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Have you ever felt sympathy for another person who was suffering, and then started to suffer yourself? Perhaps the individual was depressed, and you started to feel depressed, or this person was ill, and you started to feel ill? If so, it’s a symptom of what I call sympathetic suffering, which is any type of suffering taken on from seeing it in others and thinking of it as a reality. It’s not something to fear, but something that can be prevented through an understanding of God’s omnipresent love and care, which does not actually allow for suffering at all, let alone the transfer of suffering from one person to another.

At some time or another, most of us have probably seen what happens when a boat skims the sea: A wave is created in its wake, resulting in a series of diminishing ripples on the surface of the water. Or when we throw a pebble into a pond, we see many rings spreading out as a result of that single action.

In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we read about a healing of infertility that Abraham and Sarah experienced. Though Abraham and Sarah were well past the age when it is commonly believed to be physically possible to have children, God assured them they would have a son, and they did.

Can we truly forgive those who cause us pain and suffering? Can we find such forgiveness in the love and mercy of our hearts? There were times I’d see acts of astonishing forgiveness, such as people offering prayers for individuals who had taken the lives of their loved ones. And while humbled by these acts of Christian love and mercy, I could never understand the depths of such forgiveness.

Have you ever been tempted to measure the impact of a church in algorithmic terms, perhaps with variables for number of congregants, size of Sunday School, and so forth? I know I have. In a society of billion-member social networks, where value is often assigned by quantifying followers and likes, perhaps we can understand the desire to validate the worth of a church through such a formula.

It was a cold  winter morning, and I had settled on my living room floor, along with my Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, to study the weekly Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on “Spirit. ” After reading halfway through the Lesson, I looked up and stared out my patio doors.

In July 2017, we launched the “Why …?” column to address key questions about the relevance of Christian Science today and to show how these magazines—crowdsourced before the term was ever invented!—uniquely harness the vitality of Christ-healing. Our writers are our readers, who willingly work with us to fulfill the Church Manual mandate that all articles be “ably edited and kept abreast of the times” (Mary Baker Eddy, p.

I’ve come to appreciate the inspired wisdom that led Mary Baker Eddy to found Christian Science Reading Rooms. These Reading Rooms serve their neighborhoods by making the truths of the Science of Christianity available through the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Bible, and other resources provided by The Christian Science Publishing Society.

Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.

Editor’s note: Heloísa, the author of this article, has been asked by the Christian Science Board of Lectureship to be available this lecture year (July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019) specifically to give lectures in Spanish and Portuguese, sponsored in the United States and abroad. Picture yourself in a small village in Brazil sometime in the 1600s or 1700s.