One evening, in the southern Minnesota town where I lived at the time with my husband and children, my mom and I were in the kitchen busily preparing for Christmas. Earlier in the day, however, I had come down with pinkeye, and by this point, it was quite painful. I excused myself and went into another room to pray. Within 20 or 30 minutes, I was back in the kitchen with Mom, but not a single trace of pinkeye came back with me. What came back instead was an attention-holding affection for Christ—God's healing influence in human consciousness—that warmed my heart the rest of the holiday season. The immediacy of that healing and its transforming effect made me especially value that time of prayer, which I remember vividly.
I knew at the time that Christian healing occurs when the spiritual truths Jesus lived and taught enlighten one's consciousness. To allow this to happen, I turned to the Lord's Prayer (from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount) and its spiritual interpretation, which is given in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.See Science and Health, pp. 16–17 . I felt distracted, though, so I remember closing my eyes in an effort to zero in on the spiritual meaning of this prayer, line by line. Whenever my thoughts began to stray, I would rein them back to the prayer. I did this persistently until the reality of God's love took firm hold of my consciousness and wiped out all thoughts of disease. At that point, I went back to the kitchen, not only physically well, but with a genuine affection for Christ at the center of my thoughts.
As I recalled this experience recently, what occurred to me (and brought a smile) was that I had had a "Mary" Christmas that year. Let me explain. This Mary's story is told in the book of Luke in the Bible.See Luke 10:38–42 . When Jesus was traveling through the village of Bethany, where Mary and her sister Martha lived, Martha welcomed him as a guest in her home. While Martha was busy being a good hostess, Mary sat at Jesus' feet, listening to his teaching. After a while, Martha complained to Jesus that Mary wasn't helping her. To Martha's surprise no doubt, Jesus replied, "Martha, my dear, you are worried and bothered about providing so many things. Only one thing is really needed. Mary has chosen the best part and it must not be taken away from her!"
