When I was a young woman in my 20s, unmarried, but going out with a man I planned to marry, I began to have extreme abdominal pain and a bloated stomach. It got to the point that I couldn't even touch my stomach.

Christian Science was very new to me then, but my sister was a practicing Christian Scientist, so I knew a little about it. I had had a number of gynecological health problems, which were taken care of through medical means, so I decided to go to the doctor about my abdominal pain. He diagnosed me as having an ovarian cyst, the size of a grapefruit. This left me feeling in a complete panic. I had recently gone through surgery, which added to my fear.

The doctor suggested a biopsy, to which I agreed. I went through preoperative testing at the hospital. The doctor told me there was a chance I would lose either one or both of my ovaries. I was very afraid that this operation would diminish my capacity to have children and would adversely affect my relationship with the man I was dating.

Two nights before the surgery, I called my sister. She had my brother meet me on the highway to give me Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, since it was late and there was nowhere else to get it. My sister had always shared thoughts and ideas from her study of Christian Science, and although I was not studying it, Iwas intrigued. So my sister began to pray with me. She told me to pray with the ideas in "the scientific statement of being." which begins: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter" (p. 468). We also discussed the fact that I was the perfect and innocent reflection of God. And she also told me to read the chapter "Prayer." I followed her directions while she prayed for me.

The next day when I went to keep my preoperation appointment at the doctor's office, I asked that he perform another sonogram. He said that he had already done that. Then I asked that he just double check. So he did. He was stunned to find no evidence that a cyst had ever been there. He suggested that I continue doing whatever I had done.

What happened there confirmed for me that Christian Science was a way of life I needed to pay more attention to.

This healing occurred in 1991, and there has been no further trouble or recurrence. I have studied and practiced Christian Science since then, and have become a member of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. I am eternally grateful for the blessings in my life that have come about from the practice of Christian Science, and I am thankful for the love and compassion I received so promptly from my sister during that time of need.

I did marry the man I mentioned earlier, and we have two beautiful little boys.

Deirdre D'Amico
Norwalk, Connecticut