I normally volunteer and stand public witness on Sunday mornings at Delaney Hall, the private for profit immigration detention center run by the GEO Corporation under a 15 year $1Billion government contract. This weekend however I was away until Sunday afternoon attending an intercongregational formation weekend with our Candidate. (One of my current roles in community is as Candidate Director. Candidacy is the first stage of initial formation before Novitiate).
Tomorrow is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In many Latin American countries, such as Columbia, tonight is celebrated as Dia de Las Velitas. We held a beautiful prayer this evening at Delaney Hall, reading the names of 16 of the friends who have been released and united with their loved ones. We lit candles in their honor and prayed in Advent Hope that all families will be reunited. You can see a family with small children in the background of this photo, speaking to the guard to get on the list for visitors. This is real life.
When I told our Candidate that I was going to Delaney Hall this cold December evening, she said she wanted to come with me. We handed out pasta and hot chocolate and a tshirt to a woman who the guards decided violated the (arbitrary) dress code, among other things. It is a simple ministry of presence in the company of good people.
There were lots of volunteers this evening, so at one point we decided to stand by the table with the candles to pray. The two of us prayed the Sorrowful Rosary using this guide from CLINIC with stories of immigrants.
As we were praying a family with a grandmother, mother and little girl walked by on their way to talk to the guard. The mother stopped, looked at the table full of candles, and said “Dia de las Velitas.” They paused and little candles. It was a powerful moment I will not soon forget
Mary, Mother of Jesus, you who experienced being a refugee, you who were denied room in the inn, pray for these Holy Families. Comfort them and intercede on their behalf with your son Jesus that justice will prevail, that their loved ones will be treated with human dignity, and that they will be reunited with their families. Amen.
I spent yesterday morning with other volunteers at Delaney Hall providing hospitality and solidarity to families visiting loved ones.
I have been recovering from Covid so hadn’t been in a while. As always I found myself inspired by the courage of the families waiting to visit loved ones and the open hearts and dedication of the volunteers. I was also heartbroken. This time it was the children who have to face this cruelty, some born while their fathers have been detained. Others just trying to be a kid in very difficult circumstances. I couldn’t help but think of the words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Last night as I went to bed, I realized that not only was my heart broken 💔, I had over estimated my post covid energy level. While I had planned to attend the prayer service this morning outside Delaney Hall, instead I prayed at home with the Scriptures for todays liturgy, where I found strength for the journey.
The Prophet Habakkuk was reading the signs of injustice in his own time and calling on the people to hold fast in faith. It is one of my all time favorite passages.
“How long, O Lord? I cry for help / but you do not listen! / I cry out to you, “Violence!” / but you do not intervene. / Why do you let me see ruin; / why must I look at misery? / Destruction and violence are before me; / there is strife, and clamorous discord. / Then the Lord answered me and said: / Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, / so that one can read it readily. / For the vision still has its time, / presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; / if it delays, wait for it, / it will surely come, it will not be late. / The rash one has no integrity; / but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.”
In his letter to Timothy St. Paul tells his community (and us):
“Beloved: I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.”
The Gospel from Luke is a call from Jesus to risk the bigness of smallness.
“The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
As Pope Leo XIV said when he first stepped out on the balcony at St Peter’s Basilica: “God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail. “
God of justice, love, and mercy, help us to remember and always to be animated by your love. Give us courage to act in the face of oppression and violations of human dignity. Help us to participate in your creating power of love in ways big and small. Most of all, increase our faith that we may truly believe in You who are bigger than it all. Amen
This morning a small group of us prayed outside the gates of Delaney Hall, the for-profit immigrant prison operated by GEO Group in our name. We gathered outside for a simple prayer service while the first group of families were forced to wait on an active driveway outside the gates for the chance to visit their loved ones detained in this 1,100 bed facility. This was the second week of the Let Us Pray Sunday morning prayer service outside Delaney Hall. Different faith traditions will be leading prayer each week. This week’s prayer was in the Christian Tradition and organized by Pax Christi NJ.
We began singing the song, Please Prepare Me, praying that we might be a sanctuary for the families and their detained loved ones.
We then listened to the word of God: Jeremiah 17: 5-11, Romans 12: 1-12, and Matthew 11:28-30. I was then honored to offer a brief reflection on the scripture readings, which is copied below. It was a beautiful experience of church with friends and strangers praying together that we may find refuge in God and be rooted in love.
