Feast of Sts Anne and Joachim

Couples across the Archdiocese renewed their marriage vows through parish/cluster Mass celebrations on or near to July 26, the feast of Sts Anne and Joachim.

Fr Matthew Ragbir, Spiritual Director and Theological Advisor, Archdiocesan Family Life Commission celebrated Mass with approximately 50 families at St Francis of Assisi Church, Sangre Grande. He reflected on the vocation of marriage as a call from God which still resounds today. This Word of God, he noted, is like the seed which the sower sowed.

He said, “In the midst of the many challenges today, God continuously calls women and men to a free and complete gift of self, which nurtures a love that is faithful and fruitful. It is a love which requires a constant dying to self so that the beauty of God’s love may shine through. It is a love which ‘bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things’ (1 Cor 13:7).”

Fr Ragbir invited all present to fight for their marriages and their families, to not easily give up but to journey with each other as a community of faith as families support and help other families and to always be open to the power of God’s grace.

At Santa Rosa Church, Arima, which has celebrated the feast since 2005, parish priest Fr Steve Duncan presided at the convalidation of a marriage that is, having the marriage recognised or blessed by the Church. Fr Duncan explained in the homily that those usually seeking a convalidation would have been married outside of the Church and would therefore not have a record of that marriage.
The Holy Cross, Santa Cruz/Mary Immaculate Queen of the Universe, Bourg Mulatresse communities celebrated on July 29 with a Mass and presentation ‘Healing Marriage in Christ is’ by Anthony and Angela Mitchell, Regional Co-ordinators of Catholic Engaged Encounter.