Welcome
When I was a child, my dad liked to entertain me with this nursery finger rhyme: “Here’s the church,” he would say (bringing his fists together), “And here’s the steeple” (up went his index fingers to form a pointy steeple), “Open the door” (his thumbs opened wide), “And see all the people” (his fingers interlocked and flipped over to reveal ten wiggling fingers representing the people). At least that’s how I remember it.
Recently I was talking to a colleague about the word should . How easily it can slip into thought in regard to Christian Science: I should read the weekly Bible Lesson more.
“Rules are made to be broken,” goes an old saying. And certainly there’s freedom in realizing that some rules—ones based on superstition, dogma, outmoded customs, or misinformation—aren’t binding because they don’t have real authority behind them.
This month’s Journal is a truly special one for me. It has revolutionized the way I think of Christian Science nurses.
I’ve always loved Hymn 412 *. Maybe part of the reason is because the tune is the old Irish favorite, “O Danny Boy.
Do you know what necromancy means? Well, I thought I did. Some old-fashioned term for witchcraft, right? That term is mentioned in the title of one of the 26 recurring Christian Science weekly Bible Lesson topics that Mary Baker Eddy specified: “Ancient and Modern Necromancy, alias Mesmerism and Hypnotism, Denounced,” a Lesson subject I had studied dozens of times over the years.
In the Christian world, April sings of Easter gladness. Jesus’ resurrection speaks to the perpetual promise of renewal—of being raised up in newness of life.
I still have a distinct memory of the brief period of silent prayer our homeroom teacher led to start the day in middle and high school. Our hands folded neatly on our uniformed laps, heads bowed.
In Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing, one character asks another: “Why, what’s the matter, that you have such a February face, so full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?” Well, we hope this month’s issue puts another face on February—more of a countenance— which along with being defined as “the way one looks” also means “calm and composed .