Article August 17, 1957 Issue

TRUE PRAYER

MARIE C. CHENEY

On his return from his first attendance at a Christian Science Sunday School, a little lad was asked what he had learned. He replied, "Silent prayer."

To learn to pray aright silently or audibly is no small undertaking. In an earlier period of her interest in Christian Science, the writer became distressed over her inclination during the period for silent prayer in the services of a Church of Christ, Scientist, to think nothing much at all, or to recall conversations or experiences, or to contemplate coming events. In her growing desire not only to receive inspiration from these services but to contribute something mentally constructive to them, she made a sincere effort to hold her thought in line with the truths she was learning in her study of Christian Science.

One Sunday morning these words of Mary Baker Eddy from "Pulpit and Press" came to thought (p. 10): "Divine presence, breathe Thou Thy blessing on every heart in this house." Gratefully accepting this petition as an answer to a very right desire, the writer still uses it frequently as the opening thought in her silent prayers in church. She finds it immediately effective in turning her thought away from the contemplation of material things and toward God, the inexhaustible source of existence and all right activity.

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