new morning from on high.
Those numberless stars taken together form one great Abrahamic nation and that one capital promise of God's peace to bless and sanctify the common endeavor of every particular Country where there is found but one shared human hope which is the hope of all sacred life; life that is abundantly lived and happiness abundantly shared with all who desire for our nations of the one family of the nations of mankind a true and lasting liberation away from this world of endless battle and probational suffering.
6. One Nation
A NATION is a collective self-awareness continually shaped by the unique and common experience of a particular human community that make them particularly cognizant of their own distinct place from among all the other human communities of the inhabited earth.
Therefore, a nation is not primarily defined by the demographic or the physical, quantitative composition of it's people but by the primacy and the potency of it's inherent qualitative unity as it is really present from among each and every one of it's constituent individuals that as a whole (citizenry) freely manifests it's own unique and self-cognizant sphere of community (national) awareness.
A nation that is purely defined by a certain demographic remains united because of it's native isolation. However, a nation that is defined above all by what unity is publicly vouchsafed into it's sacred trust remains united because of it's intrinsic integration.
In the void at the threshold of third Christian millennium, our nation has to adapt to the latter form and shed away it's former self for we may no longer remain blissfully isolated and ignorant of the wholes upon greater wholes that make up the structure of the governance of Divine Providence of which we are but a minuscule component but nevertheless, still an integral part of God's infinitely beneficent and unfathomable will as a whole for the one whole of His creation, seen and unseen.
The Legislative Trust
THE SECOND THREE wholes of truth is entrusted to the legislative offices of state from the one greatest to the one nearest to our people; from the offices of our senators that comprise the upper house to the offices of our congressional district representatives of the lower house.
For it is in the nature of jurisprudence to give due honor the intrinsic balance that preserve the equal order of reason founded on the eternal law of God as it is written in the hearts of our common humanity so that any where that this balance is found lacking, it may through the inherent restorative nature of the legislative will be re-established as statutes that safeguard authentic human freedoms that recognize, appreciate and universally uphold human dignity and it's common hope as a common good vested in our nation and as public duty enshrined in the state as the one sacred Republic trust that binds together this citizen-state.
The synergy of the second three wholes of truth is a hymn of universality and this hymn is the significant application of the second greater whole of three.
This universality is the measure of the legislative trust, a public trust that is vouchsafed to the legislative branch to make binding the laws of heaven upon earth.
Because the balance of efficiency that is entrusted by the nation to the legislative will is always found in terms of the near completeness of it's body of law; a completeness that is built upon the equal ordering of law and reason not only as aid to it's promulgation but also as an instrument of peculiar adaptation to the due processes that give rise in time to the defining societal shape inherent in every legal innovation, it's present juridical evolution in time as well as it's particular
subset application all being a derivative form that is forever indicative of the actions of eternal law and it's universal motion.
This balance of the legislative will is checked in a general capacity by the common principles and policies plainly stated in the constitution of the state and in a particular, official capacity by the judiciary branch of the Republic who represents for the nation the actual and meritorious interpretation of the common law of the people.
---<--@ For all our truly honest public servants, past and present and future, may yours be the riches of life that await you as an everlasting crown and may you reign alongside the everlasting waters that it may forever quench your meritorious sense of justice...
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Aloysius Schwartz, Servant of God, pray for us.
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Next: Sequence #11: The Peace of Ramadan
I have put some thought into this question of our being and believe that the answer this question lies in the realization of the "We" in the I am That I am.
For our LORD said to our Patriarch Moses in Exodus 3: 14 that He is the "Eyheh asher ehyeh" or the "I am that I am" and I comprehend this to mean that God is the eternal realization of Himself in us not as we exist in time but as God sees (or have seen or is in the act of seeing) our
existence in His eternity. It implies that God is the very substance of this growing understanding in our hearts that is begun with the faith of our Father Abraham. It implies that if God's Name were to be comprehended by our humanity in It's entirety, we would have to be able to speak His one ineffable Name of Which length is from no beginning to no end.
Being mindful that God require nothing from man or angel there being no decrease in God whether we exist or not, the "I am that I am" or the YHWH or "Yahweh" is a Name that explicitly depicts and reveals God's eternal relationship with mankind.
Its tense is one that implies an eternal unity, as something infinite that no man or angel will ever be able to understand in time and in eternity but is nevertheless there and present for us in the Name.
It is in all that calls to my mind God's most profound immensity and at the same time, at once reveals to the heart, God's own Spirit of intimacy with each and every human being in the "I am that I am."
YHWH elicits in my own heart, deep feelings of divine companionship and at the same time It at once also emboldens the hope in my mind of the promise of companionship with the eternal God in the Beatific Vision.
Thus, gathering from what little I hope to have established from the one ineffable Name of God in it's first recorded sacred revelation entrusted to our holy Patriarch Moses, the existential question, "Who am I?", can not be answered without rephrasing the question itself into, "Who are we?"
For we ARE our shared humanity because our shared humanity really and truly reflects who we are with each other.
For we are each a finite reflection upon which is reflected an aspect of God's infinite truth and so by our being whole and by our whole being, we illuminate ourselves to answer the question of our existence, one with another: "Who are we?"
We are each other's own truth in the whole of our being human ever as an individual unity of both body and soul and ever equally also the truth as the one collective reality that presently defines for us the living shape of the whole of our mankind.
---<--@
Sequence #10 of the Pax Pilipinas Series
4. One Humanity
WE ARE TO EACH other a common peer in our common creation, each of us being a common creation of one common Creator.
We are each the living descendants of our first parents.
We are each created from the primordial clay of deep creation; of the waters of eternity mixed with the temporal soil of our inhabited earth.
Our own bodies were from the soil of the earth and knitted by the unseen Hand of God in the womb of our mothers; our own souls were called forth by the command of His will from the deep of the everliving waters of eternity to unite with our being and breathe us each into life with our body to complete our being human at the very moment of our conception so that from nothingness we have truly become alive in God.
Our whole lives is each a one whole existence that is willed by the Mind of our Creator in eternity. For it is from eternity that God has loved us all by our own proper names.
Our bodies are the instruments by which our invisible souls make it's presence felt in the visible everyday world.
Our invisible souls are the instruments by which our invisible God deigns to let the golden glory of His eternal truth shine forth into the visible universe.
For we are each the individual facet of the great collective jewel that is all of mankind, we are each in our becoming in time as a multitude of starlight reflections that collectively realize the infinitely shining Beauty of the Face of God in eternity.
For we are each supposed to be as the collective and glorious crowning of God in all of His visible creation, each of us being as the crowning of God's infinite genius of creative design and artistry in all of visible creation.
For our souls are made in the image and likeness of God. It can both receive love (or conduct divine virtue) as well as give love away (or transmit divine grace).
Our souls desire things that are for always because our God is for always. For our everlasting happiness is for always founded only in God Who is our eternal life.
Nothing in this world shall ever fulfill us for nothing in this world may truly ever complete us than what our souls deeply desire in, with, for and through God as our only Abundance being the one Source of all that is good.
From this truth is built the bedrock foundation of our common regard for universal human dignity and human dignity which is the one common medium of the basic human respect that both conducts as well as transmits those common values that we share and communicate with each other as one whole humanity as we presently exist in the present moment.
Those truly human values that make us humanly responsible to each other and therefore, a faithful keeper to each other's own humanity.
A universal regard for human life which is the same regard bestowed upon all of sacred life as a whole; all of the animals and plants of our poor world, all of the angels and the saints of God's own eternity as well as for our God Himself Who is an everliving God of all that is living as well as all that is everliving in Him.
One universal regard that consider the all in All of life to be equally important and arranged by order of significance, with God Who is Life Itself at the summit of all that is life, with the unseen angels and the holy saints of God who act on our common behalf in the Name of God, with the common good of every human community above and distinct but never mutually separated from the individual good of each individual human being and all of these human and divine goods aligned so as to preserve and conserve with kindness, wisdom and moral integrity the animal and plant life entrusted to each and every one of us here upon our one planetary whole as they are presently manifest to us in exile time.
5. One Hope
THE STORY of every human life is a promise written in itself.
We do not need sacred revelation to know that our being human is our being incomplete and that our lives are meaningless unless we find our completion in our becoming complete.
Because none of us is ever complete without first understanding what our completeness is all about and we are never complete unless we have become complete which we never will because we all have to suffer through our death in the midst of our becoming complete.
This is an existential human conundrum: That we are incomplete and that it is through our human acceptance of our being incomplete that we each realize our completeness in the midst of our becoming complete.
This dilemma is the motive for our profoundly forbearant search for the divine Reality.
From this dilemma is born the most primordial and enduring of all human hopes, our common yearning in the promise of our humanity's completion in and by God, ever as God is made understood by God, through an unyielding faith in God's unyielding mystery.
Hope is the inclusive revelation that is produced not by our faith in God but by God's Love for us and we merit our hopes in the same degree that we embrace God's Love and endeavor through our faith in God, despite all of our human imperfections, to make God's divine Love perfectly our own, ever as a love longing for Itself.
Hope and it's very inclusivity is the underlying impetus behind every virtuous missionary work that has ever been done on behalf of the divine Truth. It is also the one thing that Cain did not have any recourse to when he allowed despair to completely occlude his vision thereby allowing the darkness of Satan to enter into his heart.
