DEAR EDITOR: “Lord, have mercy! Have mercy!” These were the words I exclaimed when I read the headlines “Death and Rape of four-year old”. It's times like these that make us think “Trinidad gone clear!”

Where are we going? We know we're going to Germany. It seems, however, that sweet T&T has another destination in mind and one that is certainly not sky-bound.

As I thought about my exclamation, “Lord have mercy!" I said to myself, “You know we say or sing these words at Mass during the penitential rite?” We need to say it more often, every day, every hour even.

What about the Divine Mercy, the mercy that God wants to richly pour onto us? The Divine Mercy, Message and Devotion book states;
“There is nothing that man needs more than Divine Mercy – that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights of the holiness of God.”

Are we a lip service people? Are our hearts truly merciful? Isaiah 29:13-14 says, “These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorised. So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools and all their cleverness will be useless.”

 Our catch phrase “God is a Trini!” will only go so far. If I were God I would be ashamed, that a place so blessed, named after the Trinity, is rife with murder, mayhem, corruption, abuse and is painting the world red, in Caribbean and international news like a red stop light that says, “Don't go there!”  

Remember Genesis 6: 13, 17: “God said to Noah, ‘I have decided to put an end to all people. I will destroy them completely, because the world is full of their violent deeds. I am going to send a flood on the earth to destroy every living being. Everything on the earth will die, but I will make a covenant with you.”

Is it just coincidence or is the Word being revealed through the happenings of our times? In 2004 we had hurricane Ivan and then the tsunami in East Asia. In 2005, we had Hurricane Katrina and the forecasts for 2006 predict even worse for this year.

We need to call on God's mercy, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). God is love and mercy. Let us remember the ABC's of Mercy (Ref: The Divine Mercy, Message and Devotion).

Ask for His mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.
Be merciful to others. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us.
Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.
CLEVA WEEKES, Vistabella

DEAR EDITOR: I am writing this in the hope that the great name of St Joseph of Cupertino will continue to be invoked by students as a source of enlightenment for their examinations.

After a very erratic secondary schooling period, which amounted to five years and one term. I was facing my Senior Cambridge Exams in 1949, feeling quite unprepared. I was then attending the Abbey School, Mount St Benedict, as a “day boy”. I went back to my previous alma mater, Arima High School, for private lessons in Maths, given personally by the headmaster, Archibald J Hinds.

Thomasine Inkim, now Mrs Elie, was a teacher at the St Joseph Convent in Arima at the time. Because I lived obliquely opposite the Convent, I would see Miss Inkim regularly. Also, her brother, Ligouri, along with Archie Didier – another Arima lad – and I used the bus to St John’s Road, Tunapuna and then either walked or caught the complimentary Abbey bus to school.

One day, near exam time, Miss Inkim came across to my home bringing with her a very neatly written out prayer to St Joseph of Cupertino, patron saint of examinations.

I read the prayer frequently and am convinced it had a great deal to do with achieving my First Grade – three distinctions and five credits. I suppose approximately three A’s and five B’s in today’s ratings. Believe me, my exam results surprised my school and certainly surprised me!

Throughout my life I have kept this prayer, encouraging my own children and, now our grandchildren to become devoted to St Joseph. Here is the prayer:

“O great St Joseph of Cupertino who, by your intercession, obtained through God to be asked the only proposition you know, grant that, likewise, I shall be enlightened in the exams which I am about to take. In return, I promise to make thy name known and invoked always.” One Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Glory Be.

I have never forgotten my promise and, in asking the Catholic News to print this inspiriting story, I am continuing to fulfill my promise made to St Joseph 57 years ago.
Cecil Ince, Barbados