I am very grateful to have become acquainted with Christian Science,...

Maria Franchi

I am very grateful to have become acquainted with Christian Science, which has given life and the joy of living back to me. Before becoming acquainted with Christian Science, I was a steady customer of the pharmacist. I suffered from intestinal disorders and from a duodenal ulcer. In addition, I was declared by medical doctors to be unable to work because of an accident which had resulted in a skull fracture.

One of my acquaintances advised me to read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and from the very first pages I knew that I had found what I had been seeking for so many years: the truth. A passage from the Bible which was a great help to me in rebuilding my life, my character, and my conviction that I could take up work again, is found in Jeremiah (29:12, 13): "Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." I began the daily study of the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly, and attended the services of a Church of Christ, Scientist. Gradually I took up my work again, which I am now carrying out with joy and vigor. I have also had a complete healing of the physical disorders.

Among the many proofs of divine care I have had, one in particular is quite important to me. One day I slipped heavily on the bathroom floor in my house, causing my ribs to crack. The pain was severe, but with difficulty I succeeded in getting up and telephoning a Christian Science practitioner, asking her to help me with prayer. The practitioner told me to reflect upon a Bible verse (Isa. 11:5), "Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins." She also reminded me that, as Mrs. Eddy affirms in Science and Health (p. 424), "accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony." The healing that followed was complete, and I could take up work again and also take care of my little seven-month-old granddaughter, who was in my care.