August 2026

Anawim Bethany Retreat Center in Pennsylvania where the 2026 retreat will be held

Dear friend,

We recently shared about our 4th annual Centering Prayer retreat for those who have experienced incarceration, which we're preparing to host this October at Anawim Bethany Retreat Center in central Pennsylvania. Interest has continued to grow. We are currently reviewing forms from eleven potential retreatants, with a few more in the wings. 



Each new expression of interest reminds me that before long, this retreat won't just be something we're planning, it will be a room full of people who have said yes to showing up and sitting together, in sacred silence, for several hours each day. It also has me thinking about those who so lovingly offer contemplative service before, during, and after our time together in person. This retreat would not be possible without our partnership with Contemplative Outreach and their Prison Outreach Service Team (COPOST). This month, I wanted to tell you a bit about COPOST’s history and our increasingly fruitful collaboration.

Group photo from conversations held after the 2023 retreat in Snowmass, Colorado

A blossoming partnership

The seed for a prison outreach service team was planted in 2017, at a Contemplative Outreach Ltd. (COL) conference in Denver. Here, invited by Ray Leonardini at the encouragement of COL, about a dozen volunteers currently sharing Centering Prayer inside prisons around the country met for the first time. Rita Weick was there. So was I. It took almost four years before the team formally convened, but COL staff and Governing Board members grew increasingly receptive and encouraging as they learned about the needs of volunteers and residents alike. The group that soon would be formalized as COPOST held its first gathering on April 15, 2021. 

Today, a handful of deeply dedicated people continue the work, with Rita at the helm. Like Rita, Ray Mueller has been with the group since that first meeting. He leads a small-but-mighty group of volunteers who respond individually to people inside the walls when they write in about the practice, about a hard week, or about whatever is coming up for them. As beautifully put in a recent reflection by one of the volunteers, “In our replies, we understand we are guests they invite into their souls. Our replies must reach out with love and intimacy, like a tender and light dance in God’s silence” ("Our Common Silence," p. 12 of July 2026 Contemplative Outreach News). Praestolari handles the logistics that make this exchange possible: the mailing list, the printed materials, the getting of a letter from one hand into another. 

The soul connection manifested in those letters is an important expression of our wall-transcending unity and of the deep desire to live into it that motivates so many of us to reach out in the ways we are able. Is not the reality that we are one body part of what sparks every expression of contemplative community, including Prison Contemplative Fellowship, Praestolari and COPOST? Those involved in letter-writing tasted a sad dimension of that connection this past week when we learned of the passing of Jose, a long-standing, regular correspondent (see below).

At a recent meeting where COPOST presented its work to Contemplative Outreach's governing board, someone asked how many letters go out, how many people are reached, and what this actually costs. By the end of the conversation, Rita told me, the board members “were deeply moved by what we're doing with a small number of people and a great amount of support from Praestolari.” This is the correspondence partnership: COPOST volunteers provide individualized, skillful support for the practice, and Praestolari takes care of the logistics. Thanks to this partnership, those with the most experience of Centering Prayer spend their time and energy responding in ways only seasoned practitioners can.

When it comes to the annual Centering Prayer retreat Praestolari jointly hosts with COPOST, we are again covering the logistics, to ensure that guides with deep experience—of both Centering Prayer Intensives and the context of incarceration—can focus on sharing their gifts. Susan Turpin has been an important collaborator since before the first retreat, though she has not yet been able to attend. Pat Johnson, also, has provided rich and important insights; she visited with us during the post-retreat working session held at Snowmass in January 2023. This behind-the-scenes “invisible” work is just as important as what is more visible. Susan, Pat and other volunteers, as well as various Praestolari team members, community members who are unable to attend, and all who pray in union with the retreatants as they prepare and attend—we each play our part in sustaining the one body of contemplative community. 

Lawrence, Rita, Chandra and Stephen at the 2025 Centering Prayer retreat

Rita, our anchor

And then there is Rita Weick, who has been at every retreat since our first, and will be with us again in October. Rita is responsible for much work, both visible and invisible. She is diligently building a wider pool of people to rotate through retreat service, so that no single person has to say yes every year. Some of that growth is already underway with newer volunteers starting to participate, initially as apprentices who watch, help, and learn what it takes to hold the container of silence. We recently spoke with Rita to learn more about her own story and how she got involved. She said it happened almost by accident, as she “just kind of falls into things,” as with most important things in her life.

