FOR MANY YEARS NOW, I have learned to trust that God will help me when I need healing of health problems. Both small, everyday ailments and even huge ones—the "Goliaths" that could scare me because of their seriousness—respond to prayer. For example, one day when my youngest children were two and three, I felt a very severe pain in my head. My husband called a doctor, who determined that a vein had dilated in my cerebellum, causing an aneurysm. As a consequence, my entire right side was paralyzed. I could not move my arm or my leg. Also, one of my eyes was affected, causing double vision.

The doctor told me that for the rest of my life I should never lift any weight, nor make any kind of physical effort, because this could be fatal. He recommended that I receive daily arm and leg massages, which I did. I also was given daily eye exercises to do.

For a few months my husband was able to obtain a medical certificate so that I could be excused from my job. However, when he went to get it for the fifth time, because there had been no improvement in my condition, the doctor told him that next time he was going to give me a certificate or permanent disability.

When I heard this, I decided to see if I could be healed in Christian Science. My parents were the only people in town who had ever heard about this religion. When I was five years old, my father had a severe wound in his face that would not heal. The local doctor had done all he could to help, but to no avail. Then my father heard of a German couple who talked about spiritual healing. My father, who spoke German, went to visit them and came back with the book Science and Health. My father had a small business, working as a soft-stone sculptor. When he didn't work, he didn't make money. But his healing was more important to him than money. After that visit to the couple, he spent two weeks reading Science and Health in German. His second-grade level of education didn't keep him from getting the spiritual understanding he needed. After that two-week period, the wound was completely healed.

At the time I had aneurysm, I had been teaching elementary school for 15 years. So I decided to use a bonus six-month leave to which I was entitled. In this way, additional medical certificates would not be required. Because I was unable to move, I had two hired helpers to take care of my children and my house.

Although I had done a lot of eye exercises, my left eye still remained paralyzed, so I wasn't able to read. My mother started coming to my house every day, after doing her own household activities, and we decided she would read Science and Health to me, from cover to cover. She also read to me every day the Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly.

I cannot remember any particular passage from Science and Health that was most helpful, and this is probably because all the ideas presented about God and His creation were new to me. But those new concepts were not hard to understand. I remember enjoying my mother's readings so much. She would read and read, and repeat passages that seemed important. Sometimes she'd stop, and we'd talk.

My recuperation began slowly, but three months later there was visible progress. During all this time, the ideas in Science and Health were transforming my way of looking at the divine creation, and at myself. I realized that there was much more beyond what I could see with my eyes, because God's creation is spiritual. I lost the fear of death. I saw life as continuous, not limited by a number of years. I felt that God knew me, and I wanted to be available to serve Him. I felt that I was healed, even though I didn't have normal mobility. I knew that I was spiritually perfect, and a beloved daughter of God. And I continued to affirm this until I felt that perfection.

When I would try to move my arm or leg, and neither one responded, instead of being worried or upset as I had been before, I turned away, prayed, and stopped examining my body. It used to bother me when friends came to visit me, and I would have to use my left hand to help my right hand greet them. But then that didn't make me upset anymore.

After seven months of studying Science and Health, I was completely healed. I could use my right arm and leg, and I could see normally. I went back to my school and taught a class of third graders. At that time, a passage from Science and Health gave me lots of encouragement: "The admission to one's self that man is God's own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This conviction shuts the door on death, and opens it wide towards immortality" (p. 90). I am still able to move freely, walk long distances, and have a normal life. After going back to work, I also found I could master all my daily activities at work and at home better than before. I even went back to graduate school.

This healing took place more than 30 years ago, and I have never had any side effects or similar problems. And in the last 20 years I have been practicing spiritual healing as a Christian Science practitioner.

Today I see how important it is to be patient and calm when confronting health problems—even the giant ones. We need to do everything with love. "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time" (Eccl. 3:11).

Originally written for O Arauto da Christian Science.