Daily Practice January 19, 2026 Issue

Christian, scientific prayer: A protest of Truth

Our prayers can move us from earnest entreaty to enlightened inspiration, and from spiritual protest to permanent healing.

Deborah Peck

I was in college when I first began having migraines. By the time I reached graduate school, they had become more frequent, and a year later, when I was a law student, migraines sometimes kept me from attending classes.

One day, while working with my study group, I felt the onset of a migraine. I asked my friends to help me, and they kindly arranged several desks in a darkened, empty classroom so I could lie down on them, using a coat as a pillow. But I was actually hoping to do more than just wait for relief. I had recently started reading the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, where I learned that I could pray for healing instead of relying on medication.

Though I was new to Christian Science, the concepts I had been studying had profoundly shifted my thinking. Doctors had explained that medication might help manage the migraines, but I had gleaned from Science and Health the hope, and then the understanding, that permanent healing was possible.

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