There is immense wisdom in the old proverb, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.” …
We should remember that the world is wide; that there are a thousand million different human wills, opinions, ambitions, tastes, and loves; that each person has a different history, constitution, culture, character, from all the rest; that human life is the work, the play, the ceaseless action and reaction upon each other of these different atoms. Then, we should go forth into life with the smallest expectations, but with the largest patience; with a keen relish for and appreciation of everything beautiful, great, and good, but with a temper so genial that the friction of the world shall not wear upon our sensibilities; with an equanimity so settled that no passing breath nor accidental disturbance shall agitate or ruffle it; with a charity broad enough to cover the whole world’s evil, and sweet enough to neutralize what is bitter in it, — determined not to be offended when no wrong is meant, nor even when it is, unless the offense be against God.
These words are taken from an article titled, Taking Offense, by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. They were published in her book, Miscellaneous Writings 1883-18896 pp223-224.
Students from the Christian Science Sunday School in Canberra share ways they have resolved physical problems through prayer:
Lessons on the Netball Court
I play netball for a local team. During a recent game I was playing down at the defense end. At one point in the game I caught the ball. The opposition player was also running for the ball and she didn’t stop in time. She fell hard into my knee which twisted inwards. It really hurt. However, I kept going because I knew if I went off, we wouldn’t have a replacement for me. I was in quite a bit of pain so I held to the truth, that I had learned in Sunday School, that I was spiritual and therefore couldn’t be hurt. I relaxed when I held to this idea. Quickly the pain left and I played the rest of the game without any problems. This shows how instant God’s love is.
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Stomach Ache Gone
Last weekend I had to play in a soccer game. Part way through the game I got a really bad stomach ache. In Sunday School I’ve learned to watch my thinking, so I thought to myself that there is no such thing as pain because God is by my side forever and always and He made me perfect. So, I just kept playing. The pain went away straight away and I played really well.
After the soccer game I went to my friend’s house and then the pain started again. I thought of reasons why I might have a pain but I knew God didn’t make pain so there was no reason for it. I sat quietly and prayed again. That was the end of the pain.
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Praying for My Baby Sister
I am only 3 years old, so my mum and aunty are helping me to write my story.
I have been Skyping into Sunday School for a few weeks now. My teacher has been teaching me that God is Love and that God always keeps us safe. She is also teaching me some fun songs like the Circle of Love. My favourite game is the one where we say, ‘No’ to bad thoughts and ‘Yes’ to good thoughts. I use this at home now when I am tempted to be naughty.
The other day I was in the car with my little sister and my mum. My sister started to cry really loudly. She had a sore tummy and she wanted Mummy, but Mummy was driving so I leaned over and held her hand. I told her that she was safe because God loved her. My Sunday School teacher taught me that God loves everyone and keeps them safe. Straight away she stopped crying and was happy.
Now I use what my teacher is teaching me whenever my sister is crying. Sometimes I skip around her singing the Circle of Love song and sometimes I hold her hand and sing the Meghan song that my teacher taught me. It goes like this:
Hello Meghan, Hello Meghan
Who are you? Who are you?
You are God’s reflection
Showing His perfection.
God loves you, God loves you.
When I do these things she always stops crying. This is how I know that God loves us. I love learning about God in Sunday School.
This is a letter from a remote member of our Canberra church community. All services and testimony meetings are available via phone for those who cannot attend in person. Sunday School classes are also available via Skype for all age groups.
I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to the Christian Science church in Canberra for their Sunday School. I grew up with Christian Science, attending Sunday School for most of my childhood. It taught me the power and omnipotence of God. Sunday School taught me the basics: how to pray; how to be brave; how to be grateful. It also taught me the reliability of God’s love, where no matter the situation we are always protected, we are always loved and we are always cared for. I have had countless healings from these fundamental truths and I want my children to be bought up with healing, and with God being a normal part of life.
We live in a small town in Tasmania where there is no Christian Science Church or Sunday School. When my eldest daughter was three I started praying about this as I wanted her to go to Sunday School but wasn’t sure if I should teach her or if there were other options. I spoke to my aunt, who is a member of the Christian Science Church in Canberra, about this, and she came up with the perfect solution … Skype Sunday School.
The teacher on the pre-school class is the blessing we sought. She is a confident, loving teacher who pitches stories at the girls (my 2yro is also now a weekly attendee) in an age appropriate, enthusiastic way. She mixes Bible stories and songs that maintain their attention all the way from Tasmania! I have never had a Sunday morning where either of them has not willingly ‘gone to Sunday School’. We Skype from their bedroom, which they tidy up every Sunday morning so their teacher will be proud of them. The girls’ favourite song from Sunday School has always been The Silly Man and the Wise Man song. They sing it so often at daycare that the other children can now sing it too.
The girls’ teacher has been teaching the girls how to pray: have no fear, God loves me, be grateful for all your blessings, (and their favourite part) jump for joy! And she’s been demonstrating this through wonderful Bible stories and analogies. The constant reinforcement of God’s love is cutting through some of the fairly scary messages they are bombarded with from the news and other children. Colds and general childcare diseases rarely touch our household (or the daycare for that matter) and when occasionally the ideas present, they are met with prayer and chant of, ‘Error, error go away’. And it does. This was beautifully highlighted last year with the bush fires that were raging around NSW. My mum, dad and sister live near Nowra and had a very large blaze running straight at them. My sister had ash falling on her house and Mum and Dad who live at the top of a beautiful but heavily forested mountain were packing up ready to evacuate. I spoke to the girls and asked them to pray for Nanna and Grampy. Neither of the girls was scared (and they both know what fire is like as their Dad is on a forestry brigade), both took the job of praying very seriously and the older girl told me in unequivocal terms, ‘There’s no spot where God is not’. We kept in contact with Nanna and Auntie K for most of the evening, but within 30 mins of us all starting to pray the fire quietened down and the danger passed. The girls don’t think of this as anything miraculous or wonderful it was just what they expected. This is what the world needs … prayer to be normal, prayers to be answered and to be unimpressed by challenges whatever form they take.
