What a glorious day!

Today was the long awaited dedication ceremony of the Bethel interfaith chapel at the Rayburn Prison. As the Catholic Deacon assigned to Rayburn I have looked forward to this day for over two years. Slowly but surely the chapel took off and today we celebrated a grand dedication. A large crowd of some 200 guests and 100 resident offenders were gathered in the worship space to hear praise and worship music, prayers and blessings, speeches and acknowledgements all in thanksgiving for this beautiful new worship space.

A truly ecumenical effort today brought worshippers of all faiths together. The chapel foundation choose two ministers to bless the new worship space; one was Dr. Waylon Bailey from the Covington Baptist Church and the other Archbishop Emiritus Alfred Hughes.

After the truly uplifting and inspiratonal dedication the prison administration allowed our Catholic faith community to hold the first official service. So after a half hour of hearing confessions Archbishop Hughes led us in celebrating the first Mass in the new chapel. We celebrated the liturgy of the Feast of Christ the King which, not coincidentaly, had the responsorial psalm: "I rejoiced when they said let us go to the house of the Lord." And then the Gospel reading is that hopeful interlude between Jesus and the good thief as they hung on their crosses. Jesus tells Dismas: "today you will be with me in paradise."

It was a glorious celebration as over 40 men received the Eucharist from the hands of the Archbishop. And after Mass Archbishop Hughes made sure he personally told each inmate good night.

And to top this off, the Archbishop graciously agreed to a quick trip to the priosn infirmary where he prayed with & for each man on the ward. One of the men in the infirmary is terminal and falling away rather quickly. Archbishop Hughes got on his knees to communicate with this man and prayer for him. What a remarkable day!

It is my hope and prayer that this chapel will further enhance the faith based programs at Rayburn and further move hearts and minds to grow closer to God.