Lenten Journey #01: On Human Suffering x

IN THE REALM OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, my beloved friend and constant companion, nothing is as constant and as universal as suffering.

We are, in our common humanity, both confused and enlightened by the existence of these pains that we share; the pains of grief, illness and death, borne by cycles, great and small, that cause human hearts to reach out towards answers that beckon or cave in against questions that dare all that is human in our being to be able to withstand completely the withering assault of the reality of suffering.

Suffering is a symptom of the absence that is felt in the heart of Mankind; it is the direct evidence of that great struggle to fill this existential breach in the wholeness of human identity and the unity of our being that from within create the need in the human will that makes us vulnerable.

Indeed, suffering makes us vulnerable as a result and not as a consequence of our experience of it and this vulnerability is at the heart of its mystery.

Because our experience of suffering is ordered according to the degree by which the desire that must dwell inside of our selves is awakened to the path that leads each human heart to the overcoming of the imperceptible distance between the wandering soul and its eternal destiny.

For The existence of human suffering and the understanding of its nature leads us to the question of the reality of evil itself.
---<--@

A SEEKING MIND - that -
when in pondering deeply
the question of evil things
does not in its seeking
pray for necessary prudence
with vigilance of heart
seeks without first being
established firmly upon the
grounds of pre-existent good
soon become enslaved by the power
of the evil within all evil things.

For Our bearing of good things
in our poor and needful world require
that we learn to recognize and love
like the Day and the Night
all good things
and all that is good in things
- apart from -
the darkness that is present
in the evil
in these evil days.

Let us understand,
here and Now,
those who are present
who are present to our LORD
that there is evil in our world
and that because of evil things,
suffering is a universal human experience
and a common reality to all human beings.

And that in our poor world,
both good things and evil things
are established each according to
the experience of suffering.

Therefore,
there must be neither time nor place
from those worlds within ourselves
into exile time and dimensional space
within the abodes of our nations
and in the life of our Mankind
that should allow for the lie
of relativistic moral complacency
for neither does a thing exist
within the one seamless reality
of the whole of human experience
that is both good
- and at the same time -
evil in its substance.

These lukewarm shadows make meaningless
the reality of all human suffering,
for it is a deception that makes void
any reason for the human being
to attain the purpose of time itself
which is to bring him or her
towards a destiny appointed
by the one common Creator of all creation;
the one LORD of all the living
as well as all of the Everliving.

Lukewarmness of heart is a complacency
among the absent and bankrupt of spirit
manifest as a willing surrender of true self
as well as of others in need of true self
to the void of nothingness
at the end of every moment lost
and is a grave and inhuman crime
for it is willful moral cowardice;
a seeking to lie in wait
and remain hidden in the relativistic gray
of the shadows of both indifference and aversion
amidst the unmistakable reality of human suffering
notwithstanding the call of the one Divine
upon all things human and angelic
to make present this one lineage of hope
of peace and common human destiny
upon all the generations
of the one family of the nations of Mankind
so that the common good of all in All
shall through remembrance of God in Country
remain ever present in the context of
the divine command to subdue
from all the lands of the unknown earth
the evil in evil things
and overcome through suffering
the absence of unity in Man.

For the one whole entirety
of the great human endeavor
required of all the nations Mankind
of civilizing the unknown earth
in the course of our exile time
is ultimately about
the absolute liberation
of what is human in our being
from all that is inhuman in things;
a common destiny of peace
among all knowing souls
who are awake to this reality
that is ever like the difference
between hot or cold,
Day and Night.

The growth of our understanding
of the experience of human suffering
like answers obtained
from questions that deny
from the one whole sphere
of all human undertaking,
what make us completely whole
in our common humanity
by our being present
with each ourselves in God
as well as present
with each other in Country,
require the recognition
derived from particular witness
that because evil
has entered into our world
from the autumnal dusk of faded Eden
and had spread into the one whole
of our human habitation,
as human beings,
we experience the effects
of the corruption
and the destruction of what is good
as suffering - but -
more to the point,
we experience this suffering
because in our souls
there is an absence of a reality
felt like a betrayal of all things
that we each need to address
as human beings.

And indeed,
Mankind through the ages
has had different ways
of dealing with this
peculiar sense of brokenness.

As our hearts only respond
to the reality of good things,
both pre-existent as well as absolute,
evil being naturally incomprehensible
to every human soul
who is not by its own collaboration
with the evil in evil things
become completely subdued by sin,
we suffer in our common humanity - both -
because of the presence of evil
in our poor world - that breed -
that absence of meaningfulness
in our souls.

As the entrance of evil
into our experience of human reality
is the cause of all human suffering,
the restoration of both the good
as well as the everlasting good
is the only foundation upon which
all of this evil is allowed to endure.

For all things in this world,
both good and evil,
are established in suffering
- it is how we chose to suffer -
that makes distinct in ourselves
by force of our own true convictions
the cause of a righteousness in God
that maintain all that is noble in Mankind.

For evil things
cause suffering as a consequence
of the evil in evil things
and this consequence
is a descendant gravity
that pulls the soul
into the darkness of itself.

