Creation of the logo for Prison Contemplative Fellowship

Janice Boyd’s connection to Prison Contemplative Fellowship began in 2011, when she met Ray Leonardini at the Contemplative Outreach Annual Conference in Burlingame, California. At the time, Janice and Susan were co-coordinators of their local Centering Prayer chapter and invited Ray to speak at several groups in the Sacramento area about his prison ministry.

While Susan began visiting the prison regularly, Janice was hesitant at first — both because of her family’s experience with incarceration and her own sensitivity as an empath, concerned about maintaining healthy boundaries. Still, she felt it was important to personally visit the Centering Prayer group at Folsom Prison if she was going to continue inviting Ray to share about the work.

That first visit became a turning point. What she encountered in Greystone Chapel was deeply moving and transformative, eventually leading her to serve in a women’s prison as well, where she shared Centering Prayer until the facility closed.

It was through these experiences that the inspiration for the Prison Contemplative Fellowship logo was born. Below is what she wrote about the creation of the logo for Prison Contemplative Fellowship.

I visited the centering prayer group at Old Folsom Prison in the late spring of 2013. It was scary to go into the prison — its gothic-like architecture with medieval-looking gates and huge granite stones was intimidating. We had to go through several gates, walk by the men's cells, by the showers, and then across the yard in order to reach Greystone Chapel, where the centering prayer group meets.

Ray began the evening with calming words and music to transition into the centering prayer sit. After doing the sit, Ray gave a lesson and there was group sharing. Ray's heartfelt teaching and ability to connect with the men was incredible. I was impressed by the men’s insights and their spiritual depth. It was a privilege to witness the group dynamic. Men opened up and shared from their heart with honesty and vulnerability.

I didn't plan to keep attending, but the aliveness of the group kept me returning. Over the months I found much encouragement and was growing in my practice because of sitting with the men, Ray's teaching, and the group sharing. Ray related to the men as a kind, loving father would. The men received and responded to his acceptance of them. He treated them with dignity and respect.

In December 2013, during Advent, I was pondering how centering prayer felt while sitting with the men in Greystone Chapel. I was doodling and the image for the logo “came to me” as a symbol of what was happening in the group — as we sat in the centering prayer circle and consented to God’s presence and action within. We were all equal — differences were eliminated by shutting our eyes and consenting to God in silence.

The logo was a symbol of the process we go into every time we open ourselves in silent prayer. The men at Folsom Prison were the inspiration for the logo. The logo is for all kinds of prisoners — both locked up and those that are “free” (not incarcerated) but are bound up internally.

The inward journey is the key to freedom for all of us — it’s a continual returning to the depths of being — back to our original image as created in God’s image. Every time we sit — let go — open — we are re-created into our deepest, truest self. It’s an ongoing, cyclic process of release, receiving, and returning.

Janice Boyd