Category Archives: Prison

The To Be Continued – Jesus in the Boat Asleep:

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Well where did I leave off? Oh yea my dad’s reaction in the middle of the night in the middle of the Storm / Squall! Oh my Today’s Gospel! Jesus sleeping in the boat in the middle of a Squall while his brothers were filled with anxiety!! Yea you and me – we humans! A test of faith and trust!! Do you trust me to finish?
My dad said – “Son it’s just the lightning”!  Go and get back in bed!
Magic words – my father had spoken! Promptly, I walked back into my room, got back in bed, covered myself with my blankets and immediately went fast asleep as the Squall, lightning, thunder and the blaring sirens continued unabated! Holy Smokes! Pay attention the Father speaks and everything – yes everything has a purpose! God wanted me to never forget that night!
Why I ask? Yes Lord – for you today! We are living in just such a Squall only it is a man made storm on purpose! The Great deceiver is working at deceiving humanity! Yes he is! I was born for this day and so were you!
Every time Jesus met his disciples his first words were “do not be afraid” and “peace be with you”! Yea he knew our humanity – he was there the day humanity male and female were created! He knows us inside and out!! We can not hide from Him!
And yes, yes, he loves us exactly where we are – yes even in the middle of the storm when we are caught red handed helping the great deceiver lead us down a fantasy trail into the bolt of lightning and fire!
Teach your children the Truth – you can be the best news your children and grand children and even great grand children can ever encounter!
So Friday the Good Lord sent me a 40+ year old inmate who was adopted as a baby yet
drugs took him on a journey where the Good Lord gave him to me as a gift and treasure!
I encourage each of you to become that treasure yourself where. Fear is replaced with peace! Yea an encounter with Jesus in the boat sleeping in the midst of a squall!
You know I gave this reflection to inmates in a State Prison.  English and Spanish.  One Spanish inmate did not speak English and so it was with Faith and Trust I asked the other Hispanic inmates to relay the story!

Can we See? Long Missing – Good News Arrives:

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One of the things I learn in prison is: We people often have ears and eyes that simply can’t hear or see!! Case in point!
1. Brought good news pictures of freed inmate recently marriage and celebrating birth on new baby daughter to share.
2. Great surprise – young man shows up who has been missing for more than a year! I recognize face but old me can’t find the name!
Previously, he only came for a few months and then disappeared! Discovered the reason he didn’t come is because he found a unique way to get into trouble within the prison resulting in more punishment keeping him from coming! NOW Just HOW Slow are your EARS and EYES????? Evidence of Good News is standing in our Face!!
3. Next thing I know old inmate is complaining about wanting to hear good uplifting news!!!
Yes folks sometimes we are both death and blind!
4. I don’t have to go to prison to visit yet somehow I have managed to make weekly visits since 2010 with a forced COVID break!  Yet I too can stumble!
5. Buried in this message is Good News Shouting! Yes yes yes – He came to die for me! Yes yes yes He told me I would be rejected! Yes yes yes He loves you in the midst of your Sin! Yes yes yes He doesn’t give up when we get discouraged!
6. Yes yes yes He is calling you right now!!! Hmmm. How your eyes and ears doing?
7. Thank you Lord for the Cross – the only way to open the Door where the Narrow Gate is hidden!
8. Yea “Merry Christmas” Yep he came for you and me too! Say this prayer: Help me Lord do your Will! Often I am not so sure I am!! God loves you where you are this moment regardless of your Sin!
Amen:

Parole = Hope:

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Visited prison yesterday! One inmate got good news! The parole board tentatively approved his parole!
So what happens next??
A ninety day open to voices that may oppose his release begins. Often this process results in over riding the parole board’s recommendation! Roller coaster ride – the next ninety days! This inmate has been incarcerated 32 years. He has been in prison since age 20.
If he is successful in being paroled the recidivism rate can be as high as 80 % which is testimony to the great difficulty the long incarcerated face when set free!
Prayers please! Next ninety days emotional roller coaster ride along with uncertainty of the outcome!
Few venture & walk where I tread!
My prayer: What do you have in mind for me today Lord!!!

