The first time I heard the words of a Lesson-Sermon I was a listening stranger. I had been brought up a devout Anglican, my father being a clergyman in the Church of England. I don't believe I'd ever heard the term Christian Science until, as a teenager, I visited some school friends during a summer vacation. They invited me to join the family each morning while they read the lesson. Curiosity prompted me to accept, and as I listened I was impressed by the logic. Instead of being asked to believe a dogma, here was something to be practiced and lived. And at this point the Lesson-Sermons began to change my life.
The second step came as soon as I could get hold of the textbook and begin the study of the lesson myself. Because of family opposition I had to hide the books and read in secret. All I could manage was one section a day, but it was a constant inspiration, and it built up my conviction that Christian Science was a religion to be practiced. I learned that it was not the amount of reading that was important, but the focus and receptivity that brought the right message for each day.
This catacomb experience finally ended, and the third stage came when I was able to go to Sunday School. Then I began to study the Lesson-Sermon as a pupil—accumulating questions to ask and finding answers to questions put to me in class. It was here that I formed the habit of asking myself "Why?" or "How?" concerning statements and incidents in the lesson, and in finding the answers I constantly discovered new aspects of Christian Science.
