SHIRT OF FLAME: WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN: MOTHER LOVE AND ST. THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX

SHIRT OF FLAME: WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN: MOTHER LOVE AND ST. THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX
Excerpt:
I thought of another time I went with some fellow sober drunks to the downtown jail in L.A. We weren't allowed to shake hands or hold hands with the inmates in case we tried to pass some contraband. And so when it came time for the closing prayer, the three of us who had come in from the outside held hands with each other and formed a tiny circle. And next thing we knew, the inmates had silently come together, formed a larger circle, and were holding hands around us, and together, we all said the Lord's Prayer. Outside were locked doors, guns, barbed wire, and the guards in their darkened-glass, bullet-proof pods. But inside that circle--surrounded by cross-dressers, sex offenders, perverts, junkies, whores and thieves--I've seldom felt so protected, or so safe.

We must all be saved together! Reach God together! Appear before Him together! We must return to our Father’s house together…what would He think if we arrived without the others, without the others returning, too?
--Charles Péguy