Hitch your wagon to a star

They fought from heaven; 

the stars in their courses….

--Judges 5:20

I say,

Be allied to the deific power,

and all that is good will aid

your journey, as the stars

in their courses fought

against Sisera.

Hourly, …

man thus weds himself to God,

or rather he ratifies a union

predestined from eternity;

but evil ties its wagon-load

of offal to the divine chariots,--

or seeks so to do,--

that its vileness may be

christened purity,

and its darkness get consolation 

from borrowed scintillations.

Jesus distinctly taught

the arrogant Pharisees

that, from the beginning,

their father, the devil,

was the would-be murderer

of Truth.

A right apprehension of

the wonderful utterances of him who 

“spake as never man spake,”

would despoil error

of its borrowed plumes,

and transform the universe

into a home of marvelous light,--

“a consummation devoutly to be wished.”

THE WAYS HIGHER THAN OUR WAYS

By Mary Baker Eddy

...all pictures were taken by Eva-Maria--
the one above was taken on one of my travels in Switzerland 

Chilling autumn rains

curtain Mount Fuji, then make it

more beautiful to see

~~Basho

I have seen Mount Fuji

after a storm had hit

the surrounding land,

and the waters of the ocean

were covered with debris, --

after the turbulence

stillness set in, and

the air was clear,

as I flew over it

on my way to Tokyo.

E-M

oil painting by Eva-Maria

Warmly, yours

Sing, O heavens;

And be joyful, O earth;

And break forth into singing

O mountains:

For the Lord hath comforted

His people,

And will have mercy

Upon his afflicted.

--Isaiah 49:13

Christ

Eva-Maria Hogrefe

Published in The Christian Science Journal

Jesus instructed


Whereby to heal.


He knew


The Christ,


God's ideal,


Ruled supreme


In him


And revealed


His forever unity with God—


God and His perfect man


As one in Love sealed!

"My sheep hear my voice,


and I know them,


and they follow me."*

Let us pause—be still—and pray


To hear the Christ


Speak


And feel the mighty strength


Of humility,

The power of kindness


And of constancy,


As a joyous


Gracious heart


Receives

A wholly loving God


And His Christ.

That means


For you and me—


In truth


Ever one with God, living as


His pure, perfect idea—

Healing

And

Peace.

* John 10:27.↑  

For I am the Lord, I change not

--Malachi 3:6 

A very blessed Christmas to YOU!

My cup overflows …

I am like a green olive tree 

in the house of LOVE – in the house of GOD!

If the only prayer you said

in your whole life was,

"thank you," that would suffice. 

~Meister Eckhart

The strength of your thought lies,

as you’ll find,

in expressing gratitude, and to live by it, 

and to remember God's bounty throughout the year!

String the pearls of His love, 

string the garlands of His flowers,

stretch them out,

step into the sunshine

and leave behind the dark! 

Thanks to joy, to love, to peace of mind! 

After all, “thanks” is an action, 

 a “thanks” with just your lips
 would be flat,

because the true Thanksgiving


comes from the heart.


Be grateful at the start of a day

not just for that one day

but for each new morning

that brings light,
 rest and shelter,

food and health, and so much more.

Thy goodness, dear LOVE divine, provides, and is universal, 

belonging to all ages and to all minds.

There is always a time for gratitude,

and a new beginning, 

you are alive in those moments

when your heart is aware of its treasure!  

Thanksgiving is the pleasure of peace,

the celebration of work and a simple life . . .

a mutual celebration that speaks the poetry

of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime

and harvest, and the deep, deep connection 

of all things true and good with God. 

If ever thankless and believing there is

nothing to be thankful for,

 he who sits at the table, morose and thankless

for the food thereupon,

is as if he had no food. 

Nothing is your own,

except that which you acknowledge

in deep appreciation,

of which thankfulness is the greatest part!  

A truly thankful heart

hath a continual celebration of goodness,

this is the eternal food!  

LOVE has more than one dwelling;

one in heaven, i.e., in harmony,

and the other in a gracious and thankful heart. 

It takes a pure love to praise God

for those unrealized blessings

than for those you once enjoyed

or those you have now. 

And though I have no silver and gold,

I'll move in thanks, like an ever-flowing river!

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of a life, 

it turns what we have into enough, 

and adds more and more, 

it turns rejection into receptivity,

confusion yielding to order,

uncertainty to clarity.  Gratitude

makes sense of our life and loving,

brings peace for today and creates

a vision of unity for tomorrow. 

Even though we thank God for the grace

we ourselves have received, it should be as easy

to give thanks to God, and to give praise

for the blessings given to those who need it most. 

