Announcements
Making Something Different
For someone who has never been locked up, it is easy to take freedom for granted. For those who are locked up, it is easy to lose hope and feel that freedom is too far away. Unfortunately, it is easy to become remiss once more when one gets out of a jail or prison. To change this way of thinking there must be, among other things, and in no order, education, meditation, and honesty. I think it’s important, first of all, to stop blaming. Everyone. Stop blaming the police. Stop blaming the snitches. Stop blaming the parents, the teachers, the whoever. And stop blaming yourself. It’s good to accept that you are responsible for your actions, but once they are done, there is nothing to do but learn from your mistakes … Read entire article »
Headline
Re-Entry, Community, and the Spiritual Life
I am often asked my viewpoint regarding re-entry. What is it and how is it truly accomplished? From my perspective, the most practical, most effective, and most natural means toward re-entry is concerned with personal, spiritual maturation and involvement within community. Below is a direct quote from Henri Nouwen, regarding the inter-relationship of community and spiritual formation. “As difficult as it is, community is not really an option in the spiritual life. Community springs forth from solitude, and without a community, communion with God is impossible. We are called to God’s table together, not by ourselves. Spiritual formation, therefore, always includes formation to life in community. We all have to find our way home to God in solitude and in community with others”. … Read entire article »
Featured
Mission
To provide a purposeful and challenging learning environment for prisoners who have the courage to seek an honest approach into the deeper transformational depths that cause cognitive restructuring … Read more »
Popular
2008 Recidivism Rates Decrease in Indiana
Below is a concise report that shows the third consecutive annual decrease in recidivism within the Indiana Department of Corrections for the 2008 year. [caption id="attachment_22" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Indiana Dept. of Correction … Read more »
Thomas Keating on Centering Prayer
Below is a short video, where Fr. Thomas Keating (Trappist Monk and Priest) discusses the basic steps in practicing Centering Prayer. In 1984, he co-founded Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. [embed]http://youtu.be/3IKpFHfNdnE[/embed] … Read more »
Project Regeneration Idealized in 2009
Project Regeneration was first idealized in 2009. Its mission is “To provide a purposeful and challenging learning environment for prisoners who have the courage to seek an honest approach into … Read more »
Latest
Interior Prayer
“Interior prayer is a careful attentiveness to the One who dwells in the center of our being. Through prayer we awaken to God within us.” –Henri Nouwen … Read entire article »
Faithfulness as Mindfulness
Faithfulness is a constant preparedness for the sacred marriage of Bride and Bridegroom. The bride is the human being. The bridegroom is Christ. This marriage is a union that occurs within the Temple of God, that is, the human body. It is an actual union of the finite with the infinite. It is not just an intellectual idea. It is a potential phenomenological and ontological event. Faithfulness is not a mundane, emotional promulgation of faith for a pie-in-the-sky God. Rather, faithfulness is a type of mindfulness. It is a mindfulness of non-attachment to worldly passions and egoic concerns. It is like diligently walking through life, always carrying a spare jar of oil for your lamp. … Read entire article »
Making Something Different
For someone who has never been locked up, it is easy to take freedom for granted. For those who are locked up, it is easy to lose hope and feel that freedom is too far away. Unfortunately, it is easy to become remiss once more when one gets out of a jail or prison. To change this way of thinking there must be, among other things, and in no order, education, meditation, and honesty. I think it’s important, first of all, to stop blaming. Everyone. Stop blaming the police. Stop blaming the snitches. Stop blaming the parents, the teachers, the whoever. And stop blaming yourself. It’s good to accept that you are responsible for your actions, … Read entire article »
Article on Corrections, Recidivism, and a Need for Change
Quoted from Denver Post, “Huge cracks are forming in the wall of Americans’ indifference to our world-leading levels of incarceration — a disturbing total of 2.3 million behind bars. And for clear reasons. First, the Great Recession. The states, which fund the bulk of our prisons, were hit by a breathtaking revenue decline of 30 percent in 2009 alone. It is becoming ever tougher for law-and-order politicos to justify ever-expanding prison rolls and costs. About time, one could say. From 1985 to 2008, state prison populations virtually tripled, with states’ overall corrections spending up 674 percent, according to an analysis by the Vera Institute … Read entire article »
Way of Life Curriculum
Project Regeneration is about change: progressive change. Its goal is to provide a challenging learning environment for prisoners who seek to change habitual, self defeating behaviors into behaviors that are healthy and socially acceptable. The core of the curriculum is chosen to help the prisoner recognize and accept past or present problem areas, to journey with them –though temporarily– and to help them discover better values, while encouraging them to explore the values of a Way of Life taught by Jesus, strength in community, and the need for personal accountability. … Read entire article »
Thomas Keating on Centering Prayer
Below is a short video, where Fr. Thomas Keating (Trappist Monk and Priest) discusses the basic steps in practicing Centering Prayer. In 1984, he co-founded Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. … Read entire article »
Who is the Solitary?
In the words of Thomas Merton, describing the “Vocation to Solitude […] The solitary is a man who has made a decision strong enough to be proved by the wilderness: that is to say, by death. For the wilderness is full of uncertainty and peril and humiliation and fear, and the solitary lives all day long in the face of death: (1958, pg. 101-102). … Read entire article »
2008 Recidivism Rates Decrease in Indiana
Below is a concise report that shows the third consecutive annual decrease in recidivism within the Indiana Department of Corrections for the 2008 year. … Read entire article »
Project Regeneration Idealized in 2009
Project Regeneration was first idealized in 2009. Its mission is “To provide a purposeful and challenging learning environment for prisoners who have the courage to seek an honest approach into the deeper transformational depths that cause cognitive restructuring and the regeneration of the whole person. The curriculum has been tweaked over the span of a year and will include readings and discussions on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Cognitive Psychology’s concept of cognitive restructuring, Dallas Willard’s concept of the spheres of influence, Thomas Merton’s thoughts on silent-prayer and inner discovery, and selected scriptural references. Course I is titled ‘Awakening the Call for Regeneration’ and is meant to be … Read entire article »