And if the times seem so dark, it is because we have allowed that same darkness that have entered into Cain to hold captive our hearts in that dark and dismal prison of despair and from the issues of our hearts, so it is the same with our times, dark and foreboding.
For just as we are intended by God to be each other's keeper, we are likewise intended by God to be the bearer as well as the receiver of each other's shared hopes in each other through Him.
For we live and breathe by the atmosphere of our human hopes. And there is but one quickening truth that can restore into life all our shared human hopes and that is the bright and shining reality of God's infinite ocean of mercy.
Hope is as faith, a trusting belief or an obedient conviction in the truth of things that are as yet unseen.
However, faith is not hope in that faith consists of a sincere release born of a sincere desire for a promised release but hope consists of a sincere embrace born of the promise of a faith that is sincere.
Faith is not hope in that faith consists of acts of releasing, acts of surrender of the human will to the necessary will of an unseen Truth that is defined by our need as a limitless promise of an abundant and eternal Good, the immovable divine Will of God.
As such faith is the exclusive act of the free will of the human person and as such, our experience of faith can never be within the same particular domain as any other person's experiential reality. For though we each experience the one sacred Reality, faith is a personal communion with the Divine will and as such, because of our free will, we will each find ourselves invariably in different stages of friendship with God where no one friendship is ever the same yet as with all true friendships imbued with the same substance, divine Love.
Faith and it's exclusivity is the motivation that draw the believer into a supernatural relationship of love characterized by divine intimacy and an ever growing sense of mutual concern for the good of all in God. The symbology of our own Christian faith is full of this intimate portraits that is proper to our particular Christian faith. To our Islamic brethren and sisters, the Quran grants the divine title "most compassionate and most merciful" to God and our Jewish brethren and sisters stress love of others as evidence of a divine and living faith in God for much the same reasons we Christians do, because our faith calls us to intimacy with the Intimate, to be alone with the Alone, to be at one at once in, with, through and for God.
Outside our Abrahamic traditions, there are those honorable religions as Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, etc. that also stress kindness and compassion to all living things as a reflection of the divine immanence in them ever as a manifest reflection of God's own truth as God allows Himself to be revealed in their souls.
And this is true for all honorable religion but this is untrue for those religions that are dishonorable and therefore, fake and without faith in God being without mutual trust and concern in the life of all things that are living in our one and everliving God of all.
There is but one God yet many valid expressions of the one, same faith in the one, same God.
There is but one God yet many valid expressions of the one, same hope in the one, same God.
The only difference is that faith is a thing shared with God alone and hope is a thing shared by all of those whose faith is a thing shared with God alone.
For as our individual faith makes our living more and more divine, our shared hope makes our loving more and more human.
And as God makes us more and more responsible for our common humanity, we become more and more the faithful keepers of one another in God in the way that God intended us to be, to be who we are, to be complete in the midst of our becoming in God.
We are in each our living as bright moments of eternity interspersed upon the darkness of our life's becoming ever like the twinkling of numberless stars wheeling away the seasons of the night unto that one final daybreak twilight and the dawning of the new morning from on high.
Those numberless stars taken together form one great Abrahamic nation and that one capital promise of God's peace to bless and sanctify the common endeavor of every particular Country where there is found but one shared human hope which is the hope of all sacred life; life that is abundantly lived and happiness abundantly shared with all who desire for our nations of the one family of the nations of mankind a true and lasting liberation away from this world of endless battle and probational suffering.
6. One Nation
A NATION is a collective self-awareness continually shaped by the unique and common experience of a particular human community that make them particularly cognizant of their own distinct place from among all the other human communities of the inhabited earth.
Therefore, a nation is not primarily defined by the demographic or the physical, quantitative composition of it's people but by the primacy and the potency of it's inherent qualitative unity as it is really present from among each and every one of it's constituent individuals that as a whole (citizenry) freely manifests it's own unique and self-cognizant sphere of community (national) awareness.
A nation that is purely defined by a certain demographic remains united because of it's native isolation. However, a nation that is defined above all by what unity is publicly vouchsafed into it's sacred trust remains united because of it's intrinsic integration.
In the void at the threshold of third Christian millennium, our nation has to adapt to the latter form and shed away it's former self for we may no longer remain blissfully isolated and ignorant of the wholes upon greater wholes that make up the structure of the governance of Divine Providence of which we are but a minuscule component but nevertheless, still an integral part of God's infinitely beneficent and unfathomable will as a whole for the one whole of His creation, seen and unseen.
The Legislative Trust
THE SECOND THREE wholes of truth is entrusted to the legislative offices of state from the one greatest to the one nearest to our people; from the offices of our senators that comprise the upper house to the offices of our congressional district representatives of the lower house.
For it is in the nature of jurisprudence to give due honor the intrinsic balance that preserve the equal order of reason founded on the eternal law of God as it is written in the hearts of our common humanity so that any where that this balance is found lacking, it may through the inherent restorative nature of the legislative will be re-established as statutes that safeguard authentic human freedoms that recognize, appreciate and universally uphold human dignity and it's common hope as a common good vested in our nation and as public duty enshrined in the state as the one sacred Republic trust that binds together this citizen-state.
The synergy of the second three wholes of truth is a hymn of universality and this hymn is the significant application of the second greater whole of three.
This universality is the measure of the legislative trust, a public trust that is vouchsafed to the legislative branch to make binding the laws of heaven upon earth.
Because the balance of efficiency that is entrusted by the nation to the legislative will is always found in terms of the near completeness of it's body of law; a completeness that is built upon the equal ordering of law and reason not only as aid to it's promulgation but also as an instrument of peculiar adaptation to the due processes that give rise in time to the defining societal shape inherent in every legal innovation, it's present juridical evolution in time as well as it's particular
subset application all being a derivative form that is forever indicative of the actions of eternal law and it's universal motion.
This balance of the legislative will is checked in a general capacity by the common principles and policies plainly stated in the constitution of the state and in a particular, official capacity by the judiciary branch of the Republic who represents for the nation the actual and meritorious interpretation of the common law of the people.
---<--@ For all our truly honest public servants, past and present and future, may yours be the riches of life that await you as an everlasting crown and may you reign alongside the everlasting waters that it may forever quench your meritorious sense of justice...
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Aloysius Schwartz, Servant of God, pray for us.
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Next: Sequence #11: The Peace of Ramadan
Some Thoughts: The "Halal" Label
WE ALREADY have the "Halal" label on some of our food products that meet the specific dietary needs of our Muslim brothers and sisters. It would not be a far stretch of the will for our legislative branch to make the necessary regulations to make the "Halal" label a nationwide requirement. Too, this will help many other Filipinos understand our shared humanity with our Muslim minority.
"Halal" is the distinguishing mark that allow our practicing Muslims brethren and sisters to safely choose among certain food groups that fulfill their religious duty regarding Quranic dietary requirements. For our Jewish brethren and sisters, this is called "Kosher".
I believe that because we are a social democracy and not an elitist oligarchy, we must make sure that our market also caters to the needs of the minority.
Our nation's Spartan spirit should be fully contained in the hearts of our military for theirs is a different realm altogether from the quiet realm of our homes, our habitations, our systems and institutes of sacred life but both these realms are fully contained in the one reality of our endeavor of Country.
Therefore, there is a constant need to be able to translate our citizenry from service to service between the two realms of military and civilian (public and private) to make sure that there can never be any helots here, for we are a free Country of free-born people and that we make our majority decisions on behalf of the weak and the minority, we do not exploit them.
For this is like a DNA code written in the very nature of our our Republic because for our one Republic to completely and fully mature into an elder Republic, it has to be true to itself first and foremost, and that simply means we have to be true to each other.
---<--@
Mabuhay and Pilipinas!
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
"Halal" is the distinguishing mark that allow our practicing Muslims brethren and sisters to safely choose among certain food groups that fulfill their religious duty regarding Quranic dietary requirements. For our Jewish brethren and sisters, this is called "Kosher".
I believe that because we are a social democracy and not an elitist oligarchy, we must make sure that our market also caters to the needs of the minority.
Our nation's Spartan spirit should be fully contained in the hearts of our military for theirs is a different realm altogether from the quiet realm of our homes, our habitations, our systems and institutes of sacred life but both these realms are fully contained in the one reality of our endeavor of Country.
Therefore, there is a constant need to be able to translate our citizenry from service to service between the two realms of military and civilian (public and private) to make sure that there can never be any helots here, for we are a free Country of free-born people and that we make our majority decisions on behalf of the weak and the minority, we do not exploit them.
For this is like a DNA code written in the very nature of our our Republic because for our one Republic to completely and fully mature into an elder Republic, it has to be true to itself first and foremost, and that simply means we have to be true to each other.
---<--@
Mabuhay and Pilipinas!
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Some Thoughts: Universal Health Care
THE CONGRESSIONAL INITIATIVE to translate our system of government contained a desire that seek for our people, a universal health care system:
For this to work, I sincerely believe we have to think it out in terms of what we can realistically do and what we actually want to be done. This question is not a question for the market. We must deal with reality and move forward from there, in an ascendant motion in time.
Of the three elements of Country; the people or the nation and the state is all about life and our spiritual longing for abundant happiness. The third element, the market is all about profit and our earthly yearning for labor's honest reward.
An ascendant motion is a unitive, conciliatory motion in exile time; a return to faded Eden but not in a temporal sense as it is too late for that now but in a spiritual sense. As a love longing for Itself, one must learn to live a life that longs to be one with God and with all of those for Whom God has intended to emerge in time in God.
For to truly advance our Country forward in exile time, each of us must be willing to cooperate with the grace of Almighty God that we may all work to be one nation, one native sky, one particular endeavor of Country laboring in synergy with other endeavors of Country, within our community (barangay) whole, within our municipal whole, within our provincial whole, within our national whole, within our regional whole, within our continental whole, with the right appreciation and equitable sharing of the material riches of our world which is always adequate for our human populations on behalf of sacred life, animals and plants, of our one planetary whole.
It is the polar opposite of the direction that the whole world is now presently moving, down into the easy, broad gravity of discord, division, dilution and utter dissolution of entire nations and of entire human beings. This is the motion of war in time, the paradigm of the complete and utter annihilation of all sacred life in our one planet through the extinction of the human species. We will call this motion as a descendant motion in exile time.
A universal health care system is a great thing to have most certainly and something that will further bind our people together. However, let us remember that we are at present a poor nation BUT let us also remember that we are NOT a poor people. There are goods in this world that can not be bought by money. Recall in the Acts of the Apostles, the story of Simon the magician trying to buy the gifts of the Holy Spirit from Saint Peter and meditate on that most profound revelation of how real riches - health, wealth and wisdom - owe it's entrance into our lives and into our times. It would behoove us not to dismiss these things as ancient or obsolete for we must be able to transition now from a knowledge-based into a wisdom-based thinking as the third millennium will require that we are able to maintain our human mastery over our rapidly growing body of empirical, global knowledge and the vast technology that is it's pure potential lest it overtake our humanity and make slaves out of us and our children. The first century (and perhaps beyond) of this third millennium most especially is a century of biological conundrums that will test our grasp of God's moral language to the utmost.
If we are to conceive of a universal health care system, let us be sure that it is an agreement first between the people and the state before the terms of contract is raised with the market. It must never be market driven, it must be driven by sacred trust, lest it spin out of control as it is happening in the USA right now (per a "60 Minute" report).
I hope to have added to the national debate. Let us start to think for ourselves, my honored Filipino compatriots.
Thank you very much.
---<--@
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
For this to work, I sincerely believe we have to think it out in terms of what we can realistically do and what we actually want to be done. This question is not a question for the market. We must deal with reality and move forward from there, in an ascendant motion in time.
Of the three elements of Country; the people or the nation and the state is all about life and our spiritual longing for abundant happiness. The third element, the market is all about profit and our earthly yearning for labor's honest reward.
An ascendant motion is a unitive, conciliatory motion in exile time; a return to faded Eden but not in a temporal sense as it is too late for that now but in a spiritual sense. As a love longing for Itself, one must learn to live a life that longs to be one with God and with all of those for Whom God has intended to emerge in time in God.
For to truly advance our Country forward in exile time, each of us must be willing to cooperate with the grace of Almighty God that we may all work to be one nation, one native sky, one particular endeavor of Country laboring in synergy with other endeavors of Country, within our community (barangay) whole, within our municipal whole, within our provincial whole, within our national whole, within our regional whole, within our continental whole, with the right appreciation and equitable sharing of the material riches of our world which is always adequate for our human populations on behalf of sacred life, animals and plants, of our one planetary whole.
It is the polar opposite of the direction that the whole world is now presently moving, down into the easy, broad gravity of discord, division, dilution and utter dissolution of entire nations and of entire human beings. This is the motion of war in time, the paradigm of the complete and utter annihilation of all sacred life in our one planet through the extinction of the human species. We will call this motion as a descendant motion in exile time.
A universal health care system is a great thing to have most certainly and something that will further bind our people together. However, let us remember that we are at present a poor nation BUT let us also remember that we are NOT a poor people. There are goods in this world that can not be bought by money. Recall in the Acts of the Apostles, the story of Simon the magician trying to buy the gifts of the Holy Spirit from Saint Peter and meditate on that most profound revelation of how real riches - health, wealth and wisdom - owe it's entrance into our lives and into our times. It would behoove us not to dismiss these things as ancient or obsolete for we must be able to transition now from a knowledge-based into a wisdom-based thinking as the third millennium will require that we are able to maintain our human mastery over our rapidly growing body of empirical, global knowledge and the vast technology that is it's pure potential lest it overtake our humanity and make slaves out of us and our children. The first century (and perhaps beyond) of this third millennium most especially is a century of biological conundrums that will test our grasp of God's moral language to the utmost.
If we are to conceive of a universal health care system, let us be sure that it is an agreement first between the people and the state before the terms of contract is raised with the market. It must never be market driven, it must be driven by sacred trust, lest it spin out of control as it is happening in the USA right now (per a "60 Minute" report).
I hope to have added to the national debate. Let us start to think for ourselves, my honored Filipino compatriots.
Thank you very much.
---<--@
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Sink of Time
Where does time go when the moment's passed?
Where does our thoughts disappear to when the memory yet remain?
We do not see each other by sight but why does our lives touch like this, my darlingest?
Why do our lives touch like this?
It is because of an imagined reality?
Then why is this imagination not as fleeting as those things I've quickly outgrown, those things that have escaped my bliss, to sink into the sinking of time at the end of every moment's dispersal, into oblivion, into void?
Why does the memory remain focused in the stillness when the thoughts flitter here and there, as if searching for a way out of myself - into God, and into the All of you?
Is it my body that longs for something it can never have or is it my soul that overlap in the eternal remembrance of the Almighty into the still, small presence of you, my Anneka?
Was there ever any distance between our years?
Not when time is an account of the heart for time seems distant only to those with distant hearts.
Was there ever any difference between our hopes?
Our lives interweave in the silence between you and I through a gossamer veil of shadow and tears, the illusion of exile time.
No, there was never any difference.
There never was.
For the tree that now grows at the center of my life's Eden, of the everliving waters within, is nevermore the cause of the exile of my love's dreaming and so soon I shall awaken, our LORD being merciful and kind, into God, and into the All of you; the verdant rest of my most abundant peace.
Thanks be to my Jesus, my most sweet and most loving Jesus, thanks be to my Christ, my All.
In God, I remember you, my Miyang, always to always.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Seventy Times Seven
THEN PETER approaching asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy times seven times.
Matthew 18: 21-22
---<--@
We all know that this is not a rote mathematical equation that says one has to count 490 times before it becomes all right not to forgive others as well as self. Please, my beloved Christian brethren and sisters, let us not be hypocrites in the face of our Lord, the holy angels and our fellow human beings.
I believe that "seventy times seven means" to forgive "all the time" and to do so "perfectly" every time.
It can be a real struggle to do this, I know. But one who loves our most loving Lord will struggle on and on and on and though one may stumble numerous times, forgiving and being forgiven in turn, one never despairs, carrying forth with Christ and with one another his or her crosses together until the Gospel deed is done. For he or she knows from the words of Christ Himself that with man it is indeed impossible but nothing is impossible to those who cling to God and put their absolute trust in Him.
But forgiving is not totally and naively forgetting. When we forgive, we completely forget about our anger but we still have to deal with the pain which will never be reconciled to our peace if we do not strive each day to learn what heavenly virtue the Holy Spirit of God wants to teach or what existing virtue God wants to reinforce in our souls from our own personal experiences of being hurt and humiliated by others or more often than not by our own inordinate love of self; to make us ready, to make us whole, to make us one with and in Him.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
ACCEPT whatever befalls you, in crushing misfortune be patient;
For in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation.
Trust God and he will help you; make straight your ways and hope in him.
Sirach 2: 4-6
Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy times seven times.
Matthew 18: 21-22
---<--@
We all know that this is not a rote mathematical equation that says one has to count 490 times before it becomes all right not to forgive others as well as self. Please, my beloved Christian brethren and sisters, let us not be hypocrites in the face of our Lord, the holy angels and our fellow human beings.
I believe that "seventy times seven means" to forgive "all the time" and to do so "perfectly" every time.
It can be a real struggle to do this, I know. But one who loves our most loving Lord will struggle on and on and on and though one may stumble numerous times, forgiving and being forgiven in turn, one never despairs, carrying forth with Christ and with one another his or her crosses together until the Gospel deed is done. For he or she knows from the words of Christ Himself that with man it is indeed impossible but nothing is impossible to those who cling to God and put their absolute trust in Him.
But forgiving is not totally and naively forgetting. When we forgive, we completely forget about our anger but we still have to deal with the pain which will never be reconciled to our peace if we do not strive each day to learn what heavenly virtue the Holy Spirit of God wants to teach or what existing virtue God wants to reinforce in our souls from our own personal experiences of being hurt and humiliated by others or more often than not by our own inordinate love of self; to make us ready, to make us whole, to make us one with and in Him.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
ACCEPT whatever befalls you, in crushing misfortune be patient;
For in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation.
Trust God and he will help you; make straight your ways and hope in him.
Sirach 2: 4-6
On the Dignity of our Valiant Soldiers and Honorable Returnees
"SOLDIERS" meaning all the serving men and women of all the branches of the AFP, of the noble military. One has to forgive my natural affinity to the branch of service that I have once considered to be my own and where my own heart still steadfastly remain.
