A member of the Christian Science community in Canberra shared his thoughts on how Christian Science helps him:
Recently I have found myself being very busy trying to achieve the many goals I have set myself. These tasks seemed important and usually came with deadlines. In doing this I have realised that I have let go of my usual focus on spiritual development. As a Christian Scientist there is a commitment to the daily prayer (Church Manual p41):
Thy kingdom come
Let the reign of divine Truth, Life and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin
And may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind
And govern them
I found that I had almost just been saying the words to the daily prayer, for example, without really having a full commitment to it. I had been studying the Daily Bible Lesson but not with the same degree of commitment or focus as a result of this busy work. I had foregone the focus and commitment to developing spiritually and instead had been focusing on getting this busy work done. The busy work itself had taken over my attention.
Even the busy work – those little goals – weren’t being achieved with the same degree of freedom, the same degree of perfection, I had previously been able to achieve. When I had taken a more spiritual or a more focused attention to the spiritual side of my life there didn’t appear to be such a focus on busy work or human activity, and the busy work didn’t seem so difficult.
In my commitment to Christian Science there is the understanding it is more than just the Daily Prayer or doing the Daily Bible Lesson. It is a commitment to a way of living and that way of living has an impact on what happens. In her textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes (p423):
The Christian Scientist, understanding scientifically that all is Mind, commences with mental causation, the truth of being, to destroy the error. This corrective is an alterative, reaching to every part of the human system. According to Scripture, it searches “the joints and marrow,” and it restores the harmony of man.
The inharmony on display because of the busy work had been brought about by my neglect of the spiritual recognition that all is brought about by mental causation. I had to remember to trust God to give me the order of work – He knew what was important and what needed to be done in what order. It was necessary to find that quiet mental place to pray; to silence the material senses and intrusive noises. Once again I turned to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, where Mary Baker Eddy writes (p15):
In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence the material senses. In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God’s allness. We must resolve to take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love. We must “pray without ceasing.” Such prayer is answered, in so far as we put our desires into practice. The Master’s injunction is, that we pray in secret and let our lives attest our sincerity.
I shall be forever grateful for Christian Science. The study of Christian Science and application to my life has allowed me to make significant long lasting and beneficial changes to my way of thinking and living. Christian Science is to me, an applied, practical science that can be used everyday in one’s life. The application of Christian Science in this instance has allowed me to be free from the constraints of ‘busyness’ and to be much more productive both materially and spiritually.
A member of the Christian Science community in Canberra submitted this testimony of healing:
I would like to share a healing that I had some years ago that has continued to bless me.
On this particular night, I had washed the removable covers from my lounge suite and spent about three hours ironing the damp fabric before refitting them to the lounge. I had the iron on the hottest setting in an effort to smooth the creases out of the heavy damp linen. By midnight I still had the covers from one chair to do so I decided to leave the ironing board set up so I could finish in the morning. I turned the iron off and then the overhead light nearest to me. This, however, was the only light that was on and I needed to walk back across the dark room. I put my hand out to make sure I didn’t knock the ironing board over but instead put the full palm of my hand on the hot plate of the iron. The pain was immediate and intense.
I had been brought up in Christian Science and had learnt that not looking at an injury helped to allay the fear. I readied for bed without turning lights on and without using that hand. I lay in bed with my hand hanging over the side of the bed unable to sleep and feeling overcome with the pain. Although I thought of myself as a Christian Scientist at this time, I really didn’t live a Christian Science life. I didn’t study and I really didn’t know how to pray. I lay in bed feeling totally miserable. I had taken on this task of washing the covers to distract myself from the sadness and loneliness that seemed to pervade my life at that time. I was recently divorced, I had started a new job which I was finding extremely difficult and stressful, and I was living a couple of hours drive from my parents and friends in a part of the city that socially was very foreign to me. Now I was in pain and feeling totally miserable.
I had been taught that God was Love and that this Love was a law that I could rely on. I didn’t really understand this at this time but in my desperation I turned to this God with a simple: Please help! Almost immediately I felt calm. Somehow I felt a sense of being loved and that all was well. This warm gentle feeling enveloped me and I fell peacefully asleep. When I woke in the morning there was not a single trace of the burn – no pain and not a mark on my hand. I was very grateful and a little surprised. God’s help was so immediate; I felt looked after.
