Persistence wins the prize

Spiritual resource to share:  persistence

Hammering the spike in volleyball, getting the dance sequence spot on, hitting your stride while cross-country skiing, learning to ride a bike for the first time -- all of these accomplishments are exhilarating.  You have overcome fear and self-doubt to realize a sense of grace and dominion that you didn't realize was there!

You can do it!  Just watch this video of a little boy who persisted and practiced until he could ride his bike on his own. http://youtu.be/eaIvk1cSyG8

Mary Baker Eddy gives us some of that same encouragement in practicing Christian Science.

Whoever would demonstrate the healing of Christian Science must abide strictly by its rules, heed every statement, and advance from the rudiments laid down. There is nothing difficult nor toilsome in this task, when the way is pointed out; but self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and persistence alone win the prize, as they usually do in every department of life.

Each step we take in understanding God's supremacy, leads us to have more and more dominion over fear and self-doubt, to a realization of our own grace and power to do good. You, too, will feel "happy of yourself" with a joy that overflows! 

                                 

the basic questions

Spiritual resource to share: your own inspired answer

I have often been asked about the practice of Christian Science and recently sat down to re-think and get re-charged with new inspiration. I answered these two freqently asked questions in this way:

What does a Christian Science practitioner do?

• A Christian Science practitioner gives Christian Science treatment and prays with his or her patients. The spirit of love characterizes the practitioners’ work in which healing is expected: physical ills are cured, relationships restored and discordant situations reversed.
• The basis of Christian Science is that God is Love. The theology of Christian Science explains that suffering is not God’s will, neither is shunning, shaming, abandoning one needing help, or dictating what another should do.
• If healing results do not come quickly, the individual is free to seek other practitioners or other means of healing. Results matter.

What is the difference between treatment and prayer?

• Christian Science prayer is general and can be shared under all conditions; some Christians might call this type of prayer a prayer of affirmation.
• Christian Science treatment is specific and is up to the individual patient and the practitioner as to how the case is taken up. It is a sacred trust between practitioner and patient, and may involve communion, confession as well as personal revelation and spiritual reasoning. Both patient and practitioner expect healing to be the result of Christian Science treatment.
• Christian Science treatment is purely spiritual and includes the work of a Christian Science practitioner. It may also include the work of a Christian Science nurse* and/or being cared for at a Christian Science nursing facility. It does not include any material methods of healing, neither is a Christian Science practitioner licensed to give medical care. If a patient decides to change to medical care, they need to go to one who is licensed to give that care.
• A Christian Scientist who elects medical care is still considered a child of God! (Nothing can take away that status!) In Christian Science, God’s love is constant and unconditional. A Christian Scientist strives to reflect that same love. Shunning or shaming is illegitimate and has no part in the practice of Christian Science.

For other responses to these questions, check out these links:

What is a Christian Science practitioner?

What is Christian Science treatment?

*a Christian Science nurse is one “who has a demonstrable knowledge of Christian Science practice, who thoroughly understands the practical wisdom necessary in the sick room and who can take proper care of the sick.” (The Church Manual by Mary Baker Eddy)









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.

my journey into the public practice of Christian Science

Spiritual resource to share: our stories

Recently, I wrote this post up to be included in a newsletter for a group of Christian Science healers with whom I regularly associate. I hope you will find it inspiring and perhaps even familiar.

Throughout my life, I have had many healings in Christian Science. Physical, financial and relationship problems have been healed such as the healing of abdominal pain and a knee injury, and in overcoming grief, finding gainful employment, and meeting a wonderful man who I married, followed by the births of two healthy boys. But underneath all of these happy things, was a growing fascination with Christian Science. I always wanted to know how Christian Science worked and how it could be a blessing to not only oneself, but to the world.

I was brought up in Christian Science. I had the benefit and blessing of a mom who always helped me through prayer whenever I had any difficulty. That tenderness and loving kindness is how I came to understand God.

After I finished my first job after college, I was ready to discover more about the practice. I set aside some hours, made up some business cards, and made some office space in my house. One of my first cases, in particular, taught me the whole reason behind getting into the practice: love. She told me, “Kim, you have been given much, and healing is the most loving thing you could ever do for others.” I realized that healing is the highest form of love.

