WOMAN

Self-realization:

In my late teens, I was introduced 

to a powerful little book, 

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 

by Mary Baker Eddy.  

The study of it became an enormous help to me, 
both in my professional life as a photographer, 
artist, and entrepreneur, and in raising a family. 
With all the demands placed on me, whenever a person 
would approach me with a problem, I’d carefully listen, 
and then offer my prayer.  Often they would later come 
back and share their healing with me.

I learned that for me the most effective way of helping
others was ... to apply what I gleaned from those two books 
[the Bible and Science and Health] about God’s love and 
His will of good for each of His children.  

As I pondered the riches of God’s goodness, I couldn’t help 

but feel inspired about the divine order of all things.  Reflecting 

on it nurtured my confidence in my God-bestowed abilities.  

I witnessed God’s, divine Mind’s, order in my own life, as well.  

And people turned to me in their need.

The following Bible passage has inspired me: 

“The Lord God 

gives me the right words to encourage the weary, 

Each morning he awakens me eager to learn his teachings”  (Isa. 50:4, Contemporary English Version).

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

published by the Christian Science Publishing Society, January16,2006--

“Unselfish ambition, noble life-motives, and purity,--

these constituents of thought, mingling,

constitute individually and collectively

true happiness, strength, and permanence.”

 -- Science and Health, p. 58 --

I would like to do whatever it is that presses the essence from the hour.

–Mary Oliver— 

    

“Who can find a virtuous woman? for

her price is far above rubies.

She reacheth out her hand to the poor; yea, 

she reacheth forth her hand to the needy.

Strength and honour are her clothing; and 

she shall rejoice in time to come.

She opens her mouth with wisdom; and

in her tongue is the law of kindness.”

--The Bible, Proverbs 31:10, 20, 25, 26--

To understand everything is to forgive everything 

 --French proverb--

Mary Magdalene, a true disciple --

I often have asked myself why that elusive woman, Mary Magdalene, according to the Gospel of John 20:11-18, was the first witness of the risen Savior? I feel this extraordinary experience must have grown out of a defining quality of her character, a love for Love, which in its purest state reflected a powerful spiritual love for her Master Teacher, Christ Jesus.

We feel for her when we envision a scene related in Luke 7:37-50: With tears flowing, in meekness Mary stands silently.  Simon the host forgot to give due respect to his honored guest, Jesus of Nazareth. But Jesus “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), is not offended, for he loves the Pharisee as he loves those who, cold of heart, leave love behind, as does Judas, the moral dwarf of deceptive mien.  But Mary, he loves as she loves him; with a love so profound that he taught her on sacred ground that Love is Life!

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, eloquently observed: “Love that is Life - is sure and steadfast.  … the true sense of being goes on.

 Doing unto others as we would that they do by us, is immortality's self.  Intrepid, self-oblivious love fulfils the law and is self-sustaining and eternal” (Miscellany, 275).  Eddy could not have known the full story of Mary Magdalene, because at the time she wrote her masterpiece Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (published in 1875), some of the newly discovered Scriptural manuscripts (1896), were stored away in archeological archives in Germany, and not yet translated from the original texts, until published in 1955.   However, in her intuitive wisdom, she put the Biblical account of Mary in Science and Health, at the beginning of the chapter on the Christian Science Practice: How a woman uninvited entered, and how Jesus regarded her compassionately, with divine insight and ineffable affection, and she, reverent, contrite, expressing meekness and love.  The question is posed, “…was her grief sufficient evidence to warrant the expectation of her repentance, reformation, and growth in wisdom?  Certainly… ” (363).  Jesus’ wise thoughts and kind words bring comfort and healing from the indivisible presence of an all-powerful divine Love.  Eddy introduces thus the Christ-principle of Mind-Healing.

To gain a better understanding of the spiritual stature of Mary Magdalene, I researched Eddy’s writings, the Gospels of Luke and John, and Harvard scholar Karen King’s Women In Ancient Christianity: The New Discoveries--neglected texts and new findings, concerning women's important role in early Christianity.  In Eastern Orthodox churches, Mary Magdalene is not seen as a penitent, but instead as a woman who lived a decent life even before she followed Jesus.   King wrote: “Chief among these is Mary Magdalene, a woman infamous in Western Christianity as an adulteress and repentant whore.  Discoveries of new texts from the dry sands of Egypt, along with sharpened critical insight, have now proven that this portrait of Mary is entirely inaccurate.”

These 19th and 20th century discoveries of Christian texts go back to the second and third century—and they brought new information to light.  From the Bible we know that Mary, a Jewish woman, accompanied Jesus on his journeys and supported his ministry, (see Luke 8:1-3).  The new findings show Mary as a favored disciple, a prominent member of Jesus’ inner circle, and the only woman named.  In response to an especially insightful question, Jesus says of her, “You make clear the abundance of the revealer!” (Dialogue of the Savior, 140 17-19.) 

In the Gospel of John, the risen Jesus explains his teaching to her, and then sends her as an apostle to the apostles to bring the good news. And thus she also is the first to announce the resurrection.  In addition, a perusal of Jean-Yves Leloup’s translation of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, reveals: “Mary’s identity as a prostitute stems from Homily 33 of Pope Gregory I, delivered in the year 591, in which he declared that she and the unnamed woman in Luke 7 are, … one and the same, and that the faithful should hold Mary as the penitent whore. …In fact, there is no direct reference to [a sinful woman]—or to Mary—as a prostitute anywhere in the Gospels.

“The Gospel of Mary offers the modern man and woman a new insight into the immensity of Christianity and the figure of Jesus. … Mary was considered as the foremost among the women who followed Jesus … the post-Resurrection time is one of decisive revelation, which included his communication of the mission given the disciples before his final departure” (v, xiv, xv, 8, 9).

In Science and Health (54), it says, “Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, [Jesus] defined Love.” Thus he lived and taught the healing Christ—the eternal Comforter or divine Science.  When the Comforter is more than a phrase but the very truth of Love to us, it heals our fears, including lack and despair.  Jesus healed Mary of those crucifying matter notions.  And she, in her fearless love for him, was first and last at the cross, and first at his tomb to witness the key event in Christianity -- the Resurrection – Christ Jesus’ highest proof of Love that is Life.

–Eva-Maria Hogrefe, C. S.

Mary of Magdala

“O gentle Mary, don’t cry.  Know,

For you, who have been sorely tried,

Brief will be your grief,

And doubt and fear will swiftly fly

When you embrace a matter-free thought keenly,

And follow me to learn of our Father’s power,

And trust in Him, in good, and love serenely

That spiritual perception, the healing path

Called Resurrection.”

She, bearing witness to Jesus, replied,

“I will not fear the darkest night, dearest Master.”

Forgotten were mind’s sore vexations as morning

Turned bright before her eyes.

Pure of heart, Mary was the first to behold

The risen, living Christ!

-- Eva-Maria Hogrefe

Published in the Christian Science Sentinel,

March 29, 2010—

Resolve to keep happy, and your joy … will form an invincible host against difficulty.  

Happiness cannot come from without.  It must come from within.   --Helen Keller—

YOUR JOY NO MAN TAKETH FROM YOU

--The Bible, John 16:22—

The beautiful in character is also the good,

welding indissolubly the links of affection.

--Science and Health, p. 60--