Jens Soering is a German author who spent more than 33 years in American and British prisons for a double-murder he did not commit. After the discovery of new DNA evidence in 2016 he was released to Germany in 2019.
A Lifer's 'Way' Promotes Centering/Practicing Prayer Review by
James Gray, OSB, The Prairie Messenger. Gray is a Benedictine Monk
of St. Peter's Abbey in Muenster, SK. The Prairie Messenger has
been published by the Benedictine Monks of St. Peter's since 1904.
"My hope is that you will take courage from my story." A German
diplomat's son, Jens Soering has been in jail since April 30, 1986,
arrested for the double murder of Derek and Nancy Haysom. Though he
did not murder the Haysoms, Jens, 18, confessed guilt to protect
his girlfriend Elizabeth Roxanne Haysom, 19, who was implicated in
the crime. In January 2001 the US Supreme Court refused to hear
Soering's attorney's final habeas corpus petition. The details of
the murder, the subsequent imprisonment for over a decade and a
half to the time of writing this book are only part of the
arresting account Soering provides of his journey of faith as a
lifer. As devastating and despairing as his prison experience was,
Soering came to love the Christian scriptures, became a Catholic
and a convinced advocate of centering prayer. "I practice
contemplation," he writes, "with a practically fanatical
dedication." No doubt that dedication served him well in overcoming
his "flirtation with suicide" and revealing to him the basic
importance of kenosis or self-emptying (see Phil. 2:5ff.). He
insists that centering prayer must include centering practice,
self-giving service to others. "Without centering Practice,
self-giving service, centering prayer alone degenerates into
spiritual self-indulgence." Combining the intriguing elements of a
criminal court case, exposing the dehumanizing impact of prison
life and advocating a prayer discipline that leads to
contemplation, this book should have wide appeal. Soering admits
that "it is by no means light bedtime reading." For those serious
about their spiritual growth, however, he hopes it will function as
a modern counterpart to a spiritual classic of an earlier century,
The Way of the Pilgrim. Serving as a unitive thread throughout the
book is Soering's concern for an individual's spiritual maturity.
He roots that in the kenosis or self-emptying of Christ, the
necessary condition for interior growth. He believes that the
practice of centering prayer is "an attempt to come to terms with
Christ's really quite terrifying call . . . to be flogged bloody,
nailed to a stake and speared through the ribs" (Mt 10:38). The
chains of prison life are to some degree present in each person's
life. Soering urges others to show personal concern for the
imprisoned. Detailing his own personal encounter with God through
centering prayer, Soering concludes that the essence of
contemplation is "an effortless, simple presence to the Presence"
arriving at a "general loving attentiveness to God" (St. John of
the Cross). Distancing himself from "tales of woe from the
dungeon," Soering hopes that his true story as a lifer will
indicate "the meaning and the spiritual necessity" of the suffering
in our own lives. In addition to the theory and practice of
centering prayer found throughout the book, Soering adds an
Appendix on The Method of Centering Prayer by Thomas Keating. Prior
to that is his open letter to the governor of Virginia requesting
the parole and return to Canada of Miss Haysom, "conditional upon
her institutional behaviour and her full acceptance of
responsibility for her crime." The book's subtitle, Breaking the
Chains of Self Through Centering Prayer and Centering Practice, is
fulfilled in Soering's remarkable and inspiring progress in true
self-discovery through service to others
February 2004 A marvelous treatise on a valuable tradition of
contemplative prayer, this is also a moving account of the author's
experience of incarceration and spiritual renewal.
