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.’
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.
This recording is of the readings on the topic:God – Parent, Shepherd, Friend
God is Love (The Bible – I John 4: 8)
DIVINE LOVE ] is my shepherd; I shall not want.
[LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures: [LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters.
[LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [LOVE] leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for [LOVE] is with me; [LOVE’S] rod and [LOVE’S] staff they comfort me.
[LOVE] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: [LOVE] anointeth my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [LOVE] for ever.
This recording is of the readings on the topic:Secure Amid the Storm.
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For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(The Bible KJV – Romans 8: 38, 39)
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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.
My flesh and my heart fail; God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
(The Bible NKJV – Psalms 73: 26)
God. The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p587)
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.
God is the fountain of light, and He illumines one’s way when one is obedient. The disobedient make their moves before God makes His, or make them too late to follow Him. Be sure that God directs your way; then, hasten to follow under every circumstance.
Upheaval in the world might suggest that there’s no hope for finding order in it. But as this author discovered, acknowledging and evidencing God’s control in our daily lives helps us understand how peace and harmony truly prevail.
This article by Emma Leslie is from the Christian Science Perspective featured in the August 25, 2022 Christian Science Monitor.
Reports of extreme weather, war, the pandemic, and economic instability can make it feel as though we live in a chaotic universe where we have little agency over our own lives.
As someone who has found mental peace and practical answers through prayer, I wanted to pray to see beyond this depressing view of life to something more hopeful, for myself and my family and for all citizens of the world. A moment of chaos on a recent trip gave me a modest but significant opportunity for such prayer.
Click here to read, or listen to, the full article.
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.
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This is the first verse of a poem titled, Feed My Sheep, by Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science. It is included in the Christian Science Hymnal with a number of tunes.
Christian Science Canberra 