Some are beautiful victories, small achievements born from battles with the taste of effort, commitment, hope, design, dream, but most are the result of a long journey of one who never gave up, despite the difficulties.
These small victories are joys that can be shared in the work team made up of people who believe in what they do, that with confidence and humility make possible every day the daily work of the prison ministry.
Today, finally, we began catechesis in the maximum-security prison of Nelson Hungary.
Our joy, along with those involved, came after a long wait, because of the necessary permits, bureaucratic entanglements that normally discouraged many… BUT NOT US! We have kept the faith and constancy in our goal trying to make possible an order made by the prisoners themselves, mediating with the “institutional” part who have no confidence in the recovery and development work with prisoners. Some believe it is wasted time, not worth it, that those who are in prison has no right, not even to seek God or themselves, just to be inside a dark cell. However, it is precisely in this darkness that comes the desire to “see”, to meet again, to embrace the mystery that strikes the human soul. Nobody has the right to deny the necessity and spiritual quest that is proper to the human being. Therefore, our struggle was to meet a demand that comes from a personal search, a desire to seek God and look to oneself.
Today begins a new path with a small group of prisoners, and finally, in a room where you can put in a circle, freely, without any impediment bars, handcuffs, dividers of physical space, security agents.
It is very exciting what is shared, strong, human, full of questions and desires. Roads that we built together, where everybody shares and enrich the other, where they teach one another, where emotions, joys and wounds of life to be reconstructed are communicated, a life that does not feel lost or ruined by the weight of guilt or conviction of individuals.
Be blessed this path, be blessed this thirst for God that magnifies the heart, that breaks borders and prison bars made of flesh and humanity in searching the path.
Hurrah for the life that is able to birth and grow, Hurrah for the people who help to grow, hurrah for the will to place on the road and not being afraid to do so.
Among the prisoners’ rights that must be respected it is the right to religious assistance.
All prisoners have freedom of religious worship, and the right to practice in their prison unit; nobody is forced to participate if they do not want to.
Emma, CLM in Brazil