Lord Buddha would delight in this book. Jens, whom I've known
during my prison visits, brings needed clarity and precision to
these explanations of how to deconstruct the self, a job we all
need to do in order to awaken our blissful inner being, or, as he
puts it, "to break through the self to reach God." --Venerable
Robina Courtin, Director, Liberation Prison Project Soering's book
stands as astounding gift. His words plead with many different
voices, and his hint of autobiography distills a fearful essence
for others. As a guide to Centering Practice it reflects hours,
months and years of waiting, then pondering. As a loving call to
prayer for all imprisoned by superficial, myopic concerns with
self--while sensing a need for closeness with the
Transcendent--this bold record of a spiritual journey demonstrates
what can happen when contemplative prayer is systematically
cultivated.Not surprisingly, the book also stands as a plea for
action. Soering teaches us about contemplative practice. His words
witness through Centering Prayer that we can learn to act for
others. --Victor A. Kramer, Ph.D., Executive Director, Aquinas
Center for Theology--Center for Catholic Studies, Emory University;
Founding Editor, Merton Annual While in prison Mr. Soering has had
a profound spiritual journey and has pierced deeply into the
mysteries of Christian contemplation. His obvious suffering and the
grace he received to transform that suffering (without it having
been removed) will speak to many whose own, metaphorical
imprisonment continues without hope of release. Christian
contemplative prayer, at its most profound, offers healing even
without a cure, and it is this difficult area that Mr. Soering
explores. --David Hilfiker, M.D., Author, Healing the Wounds, Not
All of Us Are Saints, As If By Design, Urban Injustice
Review by Antonia Ryan, OSB, October 2004 Kierkegaard said that we
are all in a state of despair. The problem is, most of us don't
know that we're in despair, and so we never examine ourselves as we
truly are. In The Way of the Prisoner, inmate Jens Soering tells
his own story of peeling away the layers of self and turning his
darkness into something positive. Specifically, Soering was able to
"break his chains" through the contemplative Christian discipline
of Centering Prayer. The way out of despair--what he calls "the way
of the prisoner"--is to follow the example of Jesus, whose own
cross transformed him, liberated him and brought him to new life.
Such a movement is not the norm for those in prison, according to
Soering: "During 17 years in 11 different penitentiaries, I have
seen pain produce despair more frequently than hope." He started
writing The Way of the Prisoner in January 2001 on the day his last
appeal was denied. This blow, he says, "came close to extinguishing
that little flame of 'Jens' that had struggled so hard to stay lit
with the divine Fire." Soering sent his manuscript to Cistercian
Fr. Thomas Keating, one of the foremost practitioners of Centering
Prayer, and the monk passed on the book to his own publisher. The
book is part philosophical and theological discussion part how-to
contemplation guide, part spiritual memoir, part reflection on the
need for prison reform. Its unifying principle is the process of
lectio divina. Chapters are structured into lectio, meditatio,
oratio and contemplatio, "these four movements from self to God, as
a reminder of our rich Western contemplative tradition." Book One
describes the biblical foundations of Christian contemplation,
giving exegesis on the temptation of Jesus by the devil (Luke) and
other scriptural types for contemplative prayer. This portion also
discusses human models of contemplative thought like the Buddha,
Antony of Egypt, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. Later,
Soering weaves in his own experiences to show how the fruits of
contemplation might be seen in an individual life. Between Books 1,
2 and 3 are two "Intermezzos," or interludes. The first tells the
details of the 1985 murder case in which Soering was involved. It
provides an important piece to the book. Throughout Way, he
advocates that the self is an illusion, that there is no self. It
is hard to understand why this seems so vital to him until we are
able to see where the "self" led this particular individual. In the
next intermezzo, Soering describes the most satisfying fruits of
his faithful contemplation practice. Up until this point in the
book and in his life, he has dismissed the idea of mystical
experience. " 'Visions' struck me as figments of overwrought
imaginations, as (particularly beautiful) distractions of the
mind." Then (February 2003, on the book's timeline) he realized he
was wrong. Soering says of his surprise spiritual breakthrough:
"Contemplative prayer does indeed work incrementally, but along
with the strip-mining, it appears that God also secretly drills
deep shafts and carves huge subterranean caverns. In the fullness
of time, when those hollows are large enough, the land above caves
in with a spectacular crash, transforming the surface geography all
at once." The mystical insight Soering relates in this intermezzo
will strike fellow contemplatives as true to their own experiences
of God's vastness. The last part of the book moves into what
Soering calls "Centering Practice"--how Centering Prayer must move
a person outward to help others. The author describes his own
prison situation and the ways he has been challenged to practice
compassion for his fellow prisoners. It isn't always easy. He tells
of molested children-turned-rapists stalking other inmates and men
whose only pleasure is a cigarette, drugs or a game of Dungeons and
Dragons. Soering also tells of his own escape from a prison rapist,
his experience in a Victorian-era English prison and his stay at a
prison in Virginia where the window glass was frosted over because,
according to officers, "The view overlooking the valley was
considered too beautiful for inmate eyes." These glimpses into
prison life are fascinating, absorbing and sad. Soering can also be
funny. About distractions in prayer, he observes, "My self ...
loves nothing better than to disrupt my prayers with particularly
clever ways of phrasing sentences for this book." Other parts of
Way are slower going, such as some of the biblical exposition or
the step-by-step Centering instruction; Soering spends pages on the
process of breathing. But though they take longer to absorb, these
spiritual passages really are the heart and purpose of the book.
