Monday August 11th: Trust in Jesus
August 11, 2025
Tuesday August 12th: Childlike Trust
August 12, 2025
By Lara Pickford-Gordon
Snrwriter.camsel@catholictt.org
Proud to be Catholic. Proud to be Trini. This is how Mark Howell-Paul—musician, artiste and Spoken Word poet, sums up his song ‘A Year of Jubilee’.
It is the latest local composition for the Jubilee Year and seeks to inspire appreciation for the beauty of being both Catholic and Trinbagonian. “The beauty of the Catholic Church is beyond anything, and the beauty of our Trinidadian people—our country is so beautiful—so when people see that, I want them to feel a sense of pride in what we have…We can feel pride in merging who we are as Trinidadians, and merging with our faith, and giving it as sacrifice and praise to God,” he told The Catholic News in an interview.
The video begins at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Port of Spain and traverses other sacred sites: Our Lady of Fatima, Curepe, St Francis, Sangre Grande; Our Lady of Montserrat, Tortuga and St Joseph RC, Scarborough, Tobago. It ends at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, San Fernando. Drone footage incorporated into the video offers awesome panoramic scenes. Visiting the sites took two months of travelling “and many late nights”, Howell-Paul said as the video launched online on July 31.
‘Jozayah’, Josiah Duprey, contributes vocals to the song. The video also includes a sound bite from Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon, a clarion call he used at the opening of each sacred site, urging Catholics to welcome all the graces of the Jubilee Year.
From uncertainty to hope
The song’s refrain, “This is the Year of Jubilee, hey, hey, hey, open your eyes and you will see…” captures the exuberance that comes from hope in God’s providence.
Another line—“When you’re going down a slippery slope and you’re clinging to the end of the rope, and you’re finding it so hard to cope, here comes God to give you hope”—was born from Howell-Paul’s own sense of hopelessness as 2025 began. “It just felt like this year was hopeless. For the first time, I did not know what was going to happen. I didn’t even get any calls or messages saying, ‘Happy New Year’, which was a strange thing for me. I felt like, what is happening? Where am I going? I just felt like I was just going down and down into a path of darkness not knowing where to go”.
He reflected on this disquiet and one day had a conversation with Archbishop Gordon. The advice given resonated with him, “hope is remembering—believing—that God’s plan for your life will be fulfilled.” Howell-Paul added, “That stuck with me. And [I] then just reflected on that, and the idea came to write this song. Immediately, I just felt this sense of hope that something is going to happen this year. I don’t know what it is, but something good is going to happen this year.”
The beauty of Christianity and T&T
While the song aligns with the worldwide Jubilee Year observance, Howell-Paul grounds it in local culture: “I just wanted to showcase the beautiful churches. That was the main thought process behind this video… it’s a song about the Jubilee across the world but when you pair it with this video—showcasing what we have in Trinidad—it brings it home to us and really bring us that sense of appreciating the beautiful churches, the beautiful art, the hospitality that we have in Trinidad and Tobago”.
The opportunity to visit all the sacred sites—both to film the video and as a pilgrim of hope—has been impactful. “No journey is without its challenges,” he shared. While it was difficult to coordinate the scheduling of visits, he described the hospitality extended to him and his team by sacred sites committees as “really beautiful.” He continued, “Many different churches have different things to offer to pilgrims. I think it’s really beautiful to really get a sense of the culture of the community as well.”
Howell-Paul, who is from San Fernando, said that as a child, his family would visit different churches “once in a while, every other weekend”, attending Mass in various communities. He is pleased with the excitement surrounding the Jubilee pilgrimage, “I’m really grateful for this year. When I got the Pilgrims’ Passport for the first time, I immediately got excited. This is something I really enjoy.”
A teacher by profession, Howell-Paul is a parishioner of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, San Fernando, and is involved in youth ministry. He has built a following with his live performances at harvests around the country. When asked about the impact of the Jubilee Year on young people, he said, “Many young people seem to be just skating through life. Sometimes I find myself skating through life at different moments. So, a Jubilee Year of Hope is really a time where they should be excited. They should be just excited about the future, excited about where God wants them. And if we can create opportunities and experiences for young people where they can encounter that excitement, I think then we’re putting them on the right path.”
Howell-Paul thanked Jozayah for lending his voice and energy to the project, as well as videographers Kristian Luces Productions and Bilal Bennett, along with all the sacred site committees and parish priests for their gracious support in allowing filming.
View the ‘Year of Jubilee (Official Music Video)’ by |Mark Howell-Paul featuring Jozayah now available online.
