The substance of Christian Science nursing is love. Love for God and man weaves its way like a golden thread through this spiritual calling. 

As a Christian Science practitioner, I have been closely connected with Christian Science nursing for many years through serving on the board of a Christian Science nursing facility and visiting nurse service in the UK. Having observed this tender care firsthand, I see it very much as a spiritual calling—a ministry. 

It might seem as if Christian Science nursing could be solely perceived as “care,” just because its practice is free from the use of drugs and medication. This limited sense would rob it of its very energy and vitality. We can all care for each other, but very few meet the standard of fearless love that undergirds the practice of the Christian Science nurse. 

Whether the Christian Science nurse is a private duty nurse, a visiting nurse, or a nurse at a Christian Science facility, he or she is there to bear witness to the Christ—the true nature of God’s man. And this is a privilege—which is why a patient who chooses Christian Science nursing can feel so supported in a stand to rely on spiritual rather than material methods of healing.

When accepting a case, a Christian Science nurse works in conjunction with a Christian Science practitioner, and remains in regular contact. The practitioner turns wholeheartedly to God for a spiritual realization that the patient is well, based on the perfection of God and man. And the Christian Science nurse wholeheartedly upholds this stand.

When writing of the scientific healing method in Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy instructs: “The scientific government of the body must be attained through the divine Mind. It is impossible to gain control over the body in any other way. On this fundamental point, timid conservatism is absolutely inadmissible. Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 167). 

Here the very ethos of Christ Jesus’ Golden Rule comes into play—for both practitioner and Christian Science nurse—to minister to others as they themselves would want to be ministered to. Radical reliance on Truth for healing means both practitioner and Christian Science nurse turn thought to God and to His absolute control. It is a joy for all involved to know that, as Science and Health says: “Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is human weakness, which forfeits divine help” (p. 453). This radical stand blesses patient, practitioner, and Christian Science nurse.

The Christian Science nurse is alert, clear in her thinking to separate the problem from the person.

The mental atmosphere surrounding the patient needs to be poised and calm and with an expectancy of healing at all times. Whatever the demands in a case, the Christian Science nurse, while tending the patient with loving, practical care for his or her daily needs, expresses spiritual buoyancy and joy, keeping thought on a spiritual level. The Christian Science nurse understands that mental clarity and spiritual receptiveness and preparedness are of paramount importance. Fear or any other negative mental influence is not something a Christian Science nurse takes into a sickroom, and she or he is spiritually fearless when dealing with the seeming physical evidence. 

Mrs. Eddy writes, “No evidence before the material senses can close my eyes to the scientific proof that God, good, is supreme” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 277). That particular passage has been such a strength to me when visiting with patients. In turning to God, divine Mind, practitioner and Christian Science nurse are guided by Principle, keeping thought focused on Truth, and not on a material picture. The beautiful simplicity of the fact that divine Love is the only presence eliminates fears and allows for the spiritual sense of God’s nearness. This is an enormous support to a patient.                                 

Science and Health states, “Outside the material sense of things, all is harmony” (p. 489). Isn’t this the substance of Christian Science nursing—to remain “outside the material sense of things,” dwelling consciously in the realm of Love, where fear is unknown? The power of spiritually based right thinking can’t be underestimated.

The Christian Science nurse is a professional. No “unseen” mental baggage has a place in a sickroom. Although the mental baggage may be invisible to the eye, it will certainly be felt. 

For instance, it may well be a temptation to put sympathy in the place of compassion, a quality that Jesus expressed. Sympathy in its right sense is a truly comforting, needed quality, which Mrs. Eddy often refers to. But too often it’s manifested in ways that pull the patient’s thought down into the very error he or she is trying to unsee through prayer. 

While doing the humanly loving thing, like putting one’s arms around someone in need, or being comforting in other ways, thought may often remain on the problem and magnify it. Compassion, however, uplifts thought away from the problem. It may also include a hug and a listening ear, but it goes much further, in that it doesn’t leave people where it found them. In reaching out to divine Love in prayer, one will find the right thing to say or do to bring fresher, brighter views.

Speaking from my own experience, I can say that at a time of great distress, sympathy expressed by well-meaning friends only pulled me down, whereas compassion uplifted me and set me upon the right track. Compassion is a wonderful and necessary tool in the spiritual armory of the Christian Science nurse—it offers a step up, where the door of inspiration is open wide. It lifts the struggling heart above the dream of material existence and into the light of Truth. And compassion has many channels—a smile, a sense of humor—and it can give a sense of lightness and joy to a case that words cannot always convey.

On occasion a Christian Science nurse may find that some patients are not always straightforward and honest—and this needs to be met with moral fiber. Mortal mind has many ways to undermine the work of those intent on healing spiritually, and one of mortal mind’s ploys is to waste your time! The Christian Science nurse is alert and awake, clear in her thinking to separate the problem—the error—from the person. Christian Science nurses are not pushovers; they stand with Principle and are not afraid to speak out if necessary. They are firm and uncompromising when it comes to dealing with tough situations, since this is all part of the spiritual armor of a dedicated student of Christian Science.

The Christian Science nurse honors her calling and knows it is a sacred office. Like Moses at the burning bush, each one stands before God with shoes off, humbly, meekly, receptively awaiting God’s command. When a call comes, he or she is ready to say: “I stand on holy ground. I am about my Father’s business. My Father, show me the way.”

What a wonderful career awaits those desiring to become a Christian Science nurse. It is a high calling. Divine Love supports its own idea, and as Mary Baker Eddy writes in Message to The Mother Church for 1901, “… rest assured you can never lack God’s outstretched arm so long as you are in His service” (p. 1).