Q: I love Christian Science and love the idea of praying for other people. What is holding me back, though, is that I just don't think that I will know the right words to say to patients. How important are the specific words that I tell someone?
A: While a Christian Scientist's tender love for a patient may be shown in a verbal expression of encouraging ideas, it's not really the words themselves that cure. It's the Christly messages bestowed by God on practitioner and patient that truly bring comfort. The Christ is the springboard to transforming thought, which thereby heals. I've sometimes found it helpful to think of the Christ as God's voice. "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness," explained Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health (p. 332).
It's "the divine message," that gives the public practice of Christian Science its substance and foundation. I've never once talked anyone into a healing. In case after case, I have found that effective prayer doesn't actually happen until I'm quiet and listen to God speak and lead me toward what to think about the patient.