I continued to take calls on a very part time basis, but throughout the next dozen or so years, I had a number of profound experiences that expanded my practice. First, I became a mother of two boys. Secondly, I accepted two jobs that broadened my whole idea of the practice. One job was as administrator in a nearby Christian Science nursing facility. After six happy years with that job and another few years staying at home with our two boys, I was hired to help support The Mother Church’s wider world-wide distribution of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. After five and a half amazing years, my job ended and my family felt it was time to go back to the Midwest.

Now, I was more than ready to start out my public practice full-time. I started a website for my practice (www.kimckorinek.com) and included this weekly inspirational blog. Soon, calls started coming in. Once we were settled in our new home, I advertised locally, and set up my office. More calls came in. In a year, I became listed in the Christian Science Journal.

In my journey to the full time public practice of Christian Science, I could see how God was guiding me to new experiences, each experience giving me a higher view of Christian Science.

• First, I felt the love of God through my own understanding and my mom’s example.
• In my college years, I saw how Christian Science applies to every situation from global affairs, to business management to personal issues.
• In my early years at the public practice, I saw that love is the basis of the practice.
• Raising children was and is still an invaluable lesson on understanding God as Father-Mother.
• When working with Christian Science nurses, I saw the practical wisdom and gentle care of
  Christian Science at work.
• And with my work at The Mother Church, I saw first hand how universal Christian Science truly is.

Throughout this journey, my fascination with Christian Science has never waned. As this age continues to reach out for the spiritual nature of things*, and we recognize throughout the world and in our neighborhoods that there is a spiritual renewal and transformation going on, we see more of the ideas in Christian Science being readily accepted and discussed without the burden of prejudice or stereotype.

Today is big with blessings, and being in the Christian Science practice is for me the most loving thing I can do for myself, my family and the world.
















*See Miscellaneous Writings, p. 232:6







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.

Letting go and letting God

Spiritual resource to share: familiar, time tested life truths


There’s a lot to consider when trusting God – like what it means to let go. It’s talking about letting go of one’s own plans, speculations and opinions to make way for the grace and surprise of God.

There’s a discipline to this, I know. Letting go and letting God is not about letting yourself go, like letting things slide or ignoring things. To let go of self and ego and trust God is a discipline like many disciplines. For instance in dance: I studied dance for about ten years and can only truly say that I felt I was able to truly “let go” and dance only a handful of times. Let me explain and then draw some analogies to healing prayer.

For years, I danced up to five days a week. We always started out with stretches on the floor, stretches standing, then on to small phrases of movements then to movements across the floor. It was repetitive and in certain ways, contemplative. Then we would work on the larger performance piece.

After weeks, even months of class, we performed. This was where the discipline paid off. With the spontaneous connection of a live audience, the art of dance kicked in for me. Because of the discipline, I had more freedom, strength and confidence to move, to jump, to remember the intricacies of the steps, the stretches, the contact with the floor and with one another. The letting go was done because of my trust in all the things that I had learned. It was freeing, empowering and affirming! It all connected and made sense! The dance then was truly inspired.

Something in that perfect coincidence of balance, grace and energy being made manifest resonated deeply with the audience and that inspiration is what moved the audience to a full round of applause!

My approach to prayer is somewhat similar to my approach to dance. I can start with the study of things I know: the Weekly Bible Lesson, reading through Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy or her other writings, the Bible, other inspiring articles. I read these things in order to be stretched – to feel an expanding of ideas (otherwise it is just bland repetition like only reading the letter without the spirit).

I take a new idea and expand it to my life. I then move with this thought to my practice, my patients, to the world. I practice with this one idea throughout the day.

When I get a spontaneous call from a patient, it all comes together. The discipline of the daily work yields up to the inspiration of the moment. I let go of all speculation, human opinions and fears, and listen. I let God guide the conversation and later, let God reveal to me what I need to know. God becomes nearer and dearer to me, and it follows that whatever weight the limited and material arguments had, fall away.

If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is then submitting to spirit.

Healing happens as a revealing of our perfect reflection of perfect God. There is something in that perfect coincidence of health, harmony and abundant love being made manifest that resonates deeply with me. And the whole reason for this is for the patient to experience this as well.

I grow in my trust of God’s supremacy. Every day, I can let go more easily and trust God more readily. It is an infinite lesson that I learn every day.





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.

an advanced era

Spiritual resource to share: enlightened thought


It fascinates me to see how a church service is seen through the eyes of one newly introduced to Christian Science.

