One Wednesday evening, while driving to my branch church, I was listening to a Sentinel Radio CD and feeling grateful for the inspiring accounts of healing on the program. Suddenly, I experienced chest pains and restricted breathing. I briefly considered turning back toward home, but I recognized the symptoms as a lie about my health—an imposition trying to keep me from being in my right place—church.

I knew that God was my author, and no power apart from Him could claim presence or authority in me. In thinking about my love for church, I saw that I include the qualities embodied in the spiritual, true sense of Church that Mary Baker Eddy defines as: “The structure of Truth and Love; …” (Science and Health with Key to the Scripture, p. 583). 

At that point in the Sentinel Radio program, a mother was talking about praying for her child. She began quoting Mary Baker Eddy’s description of man: “Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness” (Science and Health, p. 475).

Applying this to me, I replaced the words man and he with I am or me. I hung onto every word of this passage and what it declares about my true being as the child of God. 

Understanding my genuine, spiritual selfhood immediately brought light and comfort, and the assurance that I was not alone and struggling. The safety and peace that settled my thought were tangible evidence of God’s ever-present care. I felt fully able to drive safely, and continued driving while affirming the fact of my present spiritual perfection and of my never having been born into matter. 

The timing of those spiritual truths being declared by the mother on the CD, coupled with my need to hear that angel message, was divinely coincidental. 

The discomfort and restriction lifted, and as I pulled into the church parking lot, I felt immersed in awe and gratitude. I walked into church completely free. This was over a year ago and there has not been a trace of any similar symptoms since that night.

I felt and thought about the power of the prayers of Christian Science congregations worldwide, as Mary Baker Eddy describes: “The silent prayers of our churches, resounding through the dim corridors of time, go forth in waves of sound, a diapason of heart-beats, vibrating from one pulpit to another and from one heart to another, till truth and love, commingling in one righteous prayer, shall encircle and cement the human race” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 189). 

Error simply could not stand in the face of the united prayers from our congregations. My absolute faith in the truths voiced by the mother on that Sentinel Radio CD, and realized by me, brought instantaneous healing. 

I am deeply grateful to God, to Christ Jesus for his healing works, and to Mary Baker Eddy who discovered and shared the Christ Science with all mankind. 

Charlene Ann Beck
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, US