Q: In the March Journal interview with Christian Science teacher Robert Stranathan, he was asked, “Speaking of healing, what approaches to healing are effective?” In his response he said that although argument is most often used in metaphysical healing, “The highest way to pray is through Love alone.” He mentioned Mary Baker Eddy’s statement in Science and Health, “If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit . . . ” (p. 365). How can we come to better understand this highest way of praying and healing?
—A reader in West Dunsborough, Australia
A: Reaching a patient through divine Love and healing in “one visit” is similar to Mary Baker Eddy’s reference to the Lord’s Prayer in which she talks about “reach[ing] the heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness . . . which instantaneously heals the sick” (Science and Health, p. 16).
Jesus mastered the “highest way of prayer and healing” referred to in your question. He also taught others, including ourselves, how to pray in a manner that reaches to spiritual heights and establishes in consciousness the pure truth of man’s perfection. Jesus’ prayers were “an absolute faith” and “a spiritual understanding” of divine Love (Science and Health, p. 1). In other words, a pure affirmation of spiritual fact.