---<--@
LIFT UP YOUR HEADS, O gates; rise up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may enter.
Who is this king of glory? The LORD, a mighty warrior, the LORD, mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O gates; rise up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may enter.
Who is this king of glory? The LORD of hosts is the king of glory.
SELAH.
Psalms 24: 7-8
---<--@
MILITARY DECISIVENESS is like shot placement. It's all about being at the right place at the right time. Military decisiveness requires all it's elements to function together that it may coherently and cohesively forge from the fiery chaos of the terrible fight through superior will of noble steel an ascendant form of military order diametrically opposed the enemy order of battle.
Thus, a corporal who is present at the right place and at the right time is as important as a general because placing a general in a foxhole will just not do. Therefore, for our AFP to become the victorious defenders of our people, there must remain no more foundation for any kind of undue discrimination to exist between the honored rank and file of our noble military. Officers preserve their sacred honor and the dignity particular to their scope of command and noncoms/enlisted preserve the same sacred honor and the dignity particular to their tactical expertise.
Thus do we rightly honor of their eternal remembrances by attaining to the order of the victorious peace for the life of Country (and on God's behalf) that our sacred military immortal dead have sacrificed so much of both their own blood as well as the sacred memory of their dearest ones to achieve for this present generation. Lest we forget. Lest we forget.
True, a full general is more significant than a private but both of them being basically human beings are equally important because each of them possess - at all times and places - an equal share of the God-given dignity that we should all be able to correctly and instinctively recognize, uphold, cherish and appreciate in our own shared humanity one with another. Too, a military can not function without it's generals and likewise the same if we exclude every private from the military whole.
Let us be mindful that to betray our eternal remembrances of our sacred military immortal dead is to sever our connection with the eternal Army.
And no victory is ever possible without the LORD of hosts.
With regards to our valiant soldiers as well as to all honorable returnees - love for love, honor for honor, appreciation for virtue, recognition for service, reward for merit and unrelenting national
justice for betrayal of our sacred trust in time and in eternity; those adulterers who wilfully and freely turn their backs on their own humanity against our peace, against sacred life, against virtue, against the individual as well as the common good, against the absolute good, against everything that God, the holy angels of God and all of our common humanity hold dear in our hearts to lie in bed with one of our most ancient of enemies, the beast of war, the devourer of peoples, the destroyer of human civilizations.
Where truth is lacking, let there be trust, where trust is fragile, let there be understanding, where understanding is in short supply, let there be common good will and everywhere that the common good will of the common Filipino (or any other human being) is namelessly threatened with violent force, let there be an adequate defense from all sides of the one side of our one indivisible peace.
Lastly, I am unable to verify my sources however, if what I heard was true, in the future, should we just let a "mere" corporal who is enfleshed in the same honored uniform and who bears, body and soul, the same noble emblems and insignias as all of our valiant AFP bleed to death? Not if we want to attain to the final victory, not if we want to keep our sacred honor intact in time and in eternity, not if we want to give glory to God, the one King of Glory and the victorious LORD of hosts upon Whom singularly depends the honorable triumph of all of the noble military that march in exile time upon all of captive creation.
In the vision of the paradigm of the peace, the noble military defends sacred life and sacred life in turn defends the noble military, one may not exist without the other in this midnight world of endless battle and probational suffering.
---<--@ a hymn of silence, in solemn praise of the passing of day, to the tomb the unknown soldier, the black of hope in the unsung dream.
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
---<--@
LIFT UP YOUR HEADS, O gates; rise up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may enter.
Who is this king of glory? The LORD, a mighty warrior, the LORD, mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O gates; rise up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may enter.
Who is this king of glory? The LORD of hosts is the king of glory.
SELAH.
Psalms 24: 7-8
---<--@
MILITARY DECISIVENESS is like shot placement. It's all about being at the right place at the right time. Military decisiveness requires all it's elements to function together that it may coherently and cohesively forge from the fiery chaos of the terrible fight through superior will of noble steel an ascendant form of military order diametrically opposed the enemy order of battle.
Thus, a corporal who is present at the right place and at the right time is as important as a general because placing a general in a foxhole will just not do. Therefore, for our AFP to become the victorious defenders of our people, there must remain no more foundation for any kind of undue discrimination to exist between the honored rank and file of our noble military. Officers preserve their sacred honor and the dignity particular to their scope of command and noncoms/enlisted preserve the same sacred honor and the dignity particular to their tactical expertise.
Thus do we rightly honor of their eternal remembrances by attaining to the order of the victorious peace for the life of Country (and on God's behalf) that our sacred military immortal dead have sacrificed so much of both their own blood as well as the sacred memory of their dearest ones to achieve for this present generation. Lest we forget. Lest we forget.
True, a full general is more significant than a private but both of them being basically human beings are equally important because each of them possess - at all times and places - an equal share of the God-given dignity that we should all be able to correctly and instinctively recognize, uphold, cherish and appreciate in our own shared humanity one with another. Too, a military can not function without it's generals and likewise the same if we exclude every private from the military whole.
Let us be mindful that to betray our eternal remembrances of our sacred military immortal dead is to sever our connection with the eternal Army.
And no victory is ever possible without the LORD of hosts.
With regards to our valiant soldiers as well as to all honorable returnees - love for love, honor for honor, appreciation for virtue, recognition for service, reward for merit and unrelenting national
justice for betrayal of our sacred trust in time and in eternity; those adulterers who wilfully and freely turn their backs on their own humanity against our peace, against sacred life, against virtue, against the individual as well as the common good, against the absolute good, against everything that God, the holy angels of God and all of our common humanity hold dear in our hearts to lie in bed with one of our most ancient of enemies, the beast of war, the devourer of peoples, the destroyer of human civilizations.
Where truth is lacking, let there be trust, where trust is fragile, let there be understanding, where understanding is in short supply, let there be common good will and everywhere that the common good will of the common Filipino (or any other human being) is namelessly threatened with violent force, let there be an adequate defense from all sides of the one side of our one indivisible peace.
Lastly, I am unable to verify my sources however, if what I heard was true, in the future, should we just let a "mere" corporal who is enfleshed in the same honored uniform and who bears, body and soul, the same noble emblems and insignias as all of our valiant AFP bleed to death? Not if we want to attain to the final victory, not if we want to keep our sacred honor intact in time and in eternity, not if we want to give glory to God, the one King of Glory and the victorious LORD of hosts upon Whom singularly depends the honorable triumph of all of the noble military that march in exile time upon all of captive creation.
In the vision of the paradigm of the peace, the noble military defends sacred life and sacred life in turn defends the noble military, one may not exist without the other in this midnight world of endless battle and probational suffering.
---<--@ a hymn of silence, in solemn praise of the passing of day, to the tomb the unknown soldier, the black of hope in the unsung dream.
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Common Needs: On the First Eight
THE GREATER THE EVIL of the times, the greater the need must be for the good and the greater must we struggle to better ourselves so that we may help better others, increase the good in our world and by the grace of God, build a future to outlast these evil days and see our Country through to better times if not for our generation, for the next generations to come after us.
---<--@
These are the social missions of our one Solidarity that we share share in common and in genuine with every particular endeavor of Country that is similarly inclined towards the one paradigm of the peace (the one whole peace) and the universal dignity of our shared humanity.
This is our Christian witness of peace and good will to our nations of the one family of the nations of mankind. We are, of the one Solidarity, to act as it's guarantee and therefore, as vanguards of these common hopes being as living expressions of Christian charity for God and for common Country.
For we are a community of nation-builders and we will do this by our willing and happy service to the very least of our Lord's brethren and sisters, Him most beloved poor, our Lord's poor.
On Hunger
RESPONDING to hunger and any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose.
On Thirst
RESPONDING to thirst and any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose.
On Clothing
RESPONDING to the need for adequate human clothing and any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose.
On Shelter
RESPONDING to the need for adequate protection from the elements and any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose.
On Personal Security (Security of Life and Property)
RESPONDING to individual health of soul (heart: spiritual, moral and mind: mental, intellectual) and corporeal body: personal hygiene, illness, epidemics, pandemics (direct assistance i.e. medical, dental, health supplies as well as indirect i.e. scientific research and any
prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose) and immediate dangers to life and limb i.e. legal and physical protection of the human person, male or female, from conception to the natural death, first aid and ambulatory care operations, search and rescue operations, disaster relief operations, lawful community (barangay) citizen patrols, stability (peacekeeping) operations, the proper burial of the dead, any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose, and legitimate acts of self-defense, individual or collective (professional military as well as deputized civilians adequately adapted and lawfully recognized by the legal national authority) and the security of personal property.
On Basic Literacy
RESPONDING to the need for adequate and attainable educational foundation (male and female, young and old, and the disabled of either body and mind*) and the necessary means towards gaining useful employment in both private as well as public sector, the protection of the environment, the conservation of our natural resources, care of animals, plants and proper respect for nature, academic laws and regulatory statutes that are passed to this effect, any prayer and/or donations specified for this purpose.
*The heart of a person is never disabled, it is always present, always complete, and always aware of it's own existence despite any disabilities that afflicts it.
On Authentic Human Freedom
RESPONDING to the preservation of the integrity of the human family, the formation of our youth, adequate moral education, solid scientific foundation, correct spiritual formation, Christian apologetics and the intellectual defense of honorable religion, preaching that properly enables truly human choices through the liberating truth that empowers the human soul through the synergy of truths validated by both reason and faith, and any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose.
