'Alert to the pull of hatred'

I have just read "Violence is no way forward" in the issue of May 12 about former terrorist Christine Hewicker. What courage and humility she has, to tell her life story and to be traveling around her country in order to inform others so they can be awake and alert to the pull of hatred and anger: That is some turnaround from being behind bars to having your picture on the front of the Sentinel. At first I didn't think the article would be of much interest to me, but when I started reading it, I could relate myself (in a smaller way) to what she went through.

I attended a Christian Science Sunday School from a young age up until I was 20, and then I drifted away for about 15 years and even became anti-religion. For a number of years if anyone religious was near me, I would use swear words that I knew would offend them; however, I did notice that they did not react, which rather took the "bite" away. I tried to rob people of their happy marriages and relationships.

Later when I married, my prison and solitary confinement came when my then-husband informed me that he wanted a divorce. I could tell no one. For many months I was swamped in guilt and shame, and it was during this period of misery, depression, loss of any will for the joy of living, that Christian Science again came to me.

I had to learn forgiveness for past things done, let them go, and move forward. Helped daily by a Christian Science practitioner, my whole life turned around. [This experience] has left me with a great desire to help others as I was helped.

Thank you for that article. It woke up even more gratitude in me for the articles you write.

Philippa Muldoon Darley Green
North Knowle West Midlands, England

Inspiration and illumination from the Sentinel

Thank you for that inspiring article on Christine Hewicker in the 12 May issue. In my nearly 50 years of reading the Sentinel, that was one of the most, if not the most, riveting article I have ever read. The way her life was turned around was a most compelling and eloquent proof that the Christ is ever at work, even in prison. If one terrorist can be touched on his or her path by an angel (whether in the form of a person or an intuition), as she was, and be made to rethink his or her position, as she was, then there is hope that other terrorists can and will be touched in the same way.

Certainly that article has given me added incentive to continue my prayers for the peace of the world, including the affirmation of the indelible, inherent peacefulness and peaceableness of everyone as a child of God. And since reading that article, I have found myself adding into my prayers an affirmation that God's man cannot be influenced erroneously, as that appeared to be the start of [Hewicker's] problems.

Sentinel founder Mary Baker Eddy made it clear in Science and Health that "... there is no transfer of evil suggestions from one mortal to another, for there is but one Mind, and this ever-present omnipotent Mind is reflected by man and governs the entire universe" (p. 496). So there is no other but the one divine Mind, which is Love, with power to govern or influence anyone.

Incidentally, by the time I read the last two or three articles in that same Sentinel, the wonderful thought came to me, like a flash of light, that I was reading an "illuminated manuscript," like the illuminated manuscripts of old. I just felt that was what I was dong—clearly reflecting the uplift and illumination I had felt from reading that Sentinel.

Andrew Wilson
Morecambe, Lancashire England

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