Article August 25, 1980 Issue

Essentials of healing prayer

HAZEL TERESA COOK

Prayer in Christian Science differs radically from many traditional approaches to God. It is a surrendering of the mortal to the divine—a denial of what the material senses tell us and an acknowledgment of the allness of God, His all-presence and all-power. "To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed," Mrs. Eddy explains in Science and Health. "Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error."^{Science and Health, p. 15;}

Mortal mind—the false, material sense of things, in which inheres all discord, including sickness, hatred, lack, relationship problems, and national and global calamities—emphatically believes in an existence and power opposed to God, good. The Apostle Paul called this pseudo mind enmity against God, and Jesus declared it to be a lie and a liar. He said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."^{John 8:31, 32;} To continue in the Master's word requires us to seek out the truth of Spirit's infinitude and to reject appearances of evil—to refuse to be taken in by what the material senses tell us.

So when we pray, we need to face a problem, deny it reality, and turn thought completely to Spirit. To keep thinking of a difficulty as we pray is to try to work with contraries, Spirit and matter, and to entertain fear. To acknowledge evil and matter is to deny God; it hinders us from realizing our unity with Him. Paul puts it this way: "We are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: ... we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."^{II Cor. 5:6, 8;} When one turns to God and acknowledges man to be His reflection, spiritual and perfect, one is releasing thought from the material and pleading God's infinitude.