Article March 28, 1983 Issue

Wordless prayer

JOY STEVENSON TUPPER

Pure Mind gives out an atmosphere that heals and saves. Words are not always the auxiliaries of Truth.—Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 260

When we were children, my sister and I said our prayers each night while kneeling at our mother's knee. We always ended with, "If I should die before I wake, /I pray the Lord my soul to take." These words provided little comfort. I tried not to be afraid that God might do just that—take me away before I wanted to go.

Later I began to attend a Christian Science Sunday School, and the Bible had new meaning for me as I studied it, along with the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. In the textbook's opening chapter, entitled "Prayer," I found this reassuring statement: "Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."^{Science and Health, p. 1.}