Editorial April 23, 1955 Issue

"DESIRE IS PRAYER"

Helen Wood Bauman

Among Mary Baker Eddy's first explanations regarding prayer are her words found in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 1), "Desire is prayer." A verbal prayer may include statements which are hypocritical, but desire can never deceive itself. We either desire spirituality or we do not. If our desire is honestly spiritual, our prayers are answered. In fact, they are answered in the measure of the depth of the desire for good they express.

So we see that it is desire which brings prayer to life—makes it a living, powerful, quickening force. Our desires define our aims, indicate our stage of spiritual growth, measure our convictions, and clarify our sense of values. And it is desire which inspires diligence in applying Christian Science to our lives. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 132), "Even the desire to be just is a vital spark of Christianity." We may see that our desires to be loving and peaceable, honest and pure, useful and faithful are also vital sparks of Christianity. It is these vital sparks which make our prayers successful, for they bring to light the perfect man—man made in the likeness of Spirit, whom Christian Science declares to be the only man.

If we think carefully, we see that it is the depth of anyone's moral and spiritual desire which makes his identity distinctive, which causes him to stand out among his fellows as intelligent and useful, which opens God's kingdom within him. It is one's desires, in fact, which shape one's destiny.

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