Reflection by Susan Francois, CSJP – Delaney Hall (August 31, 2025)
Scripture: Jeremiah 17:5-11, Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 11:28-30
Chances are, right now, you have a piece of paper or a coin in your pocket with the words “In God We Trust” written on it. Our currency has carried these words since President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a law making “In God We Trust” our official national motto in 1956. The context of this law, of course, was the Cold War. The inclusion of the motto on our nation’s money was seen as a response to the anti-religious stance of the Soviet Union.
We just heard proclaimed words from the prophet Jeremiah, in which he reminded his community to trust in God, not people and not money. His preaching was in a different context. He was worried that the people were placing their trust in the wrong things and turning their hearts from God. He wanted them to understand that actions have consequences. He predicted (correctly as it turns out) that they would be exiled to Babylon.
I can’t help but wonder what he’d make of our context today. Take the last line from the passage from Jeremiah, where he compares a partridge that broods but does not hatch to those who acquire wealth unjustly. In the end, they are just fools. Unjust fools.
The building behind me is operated by GEO Corp under tax-payer funded 15-year $1 Billion contract. GEO’s own press release announcing the deal in February proudly predicted that the “contract is expected to generate in excess of $60 million in annualized revenues for GEO in the first full year of operations.”
And yet, even with all this profit, families with small children, pregnant mothers, and elderly relatives of persons detained behind these walls are not provided with a safe place to wait for the chance to see their loved ones before they are deported. They are required to wait hours in the hot sun—and with this being Labor Day weekend, we know colder and wetter weather is around the corner—without shelter, without access to a bathroom even. I suspect that the prophet Jeremiah would have looked at this private-for-profit prison operation and declared that the GEO shareholders are earning their wealth unjustly.
Let’s shift Jeremiah’s focus from those detaining our migrant brothers and sisters to their faithful loved ones who come to stand at the foot of these gates today. Despite the odds, despite the difficulties, no doubt even in despair, they come each weekend in hope to spend a few moments with their loved ones. “They are like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream. It does not fear heat when it comes, its leaves stay green.”
The leaves that sustain them, I suspect, are rooted in love. Love for their husband or wife, son or daughter, mother or father, brother, sister, or friend who are inside these walls. Love for each other. Those of us who have been privileged to volunteer here these past few months have seen so many actions of kindness and love between strangers on this driveway. Volunteer to visitor. Visitor to visitor. Visitor to volunteer.
By our very presence—as visitors, as volunteers—we are refusing to conform to this age of inhumanity where cruelty seems to be the point. We trust in love, and my Christian tradition teaches that God is love. Jesus, God-with-us, love incarnate, invites us in the passage we heard from Matthew’s Gospel to find sanctuary in his love, where we will find rest.
May we be love. May we be loved. May we be sanctuary for one another. May we trust not in the unjust laws of men or the unjust pursuit of profit through human suffering, but in the love of God.
I finish my few days of retreat today, grateful for the blessing and opportunity of this time of solitude, prayer, and reflection.
In the words of our CSJP Constitutions:
“Recognizing gospel peace as both gift and task, we believe that prayer is fundamental to our life. …
In unity with the church and with all of creation we give praise and thanks to the Giver of all gifts. We open ourselves to the liberating power of God whose Spirit in us leads to peace.
Personal prayer deepens our desire to be united with God in faith, enabling us to see God’s presence and action in our lives and in the world.”
So much had happened since my annual retreat last October, good and bad, challenging and encouraging, and everything in between … in my own life, my life in community, and our wider world. There is so much to pray for and with! It is pure gift to have the ability to take time away in solitude with God’s love and mercy. Such a gift also carries responsibility, which I do not take lightly.
I have held in prayer many these days, those I promised to pray for, those I know, and many I do not. I know too I have been held in prayer. Again, such gift.
I have been so aware of God’s love these days away, love beyond measure. In the words of the song My Belovedby Eliza King (a soundtrack of sorts for this retreat), I have been “leaning on my beloved.”
Graced with time by the ocean, going on long walks and just sitting by the sea, I have been so aware of the gifts of creation given freely by the One who loved us into being, the healing power of Christ who became one of us, and the persistent presence of the Spirit nudging us into wholeness.
God is so good, and so are we. May we remember that in good times as well as the more challenging times. May we be people of peace and reflect God’s love, mercy, and care for all of God’s creation. Amen.
At the Corner of Susan and St. Joseph 