KINDNESS

When kindness is 
a prayer

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES Saavedra’s masterpiece Don Quixote is the story of a good-hearted but fumbling and impoverished nobleman who imagines himself to be the ideal knight.  In the end, Quixote dies, but the lessons of his kindness remain as a legacy for his peasant sidekick, Sancho Panza.

Kindness is at the center of the fellowship between these two friends.  They must listen and try to understand each other.  They may see things differently, but the more they disagree, the more considerate they are.  We’d all like to be treated kindly notwithstanding our human flaws.  We need to treat each other the same way. A simple act of kindness has the effect of calming turmoil of all kinds, and of helping everyone to be more receptive to the presence of divine Love.

Across the street from where I live is a little park.  One evening the air was pierced by a voice that came from a man who was apparently disturbed by something, and who continued to rant for hours.  Around a 11 o’clock that evening, a neighbor went to see how he could help, and saw a man sitting on a bench.  Just then, an elderly man with a cane approached.  My neighbor felt concerned that the man was placing himself in some danger.  As he was thinking about what to do, the elderly man calmly seated himself next to the raving man.  Shortly thereafter, all was quiet.  I don’t know whether a word was spoken, but the man must have felt the calm presence of that kind man.  Attentive kindness has a way of making us feel secure, because there is love in kindness.  


ALTHOUGH LITTLE ACTS of kindness can appear insignificant, they are nevertheless potent, because they have their source in God.  They offer opportunities to understand the spiritual nature of God and man.  God is Love.  Thus you and I, as Love’s sons and daughters, have a natural capacity to be kind.  And, in turn, we have His promise: “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee” (Isa. 54:10).  We might say that God’s kindness is a kind of giving of Himself to His creation.

--An excerpt from an article by Eva-Maria Hogrefe, C. S., 

published in The Christian Science Journal, July 2002--

Love that binds

As you and I learn to know Love

and its healing power

we experience its gentle tranquility;

purity, and grace, where

harmony and joy superbly flower.

Here, we rest safe

in the Christly consciousness of good,

where Love reflected by you and me

is silently understood.

Aware that Love bright with light

exposes evil’s tales, we see

unkind, selfish, fearful thoughts

as error-woven,

tattered, unreal veils

--evil as naught.

We feel spiritually bold, strengthened

by God’s unerring law—

accepting gratefully divine Love

and its shadow-dissolving

radiant glow.

And hear Love’s voice, sublime,

gently saying, “All, all are mine.”

We behold

God-derived brotherly affections

spiritually bind. 

  --Eva-Maria Hogrefe, The Christian Science Journal, October 1997—

Years ago I read a touching account of an elderly woman who, as she was coming back to

 her hotel-room, found a burglar rummaging through her bureau drawer where she had 

her jewelry and a considerable amount of money.  He had a gun pointed at her.  She talked 

to him quietly, told him to go right ahead and help himself to anything she had, as obviously 

he needed it more than she did if he had to be stealing it.  Suddenly, the man let out a low 

cry and ran from the room taking nothing.  The next day she received a note from him 

in which he said, “I’m not afraid of hate.  But you showed love and kindness.  

It disarmed me.”   --From Pitirim A. Sorokin, The Ways and Power of Love--

“The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, 

and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily.” 
--Plato—

A view from a trip to Edinburgh Scotland 

“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”

--The Bible, Psalms 119:18—

“Spiritual, not corporeal, consciousness is needed.”

--Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 67:27--

                                                       “Wide as our needs Thy favors fall."

--John Greenleaf Wittier--