After this, two things happened. The sadness and loneliness dissipated. I learned to rely more on God and came to think of Him/Her as my constant companion – as a guide when things seemed tough. Also since then there have been several occasions when I have inadvertently handled hot things like baking dishes coming out of the oven. Each time I have remembered this first healing and the fear of the burn has left and I have had no pain and no blistering or hurt. Nowadays, although I am not foolish around hot things, if I do come into contact with a hot surface I tell myself: ‘I don’t do burns!’ and that is the end of the matter. I am so grateful for what I am learning in Christian Science.
This recording is of the readings on the topic:Secure Amid the Storm.
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For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(The Bible KJV – Romans 8: 38, 39)
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Every Wednesday at 6.15pm a Testimony Meeting is held at the Christian Science church in Canberra (corner of Macquarie and Bligh Streets, Barton). At these meetings short readings on a particular topic are followed by time for members of the congregation to share how they have been helped and healed through prayer.
The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their healings and thoughts on Christian Science:
A poem by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, helped this writer over come the stress of a crowded work agenda. The poem, titled Satisfied, has been set to music and included in the Christian Science Hymnal.
It matters not what be thy lot, So Love doth guide; For storm or shine, pure peace is thine, Whate’er betide.
And of these stones, or tyrants’ thrones, God able is To raise up seed — in thought and deed — To faithful His.
Aye, darkling sense, arise, go hence! Our God is good. False fears are foes — truth tatters those, When understood.
Love looseth thee, and lifteth me, Ayont hate’s thrall: There Life is light, and wisdom might, And God is All.
The centuries break, the earth-bound wake, God’s glorified! Who doth His will — His likeness still — Is satisfied.
Towards the end of my employment with the Department of Education. I had a very busy job; most weeks I put in 50-60 hours and still didn’t feel on top of the workload. One evening a friend gave me a ticket to a Music Aviva concert because he thought I could do with a break. However, my head was so filled with all the tasks I had to complete in the next few weeks that I heard nothing of the music and went home feeling still very much under pressure. At home I sat down and made a list of all the activities I had to organise before the end of the school term which was coming up fast. I thought this might help clear my head. In all I had 26 events to organise. Some were staff meetings I had to give, others were full day workshops and training days, some were mediation and review meetings. I had very little clerical support so all of the organisation fell to me – the catering, the bookings, the paperwork, the course content.
Writing it all down didn’t help at all. While I was doing this my son called me. He was living interstate at the time. He asked if I would pray for him with regard to a physical problem that was restricting him somewhat. Of course I was happy to help him, but it felt like just one more thing that was asked of me.
In desperation I turned to God and asked: ‘How do I do all this?’ The answer was very firm: ‘You don’t. I do.’ This idea had and immediate calming effect. I felt led to open my hymnal to hymn 160 – Mary Baker Eddy’s Satisfied. The words were like a balm to my soul. The ideas held such comfort that straight away I felt the sense of pressure drain away. I knew I was safe because “God able is”. I realised that all right activities were God’s activities, and He was the one that brought them to fruition, not me.
It was the fourth verse that particularly stood out to me:
Love looseth thee, and lifteth me, Ayont hate’s thrall: There Life is light, and wisdom might, And God is All.
As I read these words I felt lifted above the human picture that said I had an impossibly crowded agenda. I actually felt the lightness of Life – lightness as in not heavy. I also saw that Love loosed my son from his belief of restriction. I was able to let all sense of personal responsibility go and rested in God’s love.
The next day I had a phone call from my son to say the physical problem was completely resolved. He was very pleased. All the activities I had scheduled were completed successfully and I can honestly say there was not a moment of pressure or stress. Every event or activity was a joy in its preparation and unfoldment. Not since that night have I ever felt pressure over human activities or schedules again. Always now I know that ‘Love doth guide’ and ‘God is gloried’ and I am satisfied.
The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their healings and thoughts on Christian Science:
A few weeks ago I went to the movies in the afternoon with my daughter and her friend.
As the movie started, I began to feel unwell. I tried to pray but, found it difficult to shut out the noise and images from the movie and felt worse as the movie progressed.
At the end, I left the cinema as quickly as I could and found a place to throw up.
My daughter and her friend didn’t know anything about this and drove to my place to join my other daughter and her family for an evening meal with us.
When I arrived home, I told everyone I wasn’t feeling well enough to eat and went and lay down. I took some Christian Science Journals and the textbook of Christian Science,Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I started reading the March Journal and came across an article by Mary Beattie: “Truth Communicates Itself”. I became absorbed reading this and other articles and suddenly realised about an hour later that I was hungry. I was totally healed. I am very grateful for what I am learning in Christian Science.
