Considering the practicality of silent communion with God, it's sad that making time for quiet thought—and knowing what to do with it—seems to have almost slipped off the radar screen of many people's lives.

On the one hand, for example, the wonders of modern technology can keep people mentally engaged and entertained to the exclusion of independent thinking. On the other hand, during those quiet times we all do have, in the middle of the night, for instance, it's not uncommon for all sorts of negative and worrisome thoughts to clamor for attention. And then, of course, there are a multitude of other concerns and distractions that would crowd thought, including fear of facing our own faults.

Fortunately, once we realize the purpose and power of divine Love to tenderly and compassionately uplift and improve our character, quality of life, health, and productivity, we can begin to take possession of our time, silence fear and the inner crowd, and listen to what God has to say.

Good listening is at the heart of healing in Christian Science, which depends upon an active and thorough love of God. That's because it is divine Love, acting on and within human consciousness, that produces healing in human experience. So, the better we truly know God as divine Love, the more natural it is for us to love Him and therefore to experience His tender care for us.

Of course, we can learn vital information about God's true character and healing power by reading the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and this is important because God is so generally unknown and misunderstood by the human mind. I've found that I really learn to know and love God when I silently cherish what Christian Science teaches about God as divine Life, Truth, Love, Mind, Soul, Spirit, and Principle—when I literally or figuratively pull up a chair to mentally bask in God's awesome presence and give Him my undivided attention. In these moments, God becomes to me the living God, whom I just naturally feel impelled to love with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, as Christ Jesus said we should do (see Mark 12:30). It's from moments like these that healing becomes a practical reality in one's life.

CARVING OUT QUIET MOMENTS

We don't have to go off to some serene, secluded place to be alone with God, although that's certainly an appropriate thing to do when and if we can. But perhaps communion with God is less about time and place than it is about having an inner attitude of reverence for God, a reverence that moves us to make worshipping God of prime importance in our daily lives. When we have that, we find a way to do it. I've drawn lessons about this from a few experiences I've had in beautiful natural settings.

Years ago my family took a summer hike into the valley at the foot of the mountains in the Maroon Bells–Snowmass Wilderness in Colorado. As we came into the valley in the early evening, the snow-capped mountains stood majestically against a sun-setting maroon sky, and the air was so still that the lake was a mirror reflecting this breathtaking scene. The atmosphere was so serene and beautiful that I felt I'd like to stay there forever, which of course I couldn't do. But the scene left me with a sense of reverence that suggested something even greater—the vastness and wonder of the spiritual presence of God, in which, as St. Paul noted, "we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). Now that's a truly awesome truth!

We do indeed live in God, who is infinite, divine Love. We actually cannot get outside of God, because there is no outside to infinity. To still our thought in order to take in this truth and let it be reflected in our character and life is a goal worth every effort. In so doing, we discover who we really are—the spiritual likeness, or reflection, of divine Love. So, the more we commune with God, the more we learn not only about Him but also about ourselves.

With a reverent attitude toward God, and a sincere desire to learn from Him and be faithful to Him, we will do whatever we need to do in our busy lives to make time to commune with God in prayer and in study of the Bible and Science and Health. It is God Himself who impels us to draw close to Him so that He can guide us successfully through our days.

GOD HAS PLENTY TO TELL US

Prayer actually has everything to do with listening to God, rather than telling God anything. God already knows all. We need to appreciate what our all-knowing Mind, our heavenly Father-Mother, can and does reveal to us of His true nature, and of ourselves as His pure reflection. Prayer is about listening so intently to hear God's message that we don't allow any negative or worrisome thoughts to succeed in distracting us—and God helps us do this.

Reverent listening to God enabled Christ Jesus to prove so fully and completely the reforming and healing power of God. Reverent communion with God was also key to Mary Baker Eddy's marvelous success in the practice and teaching of Christ-healing. Mrs. Eddy yearned for Christian Scientists to adopt this listening attitude. In the chapter "Christian Science Practice" in Science and Health she wrote: "The infinite Truth of the Christ-cure has come to this age through a 'still, small voice,' through silent utterances and divine anointing which quicken and increase the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the consummation of my hope, namely, the student's higher attainments in this line of light" (p. 367). She also wrote of the "morning meal" during which Christian Scientists "... bow before Christ, Truth, to receive more of his reappearing and silently to commune with the divine Principle, Love" (p. 35).

Of course, silent communion can be practiced at any hour of the day, although I've found the quiet early morning hours can be especially conducive to spiritual study and prayer.

In this regard, another lesson from nature comes to mind. We spent several vacations at a family camp in northern Minnesota on a lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. I enjoyed going out early in the morning and sitting on a rocky hill overlooking the lake and the pine-filled forest to study the Christian Science Bible Lessons, and to pray.

At first, everything was totally still—no wind, no noise. Then, gradually, everything would begin to wake up. A male loon would appear on the lake's quiet surface and begin staking out the day's territory for his family's safety—and soon the mother loon and her babies would follow. A breeze would begin to rustle the trees and form ripples on the lake. The birds would begin to chirp and sing, and the noises and movements of chipmunks and other creatures would join the chorus.

Those experiences have inspired me to embrace my study and prayer times with a quiet, reverent thought so that I can "hear" the marvelous details God is forever revealing of His magnificent spiritual creation. In this frame of thought, God becomes alive to me, awakening within me a gentle awareness and appreciation of the precious spiritual qualities and ideas that make up His nature and the nature of His spiritual universe. God and His ideas become real and tangible, and my love for God and His creation grows stronger day by day. It's in this way that the healing activity of God enters into our daily lives.

GET TO KNOW GOD BETTER

Jesus' emphasis on the primary importance of loving God should be encouraging to anyone striving to demonstrate God's healing power. It shows where to direct one's mental energies. I've been surprised over and over again, though, to hear individuals say, "I'm not sure I know how to love God." And this discourages them because they think they somehow can't muster up enough love for God to demonstrate His healing power—as if loving God were something manufactured through human effort, whereas loving God comes naturally as we draw close to Him with receptive hearts and allow ourselves to become intimately acquainted with Him. It is His love growing within us that heals us and enables us to heal others.

The more we grow in our understanding of and love for God, the more we understand our own true nature, and the true nature of others, as God's reflection. In this way our capacity for love broadens, and we find ourselves more naturally able to fulfill what Jesus considered the commandment second only to loving God with all our heart—to love our neighbor as ourselves (see Mark 12:31).

Embracing our days in quiet moments of reverent communion with God is a way of living that inevitably results in healing. Mrs. Eddy put it this way: "To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 160).

That may seem like a lofty goal. Well, it is. Go for it! |CSS