Courage – Found looking into the Mirror of Truth:

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When I mention courage I must remind myself I was called to testify to the truth! Some want and seek to redefine truth to justify serious sin! Takes place on FB each and everyday!
In 2011 God gave me a vision and a call to testify to the Spiritual War unfolding in the world!  Yes and this War is unfolding within the Catholic Church itself this very day!
In 2011 I myself was caught up in a mighty struggl that required deep reflection struggling to understand God message to me in a real life real time vision.  I discovered the life of child within held the secret to interpret and understand simply because of my boyhood journey long ago!
Yes, way back when I already knew what I needed to know I just didn’t understand it in the proper Spiritual sense!
Ever since I have been asking the Lord daily!  Discovered too my truck is my chapel where a candid dialogue takes place everywhere I go!  Why me Lord! Heck I have no real power! I have no authority over but so very few! I am called to be only a servant! Hmmm?  Maybe I don’t know what a servant is?
The same message jusat keeps on comes back – “Pick up your cross and come follow me says the Lord”. Again and again I ask – Where is it we are going Lord?  Oh yea – That place – that place your Son was sent – no more sermons place! Oh my!  Yes Lord I will follow!
In 2024 my journey continues looking for courage, leadership and grace from those appointed to lead me!  Oh my – yes they are caught up in this Spiritual War as well!
Yes Yes – We have been and are in a mean spirited “Spiritual War”!  Gosh, it has been unfolding in my life for at least 13 years and yes in the Church the Lord called me to serve!
Not so surprising I find myself held at “arms length” by leaders in my Church as though I am a leper!  Why was Jesus rejected?  “Rebuke” isn’t right out of scripture the method of the Lord to communicate Love when one strays into sin!
Silence is defining!  Silence a sign of lack of courage to speak, a lack of courage to rebuke, a lack of courage to encourage or even ask “How are things going”?  This is exactly what I have encountered for the last eight years!
Am I failing?  Do I lack courage?  What the heck should I do Lord?  The inability to respond seems to wrap it’s arms around me!   No doubt – I am not alone in this War!  I call it the lack of courage to do the right thing! Rebuke me where I am in error or honor my Ordination! Clearly silence communicates Neither is the case!  Neither positive or negative!
At times I wonder if I will have a single friend outside my family!
There is no doubt in my mind the good Lord called and sent me long ago into the fire of the modern battle long ago as in 1990. I could not have told anyone at that time! Today I know I was primarily the student – sent to be taught – sent so my spiritual ears could learn hear souls crying as real people were facing death!  Yea me – I was simply powerless to do much except listen and encourage those suffering to look for meaning in the unfolding journey.
Let me assure the reader!  The Lord was and is not done with me yet! In 2011 he sent me into prison to walk through a room full of young men! My eyes and ears trained many years ago told me something was seriously amiss among these young men! Here I am again Lord – a student again! Yes My eyes and ears are open to receive!

Mass Incarceration: Hmmm – What does that Mean?

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Well have you ever given this any thought??  Funny me!

