MORE THAN A FORM OF PRAYER, singing can actually teach us how to pray. In a profound way, effective healing prayer has the element of a song—the lyrics or message blending with the "spirit" or music, which gives wings to that message. This union of message and spirit reminds me of something Mary Baker Eddy once wrote, "Music is the rhythm of head and heart." (Science and Health, p. 213) Sometimes intellect wants to make prayer and healing a thing of the head and not the heart, but when the letter and the spirit are put together in prayer, something powerful happens—both are enhanced, bringing out not just intellect and emotion, but understanding and its uplifting effect.
The healing power of music is a blend of head and heart that can transcend musical or metaphysical ability. In fact, some of my earliest memories of healing are of my mom, who was new to Christian Science, singing to me when I was not feeling well. Though her voice was often slightly out of tune, and although she told me later that in those early days of her study, she wasn't always sure how to pray effectively, all I ever felt was the love, words, and music coming together in an irresistible balm of healing to whatever my need might have been.
As a healer I've often found comfort and healing in a hymn's sweet ability to quiet thought and peacefully align it with the heart of the composer's message. At one time when my youngest daughter was about six months old, I awoke in the night to find her struggling to breathe because of congestion in her head and lungs. As a young mother, I was struggling, too, but with a feeling of great responsibility for my child, and found it hard to settle myself enough to pray clearly. As I rocked her in those wee hours of the morning, I began singing hymns, just as my mom had, in order to calm my thoughts and comfort my daughter. The music was like a mother's embrace to both of us there in the darkness. As I felt the music and its message wash over us, she stopped crying and began to breathe more gently.
