November 2025

Retreat reflections: healing, community, and transformation

Dear friends,

In September, we held our 3rd annual Centering Prayer Intensive Retreat—a sacred week of silence, stillness, and transformation. Nine retreatants who had once lived inside, joined by dedicated volunteers and retreat leaders, gathered at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House in Sedalia, Colorado, for six days of prayer, rest, and healing presence.

Before the silence began, our team met retreatants at the Denver airport—some traveling by plane for the very first time. There were moments of wonder and nervous laughter, of deep care and gentle guidance. Every step was accompanied by compassion, from the first handshake at the gate to the quiet descent into prayer.

During the retreat, participants entered Grand Silence, gathering for three daily sessions of Centering Prayer with optional opportunities to receive Keating's video teachings and engage in moments of shared reflection. All were held in a sacred container -- both spiritually, by the gathered Circle, and physically, by the kitchen staff's loving care and the retreat center's spacious grounds. It was an opportunity to rest and to simply be. Some of the most powerful stories emerged in the in-between spaces--in simple acts of trust and connection.

One participant, unsure how to upload the photos he’d taken, reached out for help. Another retreatant immediately offered to walk him through it. It was a small moment, but for those who have lived years without safe community, it carried a quiet miracle: the safety to ask, and the freedom to receive.

These are some of the fruits of our shared contemplative path: presence, belonging, and the rediscovery of grace in one another.

“I feel a combination of rejuvenation and exhilaration… such an amazing experience to be in community with others, silent… pondering the difference between silence and quiet and letting it go and just being in a space of love and divinity." – Carla

“All of a sudden I come to this Centering Prayer retreat and the shame is like a heavy weight on me. We can’t deal with the shame because it’s so heavy so we medicate, so we have addictions… So you come here and you do a sit and all of a sudden, it’s chipping away at the shame.” – Frank

“When I was able to just rest and tune into myself and what’s inside of me... and I realize that there is actually a spirit of love and goodness inside of me, and I think God saw that, even when I couldn’t see it myself. I’m 74 years old. I’ve spent over 24 years behind bars just not getting it right, and when I turned my life over to the real spirit that’s inside me, things just start becoming okay." – Lawrence

Gratitude for the journey

We are deeply grateful to our retreat leaders—Jennie Curtis, Rita Weick, and Patricia Hutchinson—and to the COPOST and PCF teams who made this sacred gathering possible. From coordinating travel to holding silence with care, each act of service helped weave a safe and healing space for all who attended.



And to you—our wider community of supporters and friends—thank you. Your prayers, encouragement, and generosity make this work possible. Every quiet transformation on retreat echoes outward because of you.

Keep following the story

This month, we’ll be sharing photos taken by retreat participants along with their personal reflections on the experience. These stories—told in their own words and images—reveal the beauty of what can emerge when we gather in shared practice and community.

We invite you to follow along on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn as these reflections and moments are shared in the weeks ahead.

With peace and gratitude,

The Prison Contemplative Fellowship (Praestolari) Team

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Thank you for reading this eBulletin, for engaging contemplative practices, for staying in touch. We place great value on all actions and intentions that align with our mission and help to expand Prison Contemplative Fellowship's community.

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Our Mission

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

Our programs include: 

• Making resources widely available (see below)
• Building the capacity for effective communication across the walls
• Continually improving the welcome and accompaniment offered to contemplative practitioners post-incarceration
• Co-sponsoring annual retreats with COPOST



Resources

Our goal is to share resources as broadly as possible:

• Our books and films are available for downloading and viewing via the links below.
• We regularly ship books and DVDs to volunteers and chaplains facilitating/supporting Centering Prayer groups inside locked facilities.
• Through our association with the Human Kindness Foundation, we send books and materials about Centering Prayer to residents of locked facilities.
• Our materials are also accessed in prisons and jails all over the country via Edovo, an app that is increasingly included on facility-issued tablets to provide spiritual, rehabilitative, educational, and vocational content without cost to the residents.
• Our Centering Inside newsletter which gets sent to our vast network of people living in locked facilities throughout the United States twice per year.

If you wish to receive books or DVDs, do not hesitate to reach out at hello@uspcf.org; please let us know if you are currently sharing Centering Prayer with those inside -- or how we might help you get started.

Watch the 22-minute Holding Still documentary here

Watch the Companion Films here

PCF Books available for download

All issues of our Centering Inside newsletter can be found here