Category Archives: Prison

Who has control of your world? Emotions or Logic?

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Completed Orientation Training so I can continue to enter prison and share the Gospel of Good News! Our modern day prison is full of throw away people! Hym – symbolic of our throw away society! They serve as keys with the potential to begin to open understanding of the brokenness of our modern day sophisticated, so called compassionate and politically correct culture has inflicted upon us as it continues to fails us all!

Most don’t want to see them or know the story of how they ended up there! A prison is full of emotions often on the edge of explosion. Last week I was not allowed in prison because it was in lock down. Emotions alone create unrest and danger! To hear the Good news one must venture beyond emotions to engage the mind and spirit so one can discover the gifts of logic that can lead one to faith and answers that save!

Which Prison has Stronger Bars – A Prison or the World?

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I have been visiting a State prison for ten years now. Anything I bring in I am required to carry in a clear plastic see through bag. I am searched at the guard gate. I can only carry in my ID, car key and clear bag which is also run through a scanner along with my shoes, belt and glasses. Then I must walk through a scanner, pull out my front and back pockets and pull up my pant legs. Only then can I put myself back together again. Even with all this – bad stuff happens in the prison. It is not uncommon for the prison to be in lock down and I would not be allowed in. If lock down happens while I am there I will not be allowed to leave.

Do we really want to model our schools after a prison? Do we still have the ability and courage to ask the deeper questions about the failure of those in authority whose primary task it is to protect and teach how to navigate the real world of emotions, feelings and balance them with the courage of wisdom willing to search for the cause of the human breakdown and failure so our children may come to understand the lessons taught by Cain and Abel?

Emotions run high in a prison and they are running high in our land! I wonder what we are teaching our children? Emotions are a gift and serve a vital purpose -> send us on a search for wisdom and understanding!

We have an awful lot of unanswered questions about leadership failures of adults in authority! How can a gun law work – when responsible adults knowingly do not report serious problems, if known could have prevented the problem in the first place. And why do we refuse to allow well trained brave people willing to sacrifice themselves defend themselves? When will we ask these questions with equal intensity?

I wonder if modern man has the capacity to use the gift of logic and wisdom or has our modern world of reality TV world of instant gratification and answers over ridden our capacity to search the depths of our soul?

I wonder if we are being manipulated by those who support an agenda to make a “Change we can believe in” without clearly defining the “Change”. Are we going to let our emotions trap us in a prison?

I am a Father and a Grand Father. It is my God given duty and responsibility to protect and defend my children. Our founding Fathers were wise men who understood the lessons of Cain and Abel.

Gut Level Reactions – The Spirit is Talking to the Brain!

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Gut level reactions! They are a gift from God. It is God’s way for the spirit that lives within to speak to the body – to tell the body a treasured value has been violated. Some conclude the treasured value must be correct and can not be challenged. However, God gave us the story of salvation history to teach us the truth.

Our values are set while we are children. Just how mature are we as children? God understands our humanity and knows we can not examine our values again unless a gut level reaction takes place that sets us on a serious journey for the cause of the upset!

Jesus Christ came to testify to the truth and told us the truth would set us free (from the constraints of our humanity). Jesus traveled about preaching, teaching and healing. Ask yourself!!!!!!!!!! What was the reaction of the people of his day??? When they came to understand the Good News message he was spreading what did they do???

They plotted to shut him up! They plotted to trick him! They plotted to use the laws of their day to have him shut up by destroying him! We know the gut level reaction of many in his day was to crucify him in a way to shut anyone else up who might dare to speak the Good News he was sent to testify.

And what did his best buddies do? They abandoned him and hide. But hidden in the story is the gut level reaction that took place even in those who failed as a result of his faithfulness. The gifts of the spirit hidden within his friends ultimately worked it’s way to the surface and transformed them! The Spirit touched them and they immediately embarked upon a journey to spread the good news in the midst of a culture that thought it had shut him up!

