'Church ladies' take prayer inside prison walls

Published: 2006-03-29

WESTFIELD, N.J. (CNS) -- As they enter East Jersey State Prison in Rahway, the women from the centering prayer group at St. Helen Parish in nearby Westfield can hear the muffled sounds of the inmates behind the security barriers. While the prisoners settle into lunch or move into their cells, the women are checked multiple times by guards. Then they are led into the chapel, where a group of male convicts -- including murderers and former drug addicts, some sentenced to life in prison -- gather for centering prayer, a modern method for entering into the ancient Christian practice of contemplative prayer. The women -- Cathy Maravetz, Joan Amberg, Millie Kostyack and Helen Grygiel -- have no fear and close their eyes in meditation, without the protection of guards, praying with the inmates, who affectionately refer to them as the "church ladies." The prison's centering prayer group was started three years ago at the request of a group of prisoners. This form of prayer was developed in the 1970s by three Trappist monks.

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