{"id":3529,"date":"2007-01-11T01:12:53","date_gmt":"2007-01-11T01:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/01\/when-i-was-in-prison.html"},"modified":"2007-01-11T01:12:53","modified_gmt":"2007-01-11T01:12:53","slug":"when-i-was-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/01\/when-i-was-in-prison.html","title":{"rendered":"When I was in prison.."},"content":{"rendered":"

Bishop Olmstead of Phoenix:<\/a><\/p>\n

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In a small, bare-walled room at the Maricopa County\u2019s Durango Jail, more than 40 prisoners celebrated God becoming man at a Mass with Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted Dec. 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod changed history not by being far from us, but by doing what seemed impossible,\u201d the bishop said in his bilingual homily. \u201cWhile remaining God, He also became man. That\u2019s the huge mystery of Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

(Photo from what is a very good idea – the Phoenix diocesan paper’s Flickr page)<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks to this reader for passing on this link about Cardinal George:<\/a><\/p>\n

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God was at the Cook County Jail on Christmas Day, as he is every day, Cardinal Francis George told 175 inmates Monday. <\/p>\n

"He is here with you," George told the men seated on stainless steel pews in the jail’s chapel. "The Lord is with us. He wants to be with you. He wants to be here." <\/p>\n

In baggy, beige uniforms, with laceless blue gym shoes, the men — sporting dreadlocks, cornrows and tattoos — enthusiastically sang and prayed. During the handshake of peace, and returning to their seats after communion, many warmly embraced fellow inmates they don’t see often in the complex of 10,000 people who are awaiting trial. <\/p>\n

George said he was happy to be with the men on Christmas morning. "I look forward to this every year," he said. "One of the problems with a busy schedule is that I can’t be here more often." <\/p>\n

Speaking in English and Spanish, George complimented the prison choir, which had practiced for weeks to lead the chapel in renditions of "Silent Night" and "Go Tell it on the Mountain" among other songs. <\/p>\n

"All the ends of the Earth have seen the saving power of God," the men sang. <\/p>\n

"A lot of us, we’ve got hearts. We’re not like people believe us to be," said choir member Everett Mosley, 32, who has been in jail four months. "I joined the choir because I want to change." <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
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He said that humanity\u2019s history is one of separation from God, but through Christ, God has unified human nature with divinity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we can have hope that the Lord is with us. He is always near us with His Son,\u201d the bishop said. \u201cIf we accept his gift, we can also be sons of God and sons of Mary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christ being born in a manger is itself a lesson, the bishop explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t come the way we think of a lord, someone of great power. He came with great power, but it looked like great weakness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the strongest thing in the world is Christ. He allows Himself to die to redeem us,\u201d the bishop said. \u201cThat\u2019s strength. That is real courage. That is stronger than any violence and stronger than hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ricardo Holt, who expects to be released from the jail this month, said it meant a lot to meet the bishop in such circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us here, there\u2019s nothing we can do about it, so rather than being bitter about it, I\u2019m looking forward to the time that I will be with my family,\u201d Holt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will pray for everyone else who can\u2019t spend time with their family and can\u2019t let go of that bitterness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Throughout the Mass, more so after Communion, the inmates wept.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod was present here, as was evidenced by the tears,\u201d said Betsy Sherf, who leads music at the annual Christmas morning Mass at the jail. Bishop Olmsted celebrates Christmas Mass for inmates each year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bishop Olmstead of Phoenix: In a small, bare-walled room at the Maricopa County\u2019s Durango Jail, more than 40 prisoners celebrated God becoming man at a Mass with Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted Dec. 25. \u201cGod changed history not by being far from us, but by doing what seemed impossible,\u201d the bishop said in his bilingual homily.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen I was in prison.. - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/01\/when-i-was-in-prison.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When I was in prison.. - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bishop Olmstead of Phoenix: In a small, bare-walled room at the Maricopa County\u2019s Durango Jail, more than 40 prisoners celebrated God becoming man at a Mass with Bishop Thomas J. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}