2008 Expectations

"A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit". - Psalm 51:12

2008 is a year of new beginnings for me. This is the time to renew and repair all my relationships:

1. With God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to Whom I owe all that I am and all that I have and to Jesus Christ in Whom I owe all that I can be.

2. With Mother Mary without whom I would be utterly lost, to whom I owe the debt of myself and my service in her struggle against the ancient serpent to save all souls for Christ.

3. With Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, the great Knight of the Immaculata, in my eyes the greatest of Marian knights, whose venerable name I took as my Confirmation name (for I was confirmed when I was very young and no one could remember what it originally was).

4. With Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, the protomartyr of the Philippines, my own beloved countryman who personally bears his own valiant witness to me (to our country and to the world) that the demands of our faith can be met and that God exults those who persevere in Him to the end.

5. With Blessed Jacinta Marto, the Little Flower of Fatima, whose magnanimity, purity and spirit of self sacrifice has indelibly impressed upon my soul a great love and a great hope in her little heart. O Blessed Jacinta, may God grant me through the powerful intercession of our Lady of Fatima with the special grace to be a favorable instrument for your cannonization.

6. With Annelies Marie Frank and all the Holy Souls, my darlingest Anne to whom I owe and share the very beginnings of this wonderful journey and has always been patiently present with me in my heart and in my mind through good times and bad and to whom I owe every happiness in Heaven and in the new world to come and to all the Holy Souls whom my beloved Anne had so generously introduced to me in holy friendship.

7. With Archangel Michael to whom I owe the honor of my last name.

8. With Angel Caritas, my guardian angel, to whom I owe the honor of his ever faithful company.

9. With myself to whom I owe the unmerited and inestimable honor of being redeemed by the Precious Blood of my Savior Jesus Christ and the distinct potential being able to earn through the work of the Holy Spirit the promised place that my most loving Jesus had prepared for me in Heaven with Mama Mary and the blessed company of all the Holy Angels and Saints of God whom I love and who had loved me forever.

10. With Holy Mother Church in whose bosom I grew in learning and grace.

11. With all my family and friends who had loved me from the beginning and to whom I owe an eternal debt of love.

12. With my country that sustains the generations of my people, preserves our culture, heritage and history and provides shelter, sustenance and protection for me, my family, my friends and my people.

13. With the one family of humanity, a united community of hope drawn from among the global brotherhood of all the nations of the world.

So help me, God.

Amen.

- EJ San Miguel