On Just Society
RESPONDING to our sacred duties to the spiritual care of one another with charity: acts of comfort to the sick, to prisoners, to the elderly, to the dying; acts of consolation to the lonely, to the despairing, to the grieving and to the much aggrieved i.e. the penitent and the petitioner;
acts of counsel to the ignorant, to the misguided; acts of fraternal correction to sinners, to the spiritually ignorant, and to the morally impaired.
RESPONDING to our civic duties and our diligent observance of the public peace in the interest of the common good i.e. knowledge of our history and culture, fidelity to our wisdom-traditions, love of our sovereign symbols of state i.e. our beloved flag, "Old Defiant" (as she is known to my heart of hearts - Defiant against the beast of war), our glorious anthem, our unique constitution as the first Republic in Asia* and the insignias and emblems of our honored citizen-state, respect for our Filipino identity, respect for our public officials, dutiful obedience to the law, respect for the due process of the law, conscientious voting, responsible and transparent taxation and our loyal and disciplined active participation in our national endeavor of Country.
RESPONDING to the need for responsible and accountable government, loyal and virtuous citizenship, homeland defense, for mutual honesty, sincerity and transparency between citizen and state in the holding of elections, in the upholding of human rights, in national security concerns, in civil defense operations, in vital taxation which is a necessary burden of any human society that desire to benefit from the common good but never without true and responsible representation.
Any prayer and/or donations specified for this purpose.
*By rights, we should be an elder Republic; an elder Republic is a help and an inspiration to younger Republics, however, we were all by war deceived.
Beloved of God, in the vision of the paradigm of the peace, a shepherd nation-state is an elder nation-state that goes beyond self-interest to help any of the other lesser nations of the one family of the nations of mankind and MAD that stands for "Mutually Assured Destruction" becomes translated into "Mutually Assured Defense" .
---<--@
These common needs are arranged in their necessitate order from the most common and immediate (hunger) to the most significant and permanent (meaningful existence) and all of them come together (without exception) and align towards the purposeful recognition and the meaningful preservation of the right dignity of every human person in exile time and in dimensional space.
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
DO NOT WORRY about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.
Matthew 6: 34
Hope is for now. Faith is for tomorrow. Love is for always.
---<--@
These are the social missions of our one Solidarity that we share share in common and in genuine with every particular endeavor of Country that is similarly inclined towards the one paradigm of the peace (the one whole peace) and the universal dignity of our shared humanity.
This is our Christian witness of peace and good will to our nations of the one family of the nations of mankind. We are, of the one Solidarity, to act as it's guarantee and therefore, as vanguards of these common hopes being as living expressions of Christian charity for God and for common Country.
For we are a community of nation-builders and we will do this by our willing and happy service to the very least of our Lord's brethren and sisters, Him most beloved poor, our Lord's poor.
On Hunger
RESPONDING to hunger and any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose.
On Thirst
RESPONDING to thirst and any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose.
On Clothing
RESPONDING to the need for adequate human clothing and any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose.
On Shelter
RESPONDING to the need for adequate protection from the elements and any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose.
On Personal Security (Security of Life and Property)
RESPONDING to individual health of soul (heart: spiritual, moral and mind: mental, intellectual) and corporeal body: personal hygiene, illness, epidemics, pandemics (direct assistance i.e. medical, dental, health supplies as well as indirect i.e. scientific research and any
prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose) and immediate dangers to life and limb i.e. legal and physical protection of the human person, male or female, from conception to the natural death, first aid and ambulatory care operations, search and rescue operations, disaster relief operations, lawful community (barangay) citizen patrols, stability (peacekeeping) operations, the proper burial of the dead, any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose, and legitimate acts of self-defense, individual or collective (professional military as well as deputized civilians adequately adapted and lawfully recognized by the legal national authority) and the security of personal property.
On Basic Literacy
RESPONDING to the need for adequate and attainable educational foundation (male and female, young and old, and the disabled of either body and mind*) and the necessary means towards gaining useful employment in both private as well as public sector, the protection of the environment, the conservation of our natural resources, care of animals, plants and proper respect for nature, academic laws and regulatory statutes that are passed to this effect, any prayer and/or donations specified for this purpose.
*The heart of a person is never disabled, it is always present, always complete, and always aware of it's own existence despite any disabilities that afflicts it.
On Authentic Human Freedom
RESPONDING to the preservation of the integrity of the human family, the formation of our youth, adequate moral education, solid scientific foundation, correct spiritual formation, Christian apologetics and the intellectual defense of honorable religion, preaching that properly enables truly human choices through the liberating truth that empowers the human soul through the synergy of truths validated by both reason and faith, and any prayer and/or good will donations specified for this purpose.
On Just Society
RESPONDING to our sacred duties to the spiritual care of one another with charity: acts of comfort to the sick, to prisoners, to the elderly, to the dying; acts of consolation to the lonely, to the despairing, to the grieving and to the much aggrieved i.e. the penitent and the petitioner;
acts of counsel to the ignorant, to the misguided; acts of fraternal correction to sinners, to the spiritually ignorant, and to the morally impaired.
RESPONDING to our civic duties and our diligent observance of the public peace in the interest of the common good i.e. knowledge of our history and culture, fidelity to our wisdom-traditions, love of our sovereign symbols of state i.e. our beloved flag, "Old Defiant" (as she is known to my heart of hearts - Defiant against the beast of war), our glorious anthem, our unique constitution as the first Republic in Asia* and the insignias and emblems of our honored citizen-state, respect for our Filipino identity, respect for our public officials, dutiful obedience to the law, respect for the due process of the law, conscientious voting, responsible and transparent taxation and our loyal and disciplined active participation in our national endeavor of Country.
RESPONDING to the need for responsible and accountable government, loyal and virtuous citizenship, homeland defense, for mutual honesty, sincerity and transparency between citizen and state in the holding of elections, in the upholding of human rights, in national security concerns, in civil defense operations, in vital taxation which is a necessary burden of any human society that desire to benefit from the common good but never without true and responsible representation.
Any prayer and/or donations specified for this purpose.
*By rights, we should be an elder Republic; an elder Republic is a help and an inspiration to younger Republics, however, we were all by war deceived.
Beloved of God, in the vision of the paradigm of the peace, a shepherd nation-state is an elder nation-state that goes beyond self-interest to help any of the other lesser nations of the one family of the nations of mankind and MAD that stands for "Mutually Assured Destruction" becomes translated into "Mutually Assured Defense" .
---<--@
These common needs are arranged in their necessitate order from the most common and immediate (hunger) to the most significant and permanent (meaningful existence) and all of them come together (without exception) and align towards the purposeful recognition and the meaningful preservation of the right dignity of every human person in exile time and in dimensional space.
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
DO NOT WORRY about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.
Matthew 6: 34
Hope is for now. Faith is for tomorrow. Love is for always.
You are Mine
"I will never forget you.
See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name."
Isaiah 49: 15-16
"I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me."
John 10: 14
"And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
Matthew 28: 20
---<--@
You are Mine
- David Haas
I will come to you in the silence,
I will lift you from all your fear.
You will hear my voice,
I claim you as my choice,
Be still and know I am here.
I am hope for all who are hopeless,
I am eyes for all who long to see.
In the shadows of the night,
I will be your light,
Come and rest in me.
CHORUS:
Do not be afraid, I am with you.
I have called you each by name.
Come and follow me
I will bring you home;
I love you and you are mine.
I am strength for all the despairing,
Healing for the ones who dwell in shame
All the blind will see,
The lame will all run free,
And all will know my name.
I am the Word that leads all to freedom,
I am the peace the world cannot give.
I will call your name,
Embracing all your pain,
Stand up, now walk, and live!
---<--@
One of my most favorite Christian songs!
Never fails to lift my spirits up.
Thank you, David Haas.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name."
Isaiah 49: 15-16
"I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me."
John 10: 14
"And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
Matthew 28: 20
---<--@
You are Mine
- David Haas
I will come to you in the silence,
I will lift you from all your fear.
You will hear my voice,
I claim you as my choice,
Be still and know I am here.
I am hope for all who are hopeless,
I am eyes for all who long to see.
In the shadows of the night,
I will be your light,
Come and rest in me.
CHORUS:
Do not be afraid, I am with you.
I have called you each by name.
Come and follow me
I will bring you home;
I love you and you are mine.
I am strength for all the despairing,
Healing for the ones who dwell in shame
All the blind will see,
The lame will all run free,
And all will know my name.
I am the Word that leads all to freedom,
I am the peace the world cannot give.
I will call your name,
Embracing all your pain,
Stand up, now walk, and live!
---<--@
One of my most favorite Christian songs!
Never fails to lift my spirits up.
Thank you, David Haas.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
The Beast of War
A CLARIFICATION on previous entry: The Beast of War it should read, "The Beast".
As regards to the beast of war;
This beast serves under Satan, The Beast. It is one of our most ancient of enemies. A dominion of a principality from hell, a major cohort of Satan with a pride second only to the Devil himself.
