By Armando Machado | Correspondent

For the men and women serving time in prison, the ministry of prison volunteers helps bring a little bit of the peace and friendship of Jesus Christ into their often-isolated world.  

About 40 of the volunteers who provide this work attended a day of spirituality Dec. 5, hosted by the diocesan Department of Pastoral Care – Jail and Prison Ministry.

“Mercy begins with the moment of listening,” Father Aidan Rooney, the keynote speaker, said during his presentation, in mentioning the Church entering the Year of Mercy as declared by Pope Francis. He stressed the importance of listening with mercy when the volunteers are ministering to men and women in jails and prisons.

Father Rooney, a Vincentian clergyman, is superior of the international mission in El Alto, Bolivia, and is currently on assignment in Philadelphia. He spoke of the significance if seeing Christ in all people, including the victims of crime and those who commit crime. And so he talked about the virtues of empathy and forgiveness, and knowing that virtues like these come from God’s love.

It is an act of true mercy, Father Rooney noted, when one seeks to help those that society “wants to push aside.” In doing so, he said, one is manifesting the mercy of the Holy Trinity.

“We become people of mercy not because of what we do but by who we are; we need to show that again and again,” he added. The saints understood the mercy of the Lord, he said, citing saints that included Mary, Joseph, and John the Baptist.

Two former inmates gave testimonials about how prison ministry gatherings helped them greatly in their effort to return to a normal life of freedom, talking about how each volunteer has “great power to love, and great power to re-direct and save [a] life.”

The spirituality gathering was organized by Vincentian Father Martin McGeough, coordinator of the diocesan Jail and Prison Ministry.

“Those people in there are all involved in going in and doing various types of religious services for men and women who are incarcerated,” Father McGeough said. “They would do centering prayer, when you seek to center yourself in Jesus; they would do Bible studies, the deacons would do communion services. I go in and do Masses and confessions, and counseling with inmates within the system.”

He said the main message that he and prison ministry volunteers offer to inmates is that “God is with you despite what you’ve done, and that He still loves you, He still cares for you -- and God does not abandon you, the Church does not abandon you.”

When former inmates return to society, Father McGeough said, the key message is, “You are welcomed back into God’s house, and whatever God’s house can do to make that welcome effective, we’re here to do it.”

Among the attendees was Deirdre Schlosser, who is a prison ministry volunteer, St. James Parish, Pennington. “We do a prayer program for women inmates,” Schlosser said. “It’s an opportunity for them to have a spiritual time, to share what is in their hearts, and their relationship with God – and we share our experiences, and so it’s kind of a fellowship.”

Deacon Mark Micali of St. Clements Parish, Matawan, ministers at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, and at the Federal Prison in Fort Dix. The day was “absolutely wonderful,” he said. “Whenever I come to something like this I get personal gratification, and I learn.”