RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Arch­bish­op Ja­son Gor­don says there is too much neg­a­tiv­i­ty in T&T which has poi­soned peo­ple’s minds, mak­ing them find fault with every­thing.

De­liv­er­ing the Ash Wednes­day ser­mon at Our La­dy of Per­pet­u­al Church, in San Fer­nan­do, Arch­bish­op Gor­don called on the coun­try to re­duce the amount of time they spend on so­cial me­dia and use the time in­stead to pray, med­i­tate and give thanks.

“Of late we have a lot of neg­a­tiv­i­ty about T&T. Have you no­ticed? Lots of neg­a­tiv­i­ty. This is not a re­al place and then all that neg­a­tiv­i­ty. Could we fast from neg­a­tiv­i­ty over Lent?” he asked.

Chal­leng­ing the con­gre­ga­tion to en­gage in 40 days of fast­ing dur­ing Lent to free them­selves from neg­a­tiv­i­ty, Gor­don said: “There is so much beau­ty in our twin is­land Re­pub­lic and like every re­la­tion­ship you look at the faults. All you see are the faults and you lose what is beau­ti­ful. You lose what is true, gra­cious and glo­ri­ous and all you start to see is what is wrong.”

He added: “As Trinida­di­ans and To­bag­o­ni­ans we have be­come ex­perts at find­ing fault in every­thing.” Arch­bish­op Gor­don en­cour­aged the pub­lic to pray more dur­ing the Lenten pe­ri­od and to put aside alms for the poor.

“This lent I want you to con­sid­er where are you with God. Is the re­la­tion­ship tight, cosy or have you had some dis­tance from God? Have you at­tend­ed mass every Sun­day or is it now and again? Have you been pray­ing every day? Is prayer a part of your rou­tine life or do you pray when you re­mem­ber? Where is God in your life?” he asked.

He said Lent in­volves three prac­tices– prayer, fast­ing and alms­giv­ing.

“What if this year we found more time in our day for prayer? Do you think we could do that? Do you know where to find the time? Well, look at how much time you spend on so­cial me­dia. How much time you spend on TV, so pull back on so­cial me­dia and take some of that time to make more time for God in our prayer,” he added.

Arch­bish­op Gor­don al­so asked the con­gre­ga­tion whether T&T need­ed a day of pub­lic re­pen­tance.

Say­ing 2023 should be re­gard­ed as “the moth­er of all Lents”, Arch­bish­op Gor­don ad­vised the coun­try to make sac­ri­fices and put aside alms which they can then share with poor peo­ple at the end of the Lenten pe­ri­od.