A principality is a choir of angels that Holy Scripture considers as hostile to humanity. Perhaps most of these angels have been struck down by God and His holy angels along with Lucifer's one third. A principality is a guardian of the nations of mankind. In it's fallen state, it would not be a stretch of our imagination as to what these arch-fiends would have now become, an extension of the Beast in the form of war and it's ancient tyranny over all human nations as an insatiable devourer of peoples, a wanton destroyer of human civilizations.
The mission of this beast is aligned with the mission of The Beast which is the absolute annihilation of all sacred life in the visible universe.
The ambition of war is to strip away the sheltering wings of each and every one of our nation-states to lay exposed our peoples into wholesale slaughtering of both our body as well as our souls.
It is in the interest of this beast to occlude the waters of our one Republic whole and to eclipse the eternal Sun on our Old Defiant which as a whole stands for the golden realm of eternity, the heavenly abode of our Almighty God and His all-victorious hosts. It behooves this beast to lie about our one whole peace, about our shared humanity, about our common creation, about every and all honorable religion and about the vital importance of every endeavor of Country. For if truth be told about all of these, it would most certainly rout this most unwelcome of beasts and it's feral darkness.
The beast of war is to mean the existing paradigm of war (war itself and the scandalous will of war or the darkness of war) that consistently requires opposition in all things to become meaningful in itself. It requires opposition because it is made up of lies and half-truths and is never whole without preying on other whole truths e.g. peace vs. war is a fallacy that only serves this beast's ambition. For the Light overcomes the darkness not because the Light opposes the darkness but because it is in the nature of the Light to be this way. In the same way, the truth need not oppose the devil's lies to wax triumphant, it only needs to be itself.
Therefore, far from our peace opposing war, we must diligently turn away from war in order to sanctify the hopes of our nations and then begin to build on the solid foundation of our one peace, the habitations, systems and institutions of our common humanity in the greater context of the sacred life of our one planetary whole all toward a new future that will place our unsung generations far away from the grip of this beast.
Should the beast of war turn against our shared humanity and threaten our one whole peace, secretly or openly, alone or with others, this we will defend - with golden virtue, with exacting, quicksilver truth and if it becomes necessary, with noble force of arms of our professional military.
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sancti!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
As regards to the beast of war;
This beast serves under Satan, The Beast. It is one of our most ancient of enemies. A dominion of a principality from hell, a major cohort of Satan with a pride second only to the Devil himself.
A principality is a choir of angels that Holy Scripture considers as hostile to humanity. Perhaps most of these angels have been struck down by God and His holy angels along with Lucifer's one third. A principality is a guardian of the nations of mankind. In it's fallen state, it would not be a stretch of our imagination as to what these arch-fiends would have now become, an extension of the Beast in the form of war and it's ancient tyranny over all human nations as an insatiable devourer of peoples, a wanton destroyer of human civilizations.
The mission of this beast is aligned with the mission of The Beast which is the absolute annihilation of all sacred life in the visible universe.
The ambition of war is to strip away the sheltering wings of each and every one of our nation-states to lay exposed our peoples into wholesale slaughtering of both our body as well as our souls.
It is in the interest of this beast to occlude the waters of our one Republic whole and to eclipse the eternal Sun on our Old Defiant which as a whole stands for the golden realm of eternity, the heavenly abode of our Almighty God and His all-victorious hosts. It behooves this beast to lie about our one whole peace, about our shared humanity, about our common creation, about every and all honorable religion and about the vital importance of every endeavor of Country. For if truth be told about all of these, it would most certainly rout this most unwelcome of beasts and it's feral darkness.
The beast of war is to mean the existing paradigm of war (war itself and the scandalous will of war or the darkness of war) that consistently requires opposition in all things to become meaningful in itself. It requires opposition because it is made up of lies and half-truths and is never whole without preying on other whole truths e.g. peace vs. war is a fallacy that only serves this beast's ambition. For the Light overcomes the darkness not because the Light opposes the darkness but because it is in the nature of the Light to be this way. In the same way, the truth need not oppose the devil's lies to wax triumphant, it only needs to be itself.
Therefore, far from our peace opposing war, we must diligently turn away from war in order to sanctify the hopes of our nations and then begin to build on the solid foundation of our one peace, the habitations, systems and institutions of our common humanity in the greater context of the sacred life of our one planetary whole all toward a new future that will place our unsung generations far away from the grip of this beast.
Should the beast of war turn against our shared humanity and threaten our one whole peace, secretly or openly, alone or with others, this we will defend - with golden virtue, with exacting, quicksilver truth and if it becomes necessary, with noble force of arms of our professional military.
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sancti!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
On being Rich
BUT SEEK FIRST the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.
Matthew 6: 33
---<--@
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG about being rich or to want to become rich in this life as well as in the next. But for a Christian, baptized forever into the great family of God, our Father, most especially a Roman Catholic Christian, there is absolutely no excuse for being rich because of our Lord is poor. One does not become rich without sin who preys on other people, most especially our Lord's poor.
Personally speaking, I agree with a good man whom I once heard say that he wants everybody to be rich. I also want all of us to become rich but rich in a right way, in a way that would stand to fulfill our own human heart's longing for true and lasting happiness.
One who is truly rich follows the advice of our Blessed Savior, whether consciously or unconsciously, building upon their virtues whether earthly or heavenly (the former good the latter an absolute good or a limitless good that serves all mankind), the happy substance of their lives along with the incidental material riches they exactly deserve by the measure in which they GIVE to which God allows them to RECEIVE.
Material riches are a means towards an end; a means toward attaining to God Who is our last end. Because for our human soul, God is happiness and happiness is God and if this were not the case, we would not see materially rich people who are sad, they would all be happy. But because it is the soul who wants to be happy and not the body, we can not be happy with any kind of abundance that is not rooted in the one divine Reality that each of us absolutely longs for like a love longing for Itself.
Now, the strange reality nowadays is that most rich folks are probably not as happy as they would like to be because they do not have their lives aligned with the real purpose of all good things received from the one Source of all good things. All that is good in this world and even in the next is meant to serve the common man and common woman from the womb to the tomb. Without service, all human relationships lose their meaning. Which is why the rich really needs the poor and the poor really needs the rich in an economy of happiness that is intended to raise us all up unto a knowledge and an understanding of our one last end Who is our One true happiness.
Sometimes, as a Roman Catholic Christian, I reflect on our fall from Eden and think that if we were born into exile only to be saved by a Savior as worthy and as mighty as Jesus Christ, then it would all have been worth it than to have continued on into eternity with God without personally knowing our most loving Jesus and thus, being included into the interior mystery of the one Triune perfection in the Most Holy Trinity. I do not think we would have potentially been as happy as we can be today without the Incarnation of the Word of God in Jesus Christ and His holy Passion and Cross, death and Resurrection into the everliving glory of God, the eternal Father, body, blood, soul, and divinity.
My beloved brethren and sisters, let us stay consistently real - one with another in God - and avoid much empty speculation about anything or anyone which is just idle rumor and a real offense to the truth. When it comes to the rich, say to yourself, "it is God Who will be their judge just as God is the judge of all", and know in your own heart that earthly fortunes are not as durable as one may think not when compared to those spiritual treasures that neither thief nor tyrant may take away from us.
Material riches stand to disappear in the twinkling of an eye but riches that are borne unto heaven, those treasures carried aloft by the eternal wings of every love that we give joyously and freely away for the benefit others, most especially our Lord's poor, these riches are those real riches consummate with the real happiness we stand to gain by our love of God in Christ, true self and others in God through Jesus Christ, our Blessed Savior and most loving Lord, our All, our Path and our Destiny. For the substance of our happiness is the same as the substance of our souls, spirit and truth. Material things that are created are only intended to serve this now promised eternal happiness here in exile time.
It is NOT up to us to judge who is rich and who is not for it is far better to pray heed the Gospel of our salvation and seek out our Lord's poor and to be present amidst them like a love longing for Itself. It is far better to remain sweet amidst real poverty instead of being bitter about the spectacular fortunes of others.
The romantic tale of Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor is just that, a fairy tale. In the real world with real people with real hopes responding to real needs stemming from real lack, the means will never, ever justify the ends. Let us bear into mind that at one time or another, it is inevitable that we shall each belong to our Lord's poor in our lifetime here on this poor world of ours - either as the unborn, as infants, as children, as youth, as adults and as the elderly - men and women both.
Indeed, to help our Lord's poor is to help ourselves in a very real sense. We shall each become truly rich by our joyous and free giving for what is earthly riches if our soul is forever bound to hellfire.
Our true happiness and total liberation as Christians, we all should know by heart, may only be found through the way of Christ, the one and only way revealed to us and presented to our faith to gain those vast treasures the immensity of which none of us has powers of imagination and memory to completely comprehend.
The one and the same Jesus Christ who in our one Solidarity is both our Path and our Destiny.
So let us condemn nothing and no one but our sins lest our sins condemn us to burn forever in an endless, meaningless void with our most loving God as our singular regret.
For God Himself does not condemn us for when He punishes it is always out of love but where we are condemned by our own sins it is also likewise because we are out of Love and therefore dead to all things alive in the LORD.
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Matthew 6: 33
---<--@
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG about being rich or to want to become rich in this life as well as in the next. But for a Christian, baptized forever into the great family of God, our Father, most especially a Roman Catholic Christian, there is absolutely no excuse for being rich because of our Lord is poor. One does not become rich without sin who preys on other people, most especially our Lord's poor.
