Article: Jail break: amid the noise and violence of a jail, a few moments of focused stillness impart spiritual power.(Meditation as a subversive activity)

A FEW YEARS AGO I had the opportunity to work for a semester as a chaplain at a Boston jail. My primary work was helping to lead a group of inmates in the practice of silent prayer, I cannot say that I had any particular expectations or resolves about this undertaking before I began it. But by the time my semester came to an end, I learned some wholly unexpected lessons about the transformative power of prayer in a jail setting; about the effects on the body of such personal transformation; and about this country's systemic racism and how it is in some ways coterminous with the attempt to prevent or repress such transformation.

It might not be immediately obvious ...

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