Most recently, I made a new friend who has been practicing Christian Science for a number of years. She is also an astrobiologist. She shared her first experience at a church service and her impression. "I felt like I had landed on another planet and was in an advanced civilization."

I just laughed! But I felt it was true! Mary Baker Eddy recognized Christian Science as being in advance of this age. But in order to make this understanding practical, she saw that "a great sacrifice of material things must precede this advanced spiritual understanding."


She goes on to say, "No impossible thing do I ask when urging the claims of Christian Science; but because this teaching is in advance of the age, we should not deny our need of its spiritual unfoldment. Mankind will improve through Science and Christianity. "

Reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible are the best teachers in learning how to practice Christian healing. Science and Health is full of encouragement along the way assuring us that "spiritual ideas unfold as we advance" and that "evidences of progress and of spiritualization greet us on every hand."


In my own practice of Christian Science, I find that I am constantly learning new things. Even though my list of situations and conditions healed grows, I am in awe of the depth of God's love and the detailed intelligence that governs all things - from the timing of a meeting to the balance of the stars.

MBEddy writes "Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To material sense, this divine universe is dim and distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight; but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light."

As I shed more of my material beliefs - and to me this means anything that limits, divides or deteriorates - I also see more of how omnipotent God operates. And the more I understand about God's ever-present Love, omnipotent Truth and intelligence, the more things unGodlike ( or material) fall away. The scene is shifting into light.






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.

What intrigues me most about Christian Science - revisited

Spiritual resource to share: a holy curiosity about all things good

Recently I was talking to a number of other Christian Science practitioners and we were all asked this question. Their answers were clear and varied. One practitioner loves the sound reasoning of Christian Science. Another practitioner loves how effective Christian Science is at problem solving. Another practitioner commented how Christian Science taught her to move through the world with dominion.

As for me, not only do I love the fact that Christian Science is so many things to so many people, but I am most thrilled to know that Christian Science spells out the universal law of Love and shows how to apply it to every situation imaginable.

Let me break this down as I understand it.

Christian Science is the science or the "how to" of Christianity.

Science is all about a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws or the application of certain principles that bring about a consistent result.

Christianity is based on the teachings of Christ.

Christ is all about the expression of an omnipotent and omnipresent God (Love) in our human experience. So, Christian Science explains "how to" do universal love, how to be loving, and be loved, and how to heal and harmonize with divine Principles of Love.

So the thrilling part of this again is that these principles of Love find receptive hearts everywhere: with your immediate family members with whom you live and in situations a half a world away. Regardless of any human category you put yourself into or any situation you find yourself in, there is a principle, a law of Love, which when applied, brings the human picture into harmony.

To practice Christian Science requires humility and selflessness, a spiritual curiosity and expectancy as much as it requires discipline. It means a never-ending discovery into the depths of understanding infinite Love and feeling the effects of Love's harmonizing influence. It has an impact on our individual lives. Christian Science has an impact on communities and nations.

It seems to me that Christian Science explains the science of genius, of all that is brilliant and good and enduring. Through the science of Christ's teaching, we can all experience the promise that "with God, all things are possible."

Another friend commented that when she first read Science and Health, she was left breathless. It still does that to me, even after years of reading and practicing the ideas in it.





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.

Open Position: Christian Science Practitioner

Spiritual resource to share: my unique job description

I've been thinking about how my work as a Christian Science pratitioner has evolved over the last few years. I love how each practitioner I know develops their practice in a way that is unique to them. And so it is with my practice.

As I was seeing how much I have grown in understanding, I also saw how much I was involved working with the community alongside working with individuals. If I were to write my own job description, this is what it would look like:

Christian Science Practitioner

SUMMARY

A Christian Science practitioner strives to heal as Christ Jesus healed. In one of MBEddy’s letters to her student James Neal, CS, she writes: “A real scientific healer is the highest position attainable in this sphere of being. It includes all that is divinely high and holy…. To achieve this you must have one God, one affection, one way, one Mind.”