On the other hand,
good things require suffering
as sacrifice - sacrifice being -
the one path chosen and revealed by
the one Source of all good things:
Love Itself.

Upon this path we shall experience
the interior landscapes of this Lenten Journey
that we shall each take together.

Peace, I salute you.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to all men of good will.

Haiku #212: Tiara x

Tiara.

All-American,
that's the crown that Sunbeams made,
that she gave to God.

May God bless her heart,
with colors bright, that her life,
may shine in His Light.

Forever
for Jesus.
---<--@

Haiku #211: Sisters x

Sisters.

Two sweet Southern belles,
spanning two generations,
the Y and the Z.

Dakota and Elle,
may you each grow near, always,
as your hearts grow out.

Two sisters,
always friends.
---<--@

Haiku #210: Friend x

Friend.

Dakota means "Friend":
I just learned that from a class.
And she's growing up...

Friendships are timeless
that are good; to teach us that -
Love is the constant.

Patience, faith -
hope takes wing.
---<--@

Ash Wednesday 2009

TODAY is Ash Wednesday.
---<--@

THE SEASON OF LENT begins with a solemn meditation on death symbolized by the ashes that we, Roman Catholics, are to receive this day in crosses upon our foreheads as a somber reminder of the real sum of all things.

We will enter into this Season of Lent with one hope of life together, my beloved friends and constant companions, all my brothers and sisters in Christ our Lord, prayerfully and willingly, bearing patiently with each other the crosses of our daily human living that we may also be able to look forward to the experience from within our souls with God and with each other the one great cycle of all creation at the Easter transformation.

Our 40-day Lenten Journey will take us across the landscapes of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ from meditations on human suffering, death, the pains of hell, prayer, repentance and penance, fasting, alms-giving, into the glory of the Easter transformation.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to all men of good will.

To the one Filipino Nation

REVOLUTION, how must we understand it, O my nation?
---<--@

LET US FIRST SEEK to know what revolution is not: Certain.

Time itself being so much fraught with uncertainty, like a chasm the depth of which no one knows, revolution yawns beneath the feet of those who seek to be defined by it.

It is like a throw of dice, entered only when the need is such that one must by destiny heed the call of random chance. And this need must be such great a need as to be placed upon its time by purposes that must transcend it, lest the will of the fight soon falter and fail, the faith of the people must burn that brightly, to set itself completely against the test.

This is why the People Power revolution of 1986 was such a great wonder.

It is a miracle of grace; our timeless pulling together for God and Country, and the measure of the quality of our people.

So let us remember People Power not as a falling apart but as a gathering together, in our hearts, in our lives, and in our times together as a one whole Filipino nation.

Let us not forget, my honorable compatriots, that to willingly surrender to chance is to court the Devil that we may from People Power learn to remember always the measure of our resolve to advance the cause of our one Republic, and to tempt never the Providence of the one Divine under Whose singular Standard of Truth the oppressed is liberated.

Mabuhay ang Pilipino!

Mabuhay ang Sambayanang 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.

On Prayer

MATERIAL THINKING is static and physical but spiritual things are dynamic, fluid, and always in motion.

The smallest of good, when done with love in the heart, is a truth worthy of praise. What material thinking shall often dispel as insignificant, may be the very thing that gives it thought.

For the Spirit of the LORD is nearer to us than our thoughts, and more present to us than the absence that we feel in the depth of our hearts.

Spiritual things are manifest in the heart that is at work in God for purposes that fulfill the truth in our being human and therefore, whether in great leaps or small, faltering steps, advance the cause of creation and the divine purposes for which our Mankind is upon this inhabited earth intended.

Prayer breaks us free from the rut of material thinking.
---<--@

AS A RULE, my precious Starshine, prayer is always more than the sum of all that we can see with our unseeing eyes.

A soul in prayer is a heart present to its thought, a walk across the vast, empty deserts within, a reaching out to places beyond self, a looking above from within, it is silence contemplating Silence - alone with the Alone, it is a growing, persevering, often times frustrating work born of great necessity, out of thy love of God.

Prayer is an ascent to the timeless, anchored upon ageless truth, of all the things we love and of the Love that all created things hope for, most especially by the truth of thy heart of love, and of thy faith yearning to God in prayer.

The way to God is a crooked line, for we are all but human, but the way of prayer makes this way certain; that the soul that perseveres in prayer shall indeed profit from the LORD that rewards all things, great and small, known and known to God alone, done out of love and fear of the one common Creator of all common creation, seen and unseen.

It is not only important that we pray, and persevere in this way, my love, in private, above all in community with each other, it is simply necessary for human happiness and the well-being of the still small truth that lives, like a mustard seed, inside of every self, for all things true and everlasting depend on a heart of prayer.

Prayer is spiritual, therefore, there are seasons within the soul that range from sweet to dry or empty but never must thy heart stay still, you must gather when it needs gathering and to know also when to look beyond these seasons, you must be vigilant, pressing on till you reach the heart of God to lay your hopes in the LORD - so prayer may be long or it may be short but it must always be timeless, its substance is the motion that lives like a love longing for Itself.

