In the sixth chapter of Matthew is recorded the prayer which Christ Jesus taught his disciples and bequeathed to posterity. This prayer, designated the Lord's Prayer, stands as a perfect, ever-effective orison. Its application to human needs ranges from the individual Christian duty of healing sickness to the solution of world problems. This prayer is simple, yet profound; brief, yet comprehensive. It is a reverential paean of thanksgiving and praise; the common bond of Christianity.
Of such import did Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, consider this prayer that she gave the spiritual interpretation of it in the concluding paragraphs of her chapter on Prayer in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." The Lord's Prayer is included under the provisions of the Church Manual as an integral part of all services in The Mother Church and its branches, and in Christian Science Sunday School exercises.
Christian Scientists ponder the Lord's Prayer and the spiritual sense thereof as presented in Science and Health. In the light of this interpretation the Lord's Prayer is seen to be replete with spiritual power. When its healing import is discerned this understanding may be immediately applied to every erroneous situation, however sudden or severe, with certainty regarding the beneficial outcome. The potency of spiritual consciousness is indicated by Mrs. Eddy's statement (ibid., p. 16), "Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord's Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick."
