I often like to think about and pray with the seven synonyms for God that Mary Baker Eddy gleaned from her study of the Bible and outlined in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love. For example, I like to think about the fact that we are the reflection of Mind, expressing divine intelligence, wisdom, and perception. Likewise, I know that, as the reflection of Soul, we exhibit harmony, beauty, and grace. And I enjoy thinking about the other synonyms for God that we reflect as His image and likeness. However, when it comes to Spirit, I have to say that for a long time my prayers hit a wall.
My thought process about Spirit used to go something like this: “We reflect God as Spirit. So, we are not subject to conditions of matter (the opposite of Spirit), such as weather, time, age, space, or any other so-called material, physical laws.” I had been content to pray like this until the 2017 Annual Meeting of The Mother Church, which had the theme, “Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life …” (Science and Health, p. 249). But after this meeting I was impelled to dig deeper into the meaning of Spirit.
Ever since I can remember, I have loved that sentence in Science and Health. I have underlined it, memorized it, and cited it. But when it became the theme of Annual Meeting, I had to ask myself if I truly understood it. Or did I just like the sound of the words? Truth be told, I had some work to do.