They stay in the mind for a long time, prompting many--the author
hopes--to take up the practice of Centering Prayer, find their way
out of their own prisons and, like him, be "able to find God
sparkling in my tears."
Review by Rev. Doug Girardeau, Diocese of Easton Maryland, May 2004
[Excerpted] I received an Easter gift this year which I would like
to share. Just before Lent began my former teacher at Virginia
Seminary, Dick Busch, strongly suggested that I read and review a
book written by his friend Jens Soering. The book is entitled, The
Way of the Prisoner. It is a contemporary contribution to the
history of Christian thought that stretches from the Pauline prison
epistles to the writing of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin King. The
context of being in jail seems to evoke a certain degree of depth
and candor that is not always present in other religious
literature. In addition to his prison experience, Soering also
displays a broad knowledge of Eastern and Western spirituality. He
uses this knowledge to reinforce and illuminate the truths he is
trying to teach. I would encourage the reader not to miss this
spiritual autobiography of this prisoner. He notes that while he is
in prison for life, we all have aspects of our lives that imprison
us. This is a book about prayer and practice and my teacher said he
had been drawn to the regular practice of centering prayer just
like the author. Since a student is not greater than his teacher, I
returned to this practice, too. That is the real Easter gift to
me.
Reviewed by James A. Wiseman, OSB, St. Anselm's Abbey, Washington,
DC, October 2004 The previous issue of this bulletin carried a
feature article by Jens Soering on mysticism in the Abrahamic
religions and Buddhism. The book here under review is his first,
although his second book, on prison reform, will be published this
year and still a third book, The Convict Christ, should appear in
2005. This is in itself a remarkable achievement for someone who is
serving two consecutive life sentences in the Virginia prison
system. In a certain sense The Way of the Prisoner could be
considered two books in one. The more important and lengthier parts
deal with Centering Prayer and Centering Practice, while two
Intermezzos discuss how the author came to be imprisoned and how,
on February 19, 2003, he underwent an experience during
contemplative prayer that continues to mean a great deal to him. As
one would expect, the material on Centering Prayer owes much to the
work of Thomas Keating, whose own short piece, "The Method of
Centering Prayer," is included as an appendix. Soering even writes
at one point that all one really needs to practice this kind of
prayer successfully is Fr. Keating's "Method." This does not,
however, by any means imply that Soering's book will not be of
great help to anyone desiring to pray contemplatively. In lucid
prose, and using the medieval scheme of lectio, meditatio, oratio,
and contemplatio as a framework, he discusses how he practices
Centering Prayer (with some divergences from Keating's terminology)
and why it must be accompanied by Centering Practice if it is to be
genuinely transformative. This latter practice is essentially a
matter of emptying oneself in suffering for others. In what I take
to be two key sentences from the book, Soering writes:
"Deliberately harnessing my own pain to help others--and thereby to
further the process of kenosis--is the hardest thing I have ever
done, but I believe it is precisely this that Jesus meant when he
commanded us to "[l]ove each other as I have loved you" (John
15:12). If you find that prospect daunting, never fear: this Book's
contemplatio section, like the previous ones, presents a specific
spiritual exercise that anyone can--and scripture tells us,
should--perform to train the self and soul in this Christ-like
love" (227). The exercise he means is volunteering to help in a
prison, whether as a tutor, visitor, or even minister, for "by
giving of yourself to men and women behind bars, you transform your
cross into a vehicle for serving others and thus imitate Christ in
the purest form possible" (289). Soering's reference to his own
pain is elucidated especially in the first Intermezzo, where he
describes in some detail the events that led to his being convicted
of the murder of his girlfriend's parents. He writes that he made
this confession "in the grip of romantic ideals like Sidney Carton
sacrificing his life for his love on the guillotine in Charles
Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities" and that he accordingly "volunteered
to take the blame for Elizabeth's crime to save her from the
electric chair" (119). The subsequent anguish undergone by his own
parents, each of whom confronted their eldest son's sentencing in
radically different ways, forms a large part of the son's own pain,
as does the fact that one of the harshest aspects of prison life is
being regarded as a thing "by the guards, the inmates and the very
bricks and bars around me" (257). Soering does not at all deny the
lingering pain that he endures, writing at one point: "I feel like
tearing out my eyeballs so I will no longer have to look at the
bars of my cage! If that sentence shocks you, I have achieved my
aim. I want you to feel, really feel just the tiniest pinch of the
bowel-twisting agony that I experience every waking moment. Why?
