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And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
(The Bible KJV – Romans 12: 2)
Archive for the ‘Consciousness’ Category
Thinking Spiritually Leave a comment
The Songbird Sings Before the Dawn Leave a comment
A member of the Christian Science community in Canberra gives thanks.
Recently I started reading a book by Christian Science practitioner Myrtle Smith. The book is titled “The Songbird Sings Before the Dawn” and has three parts to it. The first part is about Gratitude, the second is concerned with Angels and the third part is called The Practice.
Within the Gratitude section she makes mention of how much we can be grateful for; how much we can be thankful for. Some of the simple things – our privacy, our education, our thoughtful neighbours and friends, the simple act of being able to set the table for a meal.
She also relates a story of a meeting with another practitioner who had asked a person he was working with to make a list each day of the things they could be grateful for and to send it to him each day. The next day he received a letter with a 16 page gratitude list.
I have taken that suggestion and have started to write each day some of the things for which I am grateful. My daily list doesn’t run to 16 pages, but in doing so it is making me more considered and grateful for what I have. While I might not have been ungrateful for what I have I do recognise I have been remiss in not acknowledging and giving thanks for the good in my life.
Myrtle Smith also makes mention of Peter Henniker-Heaton, a man who had been discharged from the army when his legs became paralysed. His healing took ten years. When he was finally out on his own walking on crutches he met a man on a bus and the conversation turned to being grateful. The apparently somewhat grumpy man said to Peter Henniker-Heaton he (Henniker-Heaton) must be grateful to be here, to which Henniker-Heaton responded “No, I am here because I was grateful.”
I am not losing anything in my life by taking time to show a bit more gratitude. I am not losing anything in my life by being a bit more thoughtful and considered and giving thanks.
In the preface of Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy she states “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.” (Page vii line 1).
It is in this spirit of ‘Leaning on the sustaining infinite’ and acknowledging the origin of all the blessings that I am giving more than passing or mere lip service to, and gratitude for, all that is in my life.
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The lecture by Myrtle Smith titled: The Power of Thanksgiving – The Songbird Sings Before the Dawn can be listened to here.
Spiritual Progress 2 comments
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Every step towards goodness is a departure from materiality, and is a tendency towards God, Spirit.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p213)
The Legend of the Frozen River Leave a comment
Sometimes, even though we are endeavouring to purify our lives and to grow spiritually, we can wonder whether we are actually making progress. We can wonder whether it is possible for our prayers to lead to healing. Lona Ingerwerson, a Christian Science practitioner of healing offered the following analogy to help us understand what is happening when progress seems slow.
Lona was a member of the Christian Science Board of lectureship and this is an excerpt from her talk entitled: ‘ A Morningside Meal in the Afternoon’.
Once a river flowed free and easy over its rocky bed but one night the temperature dropped a dozen degrees or so and continued to drop all the next day and by night it had formed a thick coating of ice under which the river flowed. Accepting the best of it, the river flowed on under the ice. But that night the coat thickened crowding the activities of the river further down the stream. This went on until the river was a frozen mass. “Oh dear,” said the river as it tried to move and couldn’t. “Was it ever possible that I was free and could move? Will that day ever come again?” The South Wind passed by and said, “If the Sun would shine on you, it would help you.” The next day the Sun did shine on the river and the river was glad and full of expectations. “Ah, now I shall be free.” But after shining all day nothing happened and that evening the river was very despondent.
The Sun, who had more persistence than the river, came again and shone all day and week after week and the river became discouraged and almost knew it would never flow again; never be free again as it once had been. But the sun kept on shining and one day the river felt a little loosening – couldn’t tell just what – and that night it was solid again so the river lost hope; but the Sun came again the next day and loosened it again and that night it froze stiff. “How disgusting.” Said the river, “Every little bit I gain I lose again immediately.” The Sun kept shining. At last the ice broke up into great chunks and floated away so swiftly that the river was all a quiver. How easily it had all departed.
Lona continues: ‘Neither the first day’s sun nor the last melted the ice. It took both and all the days in between, to overcome the condition that had been growing and intensifying for months and years. It took seven times around the walls of Jericho to reduce it to dust, and who shall say which was the most effective trip; the first or the last. Spiritually man is already free, and if he can get this firmly established in his mind and hold to it regardless of the appearance, the demonstration is made.’
