Sunday School – Nurturing Qualities that Make the World a Better Place
All are welcome in our Christian Science Sunday School in Canberra which is located on the corner of Macquarie and Bligh Streets in Barton and operates from 10.00-11.00 am every Sunday.
If you are wondering what the benefits of Sunday School are in this secular world read on and hear how this ex-Sunday School student found support and direction in her troubled life through regular attendance at Sunday School.
“When I was a teenager, my mother passed on and my father remarried. Adjusting to this was very difficult for me, and I descended into depression. The problem was not diagnosed, as it rarely was in those days, but I struggled with a great sadness that led to reckless behavior.
Living in a large cosmopolitan city, I found many opportunities to put myself in harm’s way. Nights often found me wandering alone, and it was easy to get lost in the city and meet people who would take advantage of a lonely girl. … More often than I care to recall, I put myself in dangerous situations, basically asking, waiting, for something to happen.
Only recently have I realized, with deep gratitude, how remarkable it is that I never met with violence during those wilderness years or fell victim to any unsavory behavior. Neither was I lured into the common pitfalls of drinking, smoking, or doing drugs. I credit Christian Science for this protection, because during this period I was attending a Christian Science Sunday School.
I loved the concept of God as both Father and Mother, from whom I could never be separated.
Looking back on my first experience of the Sunday School some years earlier, I remember seeing the words in golden letters high on the wall, “God is Love.” These words were simple and immediate, and I could grasp them. Thus, began a growing understanding of God as divine Love and of my own identity as a spiritual idea of Love. The God I was learning about was not wrathful or punishing, but tender and caring.”
With the support of the teachings, and the teachers, at the Christian Science Sunday School the depression left, her reckless behaviour ceased and her grades improved.
The full text of this article by Katherine Ellis, titled Sunday School Saved Me, was first published in the Christian Science Sentinel of 24 April 2017. It is now available here: click here
….there’s more to us than that outer crust of surface appearances. We each have a spiritual nature. And there’s more to that spiritual nature than simply an interest in spiritual-type things….Spirituality is actually the fundamental nature of our being.
Beautiful, solid spirituality is palpably within us and all around us; and we can see it when we start looking for it. It’s never enough to be satisfied with what the world says we are. In the realm of divine Mind, we continually shine forth with the glory of God. Our identity as Mind’s spiritual idea is nothing less than glorious, immeasurably cherished by God.
Even a little knowledge of one’s spiritual identity can be helpful in very practical ways. For instance, after a friend of mine woke up feverish in the night, the first thing she did was to begin thinking deeply about her spirituality.
That might sound like a curious thing to do, but experience had shown her that being more conscious of her true nature as God’s child, or spiritual expression, always raises her thoughts into awareness of God’s presence and of what God is doing for her. God, limitless Love itself, is always loving and caring for each of us. And as my friend prayed the following morning, the fever completely left her. And she saw that her true self is not based in materiality and limitation but in God, Spirit….
As we understand this more and more, it becomes clear that our God-given spiritual being is such a gift. Throughout the day, as we move from task to task, it is actually possible to remain in vibrant awareness of it.
This article by Mark Swinney was published in The Christian Science Monitor, for the full version read it here
What we perceive with our physical senses doesn’t always accurately convey what is actually true. Contributor Deborah Huebsch explores in this Daily Lift how an understanding of what is real can leave us unaffected by those things that just seem to be. It’s a simple but potent prayer: “Father, show me Your reality.”
Click here to listen to this short inspirational program
The first time I saw artist René Magritte’s self-portrait “Perspicacity,” I was completely captivated by it. He portrays himself sitting at his easel, studying an egg, yet painting a graceful, fully grown bird in flight. What a powerful depiction of imagination and creativity!
Over the years, I’ve come to realize how Magritte’s painting actually presents even more than that. To me, it illustrates what’s possible when we turn our perception away from mere surface appearances toward more discerning views.
In one dictionary “perspicacity” is defined as “acuteness of discernment or understanding.” I like to think of it as uncommon sense – the ability to rise above the conventional and customary view that would look at an egg and then, well, paint just a replica of the egg.
The teachings of Christian Science encourage the spiritual seeker to consider a sense of reality that is different from – deeper than – what the physical senses present. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered this Science, describes throughout her primary work, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” how a spiritual perspective has a practical impact. For example, she says: “A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity” (p. 128).
I’ve often seen how understanding God can and does meet our needs by inspiring thought to appreciate and apply the extraordinary spiritual concepts that God is constantly communicating to us, such as the idea that as divine Love itself, God is the source and sustainer of harmony for all of us.
Think of the possibilities for our world as we each become more conscious of our own and others’ “native air of insight and perspicacity”!
Do we expect delays of Good?
….there’s more to us than that outer crust of surface appearances. We each have a spiritual nature. And there’s more to that spiritual nature than simply an interest in spiritual-type things….Spirituality is actually the fundamental nature of our being.
What we perceive with our physical senses doesn’t always accurately convey what is actually true. Contributor Deborah Huebsch explores in this Daily Lift how an understanding of what is real can leave us unaffected by those things that just seem to be. It’s a simple but potent prayer: “Father, show me Your reality.”
