From “A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent,” delivered by Rev. Tim Jones on December 20, 2009, at the Church of St. Lawrence in York, England.

The life of the poor is not an idyllic life of simplicity in modern Britain. It is a constant struggle, a constant battle, a constant minefield of competing opportunities, competing responsibilities, obligations, and requirements, a constant effort to achieve the impossible. For many at the bottom of our social ladder, a lawful, honest life can sometimes seem to be an apparent impossibility.

What advice should one give, for example, to an ex-prisoner…