A Christian Science practitioner aligns work with MBEddy’s highest ideals:

• My weary hope tries to realize that happy day, when man shall recognize the Science of Christ and love his neighbor as himself, — when he shall realize God's omnipotence and the healing power of the divine Love in what it has done and is doing for mankind. -from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
  
• ….drink with me the living waters of the spirit of my life-purpose, — to impress humanity with the genuine recognition of practical, operative Christian Science. - from Miscellaneous Writings p. 107

ESSENTIAL DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES

• Is available 24/7 to the sincere seeker for Truth.
• Is ever alert, expectant and joyful.
• Maintains a vibrant ability to listen and talk with God; thoroughly studies the letter and imbibes the spirit.
• Heals the sick, raises the dead, casts out demons, freely receives God’s inspiration, freely gives. (See Matthew 10: 8)
• Responsible to respond to God’s ability to love and care for His own.
• Is watchful—keeping an eye on the news, discerning trends in public thought, discovering and seeking stories and individuals that give evidence of the spiritual leavening of thought.
• Writes articles, blogs and editorials as inspired.
• Takes graduate courses in Christian Science healing annually
  

STAFF MANAGEMENT AND JOB CONTACTS

Reporting Relationships
Supervisor: God
Mentor(s): authorized teachers of Christian Science
Supervises: Self: “reflecting God’s government, man is properly self-governed”

Regular Contacts

• Be in contact with thinkers and Truth seekers from all over the world; Christian Scientists throughout the field (especially youth), professionals, cultured scholars, students, parents, local and worldwide public.
• Participate and support those larger community efforts toward healing: in this vicinity, keep abreast of community hunger for healing via local hospital, the Ministerial Association, and community efforts to heal racism.
• Participate and support Christian Science activity via media and lecture work; give regular metaphysical, practical and financial support locally and globally; involvement with TMCYouth.com and writing for the periodicals; work with Christian Science Committee on Publication; work with and support the work of Christian Science nurses.
• Be in the marketplace: A Christian Science practitioner is not an isolated nor a solitary idea. Involvement in the community (schools, libraries, community services, etc) at some level is encouraged.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

First and foremost, a Christian Science practitioner has a deep love for God and for all mankind. In addition:

Education/Experience
This position requires Primary Class Instruction with an authorized teacher of Christian Science. Annual participation in Association (a graduate course in Christian Science healing) is required. Ongoing Bible study, classes in the Spanish language, writing, and communication are recommended.

Knowledge/Skills
The position requires a solid understanding of literary English and learning a second language. The individual in this position must demonstrate ability as a writer for blogs, and magazine articles and the internet.

Technology Skills
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) skills and blogging skills are required.

Work Environment
A practitioner works in an atmosphere of Love divine. This can be anywhere at anytime so that 24/7 accessibility is assured.

Christian Science Information
Mother Church membership and Primary class instruction are required.


###

Your thoughts????


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.

elevator conversations

Spiritual resource to share:
explaining the practice of Christian Science

I probably have had more quick conversations about Christian Science and my work as a Christian Science practitioner than long conversations. It happens everywhere - at a party, at my son's school, being introduced to another parent, in an elevator, while waiting in line to vote, etc. It goes like this:




Q: What do you do?
A: I'm a Christian Science practitioner.
Q: Oh, what's that?


And then we are off. So here are some of my favorite responses that I've given. Sometimes these responses have led into longer conversations, sometimes not.

A Christian Science practitioner is one who heals through prayer.
I work with people who are experiencing difficulties and we pray until there has been a healing, a resolution or cure.
I practice the type of healing Christ Jesus taught and I do this full time.
It is called Christian Science for two reasons:

• It is Christian in that we study and practice the way that Jesus healed
• It is scientific in that the principles that Christ Jesus established in his
  healing work can be applied with healing proofs.

And then when people have asked how do you pray in Christian Science? these short responses have helped:

Rather than thinking about God, we can know we are what God is thinking. We are His thoughts made manifest.
Rather than believing in God, we believe God.
Our standpoint of healing is not to find out what is wrong with us, but what is right with us.

For those of you who practice Christian Science, what have your elevator conversations been like?

For those of you interested in the practice of Christian Science, what questions would you ask?














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.

Looking at healing from a scientist's perspective

Spiritual resource to share: synergy

I love this group! When I get together with my Science and Health discussion group, I always find new insights into some of my most favorite and familiar passages. (We are reading Science and Health slowly - about 30 - 50 pages every 2 weeks. This allows for a deep dive into its ideas.)

