The church that Mary Baker Eddy founded—The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts—and its branches around the world offer activities to those well acquainted with Christian Science and to others whose interest is entirely new. People may gather in a grand church building or in a modest hut, in the open air or in a community center. But it’s not so much the place that sets the tone for these activities. Rather, it’s the quality of thought that each one attending brings to them. Participation in church gains momentum when we think of its activities as taking place in the auditorium of Spirit—a concept that begins with prayer.
The foundation of every church service and Sunday School class, every lecture and Reading Room opening, is the kind of prayer that Christ Jesus recommended to his followers. He said, “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:6).
Jesus wasn’t talking about finding a quiet place in a building, but a settled, holy state of thought. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy describes this holy attitude as “the sanctuary of Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but lets in Truth, Life, and Love.” And she continues: “To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error” (p. 15).
