A STUDY of the glorious opening chapter of the Christian Science textbook brings the realization that our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, indeed helps every earnest and sincere student to pray the prayer that is heard and answered— the prayer that heals. Out of a heart full of love for God and man, she points the way to the attainment of that which will bring the solution of all the problems confronting humanity today, of that which will liberate mankind from all their limitations, satisfy all human cravings and longings, and usher in the wondrous fact that God is good and all-powerful now, and eternally sees "every thing that he had made," beholding it as "very good." Her explanations help us to see that praying is communing with God, is listening to God. It is the letting go of the false belief that we have a mind of our own, a mind filled with thoughts of fear, sin, disease, and lack of good. It is the letting in of the one Mind—the Mind which was in Christ Jesus; and this Mind is conscious of all that really is. Praying means drawing near to God, and this drawing near to God understandingly, brings the healing of all belief in a power apart from God.
Such prayer is not confined to special moments of adoration or realization. We more and more learn that prayer means a constant, uninterrupted, true mental attitude. Paul admonished the Thessalonians to "pray without ceasing." Christian Science makes it clear that this is possible and feasible, because prayer is not only adoration and contemplation, but true knowing or being.
We all can see at once that being is not confined to moments, and not even to hours and days. Being goes on uninterruptedly because God eternally is. That which reflects God is always conscious of God, is always obedient to God, to Truth; it always is a manifestation of Truth, and therefore is conscious of Truth and not of error. Being always is a state of receptivity to Truth; and this state of receptivity to Truth, a component part of what we call reflection, is synonymous with prayer. "The highest prayer is not one of faith merely; it is demonstration," says Mrs. Eddy on page 16 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." It is that demonstration of the allness of God which gives one an understanding of man's rightful place in the unity of good, and enables one to be what in reality he is. True prayer is realization of man's conscious and continuous at-one-ment with God.
