At the back of this magazine there is a directory of names of individuals engaged in the public healing ministry of Christian Science. We thought it might be helpful to Journal readers, and especially to those who are considering fuller engagement in Christian Science healing, to hear some of these practitioners share a few thoughts about how they got started in the fulltime practice. Obviously, their experiences are individual; there couldn't be a specific formula for entering a holy ministry! Our hope is that this series may encourage others to see how the way to a public practice of Christian healing opens up when there is a pure desire to serve God and one's fellowman.
What could make a graduate student in philosophy become a Christian Scientist? Why should she give up writing her own system of metaphysics to become a student of the divine Science of being— and eventually enter the public practice?
For me, becoming a Christian Scientist and a practitioner didn't just happen overnight. There'd been a ripening of thought over the years. When my thought was ready, I was able to recognize Christian Science as my answer.
Getting started
in the public practice
Looking back, I realize I was on a search for Truth most of my life. I went to the Episcopal church as a small child. But I had an aunt who was a Christian Scientist, and she and her husband had had some wonderful healings that impressed my mother. So for three or four years as teenagers, my brothers and I attended the local Christian Science Sunday School, although my parents at that time did not attend the church.
In college I didn't follow up on Christian Science. Although I'd looked forward to college courses in sociology, psychology, and philosophy, they were disappointing. They did not provide me with answers on how to live a life full of meaning and purpose.
Once I graduated, my search led me to attend different churches and to sing in various church choirs. There would be a temporary uplift that would last for a few hours, but nothing to carry me through to the next Sunday or to guide the rest of my life.
I'd tried counseling but ended up no better off than before. Then, a relative of mine became very ill. There seemed to be little hope for him. Feeling desperate, I located a Christian Science practitioner and asked him to pray for my relative (who had given his consent). When he improved, I was impressed and began studying Christian Science in earnest.
Some years passed, and I began to realize that every time I had the opportunity to complete my doctoral dissertation in philosophy, I would instead study Christian Science. As soon as possible, while my application for membership in The Mother Church was awaiting acceptance, I had Christian Science class instruction. This holy experience helped pave the way for recognition that Christian Science had become my first love. Within the next two years my mission and purpose became progressively clearer—to express my spiritual identity as God's idea and to share this light. I accepted the fact that it was OK to enjoy Christian Science, to make healing through prayer my profession.
For a year or two, I shared an office with some other practitioners for two days a week. When my children began to attend kindergarten and nursery school, I was able to give all my mornings to the work. Although I didn't have a flood of patients, I was learning how to give treatment. I would pray for inspiration about what to study and then study it, using Concordances to the Bible and to Mrs. Eddy's writings. Then I'd apply what I was learning to whatever happened in my day.
This activity purified my thought, so that when situations needing resolution came to mind, a healing angel message would come, too. I was learning to lean on and trust Mind's ever-presence and its ever-operative messages.
It took a while to realize that this simple approach to prayer could be enough to heal. Perhaps because of the education I'd had in writing complicated philosophy papers, I thought that Christian Science treatment also would have to be complex. So, part of what I was learning was "the simplicity that is in Christ" II Cor. 11:3. that Paul talks about. I found that by listening for Mind's guidance on each case, I was led to the unfolding inspiration and understanding that became the prayer that was right for that case.
When Christian Science refound me, I was
about as distant from religious thinking as any
one could be. Yet God was preparing my heart.
Long before my practice was sufficiently active for me to apply for advertising in The Christian Science Journal, I asked for the application form. I reasoned it was necessary to be alert that material thinking or everyday concerns did not creep in and make me forget about it, or distract me from this goal. So I made a conscious commitment to keep the application form in sight. I put it in the top drawer of my desk, and whenever I opened the drawer, there it was, reminding me of my goal. If it started to get covered up with other papers, I'd pull it out and put it back on top.
Mary Baker Eddy writes, "'Learn to labor and to wait.' Of old the children of Israel were saved by patient waiting." Retrospection and Introspection, p. 79. This expresses the spiritual intuition that came to me at that time. Mrs. Eddy doesn't say the children of Israel were merely helped, or even that they progressed, but that they were saved. It was clear that patience and persistence were needed to let the light of Mind daily transform my consciousness. I saw that it was this kind of daily transformation that had prepared the children of Israel to recognize the Promised Land.
Applying this to the practice of Christian Science, I knew that with my view of identity and life becoming more spiritual, regular calls for help from others would come. My thought would be at a level of inspiration ready to heal. By my patiently yielding to Truth, the individual spiritual radiation of Truth would be felt in some degree by others, and they would be drawn to it and healed. This attraction takes place entirely in the realm of Mind. It is lifting up the Christ light as Jesus described it: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." John 12:32.
It is encouraging to remember that when Christian Science refound me, I was about as distant from religious thinking as anyone could be. Yet God was preparing my heart. I'm so grateful to have experienced this, for it reminds me again and again not to judge by outward appearances. Right where an individual may seem far away from even the faintest desire to know God, there may be a ready heart prepared to love God—a heart that can be touched by Love's tender grace, and nurtured. Just as Love's kindness does not allow one's true desires to be covered up, that same kindness reveals truth to each individual. So, the whole process of providing the truth appropriate to the tender, seeking heart is taken care of by Love's pure goodness.
I realize now that divine Love's shepherd's staff was long enough to reach me and bring me into the fold, and that it will do this for anyone. I also realize that one is brought into the midst of the fold—not to the edge, but to the very center of it. Here the love, the sense of belonging, and the sweet purpose that can seem to be so far distant are immediately present in one's experience. One is home. No matter how far a person has strayed, the "lost sheep" finds true selfhood and spiritual riches in full array the minute he or she is in the fold. Along with this comes the promise of constant, ever-greater realization of and fulfillment of good.
When my application for Journal advertising was approved, I felt a great, deep sense of blessedness to be living in the consciousness (the house) of Love, serving God and His children.
