Yesterday was National Prayer Day. Did any of you catch that? I spent it in part with the prayer team at the local hospital. There were three of us who gathered together. Each of us is at home with three different disciplines: an evangelical Baptist, a Catholic, and me, the Christian Scientist. (Of course, we all call each other Brian, Halcy and Kim.)
I always (really, I always) feel such a tenderness when getting together with this group. We are all doing what we can to help alleviate suffering through our highest sense of prayer. We looked at The Lord's Prayer and broke it down to four main elements (adoration/affirmation, confession/contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication/petition) and together shared our free-form prayers in each of those areas. As we shared, I noticed that we each were strong in a different element -- adding another dimension to one another's prayer. I love this kind of stuff.
Mary Baker Eddy has said some amazing things about our work with people of other denominations. It has been something I have thought about often. I am copying it down in total here, so I hope you'll read it and comment afterwards.
It is from Pulpit and Press ( p. 21)
Our unity with churches of other denominations must rest on the spirit of Christ calling us together. It cannot come from any other source. Popularity, self-aggrandizement, aught that can darken in any degree our spirituality, must be set aside. Only what feeds and fills the sentiment with unworldliness, can give peace and good will towards men.
All Christian churches have one bond of unity, one nucleus or point of convergence, one prayer, — the Lord's Prayer. It is matter for rejoicing that we unite in love, and in this sacred petition with every praying assembly on earth, — "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
If the lives of Christian Scientists attest their fidelity to Truth, I predict that in the twentieth century every Christian church in our land, and a few in far-off lands, will approximate the understanding of Christian Science sufficiently to heal the sick in his name. Christ will give to Christianity his new name, and Christendom will be classified as Christian Scientists.
When the doctrinal barriers between the churches are broken, and the bonds of peace are cemented by spiritual understanding and Love, there will be unity of spirit, and the healing power of Christ will prevail.
I am so happy to see - in a degree - doctrinal barriers be lifted and to learn of others who are practicing healing through prayer. I am happy to participate and grow here.
But the excerpt above has made me ask, who is a Christian Scientist?
In Science and Health, MBEddy refers "to those natural Christian Scientists, the ancient worthies, and to Christ Jesus, [to whom] God certainly revealed the spirit of Christian Science, if not the absolute letter." I certainly feel I have met a number of natural Christian Scientists who, in the discipline of their worship and dear love for God, humankind and all that is sacred, have inspired me to deepen my commitment to prayer and healing.
So now I have to ask you, who is a Christian Scientist?
(photos by Gabe Korinek)
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
3 comments:
Perhaps the real Christian Scientists are those who live the Sermon on the Mount -- who live their love for their fellow man.
for me, S&H 192:4 says it all:
"We are Christian Scientists, only as we quit our reliance upon that which is false and grasp the rue. We are not Christian Scientists until we leave all for Christ. " [my emphasis]
thus, I always think of myself as a student of Christian Science.
enjoy this lovely day!
Verndigger
to me, a Christian Scientist is anyone who applies the ideas of Science and Health in their lives. they're practicing the ideas, therefore they're practicing the Science.
verndigger's passage from S&H to me presents the goal, the ideal. none of us can really do that completely in this life, but I think MBE would have still been okay with us calling ourselves Christian Scientists as long as we're trying and doing our best.
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