Because God helped me overcome even this suffering . . . not escape
it, because I continue to suffer every second of every day, but
overcome it" (280). Even these few excerpts clearly indicate the
transformative, life-saving efficacy of Centering Prayer and
Centering Practice as described throughout this powerful book. Even
if few readers of this review are incarcerated in prisons of brick
and steel, Soering rightly observes that we are all prisoners in
one way or another, bound by wrongful choices, afflictive emotions,
and a fundamental self-centeredness. Reading his book can
definitely be an avenue to at least partial liberation, though with
the crucial proviso that reading alone is not nearly enough. As he
writes in another telling sequence of sentences: "I spent eighteen
years in [the] trap of the intellect--time that perhaps was not
entirely wasted, but certainly could have been better spent. To
really absorb the central teachings of the contemplative tradition,
we must saturate the self and the soul with them over and over
again in prayer; there is no other way . . . [W]e must start
chipping away at the rocks, ropes and chains, one prayer session at
a time" (83-84). If this book leads you to a renewed and persistent
commitment to actual prayer--"one session at a time" --it will have
done its work very well indeed.
Reviewed by Stefanie Weisgram, OSB, Vol. 17, 2004 This book is full
of riches. In fact, it is three books in one: it contains the story
of Jens Soering leading to his present situation and discovery of
Centering Prayer; it shows in detail how he has applied Centering
Prayer to his own life; and it shows how readers can adapt
Centering Prayer and Centering Practice to their own lives to break
the chains that bind them as prisoners to the self. Reading
Soering's book takes real discipline. He challenges the reader, at
times with a specialized vocabulary, with a detailed organization,
and with his personal history, and with his understanding of
Centering Prayer. It is well worth the effort it will take to
follow all of these. It is important to realize that the book
really begins with the Foreword, Preface, and Introduction.
Neglecting these may frustrate the reader. Above all, the
Introduction must be read. It sets the stage, gives a helpful
overview, and explains some of the difficulties readers might
encounter. I highly recommend taking seriously Soering's suggestion
that the reader first read Soering's personal story contained in
clearly identified sections. This will cut distractions when
reading Soering's detailed account of his Centering Prayer
experience and how it became his desire to encourage others to
follow that practice. It will also be helpful to read the "Brief
Postscript on Centering Terminology" at the conclusion of the text
and also the appendix containing a brief and accurate outline of
Centering Prayer as developed by Thomas Keating, OSCO. This will be
especially helpful for readers not familiar with Centering Prayer.
For readers familiar with the practice, reading Keating's outline
may help in understanding just how Soering adapts Centering Prayer
in and to his own circumstances. In writing his book, Jens Soering
wants to share what has helped to transform his own life and help
others to do the same. In his words, he wants readers to learn this
way of breaking the fetters that bind us all as prisoners, no
matter what those fetters might be. He wants us to see that if he
can do it, so can we. He says, "My aim is to give you all the
spiritual tools you need to revolutionize your life, to introduce
you in depth to these tools' history and theory and to give you
beginning, intermediate and advanced training in their use" (xxix).
He realizes that the book may be difficult for some, but he also
believes it is worth the effort it will take to learn Centering
Prayer. I agree with Soering. While the journey Soering describes
is solitary, it is possible to draw on the collective wisdom of the
Western contemplative tradition, which Soering does. First,
however, he rightly begins with the instruction Jesus left us in
Scripture. Soering relies here on the pattern of lectio divina of
ancient monastic tradition. This consists of four parts: lectio in
which we listen to the Word of God in Scripture; meditatio where we
reflect on the message this Scripture reading brings today; oratio
by which we respond to God through prayer; and contemplatio where
we rest in Christ's peace. This is the outline Soering then uses
throughout his book, detailing each of these with examples. Soering
is always encouraging; he knows the pitfalls, the distractions, the
lonelienss, and the sheer drudgery of what he encourages readers to
do. His tone shows the truth in his claims for Centering Prayer in
the course of his life. It is obvious that he has learned and grown
through his own efforts with Centering Prayer, and his only desire
is to help others do the same. Perhaps in time he will be able to
restrain his desire to give the reader all of the fruits of his
labor and write a simpler book for beginners that will encourage
without perhaps overwhelming them. For this reason I recommend The
Way of the Prisoner especially to readers already familiar with
Centering Prayer. To beginners I recommend reading the book slowly
by sections rather than all at once in a hurry. Then relax in God's
presence, open to whatever gift might come your way. Centering
Prayer does take effort, but it cannot be hurried or forced. What
comes is a gift. Soering understands this.
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