Lent

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"Sister Helen Prejean concludes her powerful book "Dead Man Walking" by recounting a conversation she had with Lloyd LeBlanc, a man whose son was brutally murdered.

LeBlanc, a practicing Catholic, told Sister Helen that when he arrived in the cane field with the sheriff's deputies to identify his son, he knelt by his boy and prayed the Lord's Prayer. “Whoever did this, I forgive them”, he said.

LeBlanc did not deny that he struggled (and continues to struggle) with his emotions, mourning all that he lost when his son’s life was cut short by an act of violence. But he knew from that day when he knelt by his son’s body that his son’s murderer was also made in the image of God.

"LeBlanc’s capacity to forgive did not come from spontaneous inspiration. We learn from Prejean that LeBlanc has for years gone to a small chapel every Friday morning to pray. He prays for “everyone, especially for the poor and suffering.” –especially, we might say, for those in whom it is most difficult to see God’s image.

Prayer is not something LeBlanc decided to do in a time of crisis. The habits of prayer were, rather, already so much a part of his life before his son’s murder that I suspect that those who know him well, would have been surprised if he had not responded by praying the Lord’s Prayer. Prejean indicates that LeBlanc regularly prayed for the mother of his son’s killer, and even went to comfort her before she died." - L. Gregory Jones

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Lenten Film Series begins Ash Wednesday...



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