Women's Prison Ministry

Those involved in this ministry lead religious services and faith sharing discussions with the women inmates at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup. This group keeps us connected to the marginalized members of the Body of Christ.

 


Have you ever stubbed your toe?

 

Have you ever stubbed your toe? Was it your fault? Maybe you were in a hurry to get something and you weren't watching where you were going. Maybe someone moved something out of place and it was in your way. Maybe it wasn't exactly a "stub", maybe someone else stepped on your foot. It's amazing how much it hurts! lt's hard to walk and keep our balance, even if it's our little pinky toe.

Every part of our body has a vital function and we quickly notice if a body part is hurting. Our body is important to us. But what about another body? What about the Body of Christ? Here is what St. Paul (I Corinthians 12) and the New Catholic Catechism have to say:

"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and although all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink,

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

... The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!"

On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

805. "The Church is the BODY OF CHRIST. Through the Spirit and his action in the sacraments, above all the Eucharist, Christ, who once was dead and is now risen, establishes the community of believers as his own Body. "

 

We (St. Joe's) need helpers to bring the Body of Christ to women members of the Body of Christ in prison once a month (for a few hours each month). Why are these Catholic women in prison?  Maybe they were in a hurry to get something in life and they weren't "watching where they were going".  Maybe someone "moved something their way."  Maybe someone else "stepped on their foot."  Have you ever stubbed your toe?
If you are interested in helping with Women's Prison Ministry, please contact Mike Krainak (410) 795-3648 or Mary Pulick (410) 795-7838.


"If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it"