And when the Silence shall to your bowed heart speak, it shall do so swift as light, being spoken without words and instantly manifest to your soul as winged truth - then you shall seek to forget all other things but God and God alone.

And in God you shall range far, self cognizant of self, intimate with the Intimate, to dwell in holy remembrance of all things.

For far may your wandering heart be but to love and in Love you shall forever remain when you shall in prayer persevere.

So do so, dearest Starshine, and say Amen. Know for thy own self why the heart that believes believes only because it prays.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

The Abrahamic Code

THE VANGUARD of the one Peace is the one Fold of the one Firmament, the numberless Stars of our Father Abraham; all of those who are quickened to the call of the LORD who are the elect guardians of this promise of old to bless the communities of Mankind, our one family of nations.

This is our Abrahamic Code and it serves to supplement the one Code.
---<--@

I AM A HUMAN BEING and I belong to my nation of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

We are as one in our shared humanity, a keeper and a friend from always to always, being invested in God and in each other, by kinship bonds of sacred trust and we shall labor to be useful to each our own endeavor of Country.

We claim our rightful ownership, as the numberless stars of the one eternal Firmament, to the promise made to our Father Abraham of old to fulfill the vision of peace for our world, bless all the nations of the one family of the nations of Mankind and add to the life of the generations to come in the Name of the LORD and on behalf of all the generations of life.

We shall let no division deceive us nor evil enter into the unity of our peace.

What war does to one, war does to all.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

Haiku #209: Splash

Splash.

Water and anger,
as two things meet each other,
what wins out, my love?

I heard a story
that water with anger - leads -
to kisses and purrs.

Hmmm, I think...
I shall think...
---<--@

On Studiousness

THE VIRTUE OF STUDIOUSNESS is the love of study and not of knowledge itself. It is like all kinds of truly human loving, integrated to the divine economy of grace, a seeking for the truth through the application of love as itself.

For knowledge is not truth when it is merely amassed like a burden and a thing that clutters the soul, limiting the limitless, and preventing it from reaching out to other souls.

So when you shall study, my precious Starshine, remember that all things that educate is not a seeking for anything else but the love that lives in thyself and the life that needs to be set free in thee on behalf of all that you love here in this world and in all our worlds to come.

Between the beggar who knows how to beg and the scholar who refuse to share, the virtue of studiousness belongs to the former.

Truth is fluent only when it is a limitless good. Knowledge that serves not binds and deceives only itself.

For an educated soul is a loving soul, it is self-cognizant of self and endowed by God with both wisdom's breadth and knowledge's depth, and a heart of limitless width that seeks to embrace all things like a love longing for Itself.

So you must always apply yourself, Starshine, for virtue is a power to act, an exercise in good faith and good will that together achieves right action that adds to the good of All. For what is right action but the willingness to do good and the acceptance of its grace?

All that is virtuous, my love, must be a flowing out of thy heart as grace is a flowing into thy love from the mouth of the one Beautiful.

You must go and strive to find who you are, you must shine, being beautiful without effort: Do not become conscious enough of thyself to forget to love for then you shall cease to live.

For we all must live in the love that we share in God which is the life that we must apply so that others may live that we may in God's own turn possess It forever: That we may be restored to each other in a time and a place where there shall be no more parting of ways.

Do not be afraid of difficulty, within and then without: Pray, persevere always in prayer.

Never be fooled by the fleeting standards of this ephemeral world nor measure the standards of thy own heart by the fickle fashions of these gossamer things.

Do not despair for many hearts love you, seen as well as unseen. Time is distant only to distant hearts and the void of dimensional space is but the absence of our truest selves.

So smile, being present, dear Starshine, do not forget to share your own sun.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

Peace in the Middle East

IT SEEMS that the acceptable measure of warfare nowadays is to war without measure.

Incidentally, this is also the measure by which our LORD teaches us we must love.
---<--@

HOW MUST we view Hamas, my beloved friend and constant companion?

Beloved of God, it is a saddening thought that idealistic and pious people are being brought together by war more than by peace because that road leads nowhere. And I am not talking about just Muslims - I'm talking about any human being who begins to believe in the seemingly easy proposition brought upon their will by those who have become convinced in their hearts that the destruction of other human beings and of entire nations in exile time is the way of our common destiny as Mankind without deeper consideration to the actual nature of war.

If one should study about black holes in the physical universe - such is war - an imploded star. And the blindness that ultimately leads to annihilation inside of its deadly gravitational embrace is the reason why black holes are invisible to the naked eye - because it is empty of promise, its victory is a lie. Believe in it and all things in your life and the reality itself that surrounds you and those who are around you will get sucked into an endless and futile struggle.

It is very easy to destroy things but creation is the mandate of heaven and peace is the one will of the absolute defense therefore, destruction is only fruitful to All if it brings about transformation and growth, not poverty and despair.

