What is a PRAYER?

A picture I took of the Christian Science Plaza

I’d say, a blessed change of thought, or a turn of thought

-- is a prayer.

a still life by EMH

photos of autumn, of flowers (except the roses) are by---

AzzahPhotoArt

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RobyPhotography.com

THANK YOU, Roby!

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

― St. Francis of Assisi

"What are the motives for my prayer?" I thought the answer was, "To heal …. !" 

But was my motive really concerned about what others might think?  Here I was, someone committed to healing others—a "wounded" Christian healer—who was finding her own spiritual progress, or lack of it, daily in the spotlight as a Christian Science practitioner.  Nevertheless, I continued my healing prayer, and my joy in it was unabated. 



One afternoon, an idea was especially significant to me: "Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual,—neither in nor of matter,—and the body will then utter no complaints" (Science and Health p. 14). I was fascinated and inspired by the thought that just a moment of understanding the truth about divine intelligence, the Mind of each of us, could be that powerful.



Well, flesh couldn't speak—"utter"—to me and tell me what my condition was or wasn't. It was inarticulate, non-intelligent. The body only reflects our state of thought.  But I could listen to Truth to know my condition, because Truth is Love. Angel thoughts told me that Love was All and that Love was good and that therefore I had nothing to fear.



For those few moments I became powerfully aware of Love and its great goodness. As I continued my prayer, I was completely wrapped up in my love for the love of Truth. It was a wonderful thing, and it gave me rest; I relaxed and was at peace. At that moment, the physical healing of a growth was less important to me than my encounter with the calm, dear presence of God. 

I knew that even though the healing wasn't yet visible on my face, it was mentally tangible. 



A few days later, as I was taking an elevator down to the lobby of my apartment building, I joined a man who turned out to be a doctor. He looked at me and at that spot on my face, and matter-of-factly, but kindly, asked if I was doing something about it. "Skin cancer needs immediate attention," he said. 

For a moment I was speechless. Then I thanked him for his interest and said that I was receiving the best healthcare I knew. I wanted to say more, but the elevator stopped; we exited and parted. I thought, "How can that dear doctor be so 
sure from just looking at that spot? But, what if he is right?" Fearful thoughts started to nag at me. 



Shortly afterward, I read in Science and Health, my sourcebook for spiritual self-awareness that "anatomy, when conceived of spiritually, is mental self-knowledge, and consists in the dissection of thoughts to discover their quality, quantity, and origin. Are thoughts divine or human? That is the important question" (p. 462). 



I asked myself, "What is the quality of my thoughts? Are they spiritual or personal? Is their origin in God or in guesswork?" If I believed I was vulnerable, my thoughts were not based on divine intelligence but on human assumptions. 


I realized how vulnerable I had become to certain comments and behaviors of people I saw every day. 
I had been oversensitive to what I thought were judgmental or even prejudiced attitudes toward me. I knew these were mostly my perceptions. But I also knew that I was the one in charge of my thinking. So I began to pray for a thorough, spiritual overhaul of my thinking. And at that point I stopped praying specifically about a malignant growth.


Prayer to me means joyful listening to God for what He knows about me. Divine intelligence highlights the very best, the most useful, spiritual facts of my experience, and He shows me how to manage wisely my thoughts and feelings. 



Two lines of a poem strikingly express what I felt at the time: "Love and I had the wit to win, / We drew a circle that took him in." As I drew a circle of love around all I did, I was able to see others and myself in a larger context of goodness—that we all mirrored the one God, who is Love. 



I began to understand my neighbor and myself better as creations of the same Parent, and oversensitivity to what others thought or said about me was replaced by sensitivity to our common spirituality.  With that change of thought, my confidence and strength were restored.  The healing of the skin condition came almost as a by-product. The discoloration stopped spreading, and eventually the spot disappeared. This happened many, many years ago, and the healing has been permanent.



Beyond my deep gratitude for this healing, I'm especially grateful for understanding a bit better now what Jesus meant when he said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).

 The truth about God and His creation revealed that I was and am inherently free.

By Eva-Maria Hogrefe

From the April 21, 2003 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

Eva-Maria

PEACE

My tears are flowing

Like a gentle stream

Over cheeks and lips

As I am touched by Your

Gracious Words, and Thou bid

The inner tumult to cease,

Teaching me, dear God, Your peace. 

I in gratitude to Thee,

O Beloved! I can see

There I was to be

In sadness, and a

Loss of tranquility—

Through a silent prayer

My heart was safe from enmity,

Rising up again to Thee,

Peace to all, to him and me -- it sang

Of Your immediacy, and

Will not let me go astray

But fulfills in its silent way:

“Let no vacuum ever there be,”

Your dear love always reaches me

Like the fullness of a morning beam,

I am free of tears and --

shadows flee.

A picture I took in Switzerland

One of the THANK YOU notes received:

Im August-Herold gab Eva-Maria Hogrefe unter dem Titel „Veränderte Gedankenhaltung bringt Heilung” ein Zeugnis, das mich tief berührt und bewegt hat.

Mit welcher Ehrlichkeit und Demut sie als Praktikerin da über ihre (zuweilen recht menschlichen Gedanken) schreibt! Und — aus meiner Sicht — gehört auch eine gehörige Portion moralischer Mut dazu, der Welt mitzuteilen, dass man auch Praktikerin für eine Heilung mal mehr als einen Tag benötigt. Ich bewundere sie, dass sie weiter anderen half, während man ihr Problem doch sicher in ihrem Gesicht sehen konnte — das alles hat mich sehr bestärkt und darin gefestigt, meinerseits auch nicht mutlos zu werden, wenn die Heilung mal auf sich warten läßt. Denn das erschien mir zuweilen als ein Makel, als ein nicht genug an Beten, ein Mangel an Glauben oder was auch immer. Ich kann das inzwischen anders sehen. Bitte gebt meinen Dank an Frau Hogrefe weiter!!!

— aus Wiesbaden

EMH

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. 
. . . . 
It is better in prayer to have a heart without words 
than words without a heart.

― Mahatma Gandhi

If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough. ― Meister Eckhart

I have been driven many times upon my knees by

the overwhelming conviction that 
I had no where else to go.

My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed

 insufficient for that day.

 ― Abraham Lincoln

Eva-Maria @the time when I lived in France

Go where your best prayers take you.

 ― Frederick Buechner

We must close the lips and silence the material senses.  In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longing, 

we must deny sin and plead God’s allness.

We must resolve to take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love.

We must “pray without ceasing.”

Such prayer is answered, in so far as we put our desires into practice.

The Master's injunction is, that we pray in secret and let our lives attest our sincerity.

--Mary Baker Eddy (Science and Health, p. 15)

Warmly,

Eva-Maria