Both in the Bible and in Mary Baker Eddy’s writings, we find the instruction to “pray without ceasing.” I’ve always felt that was something to aspire to, but I was never quite sure how to accomplish this. Are we talking about one really long prayer, or an infinite number of prayers, one right after another, kind of strung together?
I reasoned that to pray is to commune with the one infinite God, good, and without ceasing must mean that our thought must stay on something in particular and not waver. Therefore, our thought must remain centered on God. But I was still looking for something a little more specific to help get me to that point, and more importantly to stay there.
One day, while studying the weekly Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly, I read in the Gospel of Mark the story of one of the scribes asking Jesus, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (12:28–31).
