Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to header Skip to footer

Church Alive

CHURCH. The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.
The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.
– Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

Prayers ‘collectively and exclusively’—bring healing

From the July 2012 issue of The Christian Science Journal


In the Church Manual  Mary Baker Eddy shared a description under the heading “Prayer in Church,” for the direction of our prayers. She wrote: “The prayers in Christian Science churches shall be offered for the congregations collectively and exclusively” (p. 42). I had been praying deeply to find a fresh, new view of the relevance and importance of this prayer provision.

One day I attended the Sunday service in Boston with my husband, and the First Reader read all of the verses to the second hymn. When he read these words: “Sinner, it calls you,—‘Come to this fountain, / Cleanse the foul senses within;’ ” (Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 301), a disturbing relationship situation that had been an ongoing battle for me in my prayers simply melted as these words were read and then as everyone sang together in unison. God was revealing to me that if I wanted to truly heal and be healed, then I had to “cleanse the foul senses within.” I had to purify and elevate my perspective of this family member in order to see what God had been seeing all the time: His perfect, adorable creation.

On the following day, I was riding my bike up the last hill before returning home. During this ride, I had been rejoicing and thanking God for the ideas revealed to me during the Sunday service. Just as I turned the last corner, I swerved off the road onto an area of sand and broken gravel. As the bike began to slip away from my grip, I began to pray, using some of the words from a solo that I had listened to the previous Sunday at church: “If God doesn’t know it, there’s nothing to know. If God doesn’t see it, there’s nothing to see.” 

Sign up for unlimited access

You've accessed 1 piece of free Journal content

Subscribe

Subscription aid available

 Try free

No card required

More In This Issue / July 2012

concord-web-promo-graphic

Explore Concord—see where it takes you.

Search the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures