Articles

Last year, I was walking in the Boston Common with my friend Kim. We were talking about our college classes, and out of the blue, she asked: "How do Christian Scientists pray about swine flu? Do you have a special prayer for it?" I replied that we didn't have prayers for specific illnesses but that you could pray about anything from the basis that God is in control, and that everyone expresses His completeness.

The Journal receives a number of contributions that, because of space constraints, we can't publish in full. In these pages, however, we can offer excerpts that we found inspiring and insightful—some spiritual "nuggets" worth tucking into thought.

" GOD REQUIRES WISDOM, economy, and brotherly love to characterize all the proceedings of the members of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist" ( Church Manual, p. 77 ).

BUFFETED BY EVERYTHING from random suicide bombings to carefully coordinated attacks, nations around the world are struggling to find answers to the threat of terrorism. Protected by murky return addresses and having little stake in the status quo, terrorist groups all too easily circumvent traditional methods of containment.

EVERY CHRISTIAN SCIENCE church service includes the singing of hymns. The primary goal of hymn singing is spiritual, not musical.

WITH CONFIDENCE? OR WITH FEAR? Two very different ways to step into the next moment. When I am faced with issues in my life—from the most dramatic to the most mundane—I like to think I can go forward with confidence rather than fear.

WHEN I FIRST LEARNED in Christian Science that God's creation is entirely spiritual, I suspected it would take discipline—consistent study, prayer, and practice—to prove step-by-step that I wasn't walking around on matter, or didn't exist in matter. I was right.

IF YOU REALIZED YOU HAD boarded a sinking ship, and had the means to help save not only yourself but your shipmates, wouldn't you take drastic action to do just that? At one time, I came face to face with the realization that a material sense of life is like that sinking ship, headed toward a dark conclusion—and I was on it. By this I don't mean that I felt close to death, but that my concept of life was off course and my thoughts on the subject needed to be spiritualized.

THERE ARE MANY WORTHY CAUSES to which people commit their lives. There's the cause of peace, the end of global poverty, the betterment of human life, the uplifting of women worldwide, the protection of animals and the environment—to mention just a few.

WE ARE NEARLY halfway through the second hundred years of the Christian Science movement, measuring from the discovery of the Science of Christ by Mary Baker Eddy in 1866. It seems a good time, as Christian Scientists, to ask ourselves the question, What has changed in this second century of Christian Science? Obviously, outward changes in the world have accelerated tremendously.