I cannot thank Canberra church enough for the effort they put into my girls. It is standing them on firm ground and teaching them lessons that will influence and guide them for the rest of their lives. As parents our job is to give the world useful, compassionate little people that will bless the space around them. One of the best ways to do this is to send our children to Sunday School. Thank you for the logistical support and for the smiles every Sunday. Thank you for teaching them the good stuff and putting up with the wriggles. The girls love going to Sunday School.
Resurrection: Spiritualization of thought; a new and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence; material belief yielding to spiritual understanding. (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy 593: 9)
We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.
And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure. (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy 497: 20-27)
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.
Everyone is welcome. If you are in Canberra on any Wednesday, please join us.
This recording is of Wednesday Testimony Meeting Readings on the Easter Story.
The true meaning of Easter is wondrous! Its message promises such blessings to each one of us and to our world. To hide it behind bunnies and eggs, secularism and skepticism, is heart breaking.
Jesus was crucified by the materialistic world’s hatred of his divinity. His grace and power to bring peace and healing to the world was unsurpassed and something human power could not control. It tried to silence his holy message by crucifying him. But how he reacted to such evil intent was an example to us all. He responded with the lovingkindness, calmness and confidence that could only come from the deepest understanding that evil cannot conquer goodness any more than the darkness can conquer the light.
For three days it seemed like evil had won. Then, when even the disciples had given up hope, Jesus emerged from the tomb alive.
Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science church, described this surprising re-appearance, when she said, ‘The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge from his foes, a place in which to solve the great problems of being… He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the master of hate.’
In the resurrection, Jesus proved that there is life beyond what we see, like someone journeying on after they have sailed out of our sight. I think of it like writing a sum on a page, say 2+2=4. If we destroy the page, is the truth that sum represents also destroyed, or is it eternally true and untouched? Jesus showed us that each one of us has just such an eternally true identity, something that the outward appearance only hints at, something that never dies. What a glorious message.
He also showed that to react with love instead of hate or anger, disempowers evil. This love, however, is more than human love or kindness. It is a love that has its source in God, a God that the Bible tells us is Love itself. Hatred and evil, being a lack of love, can no more stand in the face of divine Love than the darkest night can stand in the presence of the light of the dawn. Not reacting stops evil from spreading. That’s why Jesus counteracted the old thought of ‘eye for an eye’ with ‘turn the other cheek’ – don’t ever react to evil, stop it in its tracks. Is this not a message the world needs to remember and live by much more consistently? Is this not a message that could bring peace to our world? Is this not the ‘Golden Rule’ – ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’?
The true meaning of Easter is of the utmost importance to our own lives and to the world. If we remember it in our hearts and live it in our lives, then that precious sacrifice made by Jesus is not lost but is still as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago.
This article was contributed by Beth Packer, a practitioner of Christian Science healing, listed in the world-wide Journal of healers and member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship.
Please join us at 10.00 am on Easer Sunday at the corner of Macquarie and Bligh Streets, Barton in Canberra.
Unselfish ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, — these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute individually and collectively true happiness, strength, and permanence. (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p58: 7)
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. … and the God of peace shall be with you. (The Bible – Philippians 4: 8, 9)
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
This book is the textbook of Christian Science. It explains God intelligently, not as anthropomorphic, but as Mind and as Love. By aligning our thought with this divine Mind, peace and wellbeing are experienced. Mary Baker Eddy explains:
Not muscles, nerves, nor bones, but mortal mind makes the whole body “sick, and the whole heart faint;” whereas divine Mind heals.
When this is understood, we shall never affirm concerning the body what we do not wish to have manifested. We shall not call the body weak, if we would have it strong; for the belief in feebleness must obtain in the human mind before it can be made manifest on the body, and the destruction of the belief will be the removal of its effects. (p219: 11-20)
You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. You should banish all thoughts of disease and sin and of other beliefs included in matter. (p208: 29-1)
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. (p392: 24-30)
Click here to purchase this book or to read it free on-line. It is also available for purchase or loan at the Christian Science Reading Room and bookshop located on the corner of Macquarie and Bligh Streets, Barton, ACT.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (The Bible – I Corinthians 13: 4-8)
Love fulfils the law of Christian Science, … (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p572: 12)
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.
Everyone is welcome. If you are in Canberra on any Wednesday, please join us.
This is a recording of the Wednesday readings on the topic: Love Thy Neighbour.
Located on the corner of Macquarie and Bligh Streets in Barton, ACT, Australia.
Sunday Services and Sunday School are at 10.00 am. Wednesday Testimony Meetings are at 6.15 pm. Both these sessions are available via Zoom: One tap mobile +61370182005,,84673365039# or +61280156011 Meeting ID 84673365039 or via https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84673365039#success
Christian Science Canberra 