The different Orders which exist in Trinidad:

"As Holy Faith Sisters we are called to live our vowed life in community. Margaret Aylward desired that the lives of her sisters would be marked by the virtues of Humility, Simplicity, Faith and Charity and be rooted in Prayer, the practice of Discernment and the Eucharist. We treasure the core community values of sharing our lives and prayer - prayer which supports us in ministry and prayer for the needs of the Church and the world."

Growing up, I was familiar with the Holy Faith sisters or as they were more properly known, Sisters of the Holy Faith. On reading info from their website, I am reminded that the purpose of the blog was to capture a bit of information on the various orders as  well as the reason for the existence of the different orders as detailed in the extract above. http://www.holyfaithtt.net/. 

In searching for information on Margaret Aylward, I noted on wiki that the congregation was founded in Dublin, Ireland in 1857 and the sisters were originally involved in the areas of faith development and education. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_of_the_Holy_Faith  In Trinidad, most of the Holy Faith sisters  were involved in schools, both secondary and primary, some of which exist today. The sisters  were known for their practical faith based approach to matters. I remember  as a child in a group of students approaching a multiple choice exam, being told by sister who was dealing with numerous questions and requests to pray for us,  repsonding "when in doubt say "Holy Spirit help me to chose the right one."  Whether the prayer worked or not in helping me to select the right answer so as to pass the exam, it would bring a moment of calm which was badly needed in an exam.

One of the activities which the Holy Faith sisters are involved with today  deals with the establishment of the Holy Faith Archives  which was in response to  The Pastoral Function of the Church Archives, "In the mind of the Church, archives are places of memory of the Christian community and storehouses of culture for the new evangelization." [The Pastoral Function of Church Archives - 1997] http://www.holyfaithsisters.net/holy-faith-archives.

So back to the past and the original topic. It was only that on reaching adulthood, I started learning about orders, not that I paid much attention to them in the many years leading to the acquisition of the knowledge. All right so that is not quite true, I knew that there were monks who lived on a hill in our northern range of mountains which was called Mt. St. Benedict. There was a place close to the Mount which served tea that was quite inexpensive and it was enjoyable. See the link below: http://www.planetware.com/trinidad-north-range-and-north-coast/mount-st-benedict-monastery-tri-tri-mst.htm Gradually I learnt that the monks chanted at 3:00 pm on a Sunday afternoon, the Gregorian chants which were interesting to listen to. In time, I have learnt that some of these monks or Brothers as some are referred to, compose liturgical peces of music which are primarily used for Mass and other occasions. They teach and are employed in different professions. In short they contribute to the world. Also of interest is that the Abbey celebrated one hundred years of existence in October of 2012.

With blogging, you start planning to cover things from one angle and you end up with  a whole lot of stuff which was unplanned. While viewing the website for the Monks of St Benedict or as the location is more properly known,  the Abbey of Our Lady of Exile according to wiki, I found an article from the Vatican  which was titled Saying "I Believe In God The Father Almighty" Is Saying "I Believe In The Power Of God's Love" Vatican City, 30 January 2013 (VIS)" ttp://www.paxabbey.com/. I have not managed to read  the article as yet, however at a glance the first paragraph seems quite interesting as shown below:

The first and most fundamental definition that the Creed teaches us about God is that He is the Almighty Father. This was the theme of Benedict XVI's Wednesday catechesis during today's general audience that was held in the Paul VI Audience Hall.

"It isn't always easy today to speak about fatherhood," the Pope began, "...and, not having adequate role models, it even becomes problematic to imagine God as a father. For those who have had the experience of an overly authoritarian and inflexible father, or an indifferent, uncaring, or even absent one, it is not easy to calmly think of God as Father or to confidently surrender themselves to Him.

Perhaps the next order or two will go in an orderly manner.