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December 2007 Issue
Retired repairman
lends an ear to the imprisonned
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There
came a day that Louis Langlois, like Jonas before him,
raged against God's plan. Told that his grades were
not acceptable and also being in poor health, Langlois
was dismissed from the St. Joseph Seminary in Grand
Rapids after two years and put on a bus back to Muskegon.
As a young man in the 1940s who loved
God and dreamed of becoming a priest, Langlois said
he was devastated. |
"I asked them to give me one more week,"
recalled Langlois, a member of St. Francis de Sales in Norton
Shores. "I prayed in the chapel for a week, hoping for a miracle.
The following Friday, the Father took me to the Greyhound
terminal in Grand Rapids. The back seat was real bumpy and
noisy. I sat back there and I cried." After the seminary,
Langlois did an about-face when he was drafted into the U.S.
Army in 1944. He spent six months in action in the Philippines
until World War II ended. He was discharged in 1946, married
Phyllis three years later and went to work at the Sealed Power
Plant. He also repaired appliances for his brother's Muskegon
business.
In 1953, he became a Third Order Carmelite.
Langlois said his life took another turn when, in 1965, he
enrolled in a Dale Carnegie leadership course. "I learned
so much there, especially the three Cs: Don't criticize, don't
condemn, don't complain. Be a good listener." It's advice
he still gives today to the men in prisons and jails. Once
he switched jobs to fixing appliances full-time, Langlois
found himself turning into kind of a pseudo traveling counselor.
Besides repairing washers, refrigerators and stoves, he was
helping people indirectly fix their lives. People started
asking for him. In 1984, Langlois joined the prison ministry
"because I felt I could I help," he said. "I helped a lot
of people when I was servicing appliances. I thought, maybe
this is what God wants me to do. I figured I would give it
a try for a year and see how it works."
Langlois, 81, is in his 24th year of volunteering
for the Diocese of Grand Rapids' Prison/Jail Ministry. He
travels to prisons and jails in Muskegon County to lead Bible
and faith formation classes, including RCIA, bring the Eucharist,
and build relationships with those in prisons and jails. "The
main thing is to be a good listener," he said. "Everybody
is a puzzle. The more you talk to them, you get more pieces
of the puzzle. After three or four months, you get an idea
of what the picture is like and you can really help them."
Langlois said he remembers few details from his first prison
visit in 1984, other than deciding to trust God. He estimates
he has worked with hundreds of incarcerated men over the years.
"One fellow got out two years ago," Langlois recalled.
"He is over six feet tall, about 200 pounds,
all muscles. He just loved to fight. He was a bouncer for
a living and got fired from three places because he was so
mean. He came to prison so bitter. "He was with us four years.
He said to me, 'Louis, no one is going to know me outside,
because I was a mean so-andso before I came in. I'm nothing
but a pussy cat now. I'm really happy for the first time in
my life.'" Prisoners are often criticized for "finding Jesus"
and then losing him as soon as they are released. But Langlois
said he doesn't judge the men behind bars. "When a person
says 'I've changed, I'm not the person I used to be,' I believe
them and encourage them instead. I tell them to love God with
their whole mind, heart, soul, and strength.
Every night, tell God you love him and really
mean it and ask God to continue to help you." Now, after 58
years of marriage, 10 children, 27 grandchildren and 26 greatgrandchildren,
Langlois is confident the disappointed seminarian he was in
the 1940s has reached the fullness of God's intentions for
his life. "I feel great going into the prison and bringing
the Eucharist, just being with the prisoners. I think the
Lord prepared me for it, being in the seminary for two years,
being in the Army, the Carmelite Order, leadership training.
"Probably that's the reason why I didn't get that miracle
healing. God was looking forward to me working for (appliance
repair) customers and doing prison ministry."
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