Praying for the World January 26, 2026 Issue

Bringing peace to our cities through wisdom and love

Kim Crooks Korinek

Originally published as A Christian Science Perspective in The Christian Science Monitor

In Minneapolis, all spiritual thinkers and sacred institutions are being asked to focus their spiritual work on de-escalating the fear, division, and threat of violence currently gripping our community. The question pressing on every spiritually awake heart is: What can I actually do to help?

We can pray. Prayer is deliberately standing firm in divine Truth until the lie that there can be any power apart from Truth, God, collapses. Prayer isn’t wishful thinking or passive hoping. In Christian Science, prayer is seen and experienced as a power for good. In No and Yes, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, says: “True prayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection. . . . it shows us what God is” (p. 39). God is infinite Love. And we are created to rise in the demonstration of Love, God, resisting all that suggests Love’s absence or powerlessness.

One way that we can pray is with the confidence that “the cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 571). When we do, something shifts. We’re refusing to accept polarization and violence as inevitable. We’re denying power to the notion that hatred can be anyone’s motivator. We’re affirming that every person living in or passing through our city is, in reality, the beloved expression of the one divine creator. This understanding dissolves the mental atmosphere that breeds conflict. True prayer directs thought to better choices and clearer thinking on behalf of all involved, and leads to genuine de-escalation.

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