Eva-Maria Hogrefe: We need to be wise

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