Article February 24, 1997 Issue

"Emerge gently from matter into Spirit"

Lynn G. Jackson

About a year ago The Wall Street Journal carried an article that caught my eye. It was called "The Healing Power of Prayer Is Tested by Science." The headline stood out to me because many people I know, including myself, rely solely upon prayer for healing. We naturally expect it to heal and have not been disappointed in the results. Whether it has been studied and tested by the physical sciences or not, the fact is that prayer heals.

It's one thing, however, to say that prayer works and that you've been healed through it; it's another thing to rely upon prayer if you're new at it. Yet for the individual yearning for a systematic approach to healing, the spiritual understanding of prayer offers surcease from suffering, pain, disease, sin. It offers surcease because the unfeigned desire to go deeper than mere matter-based theories to Spirit-based understanding doesn't go unanswered. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes, "The world must grow to the spiritual understanding of prayer" (p. 10).

What is this "spiritual understanding of prayer"? Is it merely intentionality, meditation, or remote healing? Is it mental manipulation of energy or the power of suggestion? No. Christian Science reveals prayer to be a deep, conscientious, practical understanding of God and His creation, man. This understanding is effective because it acknowledges God to be all-power and all-presence, thereby precluding any other supposed substance or power.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

The adventure of spiritual progress