O Holy Night...in Prison!

Tonight was a special night at Rayburn Prison. I'm so thankful that I was able to get off my sickbed of late and take the 45 minute ride up narrow Hwy 21 to the tiny town of Angie. My Catholic teammates that minister to our Catholic community inside the walls of this state prison planned their 3rd annual Christmas Banquet for the me. Having been knee deep in formation and ordination the past two Advents I have never been to this event before. I can assure you, it won't be the last time.

Two lay Catholic volunteers, Mike and John, travel to Angie every other week and lead RCIA and other programs for the Catholic community. On this special night they arranged a meal that would delight the inmates. The food would be stuff you and I take for granted. They wanted salad; that's right, salad. They never get salad in prison. So tonight, they got salad, along with sandwiches, fruit cake, ice cream and egg nog. To these guys, it was a great meal. And of course, we prayed, we sang Christmas carols and we even were serenaded on the saxaphone by one of the men. He even led us in a rendition of when the Saints go Marching In, followed by some Who Dat cheering!

But the most beautiful part of the evening was the 65 or so men singing beautiful Christmas carols like O Come all Ye Faithful, Angels We Have Heard on High and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. When we sang this lyric, "Now to the Lord sing praises all you within this place" I could hear them sing a little louder and I got a wonderful feeling of peace. We closed the evening with the men singing beautifully, O Holy Night. And I could not help but think, it most certainly was.

I truly realize that for some of you, this is not your cup of tea. I can only hope by my words and example I can convince you that these men too deserve to grow closer with God and receive Him, worthily in Word and Sacrament. None of this exonerates their crime. But I'll say this over and over again; these men will get out. They have no chance on the outside unless they are right with God and hopefully right with their fellow man.

From day one as their assigned Deacon, I have experienced some of my most joyful moments of ministry inside the Rayburn prison. And tonight was definetely one of them. Yes, I was eating and praying and singing Christmas carols tonight with 65 inmates. And it was a O Holy Night!