Centering Prayer and Rebirth in Christ on the Tree of Life: The Process of Inner Transformation

This unique book draws on “the secret wisdom of Israel” (Qabalistic Tree of Life) to describe the soul’s inner purification, healing and rebirth in Christ rooted deep in the mysterious process and inner silence of non-conceptual contemplative prayer. “Prayer in secret” (Matt. 6:6) is prayer in the unconscious. Using the Tree of Life as a map of universal creation and the individual soul (Macrocosm and microcosm), Centering Prayer and Rebirth in Christ offers a detailed and revealing look into the hidden workings of the Spirit in the soul’s inner depths. When read slowly and thoughtfully, this book elevates the mind, offering what is, for most of us, a new vision of our evolving life in Christ and Christ in us.

The essence of Centering Prayer is consenting to God’s presence and action in us and in our life. The work of the Spirit in us aims to bring us from the limitations and disappointments of our false self (over-identifi cation with the separate-self sense of ego and its ill-conceived desires) into the fulfillment of our true self as a spiritual being. As the false self’s obstacles are removed by the divine action, which needs our willing consent and cooperation, our growing freedom to consent becomes cause for increasing peace and joy in the soul. This is a gift of divine love that brings us step by step into the fullness of our life in Christ―which is a continuing rebirth into the limitless light, life, and love of the divine consciousness.

The intended purpose of Centering Prayer’s conceptual background is to support the actual practice of non-conceptual contemplative prayer and the wondrous process of inner spiritual unfolding that Centering Prayer facilitates.

See also Kess Frey's earlier work for Portal Books, Human Ground, Spiritual Ground:Paradise Lost and Found: A Reflection on Centering Prayer's Conceptual Background (2012).

Kess Frey, born in 1945, grew up in Eagle Rock, California (North Los Angeles). He graduated in Psychology at the University of California, Irvine, and has studied Eastern and Western philosophy, psychology, and religion since 1965. He met Thomas Keating in 1989 and has been involved with Centering Prayer ever since. Mr. Frey lives in Anchorage, Alaska, where he offers introductory Centering Prayer workshops, facilitates prayer groups and retreats, and is active in prison ministry. Kess is the author of Human Ground, Spiritual Ground: Paradise Lost and Found: A Reflection on Centering Prayer’s Conceptual Background (Portal Books, 2012) and Centering Prayer and Rebirth in Christ on the Tree of Life: The process of Inner Transformation (Portal Books, 2013). 

Fr. Carl J. Arico is a founding member of Contemplative Outreach, and honored to have known Fr. Keating since 1969. He was present for the first intensive Centering Prayer retreat that Fr. Keating offered in 1983. Fr. Arico has been an integral part of the evolution of Contemplative Outreach from a wish to the organism it is today. “The growth that has taken place in Contemplative Outreach,” he observes, “is a miracle of God’s grace and the power of prayer.” He has traveled extensively in the United States and internationally to present workshops and lead retreats. He is the author of A Taste of Silence, on the fundamentals of Centering Prayer, and is well known in the Contemplative Outreach community.