I guarantee you, my beloved friend and constant companion, in the strongest of terms possible that the path of war is not the ascendant mountain path that our nations and their responsible states must take to survive the tribulation that is yet to come. This is a time to prepare the shelter of our generations - the generations of life, the only shelters that we have as human beings, the shelters of each our endevors of Country.

While I do not and will never approve of the methods that inflict needless and insdiscriminate harm upon our civilian populations, target our holy innocents and blindly propagate the conflagration of war - I will also never fail to recognize nor willingly abandon the hope that is intrinsic to all human beings.

It is not the will of heaven at this time to convert the faiths of all people into one religion; that is a changeless and immovable mandate that neither angelic nor human worlds share with the one Beautiful but belong to Almighty God by Himself Alone, however, it is the purpose of our times together to convert the hope of the world into peace and turn the hearts of mankind towards life.

I recognize the hope that is embedded in the struggle of the Palestinian people as well as the hope that is enshrined in the founding of modern Israel. Hamas - despite those differences that shall remain differences - now contain within itself, an extension of that hope entrusted to it by the Palestinian electorate on behalf of the nameless, suffering Palestinian people. It is this hope that I recognize and it is through this hope that I call upon Hamas to stir itself to a remembrance of the things that are necessary to achieve the purpose entrusted to it by its own nation; to work with Fatah and Abu Mazen that Palestine may emerge at last as a complete nation-state.

Only upon this common ground of hope that is universally shared by our common humanity can the process of achieving a sustainable peace on behalf of all living things, past, present and future, continue - that nations may no longer labor in tears but in hopes enshrined in God and Country.

I also recognize the hope of Palestinian prisoners and of Sgt. Gilad Shalit but our hope must be forbearing for we do not see by a sight that is possessed by our unseeing but are only borrowers of the one Light that reflects in our hearts the way of our LORD ahead that our feet may find its way through the darkness of our exile. Neither do we own the wisdom that teaches us of the ways of our LORD nor the very life that everywhere leads us back to our God, how then must we hope, as we would like or as we should?

It is the intrinsic right of every prisoner to be treated as your own. Do not continue to seek to harm innocent civilians and uphold this right for Sgt. Shalit and for Palestinian prisoners as well those of you who truly live and breathe for God's peace. Recognize the need in their humanity and seek to obtain at the soonest their safe release to their families and friends.

Negotiate as soon as it is possible - on behalf of the nameless who are suffering the curse of war - the sustainable peace and always be mindful of the common grounds of your aspirations for each your own people which you will find, O elder Israel and unborn Palestine, only if you seek it in your heart of hearts, are one and the same hope.

And turn away from war.

Say peace to all the inhabited earth and dwell forever in the good will of heaven.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

On Love

THE MEASURE OF LOVE is to love without measure.
---<--@

I SHALL ADDRESS this subject particularly to our youth, our precious Starshine, and to all other hearts quickened by God with the desire to cleave with other hearts.

This day is a special day that is dedicated to the desire of the human heart to love and to be loved. For we all desire love and we look for it. It is an absence that makes present in the heart of our humanity, that most human of desires - to be happy - and that within the limitless bounds of this ideal for happiness lies the total and complete liberation of our being.

For upon love all things human depend and upon its possession all things we are consist, therefore, how we shall conceive of love shall ultimately define for us in the course of our exile time, the nature of our destiny.

So when you shall think about love
and the nature of its goodness,
think about it as something
always more than thyself,
my beloved Starshine,
for love is a reality
that exists
apart and distinct from thee
that you might come to remember
from always to always
that when in thy heart of hearts
you feel in thyself, a longing for love -
that above all, Beloved of God,
it is Love that is longing for thee.

So be beautiful without effort,
and do not despair.
Go and be strong in God, strive.

Love all things without compare.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.
---<--@

Happy hearts day to all!

Australia Fair

AUSTRALIA FAIR, I am thankful for you.
---<--@

I have awakened to things greater than myself through the experience of your own hopes as a nation for I have tasted the substance of your Country, O dear great Southern Continent, in the memorable years that I have spent with you and your good people. You have gifted my heart with many things that I carry with me as an indelible and precious part of me today and I shall never forget this, my Australia Fair.

Now that you are suffering through this worst of bushfire seasons in thy memory as a nation, I want you to know that I hurt with you. I know you to be a tight-knit national community for I myself have felt this in the spirit of thy own undertaking as Country when I was there amidst thyself and felt it to such a degree, good nation, that I hurt with you even now. A part of me I have left forever Down Under for you are a good ship, Australia Fair, thy convict chains have set me free and I shall salute you forever.

Indeed, too many lives have been taken from our love, good nation, and without sense so it seems; their unique and unrepeatable promise stolen from our shared humanity without warning. I offer you no explanations, dear Australia, only that I and all those who love and care for you feel your pain and recognize this most human of needs that we share together and so we stand in clear solidarity with you in this thy lonely hour of tears and rebuilding.

May they all who are nameless no more rest in the peace of our Lord's eternal remembrance ever as they shall live in the hearts and lives of all those who love them and celebrate their lives with them together in God and Country for always.

