Prisons
Prisons in many countries are overflowing, but released prisoners, who could have become changed people, are worse even than before. A prison chaplain rang me to ask 'Can Celtic penitential practices trasform our prisons?'
Celtic monasteries in some tribes were invited to oversee restorational justice based on the penances (spiritual exercises) that replaced the eight deadly sins with their opposite virtues. No one today would use all of these penances (slapping a child for coughing would be considered abusive), but the principles behind these could transform our troubled neighbourhoods and prisons.
The purpose of restorational justice is to acknowledge, feel sorrow for and then do something to help repair the damage our sin /crime has done to another, but also to sense how the wrong-doer has hurt God and themselves, and where possible make reparation and restore a damaged relationship.
A young man who had murdered a worker on a land-owners’s estate was sent to do penance under Columba on the island of Iona for years. Eventually he was freed to return and do manual work free of charge on that man’s estate. He could not restore the lost life, but he could restore the lost working life that the land-owner had been robbed of. He also did as much as he was able to restore the relationship with the land-owner he had wronged.
There is an epidemic of young men who abuse others. A root of this may be low self-image. The prison service needs to train them in self-esteem, which means accepting that we are not self-created.
You want to lash out? Explore if there is anyone who wishes good will to you, or read about people who exercised great good will, e.g. Jesus. Imagine this growing. How might your behaviour change?
So the principle of restorational justice is to inculcate a change of heart (the Christian word is repentance) until there is genuine awareness and sorrow for the harm the person’s crime has done, which issues in deeds. I have been invited (as a public witness) into a prison where one of our Voyagers’ taught a Restorative Justice course. Most prisoners agreed to write a letter to the person most harmed by their crime and to say sorry (one refused, but let out his anger by quoting an ‘anger psalm’). I found this deeply moving and genuine. But learning to feel, despite emotional blockages, for the person our crime has harmed is only the first step. Doing work or making things that put something back into the society our crime has damaged is a practical outworking. In the case of sexual abuse, it is likely the abused person will want no contact with the abuser, but here the personal transformation involved in the Eight Virtues process can change the future dynamics of the abuser.
The eight deadly sins are: 1) Gluttony (for food or other things we imbibe) 2) Greed 3) Temper or misplaced anger 4) Dispiritedness 5) Lust 6) Lethargy 7) Vanity 8) Pride. The eight life-giving virtues everyone does well to cultivate are: 1) Self-control 2) Generosity 3) Forbearance 4) Being present to people 5) Respectful compassion 6) Devotion to duty 7) Encouragment of others 8) Humble service.
If penance is about transforming what is in our own heart, restorational justice is about repairing some of the damage our negative or criminal actions have inflicted upon other persons.
- Develop honest acknowledgement that you chose to commit a wrong, however much others failed or provoked you.
- Describe why you feel anger and what you want others to understand about your anger. Invite Jesus (or a physical human) to be present to you and explain all this to them.
- Develop a sense of sorrow (or a sense of sin) for what you did, even if you think there were mitigating circumstances and that your world is unfair.
- Learn to replace your self-image as a victim with a self-image of you as a steward on earth. Write a letter to a probation officer, prison chaplain, or friend itemising ways in which picturing yourself as a steward changes your perspective.
- Write an imaginary letter to the person you harmed (murdered, (write to their nearest survivor) stole from, abused or. In this you may explain why you felt driven to do this but also reveal that you now feel sorrow and, if you can, even if you feel that you are the greater victim, ask for forgiveness.
- If you are in a prison that gives you work, educational or fitness opportunities take advantage of them and decide to put something back into the world that your actions have robbed.
- Write an actual or imaginary letter to the person your crime has most hurt, materially or in their spirit, saying sorry but also asking them to understand you, and that you would like to repair the damage you have done ins some, even if only in a token way Dedicate your new skill, knowledge or fitness to making the world a better place when you get out.
- Practice self-control, living simply, and developing a positive self-image without self-pity or revenge.
As we meditate on the opposite virtue of a vice we have committed we continue until we feel something of the hurt our victim felt. But we also seek to sense the hurt God feels.
Desert Fathers and Mothers prescribed penances for themselves, and Celtic monasteries in some tribes were invited to oversee restorational justice based on these for people from the general public who had committed offences such as theft, murder or slander. No one today would use all of these penances (slapping a child for coughing would be considered abusive), but the principles behind these – restorational justice - could transform our troubled neighbourhoods and prisons.
Columbanus and others described their suggested penances as medicines for the soul. A person can never undo a theft, murder or act of sexual abuse. But they can offer to give time to serve the aggrieved person if invited, or share how they have sought help to overcome their bad habit, or ask for forgiveness. Above all, even if the person they have offended is dismissive, they can learn to feel how God is aggrieved and seek Divine forgiveness.
We all experience the inner or outer repercussions of our sins. Most of us, most of the time, ‘miss the meaning’, to quote from T.S. Eliot’s Quartets, for the simple reason that when a sin goes unacknowledged and therefore unrepented it is just another experience without meaning. In children it may well be put down to mental illness. But as often as a sin goes unacknowledged and unconfessed we are unable to take the next step towards atonement, which in the English language means at-one-ment. Sin prevents us being at one with the person, place, memory or institution we have sinned against.
