Monday - Prison Ministry and Death Row

To send this card: Saint Bernard

Quote for the Day: "In dangers, in doubts, in difficulties, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let not her name depart from your lips, never suffer it to leave your heart. . St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 1091-1153.

Monday

At present we have three wonderful guests staying with us. Dale and Susan Recinella and their daughter. Dale and Susan both work in prison ministry for the death row in Florida. I am one hundred percent and a bit more in awe of their ministry and their answer to such a very hard vocation. Dale is the Prison Chaplain there and visits each cell on death row. At times he is called to be the spiritual minister for those who are executed. Being with the person all through the terrible, terrible process. Susan is a trained psychologist and volunteers to be with the families of the executed or the vicitim. (never both at one time of course).

It is so beyond me... how we can kill someone - because they killed someone. I must admit though at one time I thought nothing of it and just thought they were bad people and deserved it. Now, I believe much differently and I can truly say...as Saint Francis did, "There, but for the grace of God, go I."

In God's eyes whether we will an action or do an action... it is the same sin. And truthfully I can say there have been moments when I was so full of anger at someone I did not wish them a very long life! I also think of the many stupid things I did in my youth, and my Navy days with drugs and everything else and I can see how easily I could have ended up some place very differently than a monastery.

What I find the saddest of sad.. is that a moment's anger, or drugged moment can affect some people for ever and ever.. and others of us.. simply live through it and grow up to move beyond such things. Imagine doing something stupid, totally stupid when you were 18 or 19 and paying for it by living fifty years in a 9 x 6 cell. I wouldn't wish that on an animal... much less a human being.

How greatly we need to grow in forgiveness ... and accept forgiveness. Susan told a story of when one of her children was about five years old and hit his sister, she gave him a swat and put him in the corner. (Normally she did not believe in spanking) but anyway this time she did and her little son said to her, "I don't see how its not okay for me to hit someone and okay for you."

Which is how it is with the death penalty. It's not okay for someone to kill someone but its justice to kill them for doing it.

Blessings of Peace and All Good,
Sister Patricia

The Confession Connection The Sacrament of Reconciliation: Celebrating God's Forgiveness by Sandra DeGidio, O.S.M. Day Four: Conversion: An ongoing process The conversion process begins with a "coming to one's senses," with a realization that all is not right with our values and style of life. Prompted by a faith response to God's call, conversion initiates a desire for change. Change is the essence of conversion. Shuv, the Old Testament for conversion, suggests a physical change of direction; metanoia, the term the New Testament uses, suggests an internal turnabout, a change of heart that is revealed in one's conduct. The Gospel vision of metanoia calls for an interior transformation that comes about when God's Spirit breaks into our lives with the good news that God loves us unconditionally. Conversion is always a response to being loved by God. In fact, the most important part of the conversion process is the experience of being loved and realizing that God's love save us—we do not save ourselves. Our part in this saving action is to be open to the gift of God's love—to be open to grace. To be continued A selected article from "101 Inspirational Stories of the Sacrament of Reconciliation."