METAPHYSICAL MEETING, January 16, 2012

Topic

More effective healing during church services and activities

Call to the meeting

Church services bring healing! If they didn’t, why would we go? Each of us has had healing moments in services and other church activities. Each congregant’s prayers for the congregation bring tangible healing results. Our metaphysical topic, “More Effective Healing during Church Services and Activities,” celebrates these healings and looks forward to the fruitage of continuing congregational prayer.

As you prepare to share your inspiration at this metaphysical meeting, you may want to consider the following questions:

- How do you obey and demonstrate Article VIII, Section 5, “Prayer in Church,” in our Church Manual: “The prayers in Christian Science churches shall be offered for the congregations collectively and exclusively” (Man. 42:1).

- How does an individual congregant contribute to more effective healing during our services? What does s/he need to do? How can we help each other to be more effective healers during our church activities?

- Please share with us a (recent) healing that you’ve had as a result of the congregation’s prayers.

Please attend and share, whether or not your contribution is written. Written contributions should be sent to the web site administrator for posting on our web site. If you can’t attend, please send your contribution to the moderator of the meeting, and it will be shared with the participants.

Your participation is valued!

“The silent prayers of our churches, resounding through the dim corridors of time, go forth in waves of sound, a diapason of heart-beats, vibrating from one pulpit to another and from one heart to another, till truth and love, commingling in one righteous prayer, shall encircle and cement the human race” (My. 189:6).

Top of page

Readings

Ps 111:1
James 5:15 the (to ;), 16 pray
Man. 42:1
No 39:2-4, 10-11, 17-19
Peo 9:22-1
My 189:9

Hymns: 450, 105, 277

Top of page

Member contribution A

Well, I didn’t answer the questions. Instead, I’m sharing my log of the results I witnessed of prayer in church since we decided on this topic.

December 12, metaphysical meeting: When we decided on this topic, one of our members said, “God meets our need in a way that we understand.” I really appreciated this simple acknowledgment that God really does meet our human need. He doesn’t give us an airplane if all we need is a car to drive to the market.

December 14, testimony meeting: I felt like I was attending the meeting with a new purpose and was energized with pen in hand to record new-found inspiration. During silent prayer, I realized for the first time that I am included in everybody else’s prayers. That was a nice feeling. Previously, I’ve been so focused on my duty to pray for the congregation that it hadn’t occurred to me that everybody else was including me. Thank you!

December 18, Sunday School: I have to admit that Sunday School is the service in which I have the hardest time feeling the prayers of others. I’m inspired, and I feel that my classes are inspired, but it’s an area I need to work on. However, that evening, one of the Sunday School students shared her angel experience, and I realized this was a result of inspiration she’s learning in Sunday School and at home.

December 21, testimony meeting: I gained a new appreciation for one of the citations from Science and Health. Man “reflects the beatific presence, illuming the universe with light” (266:27). So, man isn’t only a reflector, but the result of man’s reflection is that the entire universe is illuminated. God needs man to be His infinite reflection. Also, in an analogy with optics, you can only see things if they reflect light. If they absorb light, they are very black

December 25, Sunday School: A student shared her experience of using prayer to finish a Pokemon level. It made me feel not quite so bad about previously praying to know that I was coordinated when playing “Tilt City” and got a perfect score. Working with her on the readings for the following Wednesday, I gained an appreciation for I John 4:17, “...as he is, so are we in this world...” It’s another Biblical assertion that we can demonstrate God’s likeness here. We don’t have to wait until death (the orthodox view) or ascension.

December 28, prayer about church: Early today, I thought, “Yikes! I haven’t been expecting healing from my service in the Christian Science Reading Room.” But, then I realized that the last two times I was in the reading room, I was led to articles in the Bound Volumes that exactly met my need, without even looking for them. I was also led to an app for my iPhone that turns them into PDFs I can put in DropBox to transfer to my desktop computer. It’s a most useful app that I had no idea existed.

December 28, testimony meeting: A testimony included the phrase, “...it’s only a picture...” which was most helpful.

January 1, Sunday School: During silent prayer, I specifically prayed that Sunday School would be a healing time for all involved. In class, I had a “breakthrough” spiritual insight while discussing the Sermon on the Mount. I finally “got” why Jesus’ parable of the houses built on rock and sand are at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. It’s the firm foundation we build on, just like the house on the rock. Living according to these teachings will provide the correct basis for all of our activities. It corroborates Mrs. Eddy’s statement, “To my sense the Sermon on the Mount, read each Sunday without comment and obeyed throughout the week, would be enough for Christian practice” (’01 11:16-19).

January 3, reading room: The spirituality.com chat included a couple of really helpful statements.

January 4, testimony meeting: I realized that our metaphysical topic has really revolutionized my thought about church services. I’m learning to yield to the Truth of the prayers of the congregation. I’ve learned that I have as much responsibility to allow myself to be healed by your prayers as I have to pray for the congregation. I am, after all, a part of the congregation.

I quit taking notes after that, but I had one more insight. The Manual bylaw says, “...prayers in Christian Science churches...” not “prayers during Christian Science services...” There’s food for thought here.

I’ve learned that we must come to our services expecting to heal and be healed. It changes the entire experience.

Top of page

Member contribution B

To me there is much literal meaning to the Manual bylaw, Prayer in Churches. Over the years I’ve frequently used this bylaw to turn my thinking away from thoughts occupying my mind at that time about personal matters.

Another aspect of this bylaw is that it stipulates this prayer mush be for the congregations. I understand this to mean the Christian Science congregations specifically, bearing in mind that this one-sentence bylaw relates to prayer :in “Christian Science churches” rather than churches generally.

The words “collectively and exclusively” make plain that specific prayerful treatment is required. If this isn’t done, we aren’t watering our vineyard, and the leaves will wither. Like any other undertaking, “progress is the law of God” (S&H 235:6), but we must make the application of that law to our individual experience our own realization.

This bylaw demands much unselfing of thought and energy. It’s easy to follow it in a nominal manner, but certainly more challenging to truly put it into practice. That, of course, is true of all prayer. It requires dedicated, specific devotion of thought to what is spiritually true.

When we consider church as the “structure of Truth and Love” (S&H 583:12), we see the activity of the Christ in human consciousness as a manifestation of church in our affairs generally, not just the church organization. That’s a useful lesson because it follows that we can apply this bylaw to whatever project or commitment we are involved with.

However, the Christian Science churches specifically are what this bylaw essentially is calling us to take responsibility for. Doing so is a grand adventure in allowing divine Love and immortal Mind to be the architect and constructor of our lives and of our community.

Don’t underestimate the power of congregational prayer.

Top of page

Member contribution C

See Mary Baker Eddy's Miscellany page 150:11-23: “A heart touched and hallowed by one chord of Christian Science, can accomplish the full scale; but this heart must be honest and in earnest and never weary of struggling to be perfect — to reflect the divine LIfe, Truth, and Love.

“Stand by the limpid lake, sleeping amid willowy banks dyed with emerald. See therein the mirrored sky and the moon ablaze with her mild glory. This will stir your heart. Then, in speechless prayer, ask God to enable you to reflect God, to become His own image and likeness, even the calm, clear, radiant reflection of Christ's glory, healing the sick, bringing the sinner to repentance, and raising the spiritually dead in trespasses and sins to life in God.”

Top of page