Whether people in your part of the world call such storms hurricanes, typhoons, or cyclones (they're all technically tropical cyclones), you've probably seen reports about them. And each report is a call for prayer.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, found that prayer is an effective tool for protecting oneself from severe weather. She asked her staff to pray during droughts and also to specifically pray for protection against "cyclones ... tornadoes ... destructive lightning." On at least one occasion, she explained that the desired outcome of such prayer is not to control the weather but to experience "God's weather, the weather of Love" (Z32, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection, The Mary Baker Eddy Library).

Despite years of research, scientists still have many questions about how hurricanes develop and what sustains them, but they certainly are not "the weather of Love." A global phenomenon, there are about 85 tropical cyclones each year, and so far no human method of stopping or controlling them has been found.

Hurricanes that come to the Atlantic basin generally start off the African coast. As air rises over warm water in the ocean, a vacuum, or area of low pressure, forms. Air and water spiral into this low–pressure zone. The air rises, cools, and moisture condenses out of it, releasing energy. More air rises and cools. As this energy builds and comes into focus, a tropical storm develops. If it continues to grow and its winds increase to a minimum of 74 miles per hour, it becomes a Category 1 hurricane.

During the formative stage, potential hurricanes are vulnerable and can simply dissipate because the forces driving them never come fully into focus. Sometimes weather conditions elsewhere in the atmosphere inhibit the storm's development. But even a developed storm can lose its focus and collapse.

In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy wrote about destructive qualities—such as those that are identified with extreme weather—in contrast to the peace and harmony that come from Mind. She observed, for example, that "erring power is a material belief, a blind miscalled force, the offspring of will and not of wisdom, of the mortal mind and not of the immortal. It is the headlong cataract, the devouring flame, the tempest's breath. It is lightning and hurricane, all that is selfish, wicked, dishonest, and impure." By contrast, "Mind, God, sends forth the aroma of Spirit, the atmosphere of intelligence" (pp. 192, 191).

Even in the face of destructive material phenomena, we can reason spiritually, on the basis of God's supremacy. Because Mind is infinite, and each of us is spiritual—an idea in Mind—we can never be separated from "the atmosphere of intelligence." When intelligence, not fear, is the motivator, it's easier to make good decisions. Each of us has the right to feel divine Love's presence removing fear. Infinite Love is truly the only influence always—even before a storm has developed.

Since God is infinite, there is never a "vacuum" to begin the spiral toward destructive weather. Although the human condition doesn't always bear this out, the spiritual fact is that God is never absent from any part of His universe. Under God's government, only Love's weather is possible. This spiritual fact was proved several times during Mrs. Eddy's lifetime.

Clara Shannon, who worked closely with Mrs. Eddy, told of such an experience. One day she saw what she called a "cyclone" (tornado) approaching the house. She reported the phenomenon to Mrs. Eddy, who immediately began to pray.

Miss Shannon ran outside, "looked up and saw the clouds hanging over the house—very heavy, black clouds, and in the middle, right over the house there was a rift—they were dividing—part were going one way and the other part in the opposite direction." Finding this unusual, she went to Mrs. Eddy and told her what she had seen. As they stood on the verandah, she saw the clouds gradually changing from black to lighter shades until they were gone. Shannon wrote that Mrs. Eddy told her, "There are no clouds to hide God's face and there is nothing that can come between the light and us—it is divine Love's weather" (Yvonne von Fettweis and Robert Warneck, Mary Baker Eddy—Christian Healer, Boston, The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1998, p. 270).

For people in hurricane–prone areas, it may be particularly tempting to assume that these storms are inescapable. Yet this isn't any truer than the belief that people in northern climates have to passively accept blizzards as natural and normal. Nor are extreme storms necessary to restore an imbalance in nature—rainfall that eliminates a drought, for example.

No matter what the conditions, divine Love is present, and no one can ever be separated from its care. During Hurricane Andrew, which ranks as the costliest hurricane ever to hit the United States, one resident of Homestead, Florida, found a spiritual concept key to praying for her and her son's survival. She said in an interview: "I had been working to know that there is no void in the expression of God's power and in the expression of Mind's intelligence. That there can't be any lapse in this divine expression."

This woman and her son stayed in their house during the storm, and even at the point of greatest danger, they clung firmly to the idea "that there is no void of that intelligence. It's constantly expressing itself. There can't be any power greater than God's power" (The Christian Science Journal, January 1993, p. 29). This saved them and their home, which, though damaged, remained intact.

Sometimes people aren't directly affected, but fear for loved ones in a storm area can almost take over their hearts. When those feelings come in, I find great strength in the experience Jesus and his disciples had as they were sailing across the Sea of Galilee after a long day of preaching. You may be familiar with the details—that Jesus fell asleep on the journey, and "there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full." Although several of the disciples were fishermen accustomed to working on this body of water, the storm was severe enough to frighten even them. They went to him and said, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?"

What struck me recently about this account is that Jesus didn't try to persuade them not to be afraid. He didn't tell them to hold on tighter. Rather, he went straight to the source of the fear and eliminated it. He responded to their entreaty, and "rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm" (Mark 4:36–39).

One might say that Jesus understood that this event could not be "divine Love's weather." He must have claimed the peace that comes from divine Love, and in this way cut off any possibility that the storm would continue. He wasn't apparently praying to control the weather, but rather to express the spiritual strength that enables each of us to resist whatever is ungodlike and destructive.

And in the end, perhaps that's a key point for prayer about the weather. Extreme storms suggest that God is absent, unloving, allowing evil to occur. But this is never true, never meant to be accepted as real. Just as Jesus had a solid conviction that God's presence was with him always—when he was healing, when he was preaching, and even when he was asleep in a ship on the Sea of Galilee—so, too, each of us has a right to be free of fear through feeling God with us.

In our prayers, we can develop the same deep conviction and peace of the Christ, the divine Truth that empowered Jesus' healing ministry. Our affirmation that, as Mrs. Eddy put it, "There are no clouds to hide God's face and there is nothing that can come between the light and us" has power, even in the face of a storm.

Does this mean that we can control the weather? No. But it does mean that no matter what situation we or our loved ones are in, including hurricanes and tornadoes, it is possible to know the peace of God sufficiently so that divine Love's weather will become increasingly evident. Ultimately it must prevail. In the long run, it may well lead to better protection from extreme weather of any kind, even the elimination of these extremes. In the meantime, keeping an alert spiritual eye on the weather, never mentally allowing clouds "to hide God's face," will be a strong support, rain or shine.

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