Reflections from the Retreat November 2025

Last month I had my first trip to a neighbouring country and visited Trinidad. It was just for a weekend, but it was long enough for me to see a little of this large island, which is just off Venezuela.

I went to a conference on the Saturday, but I had the Friday to explore the capital, Port of Spain. In some ways it felt like I was back in the UK with busy motorways, large industrial estates, high-rise buildings and affluent shopping malls. It has been a while since I have been stuck in a motorway traffic jam or been on an escalator! Although there is some debate on this, Trinis boast of having the largest roundabout in the world. This circular road goes round the Queen's Park Savannah in Port of Spain and is over 2 miles long and is certainly the largest roundabout I have ever seen!

There was an interesting mixture of architecture with a beautiful, modern glass domed theatre, Trinidad’s version of the twin towers and ornate Victorian colonial houses. Many of the residential houses have the traditional ‘Trinidadian gingerbread’ décor like the blue and white house above, with lacy edges to the roofs and a very decorative use of palm trees and other foliage.

My friend, Rosemary, offered me a choice of lunch by the beach or in the mall and I surprised both of us when I chose the mall as a change from the usual! We had a lovely Italian meal served by some of the many Venezuelans who live in Trinidad. Sadly, during the same weekend, a USA war ship sailed into the port and USA fighter jets were blowing up fishing boats which were supposedly carrying drugs from Venezuela. Visiting a supermarket, people were wondering whether to start bulk buying essentials in case war was about to break out, with President Trump’s growing threats and surprise attacks.

It is an unsettling time in this region of the world, and we were also unsettled and shaken up on the first evening of my stay.  I had just gone upstairs when there was suddenly a loud noise which I assumed was a heavy truck. But then I realised that the house was shaking. It only lasted a few seconds and no damage was done. We later discovered that it was a 5.2 magnitude earthquake, which is about in the middle of the Richter scale.

Over the last few decades, my spiritual journey has led me into the richness of the Christian contemplative traditions. Sadly however, churches do not often teach these traditions or encourage a contemplative approach. It is usually the monastic communities and retreat houses that keep these practices alive, and I have been grateful for my own community of Contemplative Fire in the UK. They offer regular online gatherings and events that I have been able to join, thanks to zoom. However, I have missed physically meeting up with like-minded people and feeling part of a community.

I haven’t found a contemplative community in Grenada, but I have discovered one in Trinidad called the Foundation for Human Development, hence my visit. Not long after I moved here, I joined one of their online Centering prayer groups. They run twelve such groups and I have been attending weekly for about 18 months. We have a time of meditation together and then read and discuss a book such as our current book ‘Intimacy with God’ by Thomas Keating. The person I stayed with, Rosemary, is from our weekly group. It was so good to get to know her and yet we felt we had already known each other for years.

When I first came across their website, I knew that the Foundation was significant for myself and for the Hummingbird Retreat. Their vision is to ‘facilitate authentic personal, spiritual and social development and transformation’ through Centering prayer, counselling, workshops and retreats. Their approach and offerings are so aligned to the vision of the Hummingbird Retreat that I knew that I needed to go and visit.

The foundation was established over twenty years ago by a Spanish nun called Sister Paul D’Ornellas. She worked in education and instead of retiring at 60 she began a new venture focusing on human development. Her work was driven by her questions of what does it mean to be fully human and fully alive? What does human development mean and how do we develop our humanity? She continued working for another 25 years offering courses, providing counselling and developing prayer groups. She invited Father Thomas Keating to visit the Foundation and the centre has strong links with his USA organisation, Contemplative Outreach. Her story is certainly an inspiration to me, as I start the work of the retreat at a similar age.

Sister Paul was a sister with the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny. This order originated from the vision of another single woman, Anne Marie. Anne Marie was in her early twenties in France during the French revolution and decided to become a nun. After a while she started the order of St Joseph of Cluny and worked in French colonies in Africa, South America and the Caribbean. There are now 2,600 sisters of this order in 57 countries including Grenada and Trinidad, providing education and care to the poor in various schools and ministries.

In Trinidad, I attended the Foundation for Human Development’s annual conference, and it was quite surreal meeting people for the first time, who I had only met before on zoom. It was a special moment to sit and meditate together in the same room with some of my group, along with about 50 others from the different small groups. There was a sense of homecoming, and the day was full of rich conversations with people who read similar books to me and see the world in a similar way. Everyone I spoke to seemed to have family in Grenada or be partly Grenadian themselves and with the flight only being about half an hour, people were excited to learn about the plans for a retreat house in Grenada. I have arranged a follow meeting with the Foundation’s Chief Operating Officer, and it feels like a growing partnership between our contemplative ministries could develop.

Their conference was at the beautiful Ortinola Great House (shown below) which sits on a 430-acre estate. This was out in the country and so it felt like returning to Grenada as we drove away from the capital towards the hills and rainforest. Interestingly cacao was grown and processed here by Cadburys to create their chocolate in the 1900’s and the current owners still make their own chocolate. It is now a popular tourist attraction offering chocolate-making tours as well as being a venue for various events and celebrations.

Each Caribbean island is different and in Trinidad the strong Indian influence was easy to spot. Indo-Caribbean people are the largest ethnic group, descended from indentured labourers brought from India. They provided a workforce for the plantations, after the abolition of slavery in the 1800s.

The conference began with a traditional Tassa welcome which is popular for Indian weddings and celebrations. The large bass drum is called a dhol, the pair of hand cymbals are known as jhal and the smaller drum is the tassa drum. This was certainly a loud and rhythmic way to get our attention so that we would move on from the welcoming refreshments and to start the conference!

Another Trinidadian tradition, which stems from India, is the roti. As we drove up to the conference, we saw a long queue of people getting their breakfast of ‘Doubles'. These are two soft, fried flatbreads called bara filled with curried chickpeas and usually eaten at breakfast time. I think I will need a few more trips to Trinidad before I can build up to curry for breakfast!

There were so many things that made me feel at home in Trinidad; some things that reminded me of the UK and other things that reminded me of Grenada, but most of all the community of fellow contemplatives who made me feel so welcome. You may remember in the last blog that I spoke about my love for Celtic weaving and even their symbol for the Foundation made me feel at home, because it is this Celtic cross.