Yesterday's meeting, we were discussing the first section of the chapter "Science, Theology and Medicine" and the first section dealt with the science of Christian Science. We have some good science background in this group: a PhD in biological sciences, a licensed engineer, and a former student at IIT (many years ago).

Here are some of our insights:

Mary Baker Eddy uses the pronoun "I" significantly more in this chapter than in other chapters. This makes the chapter more autobiographical. It also speaks of her experiences in testing and trying out various assumptions. The whole section outlines how she made the discovery, tested it and established underlying principles.

"Science," the engineer in the group explained, "is more about a process of discovery than the end in and of itself."

"And there needs to be tangible evidence of this Science. It can't only be theory." was another comment.

This aligns with MBEddy's own statement:

The term CHRISTIAN SCIENCE was introduced by the author to designate the scientific system of divine healing.
The revelation consists of two parts:
1. The discovery of this divine Science of Mind-healing, through a spiritual sense of the Scriptures and through the teachings of the Comforter, as promised by the Master.
2. The proof, by present demonstration, that the so-called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an ever-operative divine Principle. The operation of this Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific order and continuity of being.

Reading the first section of this chapter has given me another dimension on my practice of Christian Science. I re-read the chapter from the perspective of a scientist, from the perspective of how I have "discovered" Christian Science on my own.

We are always discovering more about the infinite nature of God. We are all proving - healing by healing - the very nature of our relationship to an all-loving, omnipotent Principle.

More to come.......







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.

What intrigues me most about Christian Science - revisited

Spiritual resource to share: revisiting a new/old inspiration

Now that I have literally hundreds of these blogs, I find myself browsing through them, looking at past lessons learned, my gradual improvement at writing, continuing spiritual growth. When I came across this one blog, I was surprised how much I still feel the same way I did when I first wrote it. But then, Christian Science is like that for me. It is always fresh.

Here is the old blog:

Recently I was talking to a number of other Christian Science practitioners and we were all asked this question: What intrigues you most about Christian Science. Their answers were clear and varied. One practitioner loves the sound reasoning of Christian Science. Another practitioner loves how effective Christian Science is at problem solving. Another practitioner commented how Christian Science taught her to move through the world with dominion.

As for me, not only do I love the fact that Christian Science is so many things to so many people, but I am most thrilled to know that Christian Science spells out the universal law of Love and shows how to apply it to every situation imaginable.

Let me break this down as I understand it.

Christian Science is the science or the "how to" of Christianity.
Science is all about a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws or the application of certain principles that bring about a consistent result.

Christianity is based on the teachings of Christ.
Christ is all about the expression of an omnipotent and omnipresent God (Love) in our human experience.

So, Christian Science explains "how to" do universal love, how to be loving, and be loved, and how to heal and harmonize with divine Principles of Love.

OK, so the thrilling part of this again is that these principles of Love find receptive hearts everywhere: with your immediate family members with whom you live and in situations a half a world away. Regardless of any human category you put yourself into or any situation you find yourself in, there is a principle, a law of Love, which when applied, brings the human picture into harmony.

To practice Christian Science means a never-ending discovery into the depths of understanding infinite Love and feeling the effects of Love's harmonizing influence. It has an impact on our individual lives. Christian Science has an impact on communities and nations. It seems to me that Christian Science explains the science of genius, of all that is brilliant and good and enduring. Through the science of Christ's teaching, we can all experience the promise that "with God, all things are possible."

Another friend commented that when she first read Science and Health ( the textbook of Christian Science) she was left breathless. It still does that to me, even after years of reading and practicing the ideas in it.







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.

delete - permanent trash - spam guard

Spiritual resource to share: removing obstacles and affirming what is true






A couple of quotes from my favorite author, MBEddy:

"But the pursuit of modern material inventions?"
"Oh, we cannot oppose them. They all tend to newer, finer, more etherealized ways of living. They seek the finer essences. ..... We use them, we make them our figures of speech. They are preparing the way for us." (from Miscellany, p. 35)

AND juxtaposing that with this one:

"Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously."

So now, we have a new way of looking at ways we can "stand porter."



When a thought comes, tempting us to doubt, be dishonest, think less than well of others, etc. we can choose to thoroughly eradicate it by

• deleting it: no need to go into the details of how it has been programmed, how long or short it has been, where it has originated -- just press "delete"
• permanent trash: confirm file delete - go after it and confirm that it has been deleted; empty out all the trash permanently. Trust that this is the end of that thought.
• Spam Guard: be alert to other similar thoughts that try to sneak into consciousness. Trust the protection that God has given us to "rise in the strength of spirit to overome all that is unlike God."
  

