A member of the Christian Science community in Canberra offered this account:
Last year, my husband and I went on a road trip to visit our children and grandchildren, who live in various parts of the greater Sydney area. While we were visiting one of our daughters on the Northern beaches, we decided to go out and walk wherever our inclination took us, leaving our daughter at home to work.
It was a beautifully sunny day and we had walked, probably for a couple of hours – through the golf course, along the beach, up to the headland, and we were walking back into town for lunch when, quite suddenly, my husband seemed to collapse. He was shaking uncontrollably and didn’t seem able to stand on his own.
We stopped still, and immediately I planted my feet physically and mentally, and supported him – declaring aloud, while absolutely knowing and feeling, that all he could be was an expression of God, an expression of Spirit; that God was his life, the only Life there is; that he didn’t live in a physical body, but in God. I know he was also praying because he was declaring aloud truths about himself that he had learned in a Christian Science Sunday School.
In an instanthe stopped shaking and stood upright, and we walked on. We still had quite a walk ahead of us but we never mentioned the incident again, just felt immensely grateful and awed at the power and presence of God.
Strangely enough, when this occurred, we were walking through the grounds of the local hospital, but there was never any suggestion of calling for human help or needing any other assistance. God’s presence is always with us and his help is always close at hand.
I have given this experience a lot of thought since then and it has impelled in me an ever-greater desire to understand, trust and be more constantly aware of God, infinite good – to really know God as Love; to strive, as Paul says in II Corinthians (5: 8), to be ‘absent from the body and present with the Lord’ and (II Corinthians 10:5) to bring ‘into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’
When trauma seems to have so many lives in its grip, how can we respond in a way that heals, both individually and collectively? Kate walks us through her own healings of trauma to show what Christian Science makes possible.
A member of the Christian Science community in Canberra offered this account:
A couple of weeks ago I came home from shopping to find that our small dog, Tess, was unable to use her back left leg and it hung awkwardly when she tried to walk. I took her out into the garden to see if she might be persuaded to stretch it out and use it but she wasn’t able to.
I carried her inside and together we sat on my bed and I turned silently to God. I was brought up in Christian Science and I have witnessed many healings of both animals and family members and I knew that this was a quick and effective way to meet this need. However, as I sat with her it became very difficult not to be alarmed by the material picture. She seemed to be in so much pain that she was vomiting and just couldn’t settle. I knew that I would not let her remain in this situation and the thought kept coming to me that I should take her to the vet. She seemed so tiny and defenceless and my heart went out to her.
Through experience I also know that prayer in Christian Science gives quick results with no waiting and no side-effects. If this was the case then controlling my thought and handling the situation through prayer was the kindest course of action. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is the textbook of Christian Science and in it Mary Baker Eddy, the author, advises:
I determined to look away from the material picture and ask God what I should know about this. The inspirations came. I knew that there is more to life than the body – that all life is God expressed and God is Spirit which is never damaged, is never vulnerable. As I thought on these and other ideas I found my peace and Tess began to calm. Shortly, it felt right to get on with the evening chores. When I stood up to leave the room Tess jumped off the bed and followed me. She was trotting along using all four legs easily. During the night and the next day I watched her racing around and playing happily. There was no trace of any difficulty. I am very grateful for all I am learning through the continued study of Christian Science.
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.
A Christian Science perspective: A deeper understanding of Mind brings peace to the disturbed mentality. By Deborah Huebsch
In these times of global stir, greater mental stability is certainly something we all would like to experience. A slight variation on a famous saying about peace might relate, “Let there be stability in the world and let it begin with me.” Surely mental equilibrium, an unshakable peace that can withstand turbulent events that occur, is a necessity.
There was a time in my life when I had to think deeply about this subject. A history of severe emotional problems affected both sides of my family. When I started to experience signs of a mental breakdown similar to those other family members had, I was terrified.
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?
I had to learn humility the hard way! I was ice-skating with my granddaughter one evening. I am not a very good skater and I was doing my best to keep up speed and glide. At one point I noticed that the rink was populated with young people, and a little pride crept in that I was out there even though I am a grandmother.
Well, a few more turns around the rink and then down I went. My wrist was badly hurt.
My go-to in times of need has always been prayer. In this case, a wake-up call about pride was my biggest take-away from my prayers. After about two weeks, I could still not move my wrist. Then, one day in humble prayer, it came to me that all of us out there on the ice were children of God, expressing the joy, strength, and energy of divine Life. Our true nature is not defined by a certain age and personal abilities. Instead, it appears in our reflection of God’s qualities.
I was very humbled by this thought. In his book “Mere Christianity,” C. S. Lewis, the Christian apologist, refers to pride as “the complete anti-God state of mind.” It suggests the possibility of a selfhood or ego apart from God, the one true Ego. It is a way of thinking that denies the onliness and allness of infinite good.
Click here to continue reading, or listen to, this article by Elizabeth Crecelius Schwartz published in the Christian Science Monitor Daily. In it Elizabeth describes more of the thinking that then led to a quick and complete healing of the injured wrist.
Christian Science Canberra 