My very deep gratitude goes to all who make it possible to publish and print The Christian Science Monitor, and to Mary Baker Eddy, who has brought to the world the idea of a healing, helping newspaper.

A friend sent the paper to me in a remote Irish village. At first I did not read it and used it for packing pottery. When I did commence to read, its pages soon began to bring a sense of hope, help, intelligence, and guidance into my life.

This gift subscription, with its constant flow of good news throughout the year, opened my thought to ask questions about Christian Science and to receive the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, from a friend. I read in it every evening, and within a few weeks the joy and satisfaction that came to me through this reading replaced all sensual desires. I found complete freedom, and it has remained with me.

I had grown up in Germany during the war and had not been educated to believe in God. Self–justification and self–deception took over in my thinking. During my training as an artist in London, the concept that man is a creator became dominant. A false sense of freedom led me to a lesbian relationship, following a broken marriage. Science freed me of this.

It is hard to describe the relief and joy brought into my life by an understanding that God, Spirit, creates man. I learned the meaning of real freedom. Within a year a wonderful regeneration took place. Without special effort I lost the desire for drinking and smoking. During the past five years I have not wanted to go back to either.

A rheumatic condition, which had been painful and persistent since childhood, was healed. A doctor had confirmed that I must give up my work as a potter, must never do any heavy work, and could not hope to improve. Six months after studying the Christian Science textbook I was able to lift very heavy clay and work harder than ever before on the potter's wheel. I felt quite young again.

I had refused to read the Bible, but this resistance was also overcome when it became clear to me that Science and Health is the key that makes Scripture truths practical. I am deeply grateful for this source of unlimited inspiration.

Very great comfort came to me from reading the testimonies in the Christian Science periodicals, as I lived eighty miles from the nearest Church of Christ, Scientist. The leading thought for me during the necessary adjustment in my homelife and business was, "a sweet and certain sense that God is Love." Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 569), "He that touches the hem of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing,—in a sweet and certain sense that God is Love." With this certain sense that God is Love I have found that His love is constant.

The third tenet of Christian Science has been particularly helpful to me in dismissing a sense of guilt because of past actions. It reads (ibid., p. 497): "We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts."

My heart goes out in gratitude to the members of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Cork, Ireland, for maintaining services and a lovely Reading Room, which help and heal, and for the work of the Christian Science practitioner, whose friendship never wavers. I am most grateful for active membership in the church and the opportunity to grow in the understanding and application of Science, for membership in The Mother Church and the strong sense of support experienced through this membership.

Class instruction has brought a deeper awakening to the spiritual identity of men and women and the reality of Life, and it has brought the priceless understanding that I must go and do likewise—demonstrate God's control in my life—as the best way to share my gratitude for the joy received through Christian Science. Many more blessings resulting from my daily study of the Lesson–Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly could be recounted, particularly protection while I was driving and traveling to Egypt for a visit.

This passage in Miscellaneous Writings by Mrs. Eddy is taking on ever deeper meaning for me (p. 356): "A radiant sunset, beautiful as blessings when they take their flight, dilates and kindles into rest. Thus will a life corrected illumine its own atmosphere with spiritual glow and understanding." My gratitude to God for Christ Jesus and for the reinstatement of spiritual healing by Mrs. Eddy is boundless. (Miss) Christa Reichel
Cork, Republic of Ireland