The Word Among Us

August 2004 Issue

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Grinding. Reverberating. Numbing. Metal against metal punctuates my twenty-minute sojourn into the depths of the prison. Ten massive steel-barred doors now separate me from the prison entrance. One more security door stands between death row and me. The officer with the key swings it open. He nods. I step through. More »

For about thirteen years, I’ve been serving as a Catholic lay volunteer to bring prayer, the Eucharist, and sacramentals inside the walls of Florida’s prison. The prisons I serve are in rural North Florida, just a few miles from the Georgia border. More »

It’s the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Our family is well into the four-hour trip from our home in Jacksonville, Florida, to a large medium-security prison near Pensacola. More »

On August 15, we will celebrate the feast of Mary’s Assumption into heaven. It is an opportunity to recall and rejoice in the fact that God preserved Mary from sin and from the darkness of the grave. More »