Prayer

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)

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.

The Lampstand Foundation

Lighted Lamp