The first week in May I visited Karen at Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women in Pewee Valley. I have known Karen for about 25 years since our Exodus Jail Ministry group took a field trip to KCIW in the early 90’s to learn about the state facility in order to better understand what some of the women at the local Northern Kentucky jails were facing once they were sentenced. Karen was our inmate guide, a role she performed very graciously. Karen and I have visited occasionally over the years and maintained a fairly regular written correspondence. I have visited her bi-monthly in a pastoral capacity since last November.
The second week of May occasioned the yearly Shakespeare Behind Bars event. This year’s play, Julius Caesar, performed at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in La Grange, marked my 10th year as an SBB fan. Several sisters usually join me in this celebration of arts and the inspiration that comes from witnessing the power of beauty to change lives and worldviews of the performers, friends and patrons.Now in mid-May I am planning for the yearly prayer visit of religious women and men to the men on Death Row at Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville. Several of us women and men religious from around state gather to have Mass and a visit with a number of the 30 men on the row. Over these 15+ years we and they look forward to reenergizing our friendships. It has become an important expression for us and our communities of the immense and unconditional value of human life.
May brings us sunshine, warmer weather, longer days, opportunities for outdoor activities – many marks of freedom from indoor confinement and of happy gatherings. Visiting those who are incarcerated stirs up a great compassion for the inmates because of their lack of freedom to move around freely in and out of doors, to engage in safe activities with persons of their choice, and mostly to be with their loved ones for family events to be grieved or celebrated. I invite you to join me in prayer and advocacy for all who are incarcerated, for the persons they have injured and all involved with the justice system.
Sr. Dorothy Schuette, OSB
thank you for sharing this important information and for inspiring me with this. To consider how many prisoners are locked up in prison, and to compare the quality of their treatment and the reality of their suffering both in the wealthy nations and the poorest nations -- it is a task that remains for the world. You visited me in prison, said Jesus, when you visited one of these -- the humanity of God in suffering is present in all the prisoners, and in fact in all of us, but especially in the incarcerated. It is deeply a Christian truth -- Jesus Christ the innocent, arrested, flogged and executed, and then countless others. Paul will not hesitate to tell you about that! Isaiah tells us that God will open the prisons. We were liberated from slavery and broke out with Moses. Hallelujah God be praised!! God bless OSB, amen. The Ascension of the Lord Jesus today, May 25 2017. May His blessing hands grant strength and healing to all prisoners in all prisons amen
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing. I heard a piece on NPR about Shakespeare Behind Bars and the woman who started it. The host interviewed several inmates who were acting in Hamlet. Each one said the experiencing of learning and then performing their parts had a profound impact on their lives.
ReplyDeleteThis ministry is truly part of God's grace working through ordinary persons.
Oh, thank you, sister, for doing this important work of mercy. Brings back the twinge of love and sadness for a young woman named Cindy who I stood with for several years. A few years after her release she died from kidney damage from an improper medcation she was treated with in prison in Ohio.
ReplyDeleteIn memory of my CIndy, I thank you again. And all who go with you. It's the Lord's work for sure.