Now the fun and wonderful part - admitting only those thoughts that are good, enduring, spontaneous and brilliant. Nothing can stand in the way of a thought filled with these truths!

(yes, I know. The picture is so clichẻ.)



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.

Why does a practitioner charge for treatment?

Spiritual resource to share: value


I have been asked this question a couple of times and thought it would be good to post my response. It has been a surprising issue since starting up my public practice and I've been inspired by what I have found out.

In short, I have come to realize that payment is all about both parties valuing the work, and it also gives the patient an opportunity to truly own the treatment and be grateful.

Also, to be listed in The Christian Science Journal - an authorized publication of The Christian Science Publishing Society - one must devote one's full time to the practice and not pursue other vocations. Also, the services of the practitioner are not paid for by the church.

But here's the fun part about how I came up with my charges and fees.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in her book The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany (p. 237) “Christian Science practitioners should make their charges for treatment equal to those of reputable physicians in their respective localities.”

This was a challenge to me at first. With reputable physicians being paid via insurance and co-payments, what is fair? Also, I was getting a share of patients from different parts of the US and different parts of the world. How to determine fees for them?

The other factor was that some of my patients are long time Christian Scientists, very used to paying a very modest fee for services; whereas others are used to paying bills for medical, therapeutic and alternative health care. What seemed to be a very high charge to some, seemed to be very inexpensive to others.

Mary Baker Eddy’s Church Manual's provisions for the public practice of Christian Science brings with it the understanding that it is highly valued. In fact she says that healing is better than teaching. "Healing the sick and the sinner with Truth demonstrates what we affirm of Christian Science, and nothing can substitute this demonstration. "

This gave me a lot to think about.......... So, in charging for the practice I wanted to include all the following ideas:

1. Fees for service values the practice from the patient's view – who pays and from the practitioner's view - who charges
2. It enables the patient to “own” the treatment – and to seal the deal, so to speak
3. Requiring payment comes from the expectation that the patient recognizes value and HAS VALUE to give
4. Giving and receiving are part of the same exchange - there is an equal blessing
5. "A Christian Scientist is a humanitarian; he is benevolent, forgiving, long-suffering, and seeks to overcome evil with good." Charging fees should have a compassionate flexibility needed in certain cases.

Another question factored in: What is wrong with a practitioner who give themselves wholly to this work and never charges? What does it mean to be unselfish? Always giving? And what if others try to take advantage of a practitioner’s kindness?

There is something indomitable about the exercise of Truth. It cannot be taken advantage of. The protection is in the treatment. The treatment is complete and carries with it all the right resources. This includes supply, protection, and ongoing progress. If someone's donation or payment is modest, another's payment exceeds the standard charge. God truly supplies us in this work and I have come to see that my boss is God. And She pays well!

Here is what I finally came up with ( This is now on my website www.kimckorinek.com/.)

Charges and Fees

Paying for services rendered is a natural way for the patient to own the treatment and complete the treatment or consultation with gratitude. It also enables the practitioner to pursue this line of work exclusively and full time.

Kim's patients come from a variety of countries and economic circumstances, therefore, on completion of the work together, the patient will receive an invoice that lists the dates and services only. Patients determine their fees based on the guidelines below and their own circumstances. No one is limited in their expression of gratitude – the “widow’s mite,” donations, straight payment and overflow are all accepted.

Guidelines for Billing

“Christian Science practitioners should make their charges for treatment equal to those of reputable physicians in their respective localities.” from The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, by Mary Baker Eddy p. 237

Suggested rates for Midwest, USA:

• Christian Science Treatment: First treatment $35; subsequent treatments $20 (reduced per Church Manual p.46)
• Visits and Consultation: First consultation free; follow up consultations and visits $40/hour; phone visits under five minutes are always free
• Travel time: $15 per hour

Would love to hear your comments!


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.

a burst of wonderful

Spiritual resource to share: reading with rigorous vigor!

(Note to those new to these posts and Christian Science: a regular part of my healing practice, as well as the duties of a Christian Science nurse and the regular part of a Christian Science church service is to read from the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy's writings with sincerity, honesty and understanding. So reading to others is a big deal. Now ....on to my post.)

