Healing of painful, swollen foot

Maria da Graça Curado Ribeiro

First published in O Arauto da Ciência Cristã, the Portuguese edition of The Herald of Christian Science.

I have had many healings through the study of Christian Science. But one in particular was very important to me. It occurred four years ago while I was visiting Paris to attend my Christian Science association, which is an annual meeting of students who took Christian Science Primary class instruction with a Christian Science teacher. After leaving the meeting, feeling very inspired by the ideas that had been shared, I took a walk through Paris with two association friends. During this outing, I twisted my foot and fell. I felt a very sharp pain. My friends helped me get up and we continued our walk. After five minutes, I realized I couldn’t continue because the pain had become more intense. So I asked to return to the hotel.

That night, I couldn’t sleep because my foot was swollen and hurt a lot. My temperature was also elevated, as if I had a fever. I then decided to call a Christian Science practitioner for help through prayer. I told her what had happened and how I felt. She calmed me down and prayed with me for a few minutes. Soon after, I was able to fall asleep.

The next morning, however, although my temperature again felt normal, the pain in my foot was still severe. But, as I would be returning to Lisbon that day, I tried not to focus on the pain, but to go about as usual and to keep praying.

At lunch, I pondered a bit about why I was going through this situation after attending a meeting that had been so inspirational and healing.

Then the following Bible passage quoted in Science and Health came to my thought: “ ‘And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth’ ” (p. 558). This was explained a little further on in this way: “The angel’s left foot was upon the earth; that is, a secondary power was exercised upon visible error and audible sin” (p. 559).

As I thought about this passage, I realized that the “right foot upon the sea” and “left foot on the earth” could represent a struggle between spirit and matter. In my case, there was no doubt that the carnal mind had tried to gain dominion over me. I was feeling very inspired by the teachings I had heard at the association meeting, and I realized that this was an opportunity to prove the ultimate truth about God’s spiritual and perfect creation. I understood that human sense has no power, but “the angel,” the thought from God that comes to the consciousness of His children, eliminates “visible error and audible sin.”

I also acknowledged that the good that I had heard during the association could not be obscured by any accident, nor could I be harmed by something that was not a part of the divine perfection. The thought came to me very clearly that only God, Spirit, is real and has power.

It was proved to me that one minute of inspiration and spiritual understanding dissolves any supposed problem, because at that moment the pain ceased completely—so much so that I even forgot about the incident and the trouble with my foot.

I got up and went to take the bus to the airport. I was able to walk normally, with absolutely no swelling in my foot. The symptoms did not return.

It was an instantaneous healing, complete and permanent. There were no aftereffects and the foot has never hurt since then. It is wonderful to be able to experience the effectiveness of spiritual understanding and of scientific prayer!

Maria da Graça Curado Ribeiro
Lisbon, Portugal

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