Put on God’s armour daily

The Franciscan House of Prayer with Spiritual Director, Fr Trevor Nathasingh hosted their 10^th annual ‘Day of Empowerment’, June 1 at the Guaico Secondary School.  Hundreds of persons attended to have their lives enriched and spirituality deepened by the preaching and teachings of Fr Trevor and guest speaker, Fr Raymond Francis.

“These people approach me only in words; honour me only with their lips, while their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13) was the theme of Fr Raymond’s talk. In his discourse, he asked us to examine our hearts and referenced Matthew 6:19–21, “Do not lay up treasures for yourself on earth but lay it up in Heaven.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be”.

Fr Raymond reminded us that what God desires is a people who would worship Him in spirit and truth and said that we have withheld the affection of our hearts from the Lord. He spoke of one of St Augustine’s more popular quotes, “Unless my heart rests in the Lord, it will be restless” and questioned, “why are our hearts turned away from God?”. He answered himself saying, that heart work is hard work.

In wrapping up, he cautioned that giftedness is not a sign of holiness and that the Holy Spirit is the sanctifying spirit whose main work is to make us holy and pure.  Fr Raymond prayed that hearts will be converted and souls transformed, then we will become our brother’s keeper. He closed saying that the longest journey is from the mind to the heart.

Fr Trevor’s talk centred on Hebrews 6:19 ‘We have an anchor for our souls in Jesus Christ’. He expounded that victory always belongs to the Lord and referenced 1 Maccabees where the winning side had the victory even though they were outnumbered by the other side because the Lord was their anchor.

He spoke of Romans 8:26, “the Spirit comes to help us in our weakness”. He extolled that we have been given spiritual power through our baptism. Fr Trevor noted that Adam and Eve did not decide on their own to sin, they were deceived. He asked us to be careful not to be deceived and fall into sin and to put on the armour of God every day to resist the tactics of the evil one.

A period of Ministry followed with the awesome manifestation of God’s power.  There was deliverance and healing, chains of enslavement were broken through the power of the Holy Spirit. Tears flowed freely from many, and praise and thanksgiving in song led by the St Anthony’s RC Choir, Point Fortin pervaded the atmosphere.

The day’s celebrations ended with Holy Mass, leaving pilgrims from Mayaro, Point Fortin, Sangre Grande, Laventille, Morvant, St Augustine and many other parts of the country, renewed, healed and empowered with the reinforcement of having Jesus as the anchor of our souls.—story and photo courtesy Cheryl Mader, parishioner, St Dominic’s RC Church, Morvant.