When Tom Kelly drives to the Buckingham
Correction Center in Dillwyn, Va., he’s usually surrounded by nearly 1,500
homemade cookies. The snacks serve to sweeten the deal, that is, the biannual
Kairos retreat held at the medium security men’s prison.
Weeks before the retreat, volunteers — mostly a cadre of Fairfax and
Annandale Catholic moms — start baking cookies to the prison’s specifications.
Cookies must be smaller than 3 inches in diameter. They cannot have fruit
pieces or icing. Cookies are placed 12 to a plastic bag and labeled with what
type of cookies are inside. Typically, they’re frozen until they make their way
to Kelly.
While enticing some inmates to the
retreat, they provide more than sugary sustenance, said Kelly, who calls them a
symbol of God’s unconditional love.
“I say (to the inmates), what is this
cookie made of? They’ll raise their hands and say butter and sugar. I say, what
else are they made of? Eventually, they’ll say it’s made of time, generosity,
it’s made of love. I’ll say yeah, it’s unconditional love,” said Kelly. “These (cookie
bakers) don’t know you, you don’t know them, they’re not expecting anything in
return. It’s an introduction to what God wants us to do. When they see that,
the scales fall off.”
Students Holy Spirit School in Annandale, (from left) Teresa
Nguyen, Nazrawit Belay, Daymee Dawson, Rachel Evans and Danica Fielding, bake
cookies for inmates in the school kitchen April 4. Zoey Maraist | Catholic Herald
It’s a lesson that’s relearned by the
volunteer bakers with each stroke of the mixing spoon. At least, that’s the way
seventh-grader Bridget Callahan feels. On a sunny April afternoon, she and
fellow middle schoolers in the Got Life? Club at Holy Spirit School in
Annandale baked cookies, decorated cards and thought about the inmates who
would receive the works of their hands.
“I just think it’s so cool that our
cards and our cookies are the ones that they’re going to be receiving,” said
Callahan. “It helps us so much and inspires us so much. Everyone benefits from
it.”
Under the guidance of teachers Mary Pat
Miller and Joan Gregas, the students baked 21 dozen sugar, chocolate chip and
lemon cookies. These cookies went to Kairos retreats held in two women’s
prisons; in the fall, they bake for the men. Students not taking a turn in the
kitchen wrote Bible verses and inspirational messages on cards and paper
placemats in the cafeteria.
Related: Kairos retreats share God’s love with those on the inside
Eighth-grader Declan Forrer hopes the
cookies and cards send a message. “They’re not forgotten. They’re still cared
about and there’s a God who loves them,” he said. “Even though they’ve done
something wrong, they can come to the faith and they can be forgiven. I feel
like that would lift a very large weight off your shoulders. Sometimes you
don’t feel how much pressure you have until you go to confession and get that off
your shoulders. It’s like a whole new life.”
“If they hear that they’re students who
are doing this for them, I feel like that could be really inspiring to them,”
said his classmate, William Claeys. “We’re not only visiting the imprisoned as
the corporal work of mercy, but this could change a lot of their lives.”
Middle schoolers in the Got Life? Club at Holy Spirit
School in Annandale decorate cards and placemats for inmates April 4. Zoey Maraist | Catholic Herald
Kelly, with more than 20 years of prison
ministry under his belt, has seen firsthand the impact of the cookies. Often,
there’s enough not just for the three dozen or so men attending the retreat,
but for all the men in the Buckingham prison. With treats to spare, the
retreatants are encouraged to give bags of cookies away.
“On Saturday night, we do a forgiveness
ceremony. At the end of all that, we give guys two bags of cookies. We say,
this bag is for you, and this bag we want you to give to your worst enemy and
ask for forgiveness,” said Kelly.
“This one guy kept getting all these
bags of cookies,” said Kelly. “And he goes, ‘What is going on, these guys
should hate my guts.’ Finally, he found that all these are from Kairos and
said, ‘I’m going to get my own darn cookies.’
“He went all the way through the
program. On Saturday night, he goes and takes his own forgiveness cookies to
someone else. On Sunday morning he comes back and he is bawling like a baby,”
said Kelly. “His heart was just fully converted. Since then, he has been on
fire. It’s just amazing to see.”
