The demands of Wisdom
are for love,
the food and raiment
of the soul
photos I took when in Luzern/Switzerland
--The Bible
assures us that no place is so remote, no ocean so vast, no mountain so high,
that we can be separated from the living God, who is our Life. ...The Christ,
demonstrated so fully by Jesus, reveals that God and His child are forever one,
inseparable.
--The
Comforter reveals the Principle of man as Love—always governing his
creation in harmony. … When we consistently rely on the Comforter, our thought
is empowered with the understanding of Love’s changeless nature; we recognize
Love and Love’s expression, man, as perpetually perfect, and realize that this
is the sole reality of being.
--The
Comforter is present to support us at all times—in emergencies and in
the normal course of daily life—calmly assuring us of the omnipresence,
omnipotence, and omniscience of the infinite One, and steadily guiding us into
truth.
--Through
the teachings of divine Science we learn how to pray decisively, with
undivided attention to Christ.
Eva-Maria
Hogrefe, (CS and
Staff Editor, Boston, MA), “How the Comforter helps
us,” HEALING, Journal, Vol. 117 (May 1999), p. 26.
Christian
ideas certainly present
what
human theories exclude –
the
Principe of man’s harmony.
--Science
and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 170--
I am
one who touched you, Lord.
My
need became so great, I dared.
Before
the congregation
I
confessed this faith and shared
how
it has, trembling, grown
from
something small as mustard seed
into
a heart that knows God's love
is
here to meet each need.
Yes,
I who dared to touch you, Lord,
now
know that just one touch reveals
how seamless garment of the Christ
still
heals.
--Margery
Macdonald Cantlon
We need to be wise first,
before we can be harmless
to ourselves and others.
Eva-Maria
catching the light....
The rattlesnake and the dove
While
I was living
on a ranch in South
Dakota, some of our neighbors told us that the area was infested with
rattlesnakes. But I never saw one. One day I asked a rancher how that could be,
and he said, "You know, you are a danger to them. And they hide from
danger." That made sense. Not exposing themselves to danger.
There are effective ways
to pray about protection from danger. In the Bible, for example, Jesus said to
his disciples, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves:
be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" ( Matt. 10:16).
I think of this as meaning we need to be wise first, before we can be harmless
to ourselves and others. And I HAVE asked myself, "What is the wisdom of a
serpent?"
Maybe one thing it means
is not exposing oneself to danger. And perhaps at the root of this kind of
wisdom and safety is the idea of not adopting or relying on mistaken notions
about God, humanity, or the world at large. We can be wise enough to recognize
a mistaken notion for what it is—a mistake. Then we can let our love for God
and our respect for His creation show what is true.
Jesus' words to his
followers—and that includes his followers today—point out how to deal more
effectively with terrorism and random destruction, beginning with individual
thoughts. That is, we can choose not to surrender to or react to thoughts of
fear. I think it's fear that lies behind a terrorist's act, and that it's also
fear that makes us react so helplessly to it. Fear brings doubt as to the
presence and power of God, who is our source of intelligence.
If I believe that a
frightening concept is the correct one, I am fooled. And if I'm fooled, I'll be
confused, and confusion perpetuates fear. But once I gain a true concept of God
and His child, intelligence is at work, and to the degree that I accept the
truth, fear and confusion will disappear. When that happens, I experience the
power of divine Mind, which is our God. Then I feel reassured and am able to see
how whatever is frightening me really only challenges me to think more
intelligently about everything. That includes understanding God as my origin,
good as my cause — and isn't that really what defines you and me? With God as
our source and creator, we really are "harmless as doves." Realizing
that fact is a kind of prayer and communication with God that can make me feel
incapable of seeing myself or others, or even world situations, in a context of
fear.
Last fall I received a
call asking me to pray for a man who was on business in the Washington, D.C.,
area. The infamous snipers had been randomly killing people at that time. This
man was battling what so many of us are struggling with right now — the fear of
random evil. My prayer for him was directly inspired by the insights I had
gained from those words of Jesus quoted earlier. Our prayer together healed
that man's paralyzing fear, and he was able to continue his activities in
Washington with alertness and a feeling of peace.
The Sentinel's founder once wrote, "The
demands of Wisdom are for love, the food and raiment of the soul," (In My True Light and
Life, Mary Baker
Eddy Collections, p. 231). Each one of us needs this spiritual food. People who
are confused and do harmful things to others, are harming themselves, too. I'm
sure that if we include them in our prayers, we will be helping them, because
if they are even just for a moment receptive to divine intelligence Mind that
is God—the mistaken notions that are harming them and controlling them can disappear.
Maybe even in the twinkling of an eye.
--By Eva-Maria Hogrefe
From the March 10, 2003
issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
The Lord is good to all:
and his tender mercies are over all his works.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways,
and holy in all his works.
--The Bible, Psalm 145:9, 17
in Zuerich/Switzerland
To mortal sense Christian Science seems
abstract, but the process is simple and the results are sure if the Science is
understood. The tree must be good,
which produces good fruit. Guided
by divine Truth and not guesswork, the theologus (that is, the
student—the Christian and scientific expounder—of divine law) treats disease
with more certain results than any other healer on the globe.
--Science
and Health, p. 459
passangers on a boat journey on the Luzerner lake
Nature and revelation
inform us
that like produces like.
Divine Science does not
gather
grapes from thorns
nor figs from thistles.
Science of Being
Science and Health, p. 276