Personally speaking, I agree with a good man whom I once heard say that he wants everybody to be rich. I also want all of us to become rich but rich in a right way, in a way that would stand to fulfill our own human heart's longing for true and lasting happiness.
One who is truly rich follows the advice of our Blessed Savior, whether consciously or unconsciously, building upon their virtues whether earthly or heavenly (the former good the latter an absolute good or a limitless good that serves all mankind), the happy substance of their lives along with the incidental material riches they exactly deserve by the measure in which they GIVE to which God allows them to RECEIVE.
Material riches are a means towards an end; a means toward attaining to God Who is our last end. Because for our human soul, God is happiness and happiness is God and if this were not the case, we would not see materially rich people who are sad, they would all be happy. But because it is the soul who wants to be happy and not the body, we can not be happy with any kind of abundance that is not rooted in the one divine Reality that each of us absolutely longs for like a love longing for Itself.
Now, the strange reality nowadays is that most rich folks are probably not as happy as they would like to be because they do not have their lives aligned with the real purpose of all good things received from the one Source of all good things. All that is good in this world and even in the next is meant to serve the common man and common woman from the womb to the tomb. Without service, all human relationships lose their meaning. Which is why the rich really needs the poor and the poor really needs the rich in an economy of happiness that is intended to raise us all up unto a knowledge and an understanding of our one last end Who is our One true happiness.
Sometimes, as a Roman Catholic Christian, I reflect on our fall from Eden and think that if we were born into exile only to be saved by a Savior as worthy and as mighty as Jesus Christ, then it would all have been worth it than to have continued on into eternity with God without personally knowing our most loving Jesus and thus, being included into the interior mystery of the one Triune perfection in the Most Holy Trinity. I do not think we would have potentially been as happy as we can be today without the Incarnation of the Word of God in Jesus Christ and His holy Passion and Cross, death and Resurrection into the everliving glory of God, the eternal Father, body, blood, soul, and divinity.
My beloved brethren and sisters, let us stay consistently real - one with another in God - and avoid much empty speculation about anything or anyone which is just idle rumor and a real offense to the truth. When it comes to the rich, say to yourself, "it is God Who will be their judge just as God is the judge of all", and know in your own heart that earthly fortunes are not as durable as one may think not when compared to those spiritual treasures that neither thief nor tyrant may take away from us.
Material riches stand to disappear in the twinkling of an eye but riches that are borne unto heaven, those treasures carried aloft by the eternal wings of every love that we give joyously and freely away for the benefit others, most especially our Lord's poor, these riches are those real riches consummate with the real happiness we stand to gain by our love of God in Christ, true self and others in God through Jesus Christ, our Blessed Savior and most loving Lord, our All, our Path and our Destiny. For the substance of our happiness is the same as the substance of our souls, spirit and truth. Material things that are created are only intended to serve this now promised eternal happiness here in exile time.
It is NOT up to us to judge who is rich and who is not for it is far better to pray heed the Gospel of our salvation and seek out our Lord's poor and to be present amidst them like a love longing for Itself. It is far better to remain sweet amidst real poverty instead of being bitter about the spectacular fortunes of others.
The romantic tale of Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor is just that, a fairy tale. In the real world with real people with real hopes responding to real needs stemming from real lack, the means will never, ever justify the ends. Let us bear into mind that at one time or another, it is inevitable that we shall each belong to our Lord's poor in our lifetime here on this poor world of ours - either as the unborn, as infants, as children, as youth, as adults and as the elderly - men and women both.
Indeed, to help our Lord's poor is to help ourselves in a very real sense. We shall each become truly rich by our joyous and free giving for what is earthly riches if our soul is forever bound to hellfire.
Our true happiness and total liberation as Christians, we all should know by heart, may only be found through the way of Christ, the one and only way revealed to us and presented to our faith to gain those vast treasures the immensity of which none of us has powers of imagination and memory to completely comprehend.
The one and the same Jesus Christ who in our one Solidarity is both our Path and our Destiny.
So let us condemn nothing and no one but our sins lest our sins condemn us to burn forever in an endless, meaningless void with our most loving God as our singular regret.
For God Himself does not condemn us for when He punishes it is always out of love but where we are condemned by our own sins it is also likewise because we are out of Love and therefore dead to all things alive in the LORD.
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
#09 Suffrage with Conscience
OREMUS,
Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi; quia per sanctam Crucem tuam redmisti mundum.
We adore you O Christ, and we bless you; because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
---<--@
Sequence #09 Pax Pilipinas Series
AUTHENTIC HUMAN FREEDOM is always a choice among different paths that lead to the one Good. But the enemies of our souls would lead us to believe that true freedom is derived from a knowledge between good and evil. We all know what happens to those who eat of it's fruit from our roots in faded Eden. Knowledge of evil deprives us of our true freedom and enslaves our choice to the whim of sin. Authentic human freedom is therefore destroyed by opening our innocence to the choice between what is our one true Good and ultimate last end and what is not. The choice itself only confirms what God has already known in eternity. Therefore, let us say: We adore you O Christ, and we bless you; because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Where we favored to enjoy the absolute freedom of the sons and daughters of God, we would realize that we are free because no choice is the wrong choice because all our choices are good, all of them are in accordance with the one will of the one Source of all good things, our Almighty God.
The elections in the United States are extraordinarily crucial not only for their own particular endeavor of Country but also because it shall inevitably affect the course of the lives of other nation-states either allied, opposed or neutral to her Federal Republic.
We shall do well to observe how Americans vote and with what dignity their own social democracy holds the right to suffrage. This peculiar dignity of course will never persevere unless the people hold it to be true and the only way that the people can hold true to their hard-won rights to suffrage is by being true to their own choice and therefore, responsible for their own votes.
My fellow Filipino compatriots; we shall also reach this crossroads at 2010; an election just as crucial and just as extraordinarily juxtaposed to either fulfill or to destroy our nation's potential to become, here at the void at the threshold of the third Christian millennium.
Just the same as the Americans, one shall see that - were we each at peace with our own soul and at one with the soul of our great and ancient nation then it shall matter not who we choose for all true Filipinos are all the right choices for our one nation-state. But it is how we should choose our leaders that will correctly determine for us the way ahead. And the only right way to choose is responsibly, quietly and secretly, each of us being true to each our own conscience and then to show respect for our social democracy by honoring the unity of our nation, to stand united behind our leadership in the face of our common needs, ever aware that the eyes of God, the holy angels and all of the nations of the one family of the nations of mankind are constantly set upon our Republic either as an aid or as a burden to the greater peace and prosperity of our one region, our one continent and our one planet.
Tyranny owes it's beginnings to we, the people, for it's birth relies on our common consent. Now, if we do not practice our rights to suffrage enough to understand our social democracy and it's inherent strengths, then all we have left to resort to in the face of a mature tyranny is the force of arms. We will hence be caught in cycles of armed rebellions that will not only stunt the growth and development of Country and place us ever under threat of military dictatorships but will also claim the lives of an untold number of our brothers and sisters, either by sword, pestilence or famine, as well as teach our common people to be naturally disobedient, disloyal and militantly opposed to the very state that exists on our own behalf and too, with our own permission.
The current administration may not be perfect but I do believe that it is better than a void of leadership or another coup de etat that will take our nation to the brink of another abyss the depth of which we can never really know until it is here in our midst in the form of anarchy, tyranny, lack of common good will and rule of law. I would rather support my fellow Filipinos who I know and I trust as a fellow citizen and a common peer to our common creation are just doing what is humanly possible to advance us forward. I would rather have recourse to trust, to hope in all things, to believe in all things, than to willingly surrender my own good will to the beast of war and resort to a kind of blind and hostile opposition to other people's truths just to feel meaningful.
I do not support the evils that our government does but I do steadfastly support our government because one can not judge them without hope the same way we can not judge each other without hope or understanding. But when you find that there is both hope and understanding that really and truly stands in between our shared humanity, you will also find that there is no more division between you and me than there are divisions in our one Almighty God.
We have to support our government and should there be any grievances to be had against any of our public officials, let us also trust in our belief in the strength of our social democracy enough to rely on the processes that are in-built within our system to be able to effectively communicate these grievances to the proper channels of state.
If we want to battle against corruption in our own midst then let us calmly build on the sacred honor within ourselves and speak our mind clearly, openly and with force of conviction about the necessary truths and avoid unnecessary militant and hostile confrontations with what is evil for it shall only serve to feed evil's own ambition as we can not long oppose war without sin. We should believe and speak our belief calmly and without any recourse to violence, trusting in Almighty God and in our people.
Mind your honor, O my Filipino compatriot, remember, there is nothing that other people can say or do to take away your own sense of sacred honor. Remember always what our Blessed Lord said because it is wisdom that applies to all mankind and true for always: it is what comes out of us, in the things that we think, utter and/or do that defiles us.
Therefore, should any of our public officials be openly and indisputably corrupt, their scandalous nature does not give us any reason to lose our own integrity.
If we openly disrespect our public officials, we disrespect our choice. By disrespecting our choice, we disrespect ourselves. By disrespecting ourselves, we disrespect our nation. And we do all of this in the eyes of God, God's holy angels and all of the other nations of the one family of the nations of mankind, to the delight of our common enemies.
