On page 516 of S&H, Mrs. Eddy speaks of “the sunlight [of Truth] glinting from the church-dome, and glancing into the prison cell…”
It is a great privilege and inspiration when doing church work to be able to witness another’s growth and demonstration.
The only affiliation I currently have with the branch church where I was previously a member, is to be part of the prison outreach. There is a practitioner there that is doing wonderful work in the prisons.
All that I had previously been doing on that branch church prison committee, and still do independently now… due to my work schedule and the distance involved… is that, although I haven’t been making visits, I do continue to correspond with a prisoner who is relatively new in Christian Science. I didn’t have the heart to discontinue writing to him, when I ceased branch church membership there, and I feel this communication has blessed us both.
He tells me that he is in a location with some pretty hardened criminals. During covid, there was a severe lockdown put in place in the prison, and any visitation to inmates was denied. I had been told that, in past, when he was put into such isolation, he reacted by going ballistic. However, with his added spiritual growth, he became quiet this time, and busied himself with spiritual study and reflection, and started to write poetry for the first time in his life. Of one of his first poems, he wrote, “I have composed a poem. I hope you like it.”:
The Spiritual Idea
Calling on incorporeal love;
Only submission to be forgiven
As Jesus descends like a dove,
Our wine the only inspiration.
The power harmonious-God embrace,
Knowing life’s only hold mortal mind.
The rise of true meaning; eternal grace,
Divine intervention, ever-lasting kind.