"Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you...For I was hungry and you gave me food... in prison and you visited me."
Matthew 25:34-36
Sister Thérèse Forcier has been involved in prison ministry since 1990. In October of 1990 while living in Chicopee, MA, she was made aware of an existing program called R.E.C. (Residents Encounter Christ) that was going on at the jail in Springfield. In January of 1991 she became part of the team of 24 lay people & 1 priest for the next 2 retreats, an experience she’ll never forget. Every Wednesday evening throughout the year there is a follow up at the jail for all those who have followed this retreat and are still incarcerated.
Then, while in Keene, she was going once a week to the jail in Westmoreland to minister to the women there. She would pray, sing, discuss spiritual matters, she'd share important articles with them & occasionally show them a religious video. She also could see any one of them who wished to have a private session.
Sister Thérèse is now going to the Valley St. Jail in Manchester, NH on a weekly basis. She was involved in the Threshold Program by meeting once a week for an hour with an Inmate in order to help him learn to make the right decisions. Eventually she started her own program called "Finding God", where they learn to find God in different people, places & things. She is allowed to give them religious booklets & old calendar pages of nature scenes. (They never have a chance to experience nature first hand.)
Sister Thérèse sometimes presides over a Communion Service for the Women when Sr. Adrienne Gendron another Presentation of Mary Sister who is also involved in this ministry is unable to attend.
This ministry has been very dear to Sister Thérèse’s heart since the very beginning. Some ex-prisoners have continued to correspond with her. Truly she continues to be a sacrament of God’s loving presence.
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