So may God be with you, Australia Fair, and may God's peace be in all of you, O good and kindred nation, today most especially and forevermore.
---<--@

AMEN.

A Prayer for Peace

LORD God,
we adore Thee
and we bless Thee!

O most beneficent LORD
and one God of all creation,
rekindle in the hearts of Thy nations
the desire for meaningful peace.

Come, O LORD,
abide with needful Mankind
be again the God of our families and of our lands
reclaim Thy right as our one Sovereign
that loving hearts and willing hands
may learn the ways of Thy grace
and thy faithful bring down from heaven
the blessings of Thy most precious Peace.

Forsake us not, dear LORD
but with Thy holy angels lead us
away from the darkness of our times
and into the Light of Thy Countenance
that all the peoples of needful Mankind
may come to a holy remembrance of Thee
and that we may as one firmament shine
ever like the numberless stars
that you promised of old
to our holy Patriarch Abraham.

AMEN.

May unborn Palestine and elder Israel,
each in You, O LORD God,
become a light unto all nations
shining with Thy numberless stars
cast upon Thy one firmament
across the unfeeling darkness
of this midnight of war
as a warmth to each other
and a guide to all mankind.

AMEN.

Shout to the Lord

THIS IS ANOTHER CHRISTIAN SONG that really touches my heart. I especially connect with the song at the part where it says, "nothing compares to the promise I have in You".
---<--@

MY JESUS, my Savior
Lord there is none like You
All of my days I want to praise
The wonders of Your mighty love
My comfort my shelter
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath all that I am
Never cease to worship You

Chorus:
Shout to the Lord all the earth let us sing
Power and majesty praise to the King
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
At the sound of Your Name
I'll sing for joy at the work of Your hands
Forever I'll love You
Forever I'll stand

Nothing compares to the promise I have in You
Nothing compares to the promise I have in You
Nothing compares to the promise I have in You
---<--@

By Don Moen

On the one Majority and an Abrahamic Democracy

SEE THE NUMBERLESS STARS, my precious friend and constant companion, how they shine. Do they care that they are stars? Nay, for they are all born of one Truelight. And in that way they become free to shine.
---<--@

The one Majority takes from both Judeo-Christian as well as elements of Islamic Democracy to form an Abrahamic Democracy which considers as whole and indivisible, the one REALITY of Almighty God and the unseen supernatural order with the seen material reality of the visible universe that form the seamless whole which is the habitation of Man who is created both spirit and earth and therefore may only be understood in that context as a human being inherently possessed with a divine dignity and intrinsic natural rights.

Our ideal of secularism does not subscribe to the concept of a militantly atheistic state divided against the truth of its own humanity, nor to the belief that religion is the source of the reality of our Almighty God, we recognize and uphold the separation of religion and state but acknowledge the transcendental reality of the one LORD of all creation as inseparable to the life of our shared humanity and therefore recognize and uphold all that is honorable and true in all religions within a free and democratic society that is both pluralist and synergistic.

Unique Elements of an Abrahamic Democracy

That Almighty God, our peerless LORD and the one common Creator of all common creation, seen and unseen, transcending the totality of all human experience is a supernatural Reality that singularly reigns, sovereign and supreme, over all other realities, seen and unseen, without neither beginning nor end as the one highest of spiritual Truths unseen;

That all lineages of sacred wisdom and sacred revelation diligently preserved by each and every honorable religion in time and dimensional space is the direct result of Humankind's reaction to God's Presence in exile time and the Holy Spirit of God Being Present throughout human history and collectively constitute as a one divine trust, a one Commonwealth Trust, provided for the common good of all the nations of the one family of the nations of mankind;

That Almighty God has invested in this visible creation, the one family of the nations of mankind, as responsible stewards and co-creators with His grace and that for this reason our LORD has gifted each human being with a will that is free;

That upon this free will and its dutiful and responsible human exercise is founded the bedrock principle of an Abrahamic democracy.

...decide today whom you will serve... As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

Joshua 24: 15

Therefore, SERVIAM: Let us each produce the fruits of a good and honorable religion; live always in the light and be led by all true things. Let us each compete in virtue and good works; to prosper the peace that all our peoples may prosper, and our nations dwell in good will, growing to each their kindred fullness in time as keepers and friends to each other.

For that is what it means to say, "peace" - it means, "I am here for you for I see your human need, my beloved friend and constant companion. Therefore, I will be to you as your hope".

How then can this peace ever be won in battle?

Lakas CMD and the one Majority in the Context of the Philippine Republic

It is the aim of the one Majority to achieve one standard of Liberty on behalf of the one Filipino nation with Lakas CMD (Christian Muslim Democrats) as established in our Salutation #04 that our endeavor of Country become enabled in exile time and the will of the people be advanced in the Republic that represents them in the state.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

Truelight

O LORD,
Thou art God
Thou art my Truelight -
I am in darkness.
---<--@

On the Conflict in Gaza

ONE WHO IS GENUINELY INTERESTED in peace must know how to speak the language of peace which is the truth.