I love Pop. A born salesman and natural healer, he has been healing through Christian Science prayer way before I was born. He just shines on everyone he meets. He loves everyone - with a little laughter, good natured joking and a wiser-beyond-years knowing that we are all children of God. You feel good just being in his presence.

I had occassion to be with him and his new wife of two years, and, as a gift to them and to chip away at an indebtedness to Pop for helping me get my footing in Christian Science decades ago, I drove him and his new wife through three states, as they went visiting friends and family.

Most delightful was when Pop would read from the Bible and Science and Health during our long drives from one stop to another. He would read with such passion, such commitment, that at times, he would get teary, and I would get teary, as he hurrahed at what Zechariah had accomplished, or how MBEddy would develop her reasoning on God's omnipotence, or how it was explained that the whole reason for living was for God's glory. Ahhh!! This is the type of reading that heals.

To live in such a way that how you read, how you greet people, and how you tell stories exudes a roar of wonderful! Over the top, maybe. But how alive!

A visit from Pop has filled me up, made me smile (and all its derivatives - giggle, guffaw, laugh, chuckle, etc) and given me some good inspiration for the next time I am asked to read.

And speaking of wonderful reading........... here is a post that I know Pop would approve. Read this post out loud to a friend! It's Evan's post on "Installing love."

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.

totally, absolutely perfect

Spiritual resource to share: contemplation

I have been working this idea of what it means to be perfect over and over the last few weeks, so I thought I would share it here. Large as that idea is, I'll share just a few gleanings.

Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Unless you fully perceive that you are the child of God, hence perfect, you have no Principle to demonstrate and no rule for its demonstration." (From The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany p. 242:8 )

Accepting this and the principle that we are made in the image and likeness of God ( ie perfect), I reason that our very being is based on a perfect principle of God, who is Truth and Love.

So what is the basis of perfection?

(follow the format of Perfect means….. So this means…. )

Perfect means: Having all parts present………
So this means: YOU ARE WHOLE

Having everything that is required…………
YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED

Complete in moral excellencies…………….
YOU ARE NATURALLY KIND, GENEROUS, ACCURATE, HONEST, UPRIGHT

Perfect Love…………………………………
YOU ARE LOVED, LOVABLE, LOVELY and LOVING

Exactly fitting the need in every situation………….
YOU ARE IN YOUR RIGHT PLACE and SITUATION; YOU HAVE A MISSION AND PURPOSE IN LIFE

Entirely without flaws or blemish……………
YOU ARE COMPLETE, CERTAIN, CONFIDENT, SURE, and WELL INFORMED

So when we work out a problem from the standard of perfection, we are not looking for perfect matter, but for that principle of harmony out of which all human activity is expressed. The starting point is not matter. The starting point is perfect God, perfect man.

For example - struggling to get to the right weight to look just perfect is very different from understanding that your very nature right now includes beauty, balance and radiance. Out of that understanding comes an expression that may come in any form, but beauty, balance and radiance will naturally be expressed.

The study and application of this idea goes on and on. (There simply is no end to understanding infinite God, infinite Truth, Life and Love!) I hope this gives you a thoughtful nudge to contemplate what is infinitely good and infinitely perfect in our lives today.





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.

Finding Wonderland - Getting started in the Christian Science practice

Last spring, when my position with a publisher ended, I was ready for the next step, but also felt a tremendous sense of gratitude -- even a sacred sense of wonder -- of what we did, what was asked of us, what we found out and what we accomplished.

What was asked of us: My good friend and colleague and I traveled all over the world, supporting the distribution of a classic book on spirituality and healing to global book markets. The book was Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy -- which you will be hearing about often on this site.

We supported our publisher's own line of bookstores worldwide, as well as did some major exploring to place the book in markets that catered to the widest range of audiences: Muslims, Catholics, Hindis, general population, Mind/Body/Spirit groups, healthcare professionals, religion scholars, etc. etc.

What we found out -- and what I found out in particular -- was that the hunger for spirituality is here and everywhere, now and with no end in sight. The challenge of the work was to keep going in a straight line. The receptivity was everywhere!

How amazing it was to be able to go into a country, talk to book industry professionals and the public and learn what ideas their citizens are reading and valuing and to find out that spiritual ideas are the common link to us all.