For years, Rita presented Centering Prayer workshops in local churches. She loved sharing the material, but she kept noticing a drop-off once each workshop ended. People would come back a week later a little sheepish. “I did Centering Prayer for ten minutes the other day,” someone told her once, sounding pleased with himself. Rita was glad for him. She was also quietly aching for a group that was hungrier than that.

Around that time she watched a documentary called The Dhamma Brothers, about Buddhist teachers bringing meditation retreats into a high-security prison. She remembers thinking that would be an extraordinary group to sit with. Having no idea how she would ever find her way there, she put the thought on a shelf.

Then, one day, she had a serendipitous run-in with a man who had attended one of the church workshops with his wife. He mentioned, almost in passing, that he facilitated a Buddhist group at a nearby prison and asked if she wanted to come along.

Walking into the prison chapel, she watched the first man arrive, nod to her, sit down, place his hands palms down on his thighs, and close his eyes. “Here's my tribe,” she thought.

Ten-plus years later, she is still going to that same prison, now alongside Robert, who joined her about 6 years ago. What began as one presenter's restlessness has become, in Rita's own words, “our group,” shaped by everyone who sits in the circle. “When we dive down into the silence,” she told me, “that's the common experience. The level of intimacy really surprises me.”



Listen to Rita share more of her story in this video below.

This year’s retreat team

Rita won’t be leading the retreat alone; it is always a team effort. Two others, who were also with us last year, will be returning in October…

Without the decades of Centering Prayer practice represented by these three incredible women who will be organizing the flow and supporting participants through their loving service, there would be no possibility of our offering these retreats. 

The labyrinth at Anawim Bethany Retreat Center in Pennsylvania where the 2026 retreat will be held

Join us on the retreat

If you have been incarcerated and have at least six months of established Centering Prayer practice, please consider joining us for a week-long retreat in October. Or, if that sounds like someone you know, please spread the word. Let us know of any interest by filling out this form before the end of August.



If the retreat is calling you in a different way, you can help support by praying, and/or by donating to help send someone on the retreat. Every cost of this week, including airfare, lodging, and meals, is covered by the generosity of the Praestolari community. Being able to extend this opportunity to those who have experienced life inside the walls is such a blessing—deep gratitude for all who are part of the intricate web that makes it possible!

Grieving together

In addition to Jose, the letter-writer mentioned above, we also received news this week regarding the tragic death of Tyler, the son of one of our Outside the Walls (OTW) regulars. We are inviting prayers for the repose of Tyler and Jose’s souls and the consolation of their loved ones. With these recent deaths, we are also exploring how, as a community, we can honor the memory of those who pass on. One idea that has been floated is to establish retreatant scholarships in each of their memories. If you have thoughts or would like to be involved in discerning a path forward, please let us know.

Reminder: Intertidal Freedom begins Wednesday, September 2nd

The team serving. The friends applying. The donors giving. A whole community praying and carrying a week of silence into being, before it even starts.

And, gratitude for sharing the journey with you,

Chandra Hanson, Executive Director

on behalf of the Praestolari team

Our Mission

Journeying together as people affected by incarceration, Praestolari shares Centering Prayer meditation and foster connections to support healing and transformation, both personal and communal.

We support contemplative practice inside and beyond prison walls by:

• Making Centering Prayer resources widely accessible
• Strengthening communication and connection across the walls
• Accompanying practitioners as they return home from incarceration
• Co-sponsoring annual retreats with COPOST

Support our Mission

We place great value on all actions and intentions that align with our mission and help grow/support the community.

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Resources & Materials



Our goal is to share contemplative resources as broadly as possible. We send a variety of materials inside locked facilities—responding to direct requests from incarcerated individuals, supporting volunteers and chaplains who accompany Centering Prayer groups, and sharing resources through our partnership with the Human Kindness Foundation. Most of our materials are also available in Spanish. See some of our most requested materials below, and visit our website for more.

If you would like to receive books or DVDs, please contact us at hello@praestolari.org. Let us know if you are currently sharing Centering Prayer inside—or if you’re interested in learning how to get started.

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