Catholic women called to be breach-menders for family, nation

By Lara Pickford-Gordon

snrwriter.camsel@catholictt.org

Why are children today so fragile and lacking resilience? It was a rhetorical question posed by Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon as he preached the homily last Saturday (March 8) at the St Joseph’s Convent Chapel, Port of Spain.

Celebrating Mass before the Catholic Women’s Conference, Women of God: Pilgrims of Hope Founded on Faith, which took place as the country marked International Women’s Day 2025, he commented that “civilisation is in ruins”.

He said family is in ruins because of ego and with everybody wanting to win, “nobody can win”.  He added, “What is laying in ruins is the children. Look at the children today and tell me how we reach to the place, where our children at this time are so fragile?…Where for some piece of stupidness, a remote, a child will go to try and take their life, with no resilience whatsoever.”

Asking the congregation, “Sisters, how do we rebuild this?” he said the “blueprint” was found in the First Reading Isaiah 58:9-14, “Then you will cry for help and Yahweh will answer; you will call and he will say, ‘I am here.’ If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist and malicious words”(9).

Archbishop Gordon explained the yoke was the burdens placed on others; the clenched fist was the inner anger, violence, retribution, “holding people in mind” while the wicked words were the gossiping, “words to break down and pull down”. The reading “is a call to conversion of heart”.

It is opening oneself to the Holy Spirit of God that brings renewal in every way possible. The Archbishop said, “Then the light will come, then the water of God will come, and you will become  a breach-mender” he said referencing verse 12, “Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt; you will build on age-old foundations. You will be called breach-mender”.

He explained the breach was the hole in the wall through which the invading army entered, and if they were not stopped, the city was conquered. The breach-mender blocked the incursion.

Archbishop Gordon said: “The breach is significant right now and it is everywhere, and its pouring into the family, into the nation, into our hearts, into our lives; you will be called breach-mender, rebuilder of ruined cities, you will build on ancient foundations, and this is what it is to be a Pilgrim of Hope”.

Describing the hour as dark and civilisation crashing, Archbishop Gordon was assured God has a plan. He further stated, “God’s plan is you and me listening to His Word, obeying His Word and becoming disciple. That is His plan”.

Give light

Keynote speaker Rhonda Maingot, co-foundress/Director of the Living Water Community (LWC) shared her “annunciation”, the calling received March 13, 1975. She narrated her return to the Catholic Church and founding of the LWC with Rose Jackman.

“It had all to do with God, the power of His Spirit and intercession of His holy mother; these years have been a tribute to that,” she said. Maingot urged attendees to think about their own annunciation moment, asking, “As a woman, what is God asking of you?”

Speaking on ‘Women of Faith: Pilgrims of Hope, Agents of Transformation’, Maingot mentioned the resilience, faith and hope of Rosa Parks who stood up against racism in the United States, and St Teresa of Kolkata, whose sacrifice, pain and suffering gave “that sign of faith and hope and resilience”.

Maingot, who met Mother Teresa and spoke to her on the phone, said the saint had times of exasperation and frustration but became as Mary, a sign in the world. Similarly, Catholic women committed to God should also “give light in a world of darkness, and to bring compassion and caring to the poorest of the poor.”

Maingot gave a rallying call for women to remain steadfast in faith and hope despite the pain and suffering in the world. “Now is the time to be that person of light, now is the time to be that person of hope, now is the time to be resilient.” Even when there is a threat to life, she said no one can take away Jesus or Heaven.

The event was a collaboration between the Archdiocese and the Missionaries of the Divine Potter. Its founder Bernadette Burke spoke on ‘Mary, Queen of Hope: Our Guiding Light on the Pilgrimage of Faith’, highlighting five situations in which Our Lady played a role: The Annunciation, the Wedding Feast at Cana, from Cana to Calvary, Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe and Mary at the battle of Lepanto.

Other speakers were: Fr Urban Hudlin OP, with ‘Called, Chosen, and Sent: Women as Beacons of Hope in Today’s World’; Taresa Best-Downes, Episcopal Delegate for Youth, ‘Empowered in Faith: Inspiring Young Catholic Women to Live with Purpose and Hope’, and Madame Justice Tricia Hudlin-Cooper, speaking on ‘Building a Legacy of Hope in Unshaken Faith’.