The Sacrament of Baptism in Juvenal penal institution.

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The monastery is located inside the perimeter of the juvenal prison.

We take everything for granted so often. But only when circumstances are changed there is a chance to compare. Then you begin to analyze, to appreciate and to give thanks ...

There are enough of things worth seeing in our small town - still Berezhany (the region of Ternopil, Western Ukraine) - is the National historical and an architectural reserve. But any eye can not miss the institution behind the barbed wires – the Educational Colony of Berezhany for Juvenal offenders. It seemed that this doesn’t a matter? We have a lot of such institutions throughout Ukraine? But the place is extraordinary. At the territory of that institution is an old monastery of Bernardines. Yes, the church behind the barbed wires.

I think to myself that things cannot happen in the world randomly. How many spiritual changes took place, how many prayers were implored to God, how many young people have taken a good way through this holy place? Although the chapel doors are shortly opened observing the requirements of regime, inside it's never empty. Ordinary men and boys are standing nearby. Convicts at Holy Mass are together with believers from the town. Everyone came to the Lord by his own path.

And no wonder that so many youngsters come to the Holy Communion during the Liturgy. Although many of them had yet no idea what it is before they got here. And their public confession in time of the Way of the Cross, as well! When you hear the words of sincere remorse and regret you see the tears in their eyes, you could cry yourself. But your crying is about your downs, about your mistakes. At this point we are all equal and there is nobody better or worse. What they write in letters to St. Nicholas. Adult guys have children's request, children's dreams that had have not been fulfilled...

Sister Christina, SSMI, chaplain for the inmates.

It is not the first year when the Sacrament of Baptism is celebrated in the Monastery of Bernardines. And decisions of catechumens are made consciously. They come being adults, or, rather, older children. And involuntarily thoughts are coming, well, why it is so? Who is to blame, that they are here? Perhaps, if parents loved their children, and cherished them in love for God, then something could not happen ... If ... But what happens here, it is also an event. And what a grate even!

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Chaplain Fr. Michael Buhay administersthe Confirmation.

And today, November 13, again the Baptism. The church is full. There is a celebration, the choir sings. And when two boys come to the door of the chapel, and they, rather than godparents, speak the words of a priest, nobody able to remain calm. The atmosphere is very solemn, touching and at the same time calm. You look and you realize that there is a miracle - the birth of a new human life which begins with a clean slate. And it is not so important that it starts in detention. Important is a hope, which so clearly visible in the eyes of two young men - Ruslan and Volodya, and their belief in what can still be different. How much they got today - a new name, a Guardian angel, godfather, incorporation to the Church! Their decision was well thought out and deliberate. They are carefully prepared for this event in their life. So I want to believe that it is the new starting point for them. That a bad experience of staying in a penal institution is just last time in life, but also seasoned with pleasant memories of the wall of the church in which they found themselves, found God. There is nothing so bed when one couldn’t find something good.

“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Mt 3, 17).

Oxana Kovalyk