Ageless Beauty Leave a comment
2023 has now slid into 2024. Before long we will be planning for 2025. Sometimes it seems that the years slip by more and more quickly and as every year goes by, we add another unit to our age. For each stage in life there seem to be expectations for health, behaviour and appearance. Don’t we talk about the terrible twos or stroppy teenagers? How often do you hear people of advanced years say, when talking about their health: ‘What can you expect at my age?’
How much of this do we have to accept as inevitable? Do we have to accept the subtle, and not so subtle, standards that society places upon us? Do the years under our belt really define who we are and how we function, how attractive we are?
I was looking at an old black and white photo of my mum the other day. I guess she would have been in her early twenties, so the photo was taken over seventy years ago. As a young woman my mum was very lovely. She had a special grace about her that made you want to look longer.
I began to think, if she was around today looking like that you would still have to say she was beautiful, but she wouldn’t fit today’s standards of beauty. Her skin was whiter, her body fleshier, her hair contrived into curls and she wore a pretty frock. Standards of beauty change. This set me to thinking about what beauty really is. In each era fashion seems to give us strict dictates as to what the ideal look is – how tanned our skin should be, how lean our body, even the shape of our eyebrows. Not many of us fit that ideal model. So does this mean that we are not beautiful? If we do fit those standards, are we only beautiful for a short while? Does age diminish true beauty? Our society is currently quite preoccupied with youthfulness but true youthfulness is not defined by our age but by the youthful qualities we express.
My mother knew the impact that thought has on experience. To the end she was a strong, healthy, active woman. The qualities people saw in her – intelligence, calmness and strength in the face of trouble, joy at the little things, devotion to family and friends, innocence, resilience, energy – these qualities shone out of her right to the last. They were the qualities that people mentioned when they commented on how lovely my mother was.
Mary Baker Eddy, one of the first women to investigate thoroughly the connection between consciousness and experience, writes in her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p208): You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. Perhaps if we put as much thought and effort into developing beautiful qualities of Mind as we do our outward appearance our beauty and health would be less ephemeral and blossom with the passing years.
To Listen and Obey 2 comments
Wednesday Testimony Meeting Readings.
This recording is of the readings on the topic: To Listen and Obey
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Shepherd, show me how to go
O’er the hillside steep,
How to gather, how to sow, —
How to feed Thy sheep;
I will listen for Thy voice,
Lest my footsteps stray;
I will follow and rejoice
All the rugged way.
(Feed My Sheep – Hymn 304 V1 from the Christian Science Hymnal – words by Mary Baker Eddy)
How to Stop a War 1 comment
This article by Emily Byquist was originally published in the February 23, 2015 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
It was the 1960s, and the Vietnam War was raging. Like many members of my generation, I was opposed to the war and very much wanted to help bring it to an end. I felt impelled to pray about the conflict, but it was hard to believe that the prayers of one individual could have any real impact on such a formidable problem.
Click here to read, or listen to, the full article. In it Emily explains how, through prayer, she managed to disfuse several inharmonious and confrontational situations in her everyday life. This gave her confidence that her prayers for peace on a larger scale could be effective.
How are you praying about the war? 1 comment
When asked how she was praying about the war in the Middle East Bethany Taylor responded by penning this letter to a young mother:
I was watching the news about Israel and Hamas. You came on talking about trying to keep your baby quiet so you wouldn’t be detected by the attackers and how your husband had been taken as a hostage. My heart went out to you, and in a sincere desire to help, I humbly reached out to God and asked how I could help, how I could pray right then. The answer came in the form of a hymn written by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy.
I began singing and praying the words: “O gentle presence, peace and joy and power; / O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour” (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 207). I felt assured of God’s ever-present peace, joy, and omnipotent power right then and there for you and all who are feeling alone and afraid, even when in the midst of terror and war.