Do not attack the person, attack the sin. For evil is not in the original nature of any human being. Thus, it is never without hope that we should judge others especially and specifically our own Filipino brethren and sisters. Let us speak our truth openly and clearly, let us speak our disgust about corruption and our desire for justice and have a recourse to prayer, let us allow God His own space to move their hearts into shame and contrition according to His own pleasure, and we should never have recourse to any form of violence.
Once again, we must resolve our internal grievances together using viable channels proper to our social democracy. Not all of us can be utterly corrupt and let this line be drawn here and now with each and every one of us and I tell you most faithfully, my honored and beloved Filipino nation, if we are to hold fast to our convictions - one and all, our nation as a whole shall outlast these evil days.
From this moment on, Beloved of God, let Filipino be your other favorite word besides God. It matters not the etymology of the word, whether you agree with it or not, it is what we do and who we are inside of us that really counts because it is the meaning more than the word, the substance more than the utterance that matters more than the shells of those things that remain empty without it's inner nature just the same as the soul is infinitely more than the body though both of them are good and necessary for our being human.
God turns all things to good for all those who love and serve Him with a righteous fear. Once again, what is important is to for us cast the vote conscientiously, prayerfully, orderly, responsibly and quietly in secret ballot and then unite under the democratic choice of the people whoever it is. For we shall always be right for as long as we stand together united, under the eternal vigilance of Almighty God, as one nation.
Finally, Beloved of God, never sell your vote. O my honored Filipino people, selling your choice is like selling your soul to the Devil and thus, laying our one Republic whole bare and vulnerable to the malice of Satan. I tell you, our military forces and police services can not defend us from this kind of hostile threat.
O my honored Filipino nation, we must break away from the patterns of the past and rest in our own sufficiency as one people.
For only then can we aspire again towards our one nation's dream to become truly free, only then can we begin to labor once again in our hopes knowing that one day, God Himself shall wipe away our tears.
Let us begin today to breathe the atmosphere our common hopes - one and all.
---<--@ for democracy and it's inherent promise to all our nameless suffering Filipino masses, today is our National Heores Day, August 25, today is YOUR day...
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Francisca del Espiritu Santo, Servant of God, pray for us.
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Next: Sequence #10: The Second Greater Whole of Three
Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi; quia per sanctam Crucem tuam redmisti mundum.
We adore you O Christ, and we bless you; because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
---<--@
Sequence #09 Pax Pilipinas Series
AUTHENTIC HUMAN FREEDOM is always a choice among different paths that lead to the one Good. But the enemies of our souls would lead us to believe that true freedom is derived from a knowledge between good and evil. We all know what happens to those who eat of it's fruit from our roots in faded Eden. Knowledge of evil deprives us of our true freedom and enslaves our choice to the whim of sin. Authentic human freedom is therefore destroyed by opening our innocence to the choice between what is our one true Good and ultimate last end and what is not. The choice itself only confirms what God has already known in eternity. Therefore, let us say: We adore you O Christ, and we bless you; because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Where we favored to enjoy the absolute freedom of the sons and daughters of God, we would realize that we are free because no choice is the wrong choice because all our choices are good, all of them are in accordance with the one will of the one Source of all good things, our Almighty God.
The elections in the United States are extraordinarily crucial not only for their own particular endeavor of Country but also because it shall inevitably affect the course of the lives of other nation-states either allied, opposed or neutral to her Federal Republic.
We shall do well to observe how Americans vote and with what dignity their own social democracy holds the right to suffrage. This peculiar dignity of course will never persevere unless the people hold it to be true and the only way that the people can hold true to their hard-won rights to suffrage is by being true to their own choice and therefore, responsible for their own votes.
My fellow Filipino compatriots; we shall also reach this crossroads at 2010; an election just as crucial and just as extraordinarily juxtaposed to either fulfill or to destroy our nation's potential to become, here at the void at the threshold of the third Christian millennium.
Just the same as the Americans, one shall see that - were we each at peace with our own soul and at one with the soul of our great and ancient nation then it shall matter not who we choose for all true Filipinos are all the right choices for our one nation-state. But it is how we should choose our leaders that will correctly determine for us the way ahead. And the only right way to choose is responsibly, quietly and secretly, each of us being true to each our own conscience and then to show respect for our social democracy by honoring the unity of our nation, to stand united behind our leadership in the face of our common needs, ever aware that the eyes of God, the holy angels and all of the nations of the one family of the nations of mankind are constantly set upon our Republic either as an aid or as a burden to the greater peace and prosperity of our one region, our one continent and our one planet.
Tyranny owes it's beginnings to we, the people, for it's birth relies on our common consent. Now, if we do not practice our rights to suffrage enough to understand our social democracy and it's inherent strengths, then all we have left to resort to in the face of a mature tyranny is the force of arms. We will hence be caught in cycles of armed rebellions that will not only stunt the growth and development of Country and place us ever under threat of military dictatorships but will also claim the lives of an untold number of our brothers and sisters, either by sword, pestilence or famine, as well as teach our common people to be naturally disobedient, disloyal and militantly opposed to the very state that exists on our own behalf and too, with our own permission.
The current administration may not be perfect but I do believe that it is better than a void of leadership or another coup de etat that will take our nation to the brink of another abyss the depth of which we can never really know until it is here in our midst in the form of anarchy, tyranny, lack of common good will and rule of law. I would rather support my fellow Filipinos who I know and I trust as a fellow citizen and a common peer to our common creation are just doing what is humanly possible to advance us forward. I would rather have recourse to trust, to hope in all things, to believe in all things, than to willingly surrender my own good will to the beast of war and resort to a kind of blind and hostile opposition to other people's truths just to feel meaningful.
I do not support the evils that our government does but I do steadfastly support our government because one can not judge them without hope the same way we can not judge each other without hope or understanding. But when you find that there is both hope and understanding that really and truly stands in between our shared humanity, you will also find that there is no more division between you and me than there are divisions in our one Almighty God.
We have to support our government and should there be any grievances to be had against any of our public officials, let us also trust in our belief in the strength of our social democracy enough to rely on the processes that are in-built within our system to be able to effectively communicate these grievances to the proper channels of state.
If we want to battle against corruption in our own midst then let us calmly build on the sacred honor within ourselves and speak our mind clearly, openly and with force of conviction about the necessary truths and avoid unnecessary militant and hostile confrontations with what is evil for it shall only serve to feed evil's own ambition as we can not long oppose war without sin. We should believe and speak our belief calmly and without any recourse to violence, trusting in Almighty God and in our people.
Mind your honor, O my Filipino compatriot, remember, there is nothing that other people can say or do to take away your own sense of sacred honor. Remember always what our Blessed Lord said because it is wisdom that applies to all mankind and true for always: it is what comes out of us, in the things that we think, utter and/or do that defiles us.
Therefore, should any of our public officials be openly and indisputably corrupt, their scandalous nature does not give us any reason to lose our own integrity.
If we openly disrespect our public officials, we disrespect our choice. By disrespecting our choice, we disrespect ourselves. By disrespecting ourselves, we disrespect our nation. And we do all of this in the eyes of God, God's holy angels and all of the other nations of the one family of the nations of mankind, to the delight of our common enemies.
Do not attack the person, attack the sin. For evil is not in the original nature of any human being. Thus, it is never without hope that we should judge others especially and specifically our own Filipino brethren and sisters. Let us speak our truth openly and clearly, let us speak our disgust about corruption and our desire for justice and have a recourse to prayer, let us allow God His own space to move their hearts into shame and contrition according to His own pleasure, and we should never have recourse to any form of violence.
Once again, we must resolve our internal grievances together using viable channels proper to our social democracy. Not all of us can be utterly corrupt and let this line be drawn here and now with each and every one of us and I tell you most faithfully, my honored and beloved Filipino nation, if we are to hold fast to our convictions - one and all, our nation as a whole shall outlast these evil days.
From this moment on, Beloved of God, let Filipino be your other favorite word besides God. It matters not the etymology of the word, whether you agree with it or not, it is what we do and who we are inside of us that really counts because it is the meaning more than the word, the substance more than the utterance that matters more than the shells of those things that remain empty without it's inner nature just the same as the soul is infinitely more than the body though both of them are good and necessary for our being human.
God turns all things to good for all those who love and serve Him with a righteous fear. Once again, what is important is to for us cast the vote conscientiously, prayerfully, orderly, responsibly and quietly in secret ballot and then unite under the democratic choice of the people whoever it is. For we shall always be right for as long as we stand together united, under the eternal vigilance of Almighty God, as one nation.
Finally, Beloved of God, never sell your vote. O my honored Filipino people, selling your choice is like selling your soul to the Devil and thus, laying our one Republic whole bare and vulnerable to the malice of Satan. I tell you, our military forces and police services can not defend us from this kind of hostile threat.
O my honored Filipino nation, we must break away from the patterns of the past and rest in our own sufficiency as one people.
For only then can we aspire again towards our one nation's dream to become truly free, only then can we begin to labor once again in our hopes knowing that one day, God Himself shall wipe away our tears.
Let us begin today to breathe the atmosphere our common hopes - one and all.
---<--@ for democracy and it's inherent promise to all our nameless suffering Filipino masses, today is our National Heores Day, August 25, today is YOUR day...
Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.
Sancta Sanctis!
Francisca del Espiritu Santo, Servant of God, pray for us.
Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
Next: Sequence #10: The Second Greater Whole of Three
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