Article August 14, 2006 Issue

Next in our biweekly series on how people have nurtured their public practice of Christian Science.

ANYONE CAN BE A HEALER

A NATURAL PROGRESSION

JACQUELINE MACDERMOTT—Bangor, Maine

I'M A BRAND-NEW CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRACTITIONER, but not a new Christian Scientist. I was born with the help of Christian Science treatment. A doctor told my mother that she could not have any more children and that I would not survive. But my parents had just been introduced to Christian Science a couple of years before and trusted that God would provide the spiritual atmosphere for a harmonious birth. After I was born, three more children came into our family.

Christian Science offered a very practical and effective healing approach for us. We had many healings through prayer alone. For example, various children's diseases were healed quickly, sometimes in a matter of hours.

I always expected to be a Christian Science practitioner. Some time after my Sunday School years, a practitioner asked me if I was thinking about having Christian Science class instruction. I answered airily, "Oh yes, sometime." Since our practitioners were in my parents' age group, I thought I had to be older to have this instruction, but her encouragement awakened my thought. I soon applied for class instruction, and learned more about using a Christianly scientific understanding to meet all kinds of disharmonies.

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