God Behind Bars: A Prison Chaplain Reflects on the Lord's Prayer

This profoundly moving book examines the Our Father one line per chapter, opening up the meaning of each line to its fullest. Though the author filters the prayer through his experiences as chaplain in Riker's Island, the world's largest prison, this isn't exclusively a "prison" book. Until we know God's freedom, we are all in some way prisoners. With this prayer, the ultimate message is one of hope.

Recalling the experiences of both Therese of Lisieux and Thomas Merton, who also bore witness to a faith lived in darkness, the book offers each reader meaning and spirituality of true depth. The book looks at the Our Father from within a place of extreme isolation and despair; yet it finds in the prayer a universality that speaks to all, since we are all children who have at some time stood in darkness and cried for help. The book ends with a brief history of Abraham House, a half-way house for prisoners co-founded by the author.

Sure to make a lasting impression, this book is for prisoners, chaplains, rehabilitation ministries, halfway houses, and families and victims of prisoners. It is also an inspiring title for prayer groups, pastoral ministers, and all Christians, especially those who want new life imbued into a prayer that they may be saying by rote.

Pierre Raphael, a French worker-priest, has lived among, labored beside, and ministered to the poor and working class for nearly four decades. He has worked in prison ministry at Riker's Island for many years and co-founded Abraham House in the South Bronx as an alternative to incarceration.