Traveling with Pilgrims of Hope, Episode 1, Prison Ministry

Conversations about Finding and Sharing Hope: A video series for the Jubilee Year 2025

Hosted by Fr. Ron Will
Welcome to this first episode in a series titled, “Traveling with Pilgrims of Hope.”

Introduction to the Series

Pope Francis has declared 2025 as a jubilee year with the theme “Pilgrims of Hope.” We hear a lot of people say today that they are not very hopeful about 2025, but at Precious Blood Renewal Center, we prefer to listen to Pope Francis. How about you?

Our Renewal Center’s mission statement says that we are a safe and sacred place offering healing and hope, renewal and reconciliation for all people. We are committed to offering hope.

During this series, I will have conversations with individuals who have found hope during some dark situations and difficult situations in their lives. What can we learn from them that we can apply to ourselves?

I will interview a different individual or different group each month who will share how they keep moving forward with hope in difficult situations.

The world is filled with sorrow and suffering, but it is also where Jesus is with us in that sorrow and suffering. He is here and now, but we have to be attentive to notice his presence sometimes. Are we looking? Are we reflecting on the ways that Jesus is in our midst? We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know who holds the future.

Jesus teaches us to imagine a world and then build it. You must imagine it before it becomes a reality. Like building a house. You first need to see it in your imagination.

‘I was … in prison and you visited me.’

In his apostolic letter, Pope Francis names several groups of people who need hope offered to them. One of those groups are long-term prison inmates. I have done some prison ministry myself in St. Joseph, Missouri. Another person who has done much more than I is Nyla Bitunjac. She is joining me today. I consider her a pilgrim of hope because she goes into prison week after week, visiting with men who seemingly have lost their future.

Bitunjac, a parishioner at St. Francis Xavier Parish in St. Joseph, Missouri, works with Elaine Inglem, who attends St. Rose of Lima Parish in neighboring Savannah, Missouri, to offer weekly bible study sessions at the Western Region Diagnostic and Correction Center in St. Joseph. Two or three times a month they join a priest celebrating Mass there, and several times a year they host weekend retreats called “Residents Encounter Christ,” or REC Retreats for short.

Excerpts from the conversation between Fr. Ron Will and Nyla Bitunjac.

Early Expectations

Nyla Bitunjac: People think of prisoners as being, I don’t know, ruthless people or, have some odd concept of what it is going to be like to go into prison. I know I probably did myself, but I really draw a lot of inspiration from these men that we visit. Many of them come from homes that were terribly broken, maybe their parents and all of their relatives were part of the drug culture. Some had horrendous childhood stories to tell. Some are just like you and me, you know, made some bad mistakes. And so I really do enjoy being with them and learning their stories and offering them a different way

Of course, many of these men, too, are actually far more well versed in the Bible than myself. That was another eye-opening experience for me that these people, these men, really have developed their love of God to be inside missionaries with us. They are bringing new people along. They bring new men in. … So, it really is a gratifying and humbling mission.

REC Retreats

Nyla Bitunjac: Those are three-day retreats. They follow the Cursillo Retreat program. That is, there is a Die Day, a Rise Day and a Go Day. I think probably the most difficult day is Die Day, because we ask them to go to reconciliation. I have to tell about one incident, a gentleman who was a Mennonite, baptized in the Mennonite Church, and he was at my table, I was a table leader that year. I said, “I think you’re gonna feel so much better, when you go to reconciliation, you just, just give it a try.” So he did. He came back and he was just weeping, and he says, “I don’t think Father understood a single thing I said, because I was blubbering so badly.” I said, “It doesn’t make any difference. He heard you and he forgave you, and that’s what God has done, he has forgiven you … He came back the next morning and he said, “Oh, Mrs. B, that’s the first time I’ve slept since I’ve been here.” That’s reconciliation for you.

‘Meet them where they’re at’

Nyla Bitunjac: When I started into this, I said, I don’t want to be a person who knows what the prisoners have done. You can find out what they have done, find out why they’re in there. I don’t do that. I don’t want to judge them. I don’t want to have anything to do with that. I meet them where they’re at. That’s what I do. … I know that I’m a sinner too. By the grace of God, who knows, maybe I could have done something to get me into prison too, but thank heaven I have not. I just want them to know that I care and love for them. I have a love for them that is not even close to the love that God has for them. …

I really want those inmates to know that there are people on the outside that care. There are people on the outside that don’t want them to have to go back to prison again. They want them to be successful in their lives, and they want them to, to take their love for the Lord and keep going with it.

Fr. Ron Will: You, you probably know this, but I’m going to say it: the fact that you keep going back week after week, and that they see you keep coming back; you are communicating to them: “I like you. I love you. I care about you” — if they can feel that love from a human being, they can then begin to [believe] maybe God loves me too. …

So thank you for doing that ministry, Nyla.

Each month through this Jubilee Year, Fr. Ron will interview individuals about how they keep moving forward with hope in difficult situations.

For more information:

• Residents Encounter Christ — Missouri, a three-day retreat weekend for incarcerated individuals based on the Pascal Mystery of Jesus. Participants experience the message of Christ through participation in music, discussions, talks, prayer, scripture, liturgy and celebration. The REC Community is made up of Catholics and Protestants over the age of 21
• MAX Prison and Jail Ministry, the program in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph to provide pastoral care, education, public policy advocacy and prayer support in service of the incarcerated and their families.

All of the videos in this series can be found here: Traveling with Pilgrims of Hope

Never miss an article published on the Renewal Center website: Sign up to receive our newsletters.

[Fr. Ron Will, a Precious Blood priest and spiritual director, is a graduate of Catholic Theological Union and Creighton University’s School of Christian Spirituality. He has a special interest in helping form intentional disciples of Jesus, encouraging others to go spiritually deep-sea diving to explore a deeper relationship with God, and walking with people as they dive into the ocean of God’s mystery actually experiencing God rather than simply dipping one’s toe into the water.]

Photo Credit: ID 154206780 © Victoriia Zoteva | Dreamstime.com

Music Credit: “We Are Marching” (Siyahamba). Performed by First Christian Church of Tacoma. Text: South African. Tune: South African. © 1984, Utryck, Walton Music Corporation, agent. Used with permission under onelicense.net, #A-725830

We’d Like to Hear from You!

We’d like to know what you think about this article. Send us a comment using the form below. Do you have a suggestion? Is there something you want to learn more about? Send us a note.