A couple of weeks ago I was looking at this Canberra blog site and found a list of testimonies. The first one caught my attention because it featured chooks and I love chooks. The testifier told of gathering eggs from her chook run and then stepping on to a rusty nail amidst the chook manure. She became quite fearful having heard of the claims of tetanus. She then explained how she came to a healing conclusion as a result of her life-long study of Christian Science
A couple of days later I was walking around the house in socks and I felt a sharp pain in my foot. There was a rusty needle embedded in it. My thoughts went on fast forward. Then I thought, “what about that testimony you read?’ I read it again and gradually the fear began to subside but lingered a little.
The next day I joined a Zoom testimony meeting at the Christian Science church in Redcliffe, Queensland. A lady told of pruning roses and of a thorn becoming embedded in her arm. It looked quite ominous but she prayed diligently and after a few days all was well. After listening to that testimony all fear completely vanished.
The next day my cat came home with a battered face and there were puncture wounds. He had obviously been in a fight. I couldn’t take him to the vet as I didn’t have use of a car. I got some water and cotton wool and he pushed me away as if to say, “You’re not washing my face!” I said to him this has all been proven, well and truly – by the testifiers in Canberra and in Redcliffe and my own experience and you are not the exception to the rule. The next morning he went out and was gone all day and didn’t come back till after dark. It was apparent that the healing was going forward quickly and in no time there was no evidence of the wound.
Thanks to your church for putting the testimonies on your web site. Thanks to the testifiers from your church and Redcliffe and for my own healing. And thanks to Gussy for being proof that “All of God’s creatures moving in the harmony of Science are harmless, useful, indestructible.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p514)
This recording is of the readings on the topic: Miracles – Divine Law in Action
The Sea of Galilee at sunrise.
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The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God’s unchanging law.
There is to-day danger of repeating the offence of the Jews by limiting the Holy One of Israel and asking: “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” What cannot God do?
This recording is of the readings on the topic: Peace
Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love. (p264)
Revenge is inadmissible. (p22)
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:
Recently, a close relative phoned from a hotel room in London, very distressed that he hadn’t been allowed to board his flight home because he’d tested positive to COVID. He was told he wouldn’t be allowed to fly until he tested negative, so he was uncertain about how long this might take.
A few months ago he’d contracted COVID in Portugal and had a difficult time, with many delays and much bureaucratic red tape before getting cleared to fly home. I think this had remained with him and he felt as if he was going through the same nightmare again.
He told me he was feeling very alone and miserable and sobbed into the phone “I just want to go home”. I immediately thought “you are already at home”, you can’t be separated from your Father Mother God, divine Love.
We talked about these ideas and that week’s Bible Lesson on Reality that said anything inharmonious or discordant is not real – it is just an illusion or dream which we can wake up from. When we hung up the thought came to me to look at Hymn 144 (from the Christian Science Hymnal) which begins –
In atmosphere of Love divine,
We live, and move, and breathe;
Though mortal eyes may see it not,
‘Tis sense that would deceive.
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Then a couple of pages later is Hymn 148 which says:
In heavenly Love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid;
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?
I sent him a text message suggesting he look at these hymns for comfort. It was Sunday morning in London and he was about to go to Church.
The next day (Monday) when I phoned, he was much calmer, and in a queue, to get a COVID test. He said he had been praying with ideas from that week’s lesson and felt confident it would be negative and had booked to fly home on the Wednesday evening. On Wednesday morning he phoned to say the test had returned negative and he was cleared to fly. He has since contacted me to let me know he is safely home. He gives full credit to Christian Science for this healing.
A few hours before that first phone call from London, I’d received an email from a friend who I’d recently had lunch with telling me he’d tested positive for COVID. I became really worried because I had child minding duties the next day and catch ups organised with friends over the next few days and had been feeling a bit off colour since flying back from Brisbane a week earlier. With all these thoughts and emotions swirling around I was struggling to pray and calm my fear. So, the phone call from my relative came at exactly the right time. I was quickly lifted out of feeling sorry and fearful for myself and into the realm where all is perfect and harmonious. I knew I was okay, but did a couple of COVID tests to calm the fears of those around me. Both returned negative.
I’m very grateful to Christian Science for these, and all the other healings I’ve had.
Christian Science Canberra 