Unite in prayer and practical initiatives to break the darkness

Fr Trevor Nathasingh has passionately expressed his concerns about the state of Trinidad and Tobago, lamenting that this country is undergoing judgement, having “squandered the mercies of God,” and had regrettably lost the opportunity to be a beacon of light in the Caribbean. “Our greed and our selfishness and our pride and our hardness of heart made us lose it. We have lost it,” he said.

Drawing inspiration from the book of Hosea in the Bible, the priest likened T&T to God’s description of Israel as a “nation of whores”. He said, “When I read Hosea, I very often say ‘oh God, You talking to us because we have become like that’.” Preaching the homily at last Sunday’s June Laventille Devotions, Fr Nathasingh recalled that early in her tenure Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher called on the people to pray to God in whatever form they worship Him to change the situation. He made it clear that prayer alone can’t solve the problem: “We need concrete action, too. We need the people who have to do what has to be done to do it and stop passing the responsibility to somebody else. Yes, we are praying, but prayer has to be accompanied by action. Has to be,” he said.

Fr Nathasingh, who previously served as parish priest in Laventille and is now parish priest at St Paul’s RC Church, Couva, said Trinidad and Tobago was “languishing in darkness,” having “wasted the blessings that God has poured upon us.”

He said this country was meant to be a place where “the voice of God would flow through the Caribbean to raise up people who would become God’s people.”

Declaring that God as our loving Father would not abandon us, Fr Nathasingh issued a clarion call to Catholics not to take what is happening in the country “sitting down”, but rather to unite, both in prayer and in practical initiatives, to break the darkness that has engulfed their communities.

He encouraged them to stop being passive bystanders and embrace their responsibility as witnesses for God, actively reaching out to the marginalised and offering hope to those in need.

“Be willing to take our rosaries and walk the streets…. Gather together, pray together, initiate fasting in your communities to break the darkness that is upon us,” he said.

“We got to be on our knees; we got to be on our stomachs; we got to be crying out to God night and day, ‘save us, oh God, lest we perish’.”

The next Laventille Devotions will be held on Sunday, July 16.