Article June 10, 2019 Issue

Answering the call from hungering hearts—wherever we are

Samuela Orth-Moore

Originally published on sentinel.christianscience.com, March 11, 2019.

For most of my adult life, I was an American living in Africa, in five different countries. It was an enriching experience, whether my family and I were in Togo, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, or Liberia. I met many wonderful people there, some of whom remain friends today. During that time I also found out about Christian Science and began to study its teachings. At various times I called on Christian Science practitioners to pray for my family or me when we had challenges, some of which were dire. Sometimes the tangible results of those prayers were seen immediately, and sometimes it took a little longer, but it was clear to me that the consecrated prayers of these dear ones were key in bringing healing in every case. The practitioners’ spiritual fire and understanding of the Christ—the idea of divine Truth, which Jesus had evidenced as the basis for healing—burned brightly. 

It’s interesting to note that the practitioners I reached out to happened to be living back home in the United States, just as people in the US can reach out for help to practitioners on other continents, including Africa. Impartial, universal divine Truth is able to displace any darkness of thought and bring healing and needed solutions, regardless of how many miles separate the one praying and those they are praying for. Location and distance clearly weren’t factors in the powerful impact of the prayerful help we received. What did matter was that I was receptive to divine Truth, to the universality and eternality of the Christ.

The kind of prayer that can heal regardless of distance is grounded in a spiritual understanding of God as ever-present Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love—synonyms for God that Christian Science teaches express His nature and wholeness. And such prayer is outward-facing, embracing individuals and the whole world in an unselfed love with the kind of Christlike affection seen in Jesus’ instruction that we love one another in the way that he loved us (see John 13:34). Living this commandment is prayer that Mary Baker Eddy, a devout follower of Christ Jesus and the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, describes as “true prayer,” which, she says, “is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection” (No and Yes, p. 39). 

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