People and Stories
Stories and People
1. Spiritus Christi Prison Outreach Ministry.2. Van Smith and Recovery Houses of Rochester.
3. Sunshine's story.
4. ACOA: Article about Adult Children of Alcoholics/Addicts group's healing meeting for inmates at Monroe Correctional Facility, Henrietta.
5. Women's stories, from Step by Step of Rochester, Inc.
6. From City Newspaper (Rochester,NY), Oct. 15, 2008,about Donald Hardaway, Kyle Serena, Roysie Hill, and Monroe County Reentry Task Force Coordinator Ann Graham. Also see the new prison ministry and reentry blog at Prison Ministry Reflections.
Magic Circle
A poem by Charles Stanin. Submitted by Jim Smith, Spiritus Christi Prison Outreach (October 2007)Silence accentuates what brought us here
staring into the reflection that is not.
Sacred boon from catacombs groom images
wanted forgot.
Misfits borne of realities scorn bound
by sorrow’s plot.
To escape the bane we bare the shame
and search where most would not.
In our Well of Wounds fear assumes the
face of Anger and Rage.
Incorporeal scars where hearts are marred
are bars that form the cage.
For the Soul to adapt so insidious a trap
frost must find its way.
What was once so bright now quails in
light to embrace a darkened day.
From the Circle of Life we learn the fight
and walk the warriors way.
In our battle of might for the soul to ignite
empathy's called to play.
For the pain in you is the anger in me
that hold us in its sway.
It is the magic of the circle
that draws this pain away.