Our gratitude should never sleep!

Do we not have the sunshine in the morning,

and the moonbeam at night?

I wish you a very blessed Thanksgiving!

ideas of gratitude compiled -- by Eva-Maria

November 2012  

Thou visitest the earth,

and waterest it; thou greatly enrichest

it with the river of God, which is full

of water:

thou preparest them corn,

when thou hast so provided for it.

Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly:

thou settlest the furrows thereof:

thou makest it soft with showers:

thou blessest the springing thereof.

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness,

And thy paths drop fatness.

They drop upon the pastures

of the wilderness:

and the little hills rejoice on every side.

The pastures are clothed with flocks;

the valleys also are covered over with corn;

they shout for joy, they also sing.

--Psalm 65:9-13

Thou hast given so much to me,


Give one thing more, - 

a grateful heart;


Not thankful when it pleaseth me,


As if Thy blessings had spare days,


But such a heart whose pulse 

may be Thy praise.


~George Herbert


Ah! on Thanksgiving day....


When the care-wearied man seeks

his mother once more,


And the worn matron smiles

where the girl smiled before.


What moistens the lips and what brightens the eye?


What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?


~John Greenleaf Whittier


Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.  

~Native American Saying


To those leaning on the sustaining infinite,

to-day is big with blessings.

--Science and Health, p. vii 1-2,

by Mary Baker Eddy

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.  ~Aesop
 

Fearless-ness

What if for the experience, or the thrill of it, you venture into dangerous areas or undertakings, for example, crossing a dessert, climbing the Himalayan Mountains, trekking through the Brazilian Jungle, canoeing difficult rivers, and so on. A Survival Coach shared in an article published in The Christian Science Monitor that it is vitally important to know how to handle fear, especially not to become panicky once you find yourself in difficult situations.

--Eva-Maria

By looking a tiger [or a leopard] fearlessly in the eye, Sir Charles Napier sent it cowering back into the jungle.  An animal may infuriate another by looking in the eye, and both will fight for nothing. A man’s gaze, fastened fearlessly on a ferocious beast, often causes the beast to retreat in terror. This latter occurrence represents the power of Truth over error,-- the might of intelligence exercised over mortal beliefs to destroy them; …

--Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by

Mary Baker Eddy, p. 378

How do we avoid panic?

I’d say we first would have to learn what we can trust and rely on.  Fear is not trustworthy and certainly not something we should lean on.  It has the tendency to inflame the human senses, stimulating dreadful imaginations and superstitions, anxieties, and erroneous and too often hateful notions.  And these beliefs and emotions we do not want to trust but need to be free of.

“The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience…”

Fear can make us wishful, fear can make us cautious.  In certain circumstances wishful thinking or caution may be helpful, but even then we need to practice good self-management and not to let errors of every kind get the upper hand.

Fear in its heat-producing, mesmerizing, and also paralyzing nature, is the devil, and the devil, or more precisely called devilish notion, is fear.  No good comes from it.  We need to be wise, and alert, and not susceptible to the fear of human thinking > as if driven by something odious and out of control running like wild horses.

The divine Principle, God, is able, i.e. He is more than able, to every emergency – by stilling the distracting fear, and as we whole-heartedly listen to Principle, (Mind’s all-knowing presence in our lives), we are guided with great love and benevolence into salvation and safety.  The Science of Mind leads us into freedom from fear--… and it does not leave us there but reveals how it maintains us under all circumstances.  And we’ll be able to see the good results of fearless-ness in tangible ways immediately.

--Eva-Maria

 Vincent -- a painting by Eva-Maria

  

Submit yourselves therefore to God. 

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

--Scriptures, James 4:7

Error is opposed to life.

We can, and ultimately shall, rise as to avail ourselves in every direction of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go on until we arrive at the fullness of God’s idea, and no more fear that we shall be sick and die.

Inharmony of any kind involves weakness and suffering, -- a loss of control over the body.

--Science and Health, p. 406

                    

Eva-Maria

On my travels in India, an exotic, beautiful Land

where life is a bustle, streets filled with people and cows,

 buses overcrowded, taxis constantly honking,

children laughing and screaming,

and monkeys sitting on walls or housetops watching the goings-on,

just waiting for an opportunity to swoop down for a handout –

 it may look to a visitor as if chaos were prevailing,

but a flow of unseen order underlies India’s busy street-life.

(I enjoyed wearing Saris when in India,

which I felt were the most comfortable garb in that hot climate.)

Don’t grieve over what doesn’t come.

Some things that don’t happen

Keep disaster from happening.

