Today I went to jail

Today I married a couple, in the federal prison

It was a nice, small service, with seven guests, three of which came from the inside.

The couple has been together for a good chunk of years, and they are getting on in age. They know me from the visiting area where I meet with another inmate. They both have never been married before, and during the long check-in and search process, the poor bride was so nervous that she couldn´t even sign her name!

Three of the ladies who went in with us, met their spouses inside, at the chapel. It´s always moving to watch as these couples unite for a few moments of sanity. To be able to attend a service together, a friends wedding, is a huge piece of humanity. To sit beside your lover, close, holding hands, his arm around her shoulder. These are moments of togetherness stolen from the years of aloneness.

You watch them watch each other, drinking in the images, committing them to memory, this day will have to last a long time.

After the ceremony, we eat sandwiches and cake and coffee. The inmate has worked hard and saved a long time to be able to put on this simple spread. The couples move to different parts of the room, seeking some privacy to share a moment of time, and maybe a cigarette.

Soon it´s time to go, we must exit escorted as a group and give account for everything we brought into the prison.

The couples hug, holding on to each other, not wanting to forget the feel of the other. The smell of her perfume, the strength of his arms around her ... and then we leave, the inmates turn left and we proceed right.

The happily married couple separates again for another 5 to 10.

... and just before you say something about how he probably deserved incarceration, and how their love would be alot different on the outside, and maybe even what a fool she is, let me say I know all that, I really do know all that. But what can I do with this ...

"Don't forget about those in prison. Suffer with them as though you were there yourself. Share the sorrow of those being mistreated, as though you feel their pain in your own bodies."

or this:

"Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me."