As a young mother, I was widowed and found myself raising my three-year-old son on my own. I leaned on God’s mothering and fathering my son and me, and I know we can confidently rely on that same love here and now. As a recent Sentinel Watch podcast put it, “Love hasn’t left this home” (Tony Lobl, “Love hasn’t left this home,” cssentinel.com, September 11, 2023).
Love hasn’t left Israel, or Gaza, or Ukraine, or any other area experiencing war and conflict. Even though I am just one individual in a country far removed from these places, I actively pray to know that God’s love is always present, dependable, steadfast, all-powerful. “Thou Love that guards the nestling’s faltering flight! / Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight,” that hymn says. We are each God’s nestlings, whether struggling with a small problem or the horror of war. We can feel and reflect God’s mothering love here and now.
Another line in this hymn, which I have known and loved for decades, is “Love is our refuge; only with mine eye / Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall.” But as long as I have been singing this hymn, this was the first time I understood that Mrs. Eddy was saying that we can stay conscious of the spiritual fact that divine Love, God, is our—and everyone’s—ever-present refuge. When, instead, we begin to examine the snares, pits, falls, or material circumstances, that is when we feel immobilized by fear, and illness, conflict, hatred, and evil seem so much larger than Love’s ability to handle them. But that isn’t so. As we learn in Christian Science, God is All-in-all.
“His habitation high is here, and nigh, / His arm encircles me, and mine, and all,” the hymn assures. And I am thinking, in quiet prayer, just how it embraces you and all the mothers in the region.
Love,
Bethany Taylor
This response to the war was originally published in the October 19, 2023 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
Gratitude Heals Leave a comment
This article by Michelle Boccanfuso Nanouche was originally published in the Christian Science Perspective section of the November 23, 2018 issue of the Christian Science Monitor. In it she shares how a spirit of gratitude replaced the “poor me” discouragement she’d been feeling about a lingering illness with a tangible sense of God’s presence – and healing quickly followed.
Settling into my airplane seat on the next leg of a long business trip, I heard a man say to his seat companion behind me, “I am so happy we live here. I love our home. I love our neighbors.” I didn’t really want to eavesdrop, but the sincerity in his voice drew me in. Next I heard, “I am grateful for our friends and for my work here. I am grateful for you!”
This flight was a year ago, yet I still remember his words clearly. Why? Because his list of heartfelt gratitude made me feel grateful, too. I considered the good in my life and all around me, and a fatigue that had accompanied me onto the flight dropped away completely, allowing me to arrive at my next stop joyful and energetic.
More than just positive thinking, gratitude can be a powerful, spiritual force for good, rendering one receptive to healing. I once found myself in desperate straits, and gratitude was key to my turnaround. I had been ill for some time and became very discouraged. The list of what was wrong seemed to grow every hour, and I was very tired of it all. (Click here to keep reading or listen to the audio version.)
“Thank You” – 2 Powerful Words 1 comment
The Enriching Power of Gratitude
Someone said to me once that gratitude was like having windows in a room. When I questioned this, he explained that if you are in a room with no windows you are not aware of the beauty of the scenery beyond the walls, but if you have windows you can experience the pleasure of the view. He said gratitude is the quality of thought that makes you aware of the good that already surrounds you. There is always good. Taking time to appreciate it and say, ‘Thank you’ enriches our lives.
Research suggests that being grateful and expressing gratitude towards others can improve our happiness and quality of life. Gratitude enhances empathy, improves physical health, mental wellbeing, quality of sleep, self-esteem and, also has the capacity to reduce stress. Identifying what you’re grateful for, especially during challenging times, can help foster resilience and improve our wellbeing (Stronger Together – Expressing Gratitude, Tanya O’Shea, Managing Director, IMPACT Community Services).
Gratitude is a quality of Love. Love is that quality that makes the world work right. When we make time for giving gratitude for the large and small things in our lives, then we are doing our part in making the world a better place while enhancing our own lives. That simple act of saying, ‘Thank you’ and counting our blessings enriches.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science encourages us to live the gratitude we feel. She writes on page 3 of her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:
Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.
If you are in Canberra, please join us in giving thanks for the good in our lives and the blessings received at our Thanksgiving Service at 6.15 on Thursdsay 23 November – corner of Macquarie & Bligh Streets, Barton.
Christian Science Canberra 