Given the circumstances, this is the only contribution that I could make at this time to make clear my solidarity with the suffering nameless civilian population in Gaza, the West Bank as well as in the nation of modern Israel.
---<--@

THEREFORE, I must be forthright about my own after-action analysis on the recent incident in Gaza and I shall take the viewpoint of the civilian population on both sides of the one side of our shared humanity.

I feel quite strongly about the amount of casualties on the civilian side and on the overall, the ratio suggests that both sides of the conflict did not take to their professional military regard, the intrinsic rights of innocents in a battlefield environment.

I disagree with the argument that the casualties were disproportionate. The forces were locked in asymmetric conflict which indicates that the means by which combat power were made available to either side were disproportionate yet their will to overcome each other in battle were equally matched. This indicates that should the situation have been reversed on either side, we will still have to endure the same result in the amount of casualties and in that proportion.

I can not justify in my mind how the casualties soared to that extent. I've been going through the RISTA (military jargon for Reconnaissance, Intelligence, Surveillance and Target Acquisition) motions in an urban environment over and over in my head and the only conclusion that serves to convince me is that military expediency was placed well over civilian safety. This alone without going into tactical specifics that are unavailable to me, compels me to report that indeed there were unspecified injustices that occurred in the course of that incident and I believe both parties to the conflict have to account for the damage inflicted on the civilian population on the overall.

I recommend that the best thing to do to preserve the common good of the Palestinian people at this time is to break them free from the cycles of violence that engulf their daily lives. And to do this at the soonest possible time.

Concomitantly, because of the nature of peace, this would also serve the common good of the Israeli people and assure long-term peace for their national communities.

Therefore, the initiative, as regards to the observances that would open up the processes that would eventually lead to sustainable peace in that region at this moment lies with the will of the Palestinian people WITH the international community including the nation of modern Israel because it is their population that is most vulnerable at the time of this report to the tides of conflict that indicates the relentless onslaughts of the will of war in that region.

The recent incident in Gaza attests to this fact.

The unborn Palestinian state must be allowed to break out and emerge into the stage of human history at this point in exile time to live in peace with the nation-state of modern Israel.

And we must apply all means and measure to de-escalate the conflict and work towards being able to progressively limit the damage that the will of war can and is able to inflict upon the long-suffering civilian population on both sides of our shared humanity in that region.

All towards a better, brighter, kinder future for the generations of life in that region.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

Elections 2010: A Portrait of a Filipino Leader

WHAT do we need to see in our leadership?

We need a leader who is above of all committed to the truth: A strong leader.

Truth is when we see a table. It is solid. It is useful. It is good. It is meaningful because its purpose is good. All true things are meaningful because they are good. And they are good independent of our reality. They are good because God alone is good.

That is the truth.

To break the table is evil because it takes the substance of the good out of its truth, making the idea of the table incomprehensible to the human soul. To say that something broken is good is to allow mischief in the heart. To allow mischief to linger in the heart is to incline one's will toward evil. And to manifest this evil in the will is sinful.

Evil harms the reality of our relationships with God and with each other.

That is also the truth.

We need a leader that is grounded in moral reality and not a moral relativist who sees things in convenient shades of gray. A leader who is committed on building up our nation upon the ageless ground of timeless truth. For this is what commitment is: It must be a commitment to the truth, for where else would one be committed to or worse, upon this earth, who.

We need a leader who is faithful to the office of the Republic and not to the interest of the self; one who knows how to temper justice with mercy, being forbearing in hope, patient in adversity, and humble in spirit; one who is truly loyal to the one Peace which is the sheltering wings of Country and the honor of our state.

A secular leader, sincere in word, gifted with a strong sense of humanity and inspired by our one Almighty God being aflame with parental compassion for the one Filipino nation.

That to me, is the portrait of a true Filipino leader and where I am able to see this in one of our civilian candidates, that person shall have earned the full force of my own vote as a citizen of this one Republic.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

On the Nature of our Society in Heaven II

HIS MOTHER AND HIS BROTHERS ARRIVED. Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.

A crowd seated around him told him, "Your mother and your brothers (and your sisters) are outside asking for you."

But he said to them in reply, "Who are my mother and (my) brothers?"

And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.

(For) whoever DOES the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

Mark 3: 31-35

I capitalized "DOES" to put emphasis on the fact that God's will is a verb not a noun.
---<--@

THIS WAS THE GOSPEL some days ago and in my heart, this is how it means:

The intensity of our relationships in heaven and at the beginning of all things new do not have human equivalents. We shall be as the angels whose love for each other is more than what we can conceive while we are yet where we are. It is a joy that I am so happy and thankful to be blessed to feel with my darlingest Annelies Marie when I say that my love for her is more than a wife, a sister or a friend.

It is the kind of friendships we must each desire and aim for in heaven with each other and with all persons of good will, seen and unseen, amidst our capacities within our own particular states of life in this world that we may see nothing as disposable when it comes to life and to love.

So for those who constantly worry what will happen to our love for our loved ones who have passed away into eternity in the friendship of God, I can say this - "do not be afraid".