Went to prison today! Started talking about how modern humanity regarding the Middle East around the world tends to jump off nearest cliff and then tries to justify it! Worse in America we have young people who bye and support words they themselves can not define – like Mass Incarceration and decolonization – the cliff jumpers!
I wonder does the reader know?
Well wouldn’t you know two lifers got into the stinky human (pride) argument that has a destination head strong toward the cliff! Question runs through my mind and I begin to wonder  “Oh Lord what the heck am I doing”?
You know Faith and Trust are sometimes oh so difficult to hold onto!
So one lifer finally has had enough and abruptly walks out! Sounds like America and the world today? Well folks, I gotta pull the Hope hiding in my pocket (helps if your Catholic) and we begin our Communion Service! Yes we did – 1!
We manage to get through the readings and reflect upon the nature of humanity and that of the Son of God who came to teach us what we often don’t really what to know! The Truth about our nature from the very beginning! That dang tree is mine or something very close – very close is LBGTQ! Yep man’s desire to recreate old selfie into whatever man wants!
Do we know the leaders of Jesus day just had to shut him up! This Truth thing gets in our selfie way! Well the Son of God is far smarter than I! He knew He had to teach without speaking! Yes it was the non verbal Suffering that communicated the pathway to the narrow gate always open to those who choose to take the deep dive!
Well as the bread of Life is being who – just who walks back into the room??
Lord Have Mercy has long arms! Thank You Lord! The power of forgiveness works! And just before we has prayed the Our Father. “Forgive us our trespass’s as we forgive those who trespass against me! The Two lifers embraced – Holy Smokes!
Yep I was the student again today!
There is an explanation to this story that can be very hard to see! During the past month one lifer was up for parole and his hopes were high!
“Lifer” is a term that carries a heavy load because these lifer’s both received sentences that included the possibility of Parole after 15 years!
Keep in mind both have been incarcerated over 30+ years! Perhaps the best description of their circumstance is they get to ride on an annual Parole Roller Coaster most of us never think about.
As parole time approaches their hopes begin to ride high as the coaster approaches the peak of the highest point the rail of reality for them! The anticipation and emotions increase as each approaches the moment of receiving the official decision!
Who am I that I get to ride along being unaware and not included in the exact decision process or notice! Repeat the ride over 15+++ times over and one begins to get to stare again and again at the consequences of that day many long ago!
Yes this is an annual test!  Many ever so many are ignorant that it even exists – the ride to the Top and then Oh My! Mass Incarceration what is that?  Do we really know?  Bet not many do!
Freedom and Liberty always have a cost! Ever so many in our modern world are caught up in an unreality of the true cost of Truth!
Crucified – the cost!  Mini crucifixions – I walk where so few ever consider even ever giving any thought let alone enter the story!
For me this ministry has lead me to a doorway!  Hope has lead me here!  Will Justice and Mercy ever embrace and kiss?  Please pray for these men!

The Cost of a Misstep:

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Beyond these Stone Walls:

Charlene has learned something about mercy. The lesson did not come cheap, as her memoir describes. Only such a wounded healer could call upon the Church’s shepherds with the force of having lived the Gospel of Mercy, to refine the voices they are listening to in all this. “What kind of shepherds,” she wrote. “abandon their sheep when they make a misstep.”

I hope someone will open and read the following link:

https://beyondthesestonewalls.com/voices-from-beyond/drinking-from-the-saucer?ss_source=sscampaigns&ss_campaign_id=64d6fbdd75edc55ad4addfb7&ss_email_id=64d7679a8f6372475ca904bc&ss_campaign_name=Drinking+from+the+Saucer&ss_campaign_sent_date=2023-08-12T11%3A06%3A27Z

Beyond These Stone Walls: Prison and the Cross:

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Some months ago in my search to find myself amidst life’s twists and turns I found the web site “Beyond these Stone Walls”:   I subscribed to this site and now receive periodic updates.

The following post is associated with the spiritual struggle of one who finds themselves in a prison – not necessarily by choice yet very much confined by circumstances in life.

The Cross of Human Suffering:

I have to say it was a lesson unexpected as a result of ministering to prisoners and then encountering the essence of a prison one can not see yet can be imposed.  What I discovered through reflection on this reality is the unspoken message Jesus Christ communicated while hanging on the cross.  The language used in the message is the unspoken word clearly passed through the cross of human suffering.

Jesus Christ – The Way:

In order for one to begin to understand this language of the cross, one must suffer sufficiently that one becomes willing to search in earnest to find the narrow gate “hidden in the cross” and then be brave enough to take the necessary deep dive into the abyss of life required to find oneself and there the answer that lies in wait.

The reward one finds when they take the deep dive is simply this:  One begins to see with spiritual eyes and one begins to hear with spiritual ears that which has always been present.

Another example of a journey to discover “the already and not yet” doorway only possible with ones cross!

https://beyondthesestonewalls.com/posts/for-pornchai-moontri-hope-and-hard-work-build-a-future?ss_source=sscampaigns&ss_campaign_id=64c0d419c7d6884f8cdf115b&ss_email_id=64c0fd132875624279b75a03&ss_campaign_name=For+Pornchai+Moontri%2C+Hope+and+Hard+Work+Build+a+Future&ss_campaign_sent_date=2023-07-26T11%3A06%3A01Z