Our Lady of Montserrat’s Harvest Festival

This year, our celebration of Our Lady’s birthday fell exactly on her birth date (September 8) and whenever that happens, the Tortuga Community explodes into animated activity and planning as if we are planning a surprise party for our Mother, ensuring that every detail is executed to the highest level.

This year, the theme of the celebrations was, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus (Luke 1:42). The community also reflected and prayed together daily on “Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit, says the Almighty” (Zech 4:6).

Our Triduum prepared us spiritually and during our Stall Holders’ Mass on the First Saturday, all went to Confession, purifying ourselves to receive the fruit of Mary’s womb, Jesus.

Whenever our Lady visits us and speaks through visionaries, she reminds us that all people are her children. In Tortuga, we live this proclamation. Non-Catholic villagers along the route of the Procession cleaned their yards and decorated with blue and gold balloons and streamers preparing for an annual Visitation, this time accompanied by the Presentation College, San Fernando Scout’s Band. As she passed, she dispensed blessings and graces and her maternal love to all.

Thousands climbed the hill to participate in the Procession, partake of Jesus’ Body and Blood during the sacred liturgy led by Fr Robert Christo in a fiery explosion of Holy Spirit power. Souls were touched, Our Lady’s children danced and sang in jubilation at her presence in her Shrine and every corner of the mountaintop.

Our Lady of Montserrat travelled 7,026 km over sea and land, from Catalonia, Spain to Tortuga, to live with us in Trinidad and Tobago. Just as she sought out Elizabeth of the Hill Country,  Bernadette of Lourdes, Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia of Fatima and Juan Diego of Mexico City, she seeks out all of us her children in Tortuga, Trinidad and Tobago and the world. She waits for you every minute of every day in Tortuga. What a special inheritance Jesus left us… We celebrate her through our Harvest celebrations every year.

—Diane Bertrand, President of the Shrine Committee