Articles

WHEN FACED WITH AN ILLNESS or an alarming problem, we might be tempted to think that spiritual healing can come only through deep prayer and study, great spiritual insight, and tremendous spiritual growth. Or that the road to recovery might be long.

I RECALL THE FIRST TIME I WENT HORSEBACK RIDING. The runs were exciting and unsettling.

MANY BIBLICAL NARRATIVES ILLUSTRATE how steadfast persistence in prayer, unwavering trust in God's omnipotence, and joyous expectancy of the triumph of Spirit over material resistance result in healing. One story that never fails to inspire me when I need to prayerfully persist in seeking healing is the Old Testament account of the battle of Jericho.

The author emphasizes the need to rely on "spiritual sense" rather than on our material senses.

American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation By Jon Meacham 416 pp. New York: Random House, $23.

I'M A CHURCH-GOING ENTHUSIAST. I just love being there.

A New Yorker who loves to read? Not a surprise. But Paula Rice Jackson, a former magazine editor-in-chief, who lives in Manhattan, also brings her special insights as a Christian Scientist to this month's book commentary ( American Gospel, by Jon Meacham).

THE SWALLOWS WERE NESTING . My daughter brought the news.

DO YOU HAVE ANY FRIENDS WHO ARE TWINS? Well, we'd like you to meet Grace and Claire Golder, who are eight-year-old twin sisters. They live with their mom and dad, and their younger sister, Julia, in an apartment in Greenwich Village, which is a neighborhood in New York City.

When 13-year-old Anna Reighart decided to join her local branch church, she wasn't sure what to expect during the application process. What would she be asked? And what would she say? As it turned out, the whole thing was a lot easier than she thought.