I would like to share a healing of a physical condition that had persisted for more than two years. During that time I had been taking dancing lessons, and I believed that the pain I felt in my knees was the result of improper dance techniques. Eventually I stopped dancing because of the pain. During subsequent months I prayed intermittently about the condition. The pain did not go away. Instead it grew to be constant, and there were days when normal walking was difficult.

One morning I woke in such discomfort that I was afraid I would not be able to get out of bed. Eventually I managed to get up and go to work, but by the time I arrived home that evening I was in tears because my knees hurt so much.

I crawled into bed and began to pray. As I calmed down, this verse from the Bible came to me (I John 4:18): "Perfect love casteth out fear." I realized that not only did my knees hurt, but also during the past two years fear had been allowed to run rampant. I was afraid that this condition might never be healed, that it might grow worse and someday incapacitate me completely. The promise of the Bible verse comforted me. I became confident that Love, my dear Father-Mother God, would answer my prayer, cast out the fear, and destroy the painful condition.

Although the next morning my knees were no better, a phrase from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy came to thought. All I could recall were these words: "Have no fear that matter can ache, swell, and be inflamed. ..." There was no time to look up the passage then, but I wondered all day why Mrs. Eddy could say "have no fear." I found myself thinking, "How can I not be afraid when my knees do ache!"

I looked up the passage in Science and Health that evening. In its entirety it reads (p. 393): "Have no fear that matter can ache, swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have no pain nor inflammation. Your body would suffer no more from tension or wounds than the trunk of a tree which you gash or the electric wire which you stretch, were it not for mortal mind."

When I'd finished reading the passage, I was certain it contained the answer to my prayer. I wrote it out on a piece of paper and carried it with me all the next day, referring to it whenever I was in pain. That week's Bible Lesson [outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly] helped me clarify what I had gleaned from pondering the passage in Science and Health: that pain is not in matter, it is a creation of mortal mind; and mortal mind's creation is nothing but a lie. As the day progressed I found that I was able to turn more and more consistently from what mortal mind was claiming to be true to what divine Mind was imparting of Truth. I saw that only qualities derived from God—joy, strength, beauty, and perfect freedom of action—were part of the real creation. And those qualities were all that I could truly express.

That evening and the following day I was involved in some activities which in the past would have resulted in great discomfort—lengthy walking and standing, and then sitting in cramped seats. All the time I was praying. I became unimpressed by mortal mind's claim that matter ached, unafraid that I would have to pay a penalty for the activities. When I went to bed that evening I was not anxious whether the morning would bring pain, but really happy about the new view I had gained of God's creation.

In the morning I woke, perfectly healed! And since that time I have been able to do everything—walk, run, ride my bike, kneel, climb stairs, and so forth—normally.

I'm very grateful for this healing and its clear proof that no matter how lengthy or firm a hold a difficulty claims to have, that hold can be released immediately and its effects nullified completely as a result of our turning to God in scientific prayer.

SUSAN CLAIRE MOLLER
Dorchester, Massachusetts