I ATTENDED a Christian Science Sunday School until I was a teenager, and then I drifted away from the religion.

In 1994, after a period of unemployment and some soul-searching, I took a job in the medical nursing field. Earlier on, as a conscientious objector in Germany, I had performed my alternative service as a nurse's aide in elder care, and I had enjoyed doing this kind of work.

In 1995, my girlfriend and our young son and I went to the island of Cyprus on a vacation. While there, our son became ill with a skin disease. My girlfriend had learned about Christian Science from my parents, and since we were not sure about finding appropriate medical care for our son where we were, we decided to contact a Christian Science practitioner for help through prayer. I wanted to help our son, but didn't know how to go about praying for him. However, I thought that I could find out by reading Science and Health. We had a copy of the book with us, and so I sat down with a bottle of beer and just started to read. As I did, I lost all desire for the beer. I used to consume alcohol daily. But since then, I haven't had another drink. Not only that, but my son was healed very quickly.

After returning home to Germany, my girlfriend and I began attending Christian Science church services. We both wanted to know more about this Science and how it heals. We looked around for a Christian Science teacher and took class instruction in Christian Science. After our very first talk with the teacher, we also decided to finally get married. We suddenly saw no more reason not to do it.

Along with my renewed commitment to Christian Science, I found myself motivated to contribute to healing in a more spiritual way. My work in medically oriented elder care was becoming less and less compatible with my growing understanding of the spiritual identity of every man and woman. I soon visited a Christian Science nursing facility in Germany to see how patient care was handled there. Starting in 2000, I received training from a Christian Science nurse, who became my mentor in Christian Science nursing.

I found both nursing activities had some similarities. But the spiritual foundation and motivation in Christian Science nursing were very different from what I had been used to.

In medical care the focus is always on the material body. For example, in my former job, when a patient had been in bed for a long time and was starting to walk again, he or she would have had physical therapy, and we would repeat certain exercises again and again to train and build up muscles.

In Christian Science nursing, the focus is on the supremacy of Mind, or God. For a Christian Science nurse, Science and Health is the foundation of the work. In it, Mary Baker Eddy described muscles as not self-acting, but as "thought forces." She explained: "Mind alone enlarges and empowers man through its mandate,—by reason of its demand for and supply of power. Not because of muscular exercise, but by reason of the blacksmith's faith in exercise, his arm becomes stronger" (p. 199).

As a Christian Science nurse, I support the patient with "normal" activities—not with the goal of restoring something physically, but by keeping my thought focused on the individual's spiritual perfection and expression of life, which come from God. I encourage him or her not to think so much about physical movement, but to understand more about what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, "In him [God] we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

I have found that people can sometimes become somewhat hypnotized by their physical circumstances. I see it as my contribution to help awaken an individual from this hypnotic state by lovingly caring for them, applying the necessary physical care without fear and without being impressed by the material condition.

In Christian Science nursing, we heed this advice found in Science and Health: "Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts" (p. 261). To me, this requires trusting that divine Love guides all of us and supplies us with all we need—at every moment. And it's such a joy to see healing happen as a result of this spiritual understanding.

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