The Lampstand Foundation
Creating tools for grassroots organizations developed and managed by transformed criminals who serve the community from a deep knowledge leadership model.
It takes a reformed criminal to reform criminals.
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Prayer |
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For those of us whose apostolate is within the world, the prayerful power and contemplative intercessions of the religious has our back, for they are a mighty arm of the Church and their prayer is one of the sharpest swords of the Word, now as it was centuries ago, when St. Teresa of Avila wrote these words: "I think we should act as people do when, in time of war, the enemy has overrun the country and the king finds himself hard pressed. He retires into a strongly fortified town from whence he sometimes makes a sortie. The small company with him in the citadel, being picked men, are better than a large army of cowardly soldiers; thus they often come off victors, they are not vanquished for there is no traitor in their ranks and famine alone can conquer them. No famine can force us to surrender--it may kill us--it cannot vanquish us! But why have I told you this? To teach you, my sisters, that we must ask God to grant that, of all the good Christians in this fort, none may desert to the enemy, that no traitor may be found here, and that the captains of this castle, or city--that is, the preachers and theologians--may be proficient in the way of our Lord. Since most of these are religious, you must pray that they may advance in perfection and may follow their vocation more perfectly. This is very necessary, for, as I said, it is the arm of the Church and not of the State which much defend us now. We, being women, can fight for our King in neither way: Let us, then, strive so to live that our prayers may avail to help these servants of God who have laboured hard to arm themselves with learning and virtue with which to help their Sovereign." The Way of Perfection, [1565]. (1997). Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers. (pp. 16-17) ---
The Church - 760 Christians of the first centuries said, "The world was created for the sake of the Church." God created the world for the sake of communion with his divine life, a communion brought about by the "convocation" of men in Christ, and this "convocation" is the Church. The Church is the goal of all things, and God permitted such painful upheavals as the angels' fall and man's sin only as occasions and means for displaying all the power of his arm and the whole measure of the love he wanted to give the world. - Just as God's will is creation and is called "the world," so his intention is the salvation of men, and is called "the Church." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #760)
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Lighted Lamp
"Important insights into how to address
critical human problems ranging from family breakdown to drug
addiction to persistent poverty, have come from people who have
suffered through these problems and then shared their experiences
with others. Often these leaders and innovators have little formal
training or technical expertise. Instead, they have what is most
crucial in the nonprofit and voluntary sector: commitment and
vision." Frumkin, P. (2002) On Being Nonprofit: A
Conceptual and Policy Primer (p. 101)
A professional criminal who transforms his life and seeks to help others is a lighted lamp capable of great work within the field of criminal reformation.
The professional criminal is a person who commits crimes for money, to whom crime is a way of life, habitual, as in "of the nature of a habit; fixed by habit; constantly repeated or continued; customary" (Oxford Dictionary) and prison time an occupational hazard.
A criminal, as we use the term, is a professional criminal.
It is used by Lampstand rather than other terms like offender/ex-offender, convict/ex-convict, or felon/ex-felon, because none of those specifically define the act of crime which is committed for economic reasons, while excluding those impulsive offenses of lust and perversion, addiction, momentary rage, mental illness, or accident.
The use of this term creates a clear line of demarcation between the individuals to whom our work is directed, and from who we look for innovative and effective solutions for criminal reentry programs.
We consider time in maximum security prison as a qualifying factor in identifying criminal world leaders from the same perspective national business leaders would be identified by their involvement in nationally important business organizations.
Transformation and reformation are the primary terms used rather than rehabilitation, because it implies a previous state when one was not a criminal, while the criminals Lampstand's work is directed to, were essentially born into the criminal world.
Professional criminals become part of the communal community when they make the choice to transform themselves, to create from within a different person than whom they were previously, to become a person whose motivation is based on an eternal truth potent enough to trump the truth of the criminal world, and this eternal truth is only found in the Catholic Church.
Penitential criminals who have found this truth, and also taken the steps necessary to become community leaders in the transformation of other criminals -- becoming lighted lamps -- are those to whom our work is directed.
For a transformed criminal to retain his baptismal balance within the world, he must daily practice those ancient rituals dedicated workers of the apostolate have relied on for centuries to strengthen themselves -- he must walk the eternal path seeking the deepest knowledge of all.
It is the knowledge gained from continuous communion with God; the continual prayer and daily practice set forth by the reach for perfection to which each Catholic is called through baptism and communion within the Kingdom of God.
In olden times, the paths humans made to travel here and there were made by human feet, traveling the same way through the forest and over the plain as the day and the year before, and as the years deepened the path, it became a hardened way that remained for guidance through the woods and mountains on the way home.
As it is with our own path, trod daily through the sacramental rituals established by the Church to feed her saints and priests the food divine -- morning prayer, daily Mass, praying the Rosary daily, examination of conscience daily, and always remaining resolute against sin while strengthening virtue -- and through this daily practice, the armor of God is slowly crafted as the penitential and transformed criminal aspiring to community leadership, for whom this is a vital journey of lifetime atonement from the years of harm caused to others through his criminality, enters into the hardened path of the priestly soul and saintly temperament on the long journey home, becoming a lighted lamp to his brothers.
Luke 23:32 Now two others, both criminals, were led away with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." They divided his garments by casting lots. 35 The people stood by and watched; the rulers, meanwhile, sneered at him and said, "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Messiah of God." 36 Even the soldiers jeered at him. As they approached to offer him wine 37 they called out, "If you are King of the Jews, save yourself." 38 Above him there was an inscription that read, "This is the King of the Jews." 39 Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us."40 The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? 41 And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." 42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43 He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." 44 It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon 45 because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. 46 Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit"; and when he had said this he breathed his last.
Glorious Saint Dismas, you alone of all the great Pentient Saints were directly canonized by Christ Himself; you were assured of a place in Heaven with Him "this day" because of the sincere confession of your sins to Him in the tribunal of Calvary and your true sorrow for them as you hung beside Him in that open confessional; you who by your direct love and repentance did open the Heart of Jesus in mercy and forgiveness even before the centurion's spear tore it asunder; you whose face was closer to that of Jesus in His last agony, to offer Him a word of comfort, closer even than that of His Beloved Mother, Mary; you who knew so well how to pray, teach me the words to say to Him to gain pardon and the grace of perseverance; and you who are so close to Him now in Heaven, as you were during His last moments on earth, pray to Him for me that I shall never again desert him, but that at the close of my life I may hear from Him the words He addressed to you: "Today you will be with me in Paradise." Amen.
"To those who are searching for a new and authentic theory and praxis of liberation, the Church offers not only her social doctrine and, in general, her teaching about the human person redeeemed in Christ, but also her concrete commitment and material assistance in the struggle against marginalization and suffering." (Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus)