Editorial April 25, 1994 Issue

Blessedness and happiness

Barbara M. Vining

We are all blessed with the ability to be spiritually-minded and to express spirituality generously in our daily lives.

Spiritual ability is independent of material conditions or circumstances. It is not a material endowment. The ability to understand and express spiritual qualities and ideas is bestowed on all by infinite Spirit, God, and can be utilized by anyone, anywhere, anytime. This talent is discovered through prayer and developed through use. To begin, we can cherish within ourselves the sincere desire to know God's true nature. And we can earnestly strive to reflect His nature in all that we do. Christ Jesus, through his teaching and example, helps us with this.

Jesus fully realized God's unlimited goodness and man's unlimited capacity for expressing God's goodness. His confidence in our spiritual aptitude is evident in the fact that his teachings specifically direct us to be Godlike in all our ways. In the Beatitudes (see Matt. 5:3–12), for example, Jesus commends for our admiration and adoption such holy attitudes of thought as humility, meekness, a perpetual yearning for righteousness, mercifulness toward all, purity of heart, a reconciling spirit that promotes peace and salvation, and rejoicing in the midst of persecution. The word beatitude means "perfect blessedness or happiness." And in the King James Version of the Bible, each of Jesus' Beatitudes begins "Blessed are...."

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The Christian Science Sentinel—and prayers for our planet
April 25, 1994
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