The disciples had asked Christ Jesus to teach them how to pray. He answered their plea by giving to them and to all mankind in all time to come that prayer which has become universally known in Christendom as the Lord's Prayer. On page 16 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes of this prayer, "Our Master said, 'After this manner therefore pray ye,' and then he gave that prayer which covers all human needs." She adds farther on, "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."
Then on pages 16 and 17 of Science and Health she gives her spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, an interpretation which came to her by divine revelation and inspiration, and which she considered of sufficient importance to make it an integral part of Sunday services in all Christian Science churches. This spiritual interpretation, studied and applied, enables us better to reach "the heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness...which instantaneously heals the sick."
Nothing here written is to be taken as an interpretation or an amplification of what our Leader has given us. It is submitted as the unfoldment that came to one student of Christian Science from his study, and in the hope that it will aid others, as it aided him, in gaining a larger understanding of the Lord's Prayer as spiritually interpreted by Mrs. Eddy, and greater ability to apply its truths to the healing of whatever problems may arise.
