The Amazing Prison Story of Russell Ford

I stumbled upon a CD about the conversion of a man by the name of Russell Ford on Friday night, he is serving a 25 year prison sentence. So obviously, I was incredibly interested. I learned so much about life in this 60 minute talk. Here is a man, who entered Prison as an angry, and evil man, he was suicidal and tried to take his life in prison on a few occasions. He was a complete atheist, bitter at the world. By God's Grace, he was forced to room with an older Prisoner, who had a conversion years early. This man challenged Russ pride, that he had no ability to understand the easiest parts of the Baltimore Catechism. He thought he would find ridiculous teachings, but what he found was the loving authority that he had always longed for. As the followers of Jesus said, "This man teaches with authority," Its the gentle yoke that we all long for, all of us long to walk in the peace of true authority, the authority of a loving Father, or a loving mother.

Then he stumbled upon the heart of the Catholic Faith, the Eucharist. As he learned about the Eucharist in his cell, he stopped and cried for over 2 hours. The Eucharist was the answer to his life's constant silent pleading, "Where is God," "Why can't I experience Him," "Why Can't I see Him,". The Eucharist answers this basic Question of Man. "Why is God hidden." He realized that God was not hidden, He was as close as the nearest Catholic Church anywhere in the world. He believed this teaching of the Church in its fullness, and here he was locked in Prison, with no way to adore Jesus, to love Him and most importantly be loved by Him in the Eucharist. His attitude was amazing, that maybe this separation was in reparation for his crimes.

This talk convicted me (no pun intended) that there are so many things in life that we take for granted everyday. Jesus present in the Eucharist, that we can receive Him in this country at anytime throughout the day. We should be more grateful for this amazing opportunity. The Freedom we enjoy everyday that a prisoner can't enjoy, nature, human love, we should as St. Paul says, "Dedicate ourselves to Thanksgiving,". Wonder and Thanksgiving are a huge help to us personally, but it also makes life more agreeable to everyone around us.

Finally, the talk made me realize the moral responsibility of happiness. This may sound cruel, because the immediate thought is, what if I don't feel happy? Russell Ford relates in his talk that he grew up in an incredibly sad home, with a "demanding and abusive father," This wasn't to take away responsibility for his actions, it was only to make an important point, that in a real way, his parents were partly to blame for their sons actions in life. My wife and I are benefactors at a drug rehab in Florida by the name of "Our Lady of Hope Community," in about 1/2 of the testimonies of the people living there, I often read about, "my home life was miserable". This is why its so critical to strive for happiness. Dennis Praeger has a great line, "unhappiness is like bad breath," If effects everyone around you, except the person giving off the bad-breath (My wife probably wishes I would do more on the breath, and less on the happiness). We have the moral responsibility to do the things that will make us happier, exercise, friendship, eating better, whatever it is, because happy people make the world better, and at their best sad people make little change, but normally sadness does great harm to those around us.

I was convicted of the need for thanksgiving by a man, who is more free than most people living in complete freedom.