Voices
from Silence
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A 'first Friday of the month' series, from October 2024.
Personal stories of engaging in silence by practitioners from the Global Majority Heritage (GMH) community.* |
A quarter of the way into the new millennium the reality for many people from this community is that their lives and stories are sidelined. Their voices are silenced.
So, although people from the GMH may have a spiritual practice of silence, authors in these communities tend to write more about silencing than silence-based prayer.
This new series is a way to bring some voices from the GMH community into the conversations and resources about silence on the Seeds of Silence website.
So, although people from the GMH may have a spiritual practice of silence, authors in these communities tend to write more about silencing than silence-based prayer.
This new series is a way to bring some voices from the GMH community into the conversations and resources about silence on the Seeds of Silence website.
March 2025:
Lawrence Hamilton, 'Centering Prayer, Silence and Contemplation in Prisons'
Image: freepik.com, no attribution but see here.
Lawrence Hamilton,
Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
Listen to Lawrence reading 'Centering Prayer, Silence and Contemplation in Prisons'
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Centering Prayer, Silence and Contemplation in Prisons
Where to start …? For me, silence is essential for coming to myself. Because of social conditioning and life experiences there are many thoughts with descriptions that are not positive or beneficial that cause emotions that are afflictive and actions that are harmful.
With a contemplative meditation practice like Centering Prayer you can learn to let thoughts and emotions pass through a wordless awareness without descriptions judgments or attachment. In this wordless awareness comes a sense of relief that leads to gratitude, appreciation and joy. And I can access this peace that surpasses understanding with is spoken of in the Bible.
When I choose to operate out of kindness towards the differences in others with a sense of compassion for what we ALL go through in life and a willingness to care enough to help others that may be struggling, my inner world is unified despite what is happening in my outer world. This Peace can be shaken but never broken as I watch the world evolve back into the well-being that is LIFE.
These insights come from Centering Prayer coming into Prisons for the Lost Sheep and Prodigal Sons.
Centering Prayer, Silence and Contemplation in Prisons
Where to start …? For me, silence is essential for coming to myself. Because of social conditioning and life experiences there are many thoughts with descriptions that are not positive or beneficial that cause emotions that are afflictive and actions that are harmful.
With a contemplative meditation practice like Centering Prayer you can learn to let thoughts and emotions pass through a wordless awareness without descriptions judgments or attachment. In this wordless awareness comes a sense of relief that leads to gratitude, appreciation and joy. And I can access this peace that surpasses understanding with is spoken of in the Bible.
When I choose to operate out of kindness towards the differences in others with a sense of compassion for what we ALL go through in life and a willingness to care enough to help others that may be struggling, my inner world is unified despite what is happening in my outer world. This Peace can be shaken but never broken as I watch the world evolve back into the well-being that is LIFE.
These insights come from Centering Prayer coming into Prisons for the Lost Sheep and Prodigal Sons.
Lawrence Hamilton, March, 2025.
Hear more from Lawrence:
Click the video to watch a nine minute video excerpt from Lawrence's input for Closer Than Breath's Centering Prayer Summit in January 2025
Click the video to watch a nine minute video excerpt from Lawrence's input for Closer Than Breath's Centering Prayer Summit in January 2025
Click the Holding Still image for a 22 minute documentary about the Prison Contemplative Fellowship, which Lawrence features in and which is a very powerful watch.
Contemplative Outreach Prison Outreach Service (COPOST)
COPOST has a team of volunteers who take Centering prayer into prisons and support those who have left. To find out more click here.
To read a recent article on this ministry, 'Inside the Walls: Contemplative Prayer Ministry at Folsom State Prison', from the February 2025's Contemplative Outreach Newsletter, click here and scroll to page 11.
* The term 'Global Majority Heritage' (GMH) refers to people whose backgrounds are from non-Western, non-White ethnic and cultural groups, reflecting the fact that the majority of the world’s population comes from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The term challenges the traditional framing of racial and ethnic minorities by emphasizing that these populations are, in fact, the global majority.
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