Weep for loneliness but never for sorrow, pray Godspeed for their safe passage, for if they are good and have remained so, they would have been lifted up from the void as the wings of the love that they have shared with us take them swiftly into the Heart of a God Who is Love Himself and like a fire is fed into an undying, unchanging, and infinitely bright flame, they are sublimely transformed into something that is ultimately meant for our everlasting joy.

Verily, my beloved friend and constant companion, they would recognize us perfectly and we would recognize them perfectly in light of our perfect God.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

Human Community in the Context of the Global Financial Crisis

FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, let us perceive Country as an undertaking, an endeavor of each of our nations and their responsible states to perfect as much as we can, in exile time, the synthesis of those who govern (the state) and those who give consent to be governed (the nation).
---<--@

COUNTRY therefore transcends static definition but is an action defined by its function or purpose and determined by its fruit. Country is more a verb than a noun, an action that is a hope that is anchored in the deep of eternity (whose locus in this reality is that timeless intersection within the human heart of the finite and the infinite) and is a lineage in time that extends from one generation to the next. In each person can be perceived a microcosm of Country and as a matter of fact, the entire visible universe can be reflected in a single Man. Therefore, all of Man's vulnerabilities and weaknesses as well as our human strengths and virtues are also inherited by the systems and constructs that we co-create in exile time with Divine Providence out of the reality of God in our hearts.

Division has always been a weakness of our one human race. But these weaknesses can also be turned into strengths, if we can find the strength left in our humanity to overcome them.

I for one, just like my darlingest Annelies Marie, do believe in the goodness and nascent ability of our shared humanity.

These times are most certainly difficult but the best guarantee that we now immediately possess amidst the global financial crisis is each other in the strength of human hope and the shelter of our human communities; individuals reaching out to their neighbors, communities with their local communities, nations with other nations.

For the strength of human community have always been founded upon our wholes, upon truths, pristine and undivided by difference, untrammeled by war.

We must be careful not to drift apart. Or to exclude from our midst the needs of other human beings most especially those who are least among ourselves.

For peace is our original estate, a one whole and indivisible truth, sufficient upon itself, cleaving upon other greater truths, excluding nothing from itself, ascendant in its order, united in its purpose.

But the will of war is a lie which is descendant in its gravity, it pulls downward into a spiral of discord, disorder, division, dilution, dissolution and ultimately, annihilation.

The fact that the difficulty we are now experiencing is global in nature is commensurate with the hope that we must now as one planetary whole realize. But we must do this in a way that preserves the status quo order of our nations and not invite further darkness upon our poor world.

Our history proves that difficulties often time allow our humanity to discover new things, I personally believe - and I pray - that once we have again found ourselves anew, prosperity is sure to follow. But it will surely take some time, given the scope of this necessary undertaking, and the best shelter that we have in this storm at this time or at any other time is our true belongings with each other.

So let us with charity reach far out across and above the things that divide us and try to discover for ourselves what we need to find in each other as individual human beings as well as individual human nations in order for us to become better human beings and concomitantly leave for others a better world for all human beings.

I have always believed that we either live in extraordinary times full of ordinary people or we are all extraordinary people living in ordinary times. But whatever the circumstance, my beloved friend and constant companion, what really matters is that we see to it that we all come out of this together, as one.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

On Suicide in the Military and Suicide in General

"ENEMY" is something a soldier must be able to visualize.
---<--@

"Terrorist" or any other vague word that obscures a soldier's ability to visualize the battlefield shall have repercussions that will affect the overall quality of the force.

For the word "enemy" justifies every soldier's right to fight and overcome in battle.

As regards to the "war on terror", I advance for your own meditation:

Our "enemy" is a principle of death; conflict as a global paradigm - war as a beast.

We are engaged in a struggle against more than just terrorism, we are defending from this principle of death, against ideologies of hatred, lies and division, against extremists, terrorists and those who seek to murder our innocents, commit crimes against our shared humanity, mire our common generations in poverty and despair and defeat the divine purpose of our nations of the one family of the nations of mankind.

In this struggle, strength of arms must be tempered by the noble steel of moral rectitude. For our overcoming the enemy must ultimately begin with our overcoming of the war within ourselves, that the struggle we shall fight shall be one of humanity, virtue and truth - of purity of arms against an enemy which has taken the grounds of darkness and deception which are the diametric opposite to the victory we are certain to obtain, for they have taken to the ground of evil and division, which is a doom that we shall march relentlessly to defeat, theirs is the calamity of war.

Know where you and your rifle stand, Soldier of Army. Seek help if you should need guidance. Do not ignore what your own heart wants to express - war attacks you not just from perils that engage our unit wholes in fields of battle but also from within thyself laying forces upon the very threshold of thy will to resist its lethal siege.

For suicide is wrong, but when done deliberately, it is evil.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

On Banking and the Common Market

THE ETERNAL LAW OF GOD, by virtue of its timeless promulgation among the hearts of all men and women of good will seeks always to continually recognize and uphold our humanity, as we are, a becoming, an emerging in time.

And as our humanity is distinguished by our common lack, our hopes as human beings are defined by our common needs.