We are living in a culture that is the midst of an upheaval of gut level reactions. It might just be wisdom to reflect upon the story which communicates cost and price of true freedom brought by one willing to die that we might have the hope true freedom and life everlasting!

P.S. last night in prison, one of the inmates was informed just before he came to the Catholic service, he was unexpectedly going to be set free the end of August 2018. Now I have to tell you that triggers the spirit hidden in the words “Lord Have Mercy”!!!

Pray for our Nation and our people, especially those so caught up in a gut level reaction that the spirit of wisdom and healing is tied up so tight the ability heal the brokenness of humanity is blocked. Remember the words – forgive them father they know not what they do! Lord have Mercy!

Turf Protection Unseen – It’s my Turf -er- Sin Hiding behind Authority:

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Working on Sermon for Spanish Class. Write it in English first then translate and later deliver in Spanish. I chose Gospel of Mark 9: 38 – 50 – Story of Jesus disciples complaining someone outside the inner group was healing folks in his name. Tell them to stop – human nature’s jealousy reaction! If they are not against me – hummm thinking as smoke comes out my ears!

So in 2018 we know some in the elite group we call clergy have been very naughty!
Did I tell you I plan to use this reflection in prison to those found guilty and locked away in a prison?  Could a real prisoner one day play a part in healing souls buried in a kind of authority prison where few clergyman are willing to enter?

I wonder just how many of you would seek to silence the voice of one willing to step into the darkness carrying only a light of hope hidden from eyes blinded by bars created to suggest only the inner group posses the grace to set others free?

Do we believe what Jesus taught? Could be time for those outside the inner authority circle who follow Christ’s lead to begin to find the voice that has been encouraged to be locked away waiting for a sign it’s time to speak and act!

Perhap’s we need someone rejected and imprisoned to show us the pathway to freedom?

Mirror Mirror on The Wall – Stop Talking!

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Got an unexpected text from an inmate who has been working out of the govenors mansion for the last three years. I helped him become Catholic about 5 or 6 years ago. After he was baptized he asked me why his cell mate began to criticize his every move. I told him when one begins to follow Jesus magic happens and they turn into a mirror. Folks look into that magic mirror and they don’t like what they see. It can take awhile before they realize their unhappiness lives inside and not in the one who serves as the mirror!
Long journey for this man. Brought up in a family involved in crime. That’s just the way it was.
Good good good news can take a long time and the cost often comes at a price of folks trying to drag one down in the mud. It’s I gotta drag you down to act bad like you used to so I don’t Feel bad about being bad!
Envey and jealousy can cause some folks to tear another person to schreds.
A lifer has plenty of experience listening to that negative voice. When the truth finally sets one free it is time to celebrate and pray the chains of sin will be cast into the never ending fire.
Me – I am gonna plan on attending Mass with this man and his God Father when the Day of Liberation opens the gates of prison and we can walk in the light of freedom!

Will Emotion Override and Cloud the Spirit’s Path to Logic and Truth?

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I listened to a young man pour out his emotions as he spoke on TV about the terror and trauma he experienced during the mass shootings that took place at the Parkland High School in Broward County, Florida.   It was gut wrenching to listen to.  My heart was torn as I listened as his words.  It caused me think of my own children and grand children.

Emotions are a vital part of our human condition.  More than that they are truly a gift from our creator.  Emotions serve as the only source capable of taking a human on a journey to the core of our soul where we encounter our human values.  But more importantly, they take us on a journey so we can see ourselves face to face as in a mirror.  It is as if we must be dragged kicking and screaming into a Garden long ago set aside as the place where blo0d is sweat as the human heart engages the battle where emotions attempt to drive us away from looking into the mirror of truth.  Said another way, emotions seek to focus on a simple solution rather than confront the ancient symbolism hidden in a seamless garment.  The truth of the temple of our soul is intimately connected to the human search for the purpose of a people so loved they have been granted free will.  The pain of emotions can distort truth as one who seeks to avoid the journey to the only source with the potential to wash the human family clean and make us whole again.

