Replace hopelessness with Christ-like values

“My dear sisters and brothers, in my Christmas Homily, I stressed the need for every believer in this land of ours to become another Christ. This is necessary if we are to walk in the light,” he told a packed congregation. “We must not be outwardly content to walk in despair and hopelessness. To walk in the light demands from all of us a conscious and concerted effort,” he said.

Alluding to the domestic abuse and violence which affected many families over the past year, Harris also urged listeners to heed the advice of Pope Francis who has called repeatedly for world peace, harmony in the home, and intercession to the Blessed Mother.

“Let her show us the image of God in each and every person and treat everyone with the love and respect that every image of God deserves,” he said.

The archbishop said that if TT were to progress as a nation in 2017, the country must denounce the things which held it back.

Referring to the country’s motto, “Together we aspire. Together we achieve,” he said, “Let us together say no to selfishness and greed.

Let us say no to violence and abuse. Let us so no to dishonesty and corruption, and together let us say yes to love, yes to hope and to the values that Jesus taught us.

If we do that, we will walk in the light.” The mass was preceded by a solemn vigil to commemorate the centennial of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. It featured a public unveiling of a 500 pound, eight-foot statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary as she had appeared to three young shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917. The statue carved by Portuguese sculptor Guilherme Ferreira Thedim in 1949. It is expected to be taken to several parishes in the coming months. The statue has travelled from Fatima and Lisbon in Portugal to Dublin and Dundalk in Ireland and finally to Port-of-Spain.