Archive for the ‘Prayer’ Tag

My Best Resolution   Leave a comment

A Daily Lift by Hilary Harper-Wilcoxen

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In this short podcast Hilary tells how one New Year’s resolution has changed the way she prays and her relationship with God.

No Problem Too Little, or Too Big, for God   Leave a comment

A Daily Lift by Lona Ingwerson, a Christian Science Practitioner

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In this 3 minute podcast Lona describes how the science of healing is the enactment of divine law. It doesn’t matter whether the problem is humanly small or large the same law is governing and equally applicable.

What I Learned from a Whale Song   Leave a comment

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.

Hearing God   Leave a comment

Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent.

(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p89: 20)

Run Over but Unharmed   2 comments

The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:

Prior to these current COVID restrictions I travelled often with my sister.  In 2019 she was invited to do a series of Christian Science lectures across the US.   I was her support person.  It was my job to take charge of the everyday organisational issues such as getting through airports and finding meals in strange cities.  More importantly it was my job to prayerfully protect and support her lecturing work. 

My prayers were prayers of affirmation, not petition.  I acknowledged God as divine Love and as infinite all-knowing Mind.  I acknowledged that these lectures were right ideas and as such they were God’s ideas, as all right activity is God’s.  I knew that God protected and brought to fruition all His ideas harmoniously.  I also knew that all those involved in bringing these lectures to the public were protected in this work and that only good could come of these activities.

On this particular day the lecture went off very harmoniously.  The venue was perfect, the audience large and focussed and my sister spoke with such sincerity and inspiration that all were moved by the words.  Afterwards we were taken back to our accommodation by one of the organisers.  When we arrived the driver pulled up in the driveway and my sister jumped out.  For a moment I sat half in and half out of the back seat while I passed bags and coats out to my sister.  Without checking whether we were fully out the driver suddenly started forward.  My sister immediately called for her to stop which she did.  The quick movement of the car jerked me out onto the driveway.   I didn’t fall but I landed awkwardly and the car came to a stop completely on my right foot.   This wasn’t a small car and the pressure on my foot was immense.  I was wearing only my little ‘going out’ shoes and these offered no protection.  Because of the prayerful work I had been doing during the day I felt no fear.  I also felt no pain.  My sister called out to the driver to back up but she became confused about what had happened and asked a series of questions that didn’t quickly result in her taking the necessary action. 

Eventually the driver did back up and I was able to pull my foot away.  Throughout this I continued to feel calm.  Despite the feeling of great pressure, at no point was there any pain or discomfort.  As the driver pulled away we picked up our things and headed inside.  I can honestly say I did not have a single twinge or any indication that anything untoward had happened.  There were absolutely no after effects.  I put this down totally to the fact that I had been keeping my thought fixed on the omnipotence of God, good, during that day and all the previous touring days.  Christian Science teaches me that what I think is very important in determining the events of my life and my wellbeing.  I am hugely grateful for all that I am learning as a student of Christian Science.

Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts. 

(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p260:4)

A number of Christian Science lectures, including the ones given by my sister on this tour are available on this site. Click on the Christian Science Lectures tab in the menu at the top.

Pray Without Ceasing   Leave a comment

Posted October 6, 2021 by cscanberra in Prayer, Thought

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Practical Prayer   Leave a comment

The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:

Yesterday I had a lovely example of the practicality of prayer as practised in Christian Science.

Ours seemed to be a rather grumpy household last night.

I had spent some hours searching for one piece of information that I needed to send to our accountant for our annual tax return.  I couldn’t find it and had finally contacted the investment company that issued the original document, asking if a new copy could be sent. This communication was sent by email and I received a reply, also by email, that they couldn’t send me the document by email because my email address was not officially on their records – such irony! But even a sense of the ridiculous nature of this response did not ease the sense of frustration I felt as I went around in seemingly never-ending circles.

Then my husband came home, and he had just heard the news that the Canberra lockdown had been extended for another month. As the owner of a small business that depends on customers coming to his premises, he could see no way forward to stay financially viable.

However, after he tramped off to bed, I sat still – something I should have done much earlier – and thought of the verse from the Bible ‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Ps 46).

What I see this as saying is: ‘Just stop running around in circles and thinking you have all the answers, that you have a mortal mind of your own that can actually solve anything. The universe is God’s – God is the only Mind and keeps all the wheels running smoothly if we get out of His way. Ask God what He/She knows about the situation and listenfor the answer.’ And I did.

In a very short time, I remembered that I probably had received the document I needed and had put it in a special place, ready for the tax return. And there it was. I was able to scan it and send it to the accountant right then and there.

And I found, by checking on guidelines from the ACT Government about the lockdown, that a way forward was possible for my husband’s business.

God really does have the answers – we just need to ask – and I’m very grateful.

Desire is Prayer   Leave a comment

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What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds.

(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p1)

Prayer   Leave a comment

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Self-forgetfulness, purity, and affection are constant prayers.

(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p15)

Beating the Winter Blues   Leave a comment

DSCN0134Here in Canberra winter is now upon us. The yellow and gold trees have given way to bare branches and we have already had our first frosty mornings.

Many of us who have lived in Canberra for a while have come to love this climate and its four distinct seasons. With each there are certain expectations: the regenerating bloom of the spring heralded by the brilliance of the wattle; the long dry heat of the summer and trips to the coast; the vivid colours of the autumn and the swirling brown leaves.

The crispness of winter, the clear blue skies and trips to the snow are often accompanied by calls to be wary of colds and flu. TV commercials remind us of the available remedies and we are sometimes tempted to wonder whether we will ‘go down’ with something this year, or will we be lucky?

Nowadays there is a strong body of evidence that attests to the influence of one’s thought on health. For over 100 years now we have been aware of the placebo effect: the apparent strong positive effect of sugar pills and non-medicated treatments on patients who believed them to be remedial agents. These experiments alone must ask us to question the nature of the effect of thought on the body. To question how the quality of our consciousness and our belief systems can affect our wellbeing? There is also growing evidence to suggest that spirituality, our natural attraction to the good and the true, has a positive impact on physical resilience and recuperation.

About 150 years ago Mary Baker Eddy investigated this link between spirituality and health. Her experiments and study culminated in her textbook: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. In it she states (p208): Mind, not matter, is causation. A material body only expresses a material and mortal mind. … You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness.

New SH (2)She goes on to say (p392): The physical affirmation of disease should always be met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is produced on the body, must be expressed mentally, and thought should be held fast to this ideal. If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you are liable to an attack from that source. … If you decide that climate or atmosphere is unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will master you, whichever direction they take.

Reverse the case. 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. The issues of pain or pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forgetting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.

Let’s determine this winter to hold thought to the higher qualities of Truth and Love, of wholeness and harmony and turn away from contemplation of disease, and so build our spiritual immunity.

This article was contributed by Deborah Packer of Canberra.

To purchase a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy click here.

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