Hold on to that image of the seamless garment for within it’s creation lies the secret of one who is willing to offer up life as the price of penetrating the human heart and restoring mobility to a stiff neck!  The truth found in the blood found on the ground speaks to a hope beyond measure!

Here in this mirror lies a treasure, a gift from our creator where the real possibility exists to confront and overcome human natures original sin!  Sin the modern world seeks to ignore and worse deny!  In this mirror the image and likeness of our creator one cannot  ignored or escape!  The source of truth is dimly lit to a new arrival and the values buried within are designed to lead us to the truth in the beginning hearken to a soul thirsting and longing for an answers!  Here in this garden of agony one encounters the potential to ingest the breath of ancient truths again as in the first time.  Emotions erupt from deep within our gut as they crawl upward into our heart and mind creating the only unrest that can open the door that can lead to the search for hope we can find again the sacredness and treasure of life!  The question is  will take the time necessary to endure the journey to the core of our soul where we can encounter the spirit and wisdom that created us.  It is in the deeps of our soul where emotion can be balanced with the gifts of logic, wisdom, understanding of the purpose of the creator’s plan that calls people to freely choose the journey with the potential usher in real hope for a healthy human family.

A gun on the other hand is just metal and cold.  It has no spirit, no emotions and cannot make a decision.  It can not pick itself up, load itself or pull it’s trigger.  It lacks warmth or breath.  A gun has no emotions and cannot reflect upon anything that happens to it or it’s impact on any living being.  Why are we investing so much time on an inanimate object with no potential to save us?

As I listened to this young man, I too was sent on a journey to the core of my soul and began to ask the spirit in the mirror questions.  Who was this young man who picked up that gun?  What happened to him?  Who were his parents and how did he get that gun?  What questions are being asked about this young man and his environment?  Guns were allowed in school when I was a kid and this kind of event never took place.  What has changed?

Can we examine the seamless garment without being executed?  Do we really have an understanding of who we were created to be?  Is our focus on an inanimate object or the core of the soul of humanity?

If you made it thus far, will you come with me on a journey through the flawed memories of a child beginning to digest and grasp at the seamless garment and how it runs through the whole of humanity where not a single soul is without impact?

Is anyone willing to ask, have all the political attacks over the past several years on the police had an impact?  he alone the associated demand for body cameras?  Have we  pushed our policemen into political correct precautionary non life saving behaviors?  Someone with courage needs to be willing to ask?  Have our emotions and power agendas overridden our ability to have courage under fire?

How about the violence in so many neighborhoods?  How about the self inflicted wounds of gender-ism?  Isn’t the DNA we are born with the DNA we will die with?  Did God make a mistake when he created us?  Is there something else in play?  Have we now declared ourselves to be God?  How about the breakdown of families?  How about the destruction of life for those who cannot speak?  How about a feminist movement that does not include mothers?  How about the stripping of a mans ancient obligation to the mother and their children?   In the beginning God created man and woman and it was good.  The two became one flesh.  Abortion kills not only the child but the father for the two are no longer one flesh!

Do we have any real men in political life?

Why are so many people today taking drugs for everything?  Why are TV commercial’s full of advertisements for new drugs?  Does a pill correct every situation?  Do our brain’s work any more?  Why do we want to stop letting boys be boys?  Why are so many young men in prison and why are they so angry with their parents?  Why are we afraid to ask these questions?

When I was a kid we allowed prayer to be taken out of school about the time I finished.  We allowed abortion to begin to flourish at about the same time.   Why do our politicians support the abortion of 60 million babies and then insist we need 60 million immigrants?

