A Sentinel Watch interview with Alexandre Fischer
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In this lively interview Alexandre is asked about how he prays when he has a challenge to overcome. He explains how when his prayers seemed less than effective he learned to focus more on listening to God rather than telling God. He gives some interesting examples from his own life that demonstrate how effective prayer can be.
A short poem by Peter J. Henniker-Heaton … food for thought:
A millstone or a milestone,
Which shall it be?
Shall I hang it heavy around my neck
And drag it along with me,
Or stand it up by the roadside
To mark one more victory?
This poem was originally published in the January 29, 1966 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
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)
A Daily Lift by Bobby Lewis, a Christian Science practitioner.
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In this 3 minute podcast Bobby tells how when difficult life circumstances seemed to be pulling him down the beautiful sounds of whale song brought him peace and reminded him to pray and take a more spiritual viewpoint. This new outlook had a healing effect on this life.
An article from the Christian Science Sentinel by Caryl Emra Farkas
A few minutes after hearing a voice mail saying that my father had passed on, I got a call from someone who wasn’t in the habit of calling out of the blue. It was my Christian Science teacher, and I was so grateful that he listened to this spiritual intuition and rang me.
I answered through tears because I was so overwhelmed with my sense of loss. …
In this article Caryl describes how she overcame what seemed like an all-consuming sense of loss. She learned that overcoming the sadness didn’t mean that she loved her dad less but it enabled her to see him everywhere by recognising the presence of the qualities that he expressed.
Click here to read the full article as published in the Christian Science Sentinel.
A Daily Lift by Mark Swinney
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In this brief podcast Mark talks about how his new focus on the word ‘Behold’ redirected his thought to the good that was around him and thus changed the course of his thinking and his state of mind.
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.
An interview with Amelia Newcombe.
There’s no doubt that the news out of Ukraine is devastating, but right in the middle of destruction, there are untold instances of unselfish humanity, resilience, safety, and supply. What can we learn from them, and how can focusing some of our attention there support growing good in the region? Amelia Newcomb, Managing Editor of The Christian Science Monitor, joins host David Brown to discuss helpful ways to think and pray about this situation.
This podcast is part of the weekly Sentinel Watch program. A new podcast is available each Monday and can be accessed via the PODCAST tab at the top. This interview can be permanently accessed via this link: Click here.
Looking into the Eyes of an Armed Soldier
An interview with Clara Germani.
This is a link to a second interview with a correspondent, Clara Germani, who was reporting on a trip in a war zone when things got scary. Listen in to hear how a simple insight from her study of Christian Science had a transformational effect on her view of “the enemy”—and what she experienced. Click here to listen.
A Daily Lift by John Tyler, a Christian Science teacher and practitioner.
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In this 3 minute podcast John talks about how learning to view himself as the reflection of God gave him a new view of himself that resulted in some very positive outcomes when he was sitting important exams.
The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:
In our back yard in Canberra we have certain sections of the garden fenced off as a chicken run. One afternoon I was down in the bottom corner of the chicken’s area checking for eggs. On this day the chickens had been particularly industrious and had dug some quite deep holes and unearthed some old timbers that I had not known were there. As I stepped back from the hutch I felt a sharp pain in my left foot. I looked down to find that I had stepped on a piece of wood that had a very long, rusty nail sticking out of it. The nail had gone right through my plastic yard shoes and was now lodged deep in my foot. It had obviously been buried for some time and now the nail was not only rusty but muddy and yucky with chicken droppings. I pulled it out and went up to the house to wash it off.
As I walked back very fearful ideas started filling my thought. Not long before I had heard someone tell of symptoms of tetanus and I found myself worrying that I had never had a tetanus injection ever.
At first I thought: Why am I thinking these thoughts? I never think like this! I am not normally a fearful person. I’ve been a student of Christian Science all my life and it has taught me that what I think is very important. The quality of my thoughts determines my experience, so thinking fearfully was strange to me. Then it dawned on me – these were not really my thoughts! These thoughts came only as suggestions. I love that word suggestion; it means that I have the option of accepting or rejecting something. This was something that I would certainly reject. In that moment I felt no ownership of these thoughts. I knew that I didn’t have to analyse them, or wonder: Why did I think this? or delve into what fears might be lurking in my thinking for me to produce these thoughts. Because I felt no ownership of them I could simply discard them.
That was the end of the matter. I washed my foot but there was no pain and it immediately stopped bleeding. Later that day after my shower when I dried my foot, I couldn’t even find the place. There were never any repercussions from the incident.
The lesson I learned that day has stayed with me. Nowadays I am more alert to the implications of this word suggestion. God never suggests; only human reasoning suggests. God doesn’t give you options; He is just good and His word is final.
I am becoming more practised now at recognising suggestions and not owning all thoughts that come to me. I know I don’t need to analyse a suggestion; I don’t need to delve into it; I don’t need to feel guilty for thinking it. I just reject it with a very firm: That’s not my thought! When I say this, I know that it isn’t my thought because it isn’t of God. I know that God doesn’t give me fearful thoughts therefore fearful thoughts are not my thoughts. Learning this has so simplified my prayers. I use this line all the time now: That’s not my thought! And then I let it go. Only good, healthy, harmonious, progressive thoughts are mine because these stem directly from God’s goodness.
Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p392:24-32)
Christian Science Canberra 