-Rumi    

                                              

  

Perfect Love casts out fear!

I will fear nothing

except myself, when I try

to deceive my conscience.

--Paramahansa Yoganands

a sketch by Eva-Maria 

Moral courage is “the lion of the tribe of Judah,” the king of the mental realm.  Free and fearless it roams in the forest.  Undisturbed it lies in the open field, or rests in “green pasture, … beside the still waters.”   In the figurative transmission from the divine thought to the human, diligence, promptness, and perseverance are likened to “the cattle upon a thousand hill.”  They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and keep pace with highest purpose.  Tenderness accompanies all the might imparted by Spirit.  The individuality created by God is not carnivorous, as witness the millennial estate pictured by Isaiah:

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together;

And a little child shall lead them.

Understanding the control which Love held over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den,

and Paul proved the viper to be harmless.

--Science and Health, p. 514

You learn to know a pilot in a storm.

--Seneca

TRAIN OF THOUGHT

By Eva-Maria Hogrefe

Published in the Christian Science Sentinel

I recall one night when I woke up frightened and confused. For some reason I felt intuitively that my son was in danger. I had no apparent reason for this overwhelming fear. And although I felt an urgent need to pray for him, I was so upset that I couldn't.  Fear has a tendency to inflame the imagination, and my imagination was running wild.

So there I was, struggling in the stillness of the dark, trying to find an inner composure that would allow me to pray.

Suddenly, softly, and far off in the distance, I heard a nightingale sing. As I listened, a message from God came and calmed my anxiety: "God is simultaneously with you, and your son, and with all of His creation."

I was aware that the God of love, whom I'd trusted all of my life, was just as trustworthy as ever at that moment. I also saw just how tyrannical fear is. It mesmerizes us into thinking that we are at the mercy of some negative force beyond our control. Deluded, we believe we're trapped. I once read that the only tyrant anyone should accept in this world is the still, calm voice within—that is, the divine intelligence that speaks to us wisely, unceasingly.

As I meekly listened to wisdom, I recognized the answer to healing my fear was in my love for God. He is All. He encompasses everyone, everywhere. And He is good. I knew that my son's link with God, as well as my own, was secure. I could see how this spiritual connection defined us as strong, alert, and peaceful.

To this day, specific parts of my prayer that night remain memorable: "O Father-Mother, I thank You for knowing that I'm in the peace of Your presence. This peace is embracing all Your children, including my son and me. You are giving us the strength to know that we are whole because we live in You."

I remember thinking about a passage in Science and Health that says, "All that God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting goodness and power" ( p. 515). And so I could say with confidence, "I know that You are guiding my son—Your child—and that Your blessings are always with him. Thank you, God!"

The weakness I'd felt before was giving way to a calm strength. And to my great relief, my fear for my son's safety disappeared. This to me was a sure sign that God was with me—and also with my son, at that very moment, wherever he was. Infinite intelligence and Love can never be confined by time or distance.

A week or so later, I received a letter from my son. He wrote that at the very hour when I had been struggling and praying for him, he had been traveling on a train for 48 hours, and had just reached his destination. Because the train was overcrowded, he hadn't been able to get to the exit fast enough, especially since he was carrying some heavy luggage. By the time he reached the door, the train had begun to move out of the station, and was picking up speed. He didn't realize how fast the train was moving, and jumped out the door, luggage and all, landing flat on his back, his bags thrown far away. People nearby were shocked at what they saw, and came running. But my son said they were surprised he had no serious injuries. He got up, collected his belongings, and moved on.

As I read his letter, I was sure that prayer had made a difference that night. And I was awed at how God's wisdom had involved me—I felt that through my prayer I had seen His care for my son's safety. Even though fear had confronted me, divine Love had awakened me to think intelligently about God and His child.

In one of his moments of great need, Jesus said, "I am not alone, because the Father is with me" ( John 16:32). He showed the whole human family how important it is to trust that God is present and powerful in our lives. Perhaps you and I only have a glimpse of His love for us; yet it is enough to help us in our need. It is enough to give us the peace we so urgently are looking for.

God, who in His might and power is also a tender Father-Mother, and Guardian, is keeping watch over each of His-Her children. I like to think your prayers and mine are so full of the power of Love that they are helping to secure the safety of all the children of the world. The prayers of God-loving people everywhere can bring immeasurable blessings. That includes comforting those near and far who are in anguish and grief over the loss of loved ones. In the midst of sorrow, or fear, Love will come and gently give of Her peace "which passeth all understanding" ( Phil. 4:7).

--Eva-Maria

Bless YOU!

E-M

Love is fragrant with unselfishness ……….