Tonight should mark the 12th year spending the night before Thanksgiving at Rayburn Correctional Center, the state run prison facility that houses about 1,100 men. Since the 1st Thanksgiving after my ordination until last year, Rayburn is where I have been as others put finishing touches on the big Thanksgiving feast. Tonight, like every other Wednesday night since March, the men will have no outside visitors, no worship, no true feast of the ultimate thanksgiving, the Eucharist. All of us who minister to the men on the inside from the outside have not been allowed inside the state prison since Coronavirus became a thing. It's understandable, it makes sense, and it's so frustrating, for them I'm sure and for me and all my fellow ministers.
Super frustrating because we have had no meaningful communication so I do not even know if they will meet in chapel and pray, if they will have a special meal tomorrow, if any of them have/or will be heading home.
So my ask today is maybe you join me in praying for these men who have come together as a strong community of Catholic faithful. Pray for their continued growth in the spiritual life, for their journey, for their peace. I wish I was with them tonight.
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