The purpose of a penance, voluntarily entered into by adults, is twofold: 1) To replace the eight deadly sins with the eight life-giving virtues within our own souls; 2) to acknowledge, feel sorrow for and then do something to help repair the damage our sin /crime has done to another, but also to sense how they have hurt God and ourselves, and so where possible make reparation and restore a damaged relationship.
A young man who had murdered a worker on a land-owners’s estate was sent to do penance under Columba on the island of Iona for years. Eventually he was freed to return and do manual work free of charge on that man’s estate. He could not restore the lost life, but he could restore the lost working life that the land-owner had been robbed of. He also did as much as he was able to restore the relationship with the land-owner he had wronged.
There is an epidemic of young men who abuse others. A root of this may be low self-image. The prison service trains them in self-esteem, which means that I am not self-created.
You (or a prisoner) want to lash out? Explore if there is anyone who wishes good will to you, or read about people who exercised great good will, e.g. Jesus. Imagine this growing. How might your behaviour change?
So the principle of restorational justice, which can transform our prisons, is to inculcate a change of heart (the Christian word is repentance) until there is genuine awareness and sorrow for the harm the person’s crime has done, which issues in deeds. I have been invited (as a public witness) into a prison where one of our Voyagers’ taught a Restorative Justice course. Most prisoners agreed to write a letter to the person most harmed by their crime and to say sorry (one refused, but let out his anger by quoting an ‘anger psalm’). I found this deeply moving and genuine. But learning to feel, despite emotional blockages, for the person our crime has harmed is only the first step. Doing work or making things that put something back into the society our crime has damaged is a practical outworking. In the case of sexual abuse, it is likely the abused person will want no contact with the abuser, but here the personal transformation involved in the Eight Virtues process can change the future dynamics of the abuser.
Penance
The eight deadly sins are: 1) Gluttony (for food or other things we imbibe) 2) Greed 3) Temper or misplaced anger 4) Dispiritedness 5) Lust 6) Lethargy 7) Vanity 8) Pride. The eight life-giving virtues everyone does well to cultivate are: 1) Self-control 2) Generosity 3) Forbearance 4) Being present to people 5) Respectful compassion 6) Devotion to duty 7) Encouragment of others 8) Humble service.
We research and practice exercises that help us grow in the virtues, not being deterred by set-backs. Some random examples follow – you should investigate and practice exercises that work best for you. 1) Fast from food , social media, or other activities at certain times each week or year 2) When you get something, give something away. 3) Think of Jesus’ weeping over the sins of Jerusalem: replace your temper with sorrow. 4) Rest (or seek medical treatment) if you need it, but also make a list of things you need to do in order of priority and do them in the power of Christ. 5) Place a person you lust after into the care of Jesus and let go of them. Seek to grow in agape – the fusion of compassion with eros. 6) If you lack sleep, create time to rest. If you are over-working, create a rhythm which includes fun things and re-creation. 7) Dedicate a day or period of time when you prioritise ways to encourage each person you meet. 8) Look out for something overlooked that needs to be done and do it without broadcasting this.
Restorational Justice
If penance is about transforming what is in your own heart, restorational justice is about repairing some of the damage your negative or criminal actions have inflicted upon other persons.
- Develop honest acknowledgement that you chose to commit a wrong, however much others failed or provoked you.
- Describe why you feel anger and what you want others to understand about your anger. Invite Jesus (or a physical human) to be present to you and explain all this to them.
- Develop a sense of sorrow (or a sense of sin) for what you did, even if you think there were mitigating circumstances and that your world is unfair.
- Learn to replace your self-image as a victim with a self-image of you as a steward on earth. Write a letter to a probation officer, prison chaplain, or friend itemising ways in which picturing yourself as a steward changes your perspective.
- Write an imaginary letter to the person you harmed (murdered, (write to their nearest survivor) stole from, abused or. In this you may explain why you felt driven to do this but also reveal that you now feel sorrow and, if you can, even if you feel that you are the greater victim, ask for forgiveness.
- If you are in a prison that gives you work, educational or fitness opportunities take advantage of them and decide to put something back into the world that your actions have robbed.
- Write an actual or imaginary letter to the person your crime has most hurt, materially or in their spirit, saying sorry but also asking them to understand you, and that you would like to repair the damage you have done ins some, even if only in a token way Dedicate your new skill, knowledge or fitness to making the world a better place when you get out.
- Practice self-control, living simply, and developing a positive self-image without self-pity or revenge.
As we meditate on the opposite virtue of a vice we have committed we continue until we feel something of the hurt our victim felt. But we also seek to sense the hurt God feels.
In prisons this process is sometimes called restorative justice. It is said that one quarter of the world’s prisoners are located in the USA, where it is a huge money-earner and, critics say, is an unredeemed capitalist industry. Those in CAH vows will work to introduce restorative justice in to prisons.
I was deeply moved to be one of outside friends of a prison chaplaincy invited to hear letters prisoners had written to someone they had wronged, which they read out on their last Saturday before their release. Sometimes they could only apologise – how do you make restitution for a murder? But some offered to do work free of charge for a citizen they had wronged. Others said they for the first time felt the hurt they had caused. One was still so angry he could not write a letter so he read a ‘hate’ psalm about killing a baby on the rocks.
So a fellowship of forgiven sinners, whether the outside world thinks of them as respectable or unrespectable gradually turns their journey of life into a pilgrimage