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.

This far-ranging book presents God, the Ultimate Mystery of non-created Reality, as Christ—the One Who loves us. Spirituality beyond language and in general; the inner mystical meaning of the Cross of Christ; differing Christian windows found in the stages of evolving consciousness identified by Integral Theory; and Centering Prayer’s close relationship to all of this are core themes in this work. An important insight of Integral Theory reveals that when people are unaware of the stages of evolving consciousness, they tend to believe that the perspectives of their own stage(s) are the only true or realistic views—which is actually untrue and leads to needless confusion, conflict and misunderstandings among individuals in different stages of evolving consciousness. Additionally: prayer; the allegorical sense of Scripture; Lectio Divina; grades of evolving love; duality?/?non-duality; and apophatic theology are also major topics discussed. The gift of non-conceptual contemplation, into which Centering Prayer leads us, is shown to be a key to Christian unity and harmony among all religious and spiritual traditions seeking to serve the One Who loves us. Non-conceptual Centering Prayer—as a movement into simplicity and silence—is readily available to people seeking a deeper spirituality in all denominations and in all stages of evolving consciousness.

What happens when a former Zen Buddhist monk and his feminist wife experience an apparition of the Virgin Mary? “This book could not have come at a more auspicious time, and the message is mystical perfection, not to mention a courageous one. I adore this book.”—Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit Before a vision of a mysterious “Lady” invited Clark Strand and Perdita Finn to pray the rosary, they were not only uninterested in becoming Catholic but finished with institutional religion altogether. Their main spiritual concerns were the fate of the planet and the future of their children and grandchildren in an age of ecological collapse. But this Lady barely even referred to the Church and its proscriptions. Instead, she spoke of the miraculous power of the rosary to transform lives and heal the planet, and revealed the secrets she had hidden within the rosary’s prayers and mysteries—secrets of a past age when forests were the only cathedrals and people wove rose garlands for a Mother whose loving presence was as close as the ground beneath their feet. She told Strand and Finn: The rosary is My body, and My body is the body of the world. Your body is one with that body. What cause could there be for fear? Weaving together their own remarkable story of how they came to the rosary, their discoveries about the eco-feminist wisdom at the heart of this ancient devotion, and the life-changing revelations of the Lady herself, the authors reveal an ancestral path—available to everyone, religious or not—that returns us to the powerful healing rhythms of the natural world.

In this book, the outcome of more than twenty years of experience with Centering Prayer, Father Arico explores the fundamentals of prayer, how it impacts on one's life, and how it can bring one peace of mind. "Like John Wesley or Jean Pierre de Caussade before him, Catholic priest Arico provides the devout with a model and method for the attainment of a deeper spirituality; unlike them, he feels free to draw wisdom not only from Christian and ancient models but also from Sufism and Thomas Merton to show us how 'God is calling us from our tombs' to the experience of 'divine union.' Arico's spirituality and warmth are profound, and his guide shall be well received by most Christian readers." -"Library Journal"

Gordon W. Lathrop explores the place of the Bible as the subject of critical exegesis in contemporary liturgy. The text is grounded in the life of the assembly and the role of intertextuality in its creation. Lathrop finds patterns in biblical narratives that suggest revising our models of the "shape" of liturgy (Dix, Schmemann) and our understanding of baptism, preaching, Eucharist, and congregational prayer.Saving Images calls for a new, reconceived biblical-liturgical movement that takes seriously both biblical scholarship and the mystery at the heart of worship.

Our Life is Love describes the transformational spiritual journey of the first Quakers, who turned to the Light of Christ within and allowed it to be their guide. Many Friends today use different language, but are still called to make the same journey. In our time people seeking deeper access to the profound teachings of Christianity want more than just beliefs, they want direct experience. Focusing on ten elements of the spiritual journey, this book is a guide to a Spirit-filled life that affects this world. Quakers in the seventeenth century and today provide examples of people and communities living in the midst of the world whose radical understanding of Christ's teachings led them to become powerful agents of social change. The book offers a simple, clear explanation of the spiritual journey that is suitable not only for Quakers, but for all Christians, and for seekers wanting to better understand our spiritual experience and the fullness of God's call to us. The book would make an excellent focus for study groups. Marcelle Martin has led workshops at retreat centers and Quaker meetings across the United States. She served for four years as the resident Quaker Studies teacher at Pendle Hill and was a core teacher in the School of the Spirit program, The Way of Ministry. She is the author of the Pendle Hill pamphlets Invitation to a Deeper Communion and Holding One Another in the Light. In 2013 she was the Mullen Writing Fellow at Earlham School of Religion while working on this book.

God is a Brown Girl Too is a book of healing and self-empowerment for women of color. It is for women who want to understand better how to use spiritual principles to transform their lives. In God is a Brown Girl Too, Reverend Cecilia Loving helps readers move beyond the limitations of fear and doubt in order to engage in a unique dialogue with the divine within. Reverend Loving shares spiritual principles that help women transcend the ordinary and uplift the extraordinary, develop the courage to develop their own legends and be courageous enough to see God as themselves. God is a Brown Girl Too awakens the power of unconditional love, nurtures the joy of creating outside the box and bears witness to the wealth of ancient wisdom. Women of color, particularly black women, seldom recognize that years of oppression, denigration and marginalization often contribute to hatred and abuse of not only themselves but each other. God is a Brown Girl Too teaches women how to release the demons of jealousy and despair, how to tell a new story, and how to become victor rather than victim. Based on the God is a Brown Girl Too(r) retreat series owned by Reverend Loving, this book shows the importance of moving beyond religious tradition to understand the sacredness of Spirit within. By recognizing her own divinity, the "Brown Girl" no longer sins by missing the mark or fails to step into her greatness but contribute even more to salvation in healing and wholeness for the entire plane