Ministering to Those in Need - Behind Bars

by  Gerald M. Costello,  The Christophers
At The Christophers we’ve recently expanded our prison ministry, primarily by sending out more of our literature – our News Notes, Three Minutes a Day books, and Light One Candle columns just like this one – to inmates (through their chaplains) all over the country.  The material is typically uplifting and full of encouragement, and a more grateful readership it’s hard to imagine.
“We’re so appreciative of your latest shipment,” wrote one chaplain in New York State.  “Thank you for caring!”  And a prisoner in Virginia said, “Thanks for your News Note ‘Keep Hope in Your Heart.’  At this point in my life, hope is what drives me day by day.”
That’s part of the reason that a recent story in America magazine caught my eye.  Written by Valerie Schultz, it was called “Prison Breakthrough,” and at heart its message was simply this: You, too, can be a prison minister.
Sound unlikely?  Read on.
Schultz and her husband, residents of Tehachapi, Calif., accepted – with some misgivings and not a little concern – an invitation from the new Catholic chaplain at the state prison in their town to join a new ministry to inmates.  Without an adequate number of priests, he explained, lay volunteers were needed to make Catholic services more widely available.  One Saturday a month they would conduct communion services at two different prison yards, and it was that prospect – dealing with an inmate congregation, in an unfamiliar setting—that unnerved the couple so badly.
That was six years ago, however, and now they’re old hands at the business of detention ministry.  In fact, Valerie Schultz has taken a job in the prison office, volunteers an additional two days after work, and even offers a reflection on the day’s readings when she’s holding a service.  From the beginning, she says serving the incarcerated has been “an extraordinary spiritual experience” and her story bears that out.
Schultz concedes that once it would have been a stretch for her to imagine herself working with prisoners after earlier ministries that focused on children and young people.  She adds:
“The fact that I feel more at home in the prison chapel these days than I do in my own parish provides a trinity of proofs: that God has a sense of humor; that Jesus meant us to take literally those words about visiting him in prison; and that the Holy Spirit, when asked, will always provide the necessary gifts to make the impossible possible.”
The nervousness Schultz felt about dealing with prisoners vanished almost at once, she reports.  The inmates she ministers to pretty much mirror the general population, she said, and best of all “some inmates really do see a prison term as a giant wake-up call from God.”  Her story notes:
“I am so often touched, during the Prayer of the Faithful at our services, when inmates pray for the well-being of the guards and other workers at the prison.  They also regularly pray for the victims of their crimes.  These are not prayers I would have imagined coming from the lips of criminals.”
In all, she concludes, when she goes into the prison she is “more powerfully aware of God’s love for us” than when she is anywhere else.  At The Christophers, we’ve seen how appreciative prisoners can be for words of hope and encouragement – but from a distance.  Valerie Schultz and others like her have experienced it close up.  God bless them for it.