“Acclaim and live the Eucharist and we'll see change”, urged Tricia Hudlin at last Sunday's Laventille Devotions, the first in this year's series.

This dynamic and animated preacher called on all to not “shy away” from the very words of Jesus, who instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist when he said, “This is my body”.

“We are called to see with that eye of faith”, Hudlin noted, “Jesus said, ‘This is my body', and not (it) feels like my body or blood”. “Why be ashamed to say this?” she asked. “Jesus is the great teacher and made no attempt to correct those words...he meant what he said”, she stated.

Hudlin's homily in her hometown was quite engaging as she spoke with clarity and conviction about Eucharistic adoration. She even used some Trini slang and sayings that evoked some humour. “When we spend time with him (Jesus) we fixing the roof before rainy season”, she said. 

From time to time, sounds of agreement and slight applause were heard from the large gathering of Catholic faithful, who were mostly seated under tents, and some umbrellas that shaded a momentary drizzle from the overcast sky.

On relationships within the family and in the workplace, she warned that “we must be careful about loving the God we cannot see and not loving our mother, not talking to our father and hating our siblings...despising those we see”. She called for self-examination, asking, “Are we conflict makers?” and “Do we gossip and keep silent about God's word?”

“To whom much is given much is expected” she challenged, “Where Jesus went things changed. He was a revolutionary”.

She expressed that Jesus' words are spirit and life and that “we have no life in us unless we eat and drink of him”. “It is our Lord”, she said, affirming Christ's presence in the Eucharist.

Hudlin lamented that in today's society “we too busy with problems we have no answer for and can't even feel nor see him”. “We know that Jesus is the source and the answer”, she said, yet this knowledge only brings lip service, which “needs to sink in our hearts”.

“Jesus said ‘I am the way' ”, she asserted, referring to the answer for the ills of the society, including crime and other crises currently plaguing the country.

It is not “spending money on…more vehicles and more guns”. She reminded all “where sin abounds grace much more abounds” and that “Jesus invites us to humble ourselves, turn from our wicked ways and he'll heal our land”.

“Adoration in the life of every Catholic is a must!” she exclaimed, “Jesus is right there, why settle for a trickling of the anointing when Jesus ready to let you have it!”

She also spoke of needing “Christ's fortification, that precious blood of Jesus”, “praying” and laying a foundation “before the enemy comes.” She urged all not to take their eyes off his promises lest we sink like Peter.

In closing, she encouraged all to “remember the power and authority that God has given us”, to ”take Jesus wherever we go” and to “look at God's great nest, not our great mess”.

Errol Cooper honoured

Before the devotions, Archbishop Gilbert presented Errol Cooper, former coordinator of the Laventille devotions, with a papal award, honouring him as a Knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great. Cooper then delivered a short address.

Archbishop Gilbert pins the papal medal on Errol Cooper

Cooper, who retired as devotions coordinator two years ago, after approximately fifteen years of service, remarked that he was always heavily involved in the parish beginning in 1950.

In his short addressed he thanked Archbishop Gilbert for recommending and obtaining the papal honour “which has provided great pleasure to my family, especially my wife Virginia and so many people in the communities in which I served.”

He regretted the fact that “the Hill” is now so harshly criticised. “I know there is a lot of good abounding in great measure in every aspect of life in the community – family, academic, religious, cultural.

But we are challenged. It is high time, not only to curse the darkness, but to highlight, with equal vibrancy and positiveness, the good with which Laventille is so richly blessed.”

Leading this first of 2005 series, were students of the Sacred Heart Girls' RC School guided by some of their teachers and principal Barbara Lowhar. La Romaine RC School is scheduled to lead the June devotions.