These needs are protected by the Eternal Law of God.

For long have our LORD maintained a commandment that prohibits anyone to seek to profit from the need of others.

Upon this principle are all truly responsible business activities founded upon.
---<--@

ENTERPRISE as a whole is the collective building up of the common market.

Every time we are outside the stillness of our souls, or outside of our holy places of corporate worship and sacred remembrance, or away from the hearth of our homes, we step into the realm of the common market. Every time we transact a trade or an exchange of any of our own goods (material, intellectual/scientific or technological) and/or services (either labor or labor product) we participate in the enterprise economy of Country.

Banks initiate, provide, sustain and fulfill the capital needs of this enterprise economy primarily by fostering material liquidity that facilitate the flow of necessary transactions between both individual as well as conglomerate business entities of whose enterprise undertaking as a responsible entrepreneurial whole works to support the growth and vitality of the nation. In this way, banks advance the common good that propel the progress of Country - which is the commonweal - and in the course of building up the commonweal, support the will of the sovereign state that in turn maintain the mission and discipline of the banking industry.

Banking is a service industry as the currency of state which is its primary responsibility is not its own product.

Now, for the intents and purposes of this meditation, let us perceive currency as the visible motion of business and businesses as a whole making up each our industries which when taken as a whole constitute the honest labor of each our nation of the one family of the nations of mankind to build up this inhabited earth. Industry is therefore an undertaking that is vested in the expectation, reputation and reality of its own positive growth in time. But the positive growth of all businesses must in reality rely on its ability to serve and fulfill a particular human need and never the other way around.

In the banking industry, interests that penalize due to lack of fiscal discipline and/or human errors in business accounting are meant not as a means to profit but as a means to lend disciplinary force to the form and policy of the banking contract. Therefore, these banking contracts must never be treated as business negotiations that seek profit but as service contracts that bind two parties in common good will.

Because all overt and covert forms of usury is a transgression of the Eternal Law, seeking to profit by the charging of interests in a banking transaction is a sure way of inviting calamity.

Now, let us bear in mind that virtue is currency. The principles of accounting recognize good will as an immaterial asset which can not be exactly recorded like all other things that appear on the business ledger. Recognition of good will in the accounting reports is evidence that good will is also a form of currency, albeit immaterial, that flow in time to shape greater and greater economies of itself.

I advance for your own meditation, my beloved friend and constant companion, that upon this principle is built the true foundations of all truly human banking activities

Now, let us upon this principle build a banking model: Let me propose that every banking contract that is to be fulfilled should carry with it a debt of good will. And let us recall to mind that virtue is currency and therefore, this good will albeit immaterial in form should for our own business good also be allowed to be circulated into an economy in and of itself. And let us conceive of this economy as an economy of alms or charitable donations surrendered freely to the bank in a model where thankfulness is an integral part of the business culture as a professional obligation that is distinct and apart from any material obligations to religion. From this good will, banks in their own responsible turn should be able to screen, scrutinize, build up and sustain its own responsible charities and these charities submitted (and governed) by civic organizations to the fostering, material care of the banks should in their own turn recognize, support, promote and expand the business good of those same businesses that drive forward the enterprise economy of the common market.

This is a very simplistic example of an economy based on virtue and good will that, of course, still desire much improvement but the gist of the matter still stands: Virtue is true currency, money is not the end result of business profit and no one should ever seek to profit from the needs of others - above all our banking institutions.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.

On Holocaust Denial x

THE FACT THAT OUR NATIONS have been severely burdened across the ages hitherto by the oppressive curse of war is not something that anyone can downplay. This is evident to to any student of human history.

The fact that the beast of war has been so relentless and unremitting that some of our nations of old have not made it this far out in exile time can not be treated as something purely academic for all these things are not fiction, these are not mere images or numbers lifted out of the pages of a book.

For these are human realities and these realities are forever impressed upon substances more enduring than paper and more concentrated than human memories because these are the things of remembrance, my beloved friend and constant companion, these are the things that matter to our nations being the substance that keeps the truth of their beings alive and whole during the course of each of their particular hopes' in exile time.

Mankind was not created to endure war. This most human of sentiments is the basic underlying substance shared by those whose hearts have come to know war and have thus, become filled with the truth of why mankind must now hope for peace.

The fact that one person was claimed by the beast of war is already one person too much. But the terrible fact is that numberless individual human beings have had their lives cut short and their promise stolen from us because of war and the evil ambition of war. To deny that even one of these lives ever lived is arrogant. To deny that even one of their deaths were not worthy of our hopes today is an insult to all people of good will.

To recklessly forget or to deliberately feign ignorance in the heart as regards to the human cost of conflict as a whole is quite sinful because it is naught but a seeking to dilute the substance of our own remembrances together and this is a seeking that threatens the common good of our one family of nations.

So let those who have ears hear and those who have sight see that this is why Holocaust denial, even without delving into specifics, or any kind of denial for that matter that dilutes the will of our nations to press for sustainable peace is not only wrong, it is when it shall persist in the heart in spite of the truth, evil.
---<--@

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.