October 2025

Frenchy and Lawrence on the Method of Centering Prayer Inside the Walls

Centering Prayer isn’t about escaping life. It’s about letting go of the need to escape -- about letting life unfold without being defined by external events and our reactions to them. 


In this new video produced by Contemplative Outreach's Prison Outreach Service Team (COPOST) and shared here with permission, two remarkable teachers—Frenchy and Lawrence—share how this simple practice they each began while serving time continues to reshape their lives and the lives of others.

“I went from an animal who deserved prison to someone I can respect today.” 

– Frenchy

Frenchy spent 32 years in the California State Prison system, including 16 at Folsom. It was there he helped start one of the first known and longest running Centering Prayer groups inside a locked facility. In the video, he explains the practice with striking clarity:

“At your core you are like a little black dot—the pure essence of who you are. Over time we pile layers of a false self on top. Centering Prayer gently cuts through those layers.” – Frenchy

The method is simple and radically gentle. Choose a sacred word—a single word that symbolizes your consent to God’s presence and action. As thoughts arise, ever-so-gently return to that word, like “a feather landing on a piece of cotton.” Over time, this trains the heart to release the grip of anxious thoughts and hidden wounds.



Lawrence, who encountered the practice in the same prison years later, describes its freedom in everyday language:

"Don’t resist. Don’t react. Don’t retain. Just return. Thoughts are like airplane noise—you don’t have to board the plane.” 
– Lawrence

Both men speak openly about the “unloading” that can occur—old memories and buried emotions rising to the surface so they can finally be released.

“Sometimes what comes up isn’t pretty. That’s part of the healing—things come up to come out.” – Frenchy

What begins as a practice of silence gradually becomes a new way of living.

Frenchy recalls a moment when anger threatened to boil over in the yard. Instead of reacting, he simply breathed his sacred word. The conflict dissolved.

“Breath. Let it go. It’s not worth it. You know better than this.” – Frenchy

Lawrence testifies to a similar inner shift:

“Back in the day I could have been considered a terror. Now my thoughts don’t rule anything. The peace I find in silence carries into every part of my life.” – Lawrence

Watch the full conversation

This email only scratches the surface. In the full video, Frenchy and Lawrence go deeper into:


• How to set up a daily practice (alone or in a group).
• What to do when difficult memories surface.
• How consent and the sacred word open the heart to God—or to the deepest reality you trust.
• The subtle but powerful ways peace grows and begins to guide everyday actions.

“The peace becomes so nourishing that your circumstances lose their power to control you.” – Lawrence

Whether you’re new to Centering Prayer or seeking to deepen your own meditation, their stories reveal how stillness can transform even the hardest places—inside and out.

Our 3rd annual Centering Prayer Intensive Retreat just concluded!

We are deeply grateful to every donor, volunteer, and retreatant who made this gathering possible and who held us in prayer.

This year’s retreat continued the rich tradition of creating a quiet, restorative space where participants could deepen their practice and experience the healing power of silence.



We look forward to sharing photos, stories, and reflections from these transformative days in our next eBulletin—stay tuned for a fuller report and ways you can continue to support this life-giving work.

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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