by Kate Warner

I recently became an intern at The Mother Church. I’m going to be here in Boston all summer, and getting here was a little hectic. Since I didn’t know when I was going to be leaving until the day before I left, I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to most of my friends and even to some of my family. Now, I dearly love my friends and am very close with my family. And I felt I had finally learned how to truly express love to those I’d always been close to. To be ripped so abruptly away—well, it hurt.

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by Kim C. Korinek

Have you ever approached your meditation time or spiritual study time feeling that this was getting old? Or read sacred writings and felt that you weren’t getting anything out of them?

I was talking over these kinds of questions with a friend of mine who, in my estimation, is a brilliant designer. We had just finished talking about home design (her specialty), and I was amazed at how quickly she could draw conclusions as to harmonizing color, balancing mass, determining a focal point, and incorporating green systems so that they would all synergistically come together in a development called home. The overall effect was not about window size or trim color (although those were components), but it was about creating a home in which people feel, well, at home.

What was it about this creative process that was so energizing, surprising, and satisfying? How can we apply these principles to our prayer? Prayer and art are synonymous to me. Good art always expands and stimulates thought and moves you forward, transforms the way you think to a degree. Likewise, prayer develops and transforms how we see reality.

So, back to the questions. Stay with me while I work out an answer.

Let’s take the word develop. “It’s a good word,” said my friend, and she cited Webster’s dictionary definition. Its etymology says it is from the Old French desveloper, desvoluper, which means to unwrap, expose. Some of the meanings of develop are:

• to make visible or manifest
• to work out the possibilities of
• to create or produce especially by deliberate effort over time
• to make active or promote the growth of
• to move (as a chess piece) from the original position to one providing more opportunity for effective use
• to cause to unfold gradually

Really, there is a lot to be said for this word and how it relates to prayer. Read through the definitions again and think of applying them to prayer.

We could say, then, that prayer is about unwrapping ourselves and growing into visible possibilities. It is dropping whatever isn’t working (isn’t Godlike) and seeing Life’s possibilities unfold. OK. That’s fresh!

There are times when I have set my schedule up so that I read one specific thing at this time and give myself room to read other inspirational literature at that time. But I need to remember that this study in and of itself is not what makes good things happen. God’s law (AKA good things) is always happening. My prayer and study time is only effective if I see that it brings me in line with what already is.

God is in control. It is our yielding to God’s love, it is our shutting out whatever is distracting, that brings us into transformative prayer.

I remember seeing my friend at work. She has a direct approach to her work. She goes into a room and is quiet. During this time, her thought is actively engaged in seeing what already is there. Using her love of geometry and color, she is able to see what needs changing to bring the room into line with the more desirable qualities needed in a home. The suggestions that follow are never about the material objects themselves, but are about the spiritual ideas behind them.

Likewise in the quiet sanctuary of prayer, we are actively engaged in listening and seeing the good that God has already created. Loving the purity of God’s love and the omnipotence of God’s laws, we see what needs to be changed to bring thought in line with the perfect principle of God and man. In dropping whatever is ungodlike, we reveal (unwrap or expose) who we are as a child of God—that unique combination of spiritual qualities that we reflect from God.

Prayer brings healing. Healing is a revealing of what already is. So it is not about walking or not walking‹it is about movement. It is not about a light bulb—it is about light. It is not about a material thing—it is about spiritual substance. The spiritual substance is what determines the outward and actual.

Prayer is transformational. It moves us from one position to “one providing more opportunity for effective use.” That means that we should no more accept our prayer time as dull than we should accept living in a boring beige room with undifferentiated cubes for furniture (even people who like a simple color scheme have accents!). This would be like accepting prayer as simply “stereotyped borrowed speeches.”

Prayer isn’t beige. Prayer is desire. And prayer in Christian Science is “aflame with divine Love.”

Just as an artist goes from a blank canvas to one full of movement and color, a blacksmith goes from a steel rod to a sculpture, an interior designer transforms a mediocre home into a home of color and grace, so can we give our consent to prayer and expect our prayer to transform our lives by bringing to light our inherently spiritual nature as God’s creation.

by Amy Richmond

Unity…it sometimes seems impossible.  We’ve all got different likes, ideas, and goals, right? (more…)

by Mark Unger

In the Bible we find so many wonderful promises to us, God’s children. The prophet Jeremiah caught a sense of our divine Father-Mother’s love for each of us when God told him, “I will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: . . . Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good.” (Jer 32:37, 38, 41) (more…)

by Clementine Lue Clark

Along with many other parents of young children, I’ve been thinking about my baby, Alma, sleeping through the night.

One of the practical things we’ve tried to do is to stick to a nightly bedtime routine. We give her a bath, read her a story, sing a song, swaddle her, and say a prayer. Often the prayer is “A Verse for the Little Children” (Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 400):

Father-Mother God,
Loving me,—
Guard me when I sleep;
Guide my little feet
Up to Thee.

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by Emily - Christian Science Sentinel, June. 30, 2008

There I was, watching all my friends climb up and walk across the ropes with no problem.

I’d never enjoyed being in high places very much. So when I was at camp two summers ago, I wasn’t planning to get too far on the ropes course. (This course involves all kinds of challenges and team-building exercises in the woods. Campers put on harnesses as they complete challenges high off the ground.)

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by Avery Sander

I’m about halfway through my three-year law program. But I remember wondering if I could even get into law school.

I really wanted to go to law school; I have wanted to be a lawyer since I was eight. But my college grades were nothing terrific, and my LSAT (Law School Admission Test) score left something to be desired. I was told that I would have to pull up my LSAT score substantially in order to be accepted into any law school.

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by Michael Morgan

Fifteen minutes after the Pakistani pilot prays in Urdu over the intercom system for a safe flight, signifying my plane has taken off from Islamabad, we are flying above the mystical Karakoram mountains. Cumulus and crevice are indistinguishable at this height.

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Day 9:

Now that we have left Petals School our working adventure has come to an end. Although it was really hard to leave, as we began our safari we were amazed by the wildlife. We saw any and every African animal you can imagine, except for the rhino, and they were so close! It was a perfect ending to an incredible beginning. We have already begun to plan our trip back, and we look forward to the continuation of our sisterhood.

by Michael Morgan

After three days of trekking through the Himalayas, I developed a sharp pain in my knee. After nine hours of walking in the pouring rain, carefully dodging, and many times slipping on, steep wet rocks, we finally began to descend into the small village where we would be staying. Due to space efficiency I had left my Science and Health back at the hotel in Kathmandu and only had my Bible Lesson. On returning to the hotel I struggled, trying to steer my thoughts away from the pain and onto the beautiful surroundings: Soul manifested.

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