You Are Not Alone

Easter is a time where we see how light emerges after darkness. This Easter, the Billings Ovulation Method Association of Trinidad and Tobago (BOMA-TT) continues their hope and healing service to all affected by pregnancy-loss and infertility.

This year it is not only the Holy Mass for Hope and Healing, but a seminar where individuals, families and/or friends can come together to experience a reprieve from the grief and pain suffered from these heart-wrenching events.

‘You Are Not Alone: A Day for Hope and Healing’ will offer fellowship and support by those who have experienced same or similar trials. The seminar takes place on Saturday, May 11, Mother’s Day weekend, as this can be a trying weekend. The venue is the Santa Rosa Parish, Woodford Street, Arima from 3 p.m.

The day will include talks by a psychologist and a counsellor: ‘The Journey from Grief toward Healing’ and ‘Acknowledging ‘A Tiny’ Loss’. Those who are willing and ready will be encouraged to share their testimonies of God’s love and grace in the midst of their painful time.

The theologian, author and speaker Bishop Robert Barron wrote about suffering when he reviewed a movie Miracles From Heaven https://zenit.org/articles/miracles-from-heaven-and-the-problem-of-theodicy/. He acknowledged that many question why God allows horrific suffering to happen.

He wrote that we may pray for a miracle to be relieved of the suffering but miracles are rare. “So we shouldn’t expect God to intervene anytime someone experiences pain or tragedy.” God loves to operate through us human beings, he goes on, if we allow ourselves to become His hands and feet: feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, and all the acts of mercy and compassion we could possibly give to others.

Bishop Barron noted that “believers in the God of the Bible should not expect that they will be free of pain, just the contrary. It is actually a bit of a puzzle that so many readers of the Bible seem to think that the love of God is incompatible with suffering, when every major figure in the scriptures—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Peter, James, and John—goes through periods of enormous suffering. And this puzzlement only deepens when we recall that the central person in the Bible is typically displayed to us nailed to a cross and in the throes of death.”

Our pain, our suffering are not meaningless, “but rather a participation in the salvific agony of Christ”. “Suffering tends to give rise to love”, and frequently, peoples’ painful stories awaken compassion in us.

All are invited to ‘You Are Not Alone: A Day for Hope and Healing’ which ends with Holy Mass at 6 p.m. To register your interest in this day of hope and healing, please contact BOMA-TT at 384-1659 or billingstt@gmail.com