Turks & Caikos

Sometimes holy places are made by the events that happened there, other times by current communities.

On this occasion I want to tell you about my experience in a very small community. We are talking about Providenciales Island in the West British Indies archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.

The island being part of Great Britain is predominantly Protestant, but despite its few inhabitants there is a strong Catholic community of which I want to tell you today. Based in the parish Our Lady of Divine Providence with a Colombian parish priest and two priests (one is Spanish, and the second I do not know what nationality it is but if Creole speaks, which is the language of those born here).

The three of them keep the flame of Jesus alive in the archipelago, traveling by plane once a month to some of the farthest islands where they celebrate the Holy Mass. But it really catches the attention that in this parish of the island of Providenciales there is daily Mass, two Masses on Saturdays and three Masses on Sundays, more adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on Fridays, at least that is how it is announced on the parish website, and this caught our attention: How was such a Catholic celebration possible on an island with few inhabitants and where the majority were Protestants? We should see that.

Then we go to the parish on Friday at the time indicated by the website as the beginning of the celebration of Holy Mass.

When we arrived we noticed that the church was closed, but before we got to thinking that we had been misinformed, a super nice lady approached us and told us that the Holy Mass was celebrated in the Adoration Chapel, which already sounded interesting.

There we went and at the beginning of the mass we were 8 people. It was clear to everyone that we did not belong to that community, but nobody cared about that. The Mass was beautiful, intimate and very close, with a Spanish priest speaking in English and everyone sitting around the altar. This already brought me a memory of the cenacle, of the last supper, a beautiful memory in itself.

When there were few celebrations lasting a little more than half an hour, at the end a lady approached us and told us that immediately after the Mass the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament began. Re-enter the same priest, we were about 15 people in the Chapel and began to pray, some prayers in English and others in Latin. Shortly before the priest entered, a man approached me and gave me two books, one was the Holy Rosary of Juan Pablo Segundo, and the other was a set of sentences in French, English, Creole and Latin, at that time I did not understand well because he gave it to me.

After the first minutes in Adoration, a person to my right begins to pray the Rosary in French, so we ended the first mystery in French. Then it was clearly my turn, but honestly I did not know what to do or rather, I do not speak French, in which language I should follow. Then a gentleman who only spoke Creole tells me that I should follow the second mystery in English.

My brain did not understand, without glasses I see little, and to that added to the emotion I had no idea how to continue, since in English there is no prayer, a lady continued to pray in English to help me finish the second mystery.

Then it is the turn of another lady who reads and reads the third mystery in Spanish. Each time my brain understood less. There comes the moment of the fourth mystery and the man who had reached me the little books at the beginning, if that one who only spoke Creole, says the fourth mystery in Creole. Up to here, four mysteries, four different languages, and we all understood what happened there. The moment of the fifth and last mystery comes and they read it and prayed between two people, one in French and the other in English. It was a Pentecost with modern leagues, everyone spoke their language and we all understood.

It was a unique experience, Santa since they are a Holy community. At the end we could talk with the pastor who told us that 6 years ago he is in this place, he also told us that on weekdays there are not many people in the Masses but that the weekends are usually more than 150 in each hour, being They give a mass in English, another in Spanish and the most popular in Creole, the native language of the island.

Its mission in this island is really difficult, since to the being British the majority of the inhabitants are protestants. So the question that arose and we asked the pastor was, Where do they celebrate Mass for so many people?

So he showed us the main temple, which certainly left us speechless. It is a modern temple that is only 5 years old, designed according to the 2nd Vatican Council. That is, one enters and the main figure is Christ and the celebrant sits under his image. From the chair of the celebrant towards the front of the temple is located the altar and following in the same direction the baptismal octagon. The parishioners sitting in assembly where everything can be seen between each other and of course, around the altar. Beautiful iconic paintings adorn the walls.

Traveler Tips.

• The islands called West British Indies also known as Turks & Caikos is not more than two hours flight from Miami.
• Providenciales is not the largest island, although it is the most developed.
• If you come, you can not fail to visit this parish called, Our Lady of Divine Providence, especially the Friday of adoration.
• We were not there for the celebration of Sunday, but they tell us that being so popular is very beautiful.
• The Holy community (sorry to call it that, but it is what I felt) is something special and worth living and learning

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