“From my restless heart I am thankful for the opportunity to share with prisoners what I have learned since I started my formation in the Secular Order on October 2007 with Fr. Rafael Rivera who died that same month”.
Q.- What could you emphasize in the life of prisoners and how can they be helped?
A.- The penitentiary system is very complicated all over the world but one main need is common.- Spiritual life. My offer to all the members of the Secular Order is to look for the way of being close and accompany those who are imprisoned. Be a Church who is committed with the most needy of our brothers and sisters.
Human Developement
Q.- Why do you visit prisons?
A.- I don’t visit all the 10 prisons in Mexico City where there are more than forty-thousand prisoners. Where I have been permitted to enter is the North Male Annex and the Women’s prison in Tepepan. I can enter these centers thanks to Pro-Work Committee promotes these human development workshops. I want to accompany prisoners in a spiritual way offering them ways to inner healing and find new meaning in life. My work has taken me to discover my gift of teaching and designing practical ways to bring psychological and spiritual lessons down to the reality of the inmates.
Brotherhood of Santa Monica of Mexico. Augutine and Logotherapy
Q.- When did you start visiting prisons?
A.- It was when I started offering the LECI workshops in February of 2005.
Q.- How do this workshops work?
A.- It all starts with a motivational making a spiritual link between God and the inmates. I remind them how wonderful they are to the eyes of God, the dignity they all have because of the five common aspects we have with our Creator. In my experience I have come to discover three main pillars.- Logo therapy with its philosophical concepts, then LECI with Human Development and Self Esteem, and finally, St. Augustine and his process of conversion to truth.
Q.- How much do the workshops last?
A.- 34 weekly sessions, each lasting three hours. There are four modules.- Communication, self esteem, forgiveness and managing losses in life. After completing each module, the inmates receive a diploma, an evaluation is done and we listen to how the module has helped the prisoner in his personal life.
An Examplary Conversion
Q.- Why do you speak of St. Augustine?
A.- He speaks clearly that what you want you can achieve it; you can change. I admire his process of conversion. I can see how from an imperfect and limited human nature he starts making himself conscience that he must direct his life to God in a constant search.
Q.- What is it that the inmates admire of St. Augustine?
A.- The personal rhythm in our own process of conversion. Y narrate in a dynamic way of how St. Augustine hears children’s voices saying.- “Pick it up and read it” and how he gets the Bible and finds truth in the word of God. They see in him and example of how they too can change their lives.
Q.- Do you believe that St. Augustine can help others who want to redo their lives?
A.- Of course. And my dream is to invite others touched by the life of St. Augustine and make a team willing to take the life of this saint to inmates in other institutions who await desperately this type of accompaniment.