Does anyone recognize the abortion decision declared a death sentence on a father’s right to protect his children?  Do gun free so called safe zones override the right of a father to protect his child from a principal whose policies do not report crimes which undermines the law intended to keep guns out of the hands of individual’s with histories of violence?  Are our police and sheriff’s bullied by the politically correct and unwittingly unleashed the violent and mentally unstable on society.  Has politics destroyed common sense?  Have we become so smart and tolerant that we are now become our own worst enemy?  Have we declared that sin is dead and people are just misunderstood?

Have we allowed a judge to override the voice of the people?  Have we allowed a judge to declare the father of a child has no rights even in a marriage?  Why do we want to destroy men and the potential father many are created to become?  What has this done to our children and does anyone care what the the impact is on children and family?  Is anyone looking at the success of children brought up in a traditional family versus the new so called norm?

About the time I was just a kid contraception exploded.  I thought it was good!  Has anyone opened their eyes lately?  Is sex no longer about children?  Have we advertised the impact of contraception on the human breakdown of the family?  Divorce has sky rocked.  Single parenthood in many neighborhoods is 70% and higher.  What is the emotional cost and impact on children from all of these changes?  Our prisons are overflowing with angry, upset young men most from single parents homes.  Discipline in schools is major growing problem.

Are we in denial about the nature of our humanity and natures use of hormones?  Do we not know what takes place year in and year out in natures survival of life?  In many parts of our world cultures are approaching self annihilation because of the refusal to birth children.  Anyone talking about the death of Christianity by those who [profess to be Catholic’s and Christians.  Who has muted the voices of our Bishops and Religious leaders?

Has anyone noticed the changes that have taken place over the years in Hollywood, TV, movies, entertainment and video game industry.  Do they glorify violence and shoot em up adventures?  Is promiscuous and raw sex displayed as normal?  How about the impact of the internet, the smart phone and sexting?  And what about the explosion of porn – the objectification of women, children and sex?

We have become a people who lack the courage to ask ourselves tough questions!  What is the stumbling block that prevents us from asking the tough questions that affect people with the potential to pick up and use a gun?  Why are we so afraid to ask these questions?

What is a safe zone?  Shouldn’t a mothers womb the safest zone every created.  Ask a small kid?  Who is the enemy of that zone?  Is it a gun or is it man?

Aren’t a mother and a father supposed to be the protectors of their children with the duty and responsible to assure their safety?  Who overrode those parental rights?  Why do we entrust our children to people who have allowed the children to run the school?   What system or systems in Broward County failed the students and faculty in that school?  Do we not know our government has encouraged the non reporting of violent crimes in schools?  If you see something – say something!  Did that work?  And what is the FBI doing these days – does anyone know?  So how can a system based upon reported crimes prevent someone from purchasing a gun when the system rewards non reporting?  Have emotions overtaken and all bet eliminated logic and leadership?

My brother tried every kind of drug while he was in college.  He took his own life!  So we ant to legalize pot!  Emotion has overridden logic!  What about all the drugs people are using today?  Is anyone paying attention?  Can we ask?  What is the drug overdose rate today?  Does anyone notice all the drug commercials on TV?  What is our society selling – a quick fix – just take a pill?

And we have just entered the arena of social media and new technology?  What about social media?  Will the children of the future develop social skills to interact with people face to face?  What again about the deterioration of the family and why is it children with a mother and father are so much more successful on average?   Do we have the courage to ask the questions that we get to the heart of the problem or have our emotions trapped us in a dialogue with a gun issue?

Folks, we have a culture problem.  Our values are in the toilet!  It’s time for our emotions to take on a trip back to source when we look ourselves in the mirror of truth so the door of hope is opened and we can begin again to reach for the full potential of the gift of life!

Finally, does anyone know that true love will piss of an awful lot of people?  Didn’t the people of his own family take the one who came to testify to the true to a cross?  Weren’t they jealous and envious of his courage to speak the truth?  And they didn’t like the way he preached because it forced them to look into the mirror of truth!  So I ask, do we modern day sophisticated people really want to hear the good news or do we just want happy talk?

