It may seem like a simple thing, owning a copy of a Bible. And yet, prison inmates don’t always have that luxury. In the two New Jersey prisons where Paul Dwyer and other members of his New Jersey parish run a Prison Ministry Program, Bibles are available for inmates to keep, courtesy of the Order of Malta Bibles and Prayer Book Program. “They love to get their Bibles,” Paul said. “I think they want to study God’s Word, and they want to have their own Bibles.”

Paul first became involved in Prison Ministry in 2014 when he visited East Jersey State Prison in Rahway. He and other members of the parish ministry would, along with about forty to fifty inmates, hear a priest celebrate Mass on Monday evenings. Conversation and Scripture Study were also included. The initiative grew with the addition of Northern State Prison in Newark.

Scripture Study provided part of the impetus for Paul to seek out the Order of Malta. While there were Bibles available in the prisons, there would be different versions, and they would not necessarily be Catholic. “I wanted everybody to be working from the same Bible version,” Paul said. “So that’s when I connected to the Order of Malta, and asked them about getting Bibles. They also were able to provide us with prayer books.”

Paul spoke of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the prisons, recounting a Scripture lesson on a reading from the Book of Proverbs. An inmate he’d never seen showed up and said, “Oh, one time I wrote a song about that exact set of Proverbs readings.” Paul told of how the inmate had delivered this beautiful song based on that chapter of Proverbs. “It was really the Holy Spirit at work,” Paul said. “I was just amazed at what God has done there.”

If you are interested in getting involved in the American Association’s Prison Ministry Program, please click here.