>>> This is my exact same experience; the men at Rayburn are indeed close to Christ. Tip of the dalmatic to Deacon's Bench where I first spotted this great article on prison ministry.
Deacon impressed by inmates’ ‘hunger’ for Christ
February 23rd, 2011
By George Raine
There are enough house rules as is at San Quentin State Prison, and it is not Deacon Larry Chatmon’s place to add to them when he serves inmates in his prison ministry. He does have some friendly advice for them, however, when they leave the chapel after services.
“I tell them, ‘You have to take what is in that chapel with you when you go back to the yard,’” he said. “I tell them, ‘For you to go in there and receive the Spirit and just leave it there and go back to where you are is not life-changing. If you want life-changing, if you want to truly experience Christ, take him with you.’”
Chatmon, in fact, was promised a life-changing experience himself when three years ago he added prison ministry to his list of duties and volunteerism at St. Paul of the Shipwreck Parish in San Francisco, where he and his wife, Loretta, have worshiped for more than 25 years. He got what he hoped for.
Here’s what Chatmon found: There are people in prison who are probably closer to Christ than most of us, closer to Christ than many people would realize. He was amazed, in fact, by how committed to their faith many inmates are – that they want to learn more about the Catholic Church.
“We don’t find a lot of people in our parishes with that hunger,” said Chatmon. “There is a hunger that they have. Part of that comes from where they are and the circumstances in which they have to live.”
He added, “It brings about an eagerness. People begin to search for God when they hit the ground, when they hit a brick wall. They start looking for some other way.”
The spiritual place in which many of the inmates dwell – closer to Christ – is one Chatmon, 60, tries to occupy himself as a deacon and volunteer at St. Paul of the Shipwreck, where, by his own account, he uses his skills “to help build up the body of Christ.”
He brings to the tasks a body of work experience in the private sector, the nonprofit sector and, for the past 13 years, the public sector, as senior contract manager at the Human Services Agency of the City and County of San Francisco. He was baptized in the Catholic Church at age 36, and introduced to St. Paul of the Shipwreck by Loretta. It has been a good fit for 25 years.
He is one of the Ministers of Christian Service, parish lay leaders who oversee all aspects of the Sunday, 10:30 a.m. African-American spirituality or gospel Mass which, according to Conventual Franciscan Father Paul Gawlowski, the pastor, has the best qualities of the parish itself.
“This is a place of vibrant worship. There is a felt sense of the Holy Spirit during Mass,” he said.
Chatmon, said Father Gawlowski, “brings to parish life wisdom based on his age, based on raising a family (there are four kids), working in the world.” He added, “He brings that wisdom into the parish and helps work with me to make wise pastoral decisions, based on his perspective and my perspective.”
What Chatmon found behind the walls of San Quentin – an eagerness in inmates to grow in their faith – comes as no surprise to the prison’s Catholic chaplain, Jesuit Father George Williams, who arrived for duty in January after serving as a chaplain in a Massachusetts prison.
“A lot of these guys are lifers,” he said. “They have grown up since they committed their crime and reflected on their lives. They found in their Catholic faith a sense of stability and meaning and so they really are sincere about their faith.” Newer arrivals, he said, are disoriented and are looking for “some sense of stability, meaning, purpose.”
Others, of course, Father Williams added, “just come to get a set of rosary beads, or as they often ask, ‘rosemary beads,’ which are their favorite form of jail jewelry.”
Those with sincerity, noted Chatmon, know Matthew 25: “I was in prison and you visited me … I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.”
The least of these brothers, Chatmon learned, know Scripture, do a lot of praying and need to connect with people on the outside so they can share a vision. He listens a lot, he said, during his monthly visits.
“I make sure they know I am there to serve them, but I tell them all the time, I think it’s the other way around. I’m the one being fed here. I’m the one closer in touch with the real meaning of our ministry and the real meaning of what being Catholic means.”
Chatmon tells them, too, that he can’t change their circumstances, but he can help in an important way. “I can let them know that I represent the one who changes all things for all of us,” he said. “I tell them that we collectively work together to give praise and thanks, and that our lives are enriched by everyone who we meet who also believes.”
Chatmon, added Father Williams, “does a better job of connecting than a lot of people who come in here.” He added, “He speaks from the heart and he uses very clear, concrete examples from real life and the guys like that. He comes in here with that spirit of openness. These guys are not empty vessels who need all this wisdom poured into them. They have a lot of life experience, a lot of things to teach us.”
It’s also true, said George Wesolek, director of the Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, that Jesus was executed as a common criminal “on a cross with our sins and the sins of the whole world on his shoulders,” and, accordingly, inmates can relate.
“The suffering helps us to connect more quickly with the life of Christ,” said Chatmon. “Because we can’t believe that suffering is all that there is. Tragedy is not all that there is. Having endured a lot in their lives, they start seeking something else. The message is, if you have tried everything else, try Christ.”
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