Self examination in the deeps of ones soul is where forgiveness and healing begin.  Love one another as I loved you!  Lord have mercy!

Language that Speaks to the Heart

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A couple weeks ago I signed up for a Spanish on-line class being offered by my diocese. I have young “espanic” speaking inmates who attend the Catholic service I support at the Burruss Correctional Training Center (- state prison).

Started the on-line class last week and realized I didn’t know where I had put my ear phones with mic when I bought this pc.
Class is recorded so as I tried to listen while I searched the God lord had me look in the right place.

I was reminded my dad’s parents where immigrants as children through Ellis Island. My dad told me when he was a boy and the immigrant children in his neighborhood mostly refused to speak their parents native tongue because they were now American’s.

Years later, my dad told me he regretted that decision because he lost the ability to speak the language of his parents.

So if you know someone young or old do not be afraid to tell them it is not un-American to be fluently bi-lingual. A human being is capable of cherishing both.

And if your English only tolerant – ease up a little.

A secret key lies hidden in desire to reach the heart of the listener where the door of hope is found for every human!

Sometimes one must grow old to begin to understand the fullness of the language of life, hope and love!

A Cell Phone — Isn’t that a felony in Prison?!?

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Called an inmate today who was transferred to the governor’s mansion where he has begun the process (work release program) in preparation to renter the world as a free man. I told him I was thankful for my time with him.

He has been in prison for years. He told me he was an angry man who often found himself in solitary confinement. Then one day he heard a voice calling and began to search for the source! The truth will set you free – and for this reason I came to testify to the truth spoke the voice!

Freedom in the modern world can be overwhelming. We free people seldom recognize the leap of faith and courage required to remain free.

He has been given a cell phone – a privilege we all take for granted and a felony for anyone who enters a prison. I am required to leave mine in my 🚗 every time I visit. Can you imagine the hope that cell phone represents! There really is hope for me and maybe next year I can walk free!

I have an extra kick in my step Thanksgiving this day.

So I ask what do we take for granted that we should give thanks for? Thank you Lord for leading me to a real encounter with the tears of hope you planted in every soul!!

I ain’t worth a S___!

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In prison this week a new guy came. He said he was searching and had always thought he wasn’t worth a s___! Every where he went he was the problem! And he was no young man! Amazing how long we can hold onto a child’s wounds! Amazing as well is how difficult it is to reach out beyond self. Most can’t admit it but many are looking for a savior and don’t where to look. We all need someone capable and willing to hear our cry and be willing to just listen! ‘‘Tis the season when we get ready for a baby who came to open hearts so they might be healed! The child in me needs to hear Merry Christmas!

Where do I find Church?

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My church’s name is the “AL Burruss Correctional Institute”! I know, I know I never heard of a church with such a name! But think about it!!! It’s place that causes it’s residence to do some serious soul searching. They find themselves suffering in many ways and anger often lives very close to the surface. Each is guilty of some sin they can’t hide from and over time forces each inmate to begin searching to confront the unhappy soul that lives within. It’s a church for the lost, forsaken, guilty and everyone there traveling a similar road with pit falls, trickery, and encountering others who maybe more skilled at manipulating a brother. One could conclude many find themselves abandoned by friends and family.

I found myself walking among people often forgotten even thinking of themselves as throw away people.

God tricked me into going there to experience how it feels to be thrown away myself. What I found is the thirst for hope that can be passed through the breath of unspoken words to those thought to be unqualified souls who in turn begin to open windows to their souls which allow hope to wash over them and it begins to radiate out and within the walls of the prison.

If you were able to hang in here with me – there’s a really good chance you can help a soul who has been thrown away by opening your windows to let the breath of hope pass through you and on out to penetrate self constructed prison walls and possibly never speak a word! It’s a gift from a baby!