Article October 20, 1934 Issue

The "periods of spiritual ascension"

MARGARET V. HEYWOOD

Our understanding of prayer, of its capacity, its power, and its joy, must depend upon our understanding of God and upon our intimate sense of communion with Him. In one sense everyone prays. He may not know God, still, his heart goes out in desire; and this desire is a form of prayer. Blessed is the man who knows God, to whom he prays. All right desire brings us into touch with Deity. Praise, thanksgiving, worship, affirmation, petition—all have their value; they were all used by Jesus, who epitomized them for his followers in what is known as the Lord's Prayer, that wonderful prayer in which Christians of all nations and all sects can unite in worship.

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise." This is a sure entrance into that sanctuary of Soul, the Holy of Holies. Prayer is communion with God. It is the understanding of our individual unity with our creator. Nothing can separate us from God, or come between us and our realization of this unity. In true prayer we realize our at-one-ment with God, and the beauty and perfection of His entire creation: we are at the standpoint of reality. And as we look out from this standpoint, with spiritual vision, and behold God's creation as He beholds it, we find it "very good." Our thoughts have reached the source of peace, health, harmony, beauty, supply, power, intelligence, and love; and with this vision comes an increased love for God and man. Thus we are spiritually equipped to meet the manifold temptations of the world.

Today, as of old, mortal mind claims to counterfeit all that is true. It claims to meet Life, Truth, and Love with the contradictions of evil, including sin, disease, and death. But, as Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 450), "The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good." Only true prayer can fit us for this work of overcoming, and clothe us with the spiritual armor necessary for our protection.

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