As you will find out on my website and I'll continually be referring to it on this blog, the ideas in Science and Health actually heal. And as we introduced the book, hundreds of people who read it shared how they had been healed, uplifted, comforted simply by reading the book.

The largeness of this work of sharing and practicing the practical spiritual ideas in Science and Health still moves me. I remember driving into work one of my last days and saying - Well God, it is you and me again! Prior to that my prayer and work always involved many people, conversations, meetings, events in many languages. Now these experiences have time to ripen as they have deepened my understanding and confirmed my conviction that God, good speaks to every man and nation and that understanding God as good heals outward conflict and inner turmoil. These experiences have enlarged my pool of peace and expanded my hope for mankind.

Someone once asked if I miss my former job and I quickly said no. And I meant it. It is like asking: do you miss giving birth to your two sons? After giving birth to my sons, I remember being impressed at the strength and focus that women give to secure ongoing generations. What a hopeful thing it is to have a child and to care for a child as they grow! I do not miss the birthing process, but I love what is growing because of it.

Likewise, after working at this job, I am just as impressed at the possibilities that arise when there is such focus, devotion and strength of vision aligned with an unselfish love. We had a passion and love for the work of sharing Christian Science with the world. I love the focus and strength that that work demanded. And then we did it! The whole spectrum of human emotion was there: unbridled joy, doubt, compassion, relief, anger, brilliance, laughter, tears, - you get the picture. But what made it so worthwhile were the moments of prayer: the on your knees humble, winner take all prayer that didn't stop until God's presence was felt, healing was realized or a way distinctly pointed out. Some colleagues joked about wearing out knee pads....

But I am back in wonderland - wondering how my next steps will develop. I am re-inventing myself as well, and in a way that complements the width of my former experience with an opportunity to develop the depth of an understanding of our Father/Mother God and us - Her/His children. My experience includes a literal embrace of the world. Added to that is my current world full of family, art, the woods,and the blessed benefit of time to pray and ponder. Opportunities to experience a different sense of time to listen and be quiet; to act, to do and to heal in the quiet guidance of the love of God.

My newest wonder is to develop the practice of Christian Science in my own life and share with others as a Christian Science practitioner. I take patients. I have office hours and a website. I put CS after my name and tell people at parties what my new line of work is. I make myself available to others and together we fight demons and wrestle with obstacles and stand back to see God work and see the glorious possibilities that exist by understanding - even more - by experiencing the transforming power of Love. We will grow understand the minutiae and omnipresence of this Life force. How wonder-full is that?

I am again tremendously grateful for the space I now have to do this. Life is so rich. So varied. So infinite. So full of wonder. I am looking forward to hearing from you all!

Kim, CS

What intrigues me most about Christian Science

Recently I was talking to a number of other Christian Science practitioners and we were all asked this question. Their answers were clear and varied. One practitioner loves the sound reasoning of Christian Science. Another practitioner loves how effective Christian Science is at problem solving. Another practitioner commented how Christian Science taught her to move through the world with dominion.

As for me, not only do I love the fact that Christian Science is so many things to so many people, but I am most thrilled to know that Christian Science spells out the universal law of Love and shows how to apply it to every situation imaginable.
Let me break this down as I understand it.

• Christian Science is the science or the "how to" of Christianity.
• Science is all about a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws or the application of certain principles that bring about a consistent result.
• Christianity is based on the teachings of Christ.
• Christ is all about the expression of an omnipotent and omnipresent God (Love) in our human experience.

So, Christian Science explains "how to" do universal love, how to be loving, and be loved, and how to heal and harmonize with divine Principles of Love.

OK, so the thrilling part of this again is that these principles of Love find receptive hearts everywhere: with your immediate family members with whom you live and in situations a half a world away. Regardless of any human category you put yourself into or any situation you find yourself in, there is a principle, a law of Love, which when applied, brings the human picture into harmony.

To practice Christian Science means a never-ending discovery into the depths of understanding infinite Love and feeling the effects of Love's harmonizing influence. It has an impact on our individual lives. Christian Science has an impact on communities and nations.

It seems to me that Christian Science explains the science of genius, of all that is brilliant and good and enduring. Through the science of Christ's teaching, we can all experience the promise that "with God, all things are possible."

Another friend commented that when she first read Science and Health, she was left breathless. It still does that to me, even after years of reading and practicing the ideas in it.

Signing off,
Kim

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