“Oh, may you feel this touch”

By Dee Mahuvawalla, CS

The words in the title of this article are from Mary Baker Eddy’s book, Miscellaneous Writings. In her article on “Angels” she writes “   When angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts. Oh, may you feel this touch.” [Mis. 306:23-26] Here the author invites us all to feel the soothing, comforting and healing touch.

This angelic touch is an answer to prayer. It is felt amidst chaos and confusion, loneliness and loss, pain and poverty, sickness or sorrow, regret or remorse, discord or destruction, bankruptcy or beaurocracy, tears or fears, and terror or trauma.  

Mrs. Eddy felt this healing touch when she opened her Bible at random, and read the account to Jesus healing of the palsied man. [Matthew 9:2] Upon reading this account Mrs. Eddy was instantaneously restored to life from the jaws of death. She writes in the textbook, “   When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, standing already within the shadow of the death-valley, I learned these truths in divine Science: that all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-present; that the opposite of Truth, — called error, sin, sickness, disease, death, — is the false testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter.” S & H [108:19-26]

The Bible is full of accounts of people “touched by an angel”. The following are some of the examples: an angel announces future of Ishmael at his birth. [Gen. 16:1-16]; Abraham entertains angels [Gen. 18:1-18]; Jacob wrestles with angel [Gen. 32: 1-32]; Daniel visited by Gabriel [Dan. 9:20-23]; Joseph advised by angel to protect Mary [Matt. 1:18-25]; Jesus ministered to by angels after temptation [Matt. 4 1-11], Jesus’ birth heralded by angels [Luke 2: 8-20]; Peter imprisoned, but released by angel [Acts 5:17-42]; John’s vision of angel with a little book [Rev. 10:1-11].

Right in the midst of our deepest despair, these angel visitants restore peace and provision – be it lessons from nature, a sermon or a song, “these crumbs of comfort” are timely and trusting. Mrs. Eddy writes   “Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love — be it song, sermon, or Science — blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ's table, feeding the hungry and giving living waters to the thirsty.” [S & H 234:4]. She further writes “The "still, small voice" of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the globe's remotest bound.” [S & H 559:8-10]

 Christian Science teaches us that angels are “God’s thought passing to man”

[S & H 581:4].

A stanza from a favorite hymn sums this up

“God's angels ever come and go,

All winged with light and love;

They bring us blessings from on high,

They lift our thoughts above,

They whisper God is Love.”  [Hymn 9:2]

Under My Skin

By Dee Mahuvawalla CS

I’ve got the beauty of Soul

Under my skin,

Banishing all brokenness,

Sickness and sin.

I’ve got the quickening of Life

Under my skin,

Illuming my true worth,

Destroying records of time or birth.

I’ve got the propulsion of Principle

Under my skin,

Radiating face to face,

My life’s journey with His grace.

I’ve got Mind’s momentum

Under my skin,

Controlling, directing and healing

Thus harmony establishing.

I’ve got Spirit’s substance

Under my skin,

Uprooting and dissolving

All discord, disease, fear and guilt.

I’ve got Love’s loving and forgiving,

Under my skin,

Comforting gently

The betrayed, the lonely, or the lost sheep.

I’ve got Truth’s trust

Under my skin,

Steadfastly upholding

All faltering denying.

Clad under the armor

With His anointing,

I walk unfettered,

Blessed and free.

In His image and likeness

Jointly fitted together

Firmly knitted in His artistry

I portray my spiritual tapestry.

Constant pressure of the apostolic command

By Dee Mahuvawalla, CS

In the rat-race of the day to day living, mankind is constantly pressured by the cares of life. These pressures may appear to be financial, relationships, health, career, ageing, barrenness, lack, addiction, environmental or whatever. God is the GIVER of good, and has planted and created only good. Our God is a Deliverer, a Friend, a Restorer, a Rescuer.

Man is spiritual, and is therefore unpressured. He is not matter to be pressured by other illusive beliefs of matter. Man has dominion over any material beliefs that can suggest malfunction or dysfunction of his true substance.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in our textbook, “Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate. They must renounce aggression, oppression and the pride of power. Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow, must be their queen of life.” [S&H 451:2]

The word  “pressure” means “to force, as by overpowering influence or persuasion; to pressurize; the act of pressing; the condition of being pressed; the application of continuous force by one body on another that it is touching; compression; atmospheric pressure; a compelling or constraining influence, such as a moral force, on the mind or will: pressure to conform; peer-group pressure; urgent claim or demand: under the pressure of business; an oppressive condition of physical, mental, social, or economic distress; a physical sensation produced by compression of a part of the body. [Word origin from Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pressūra, from pressus, past participle of premere, to press. [www.answers.com]

Man is not matter or material. He is a spiritual idea “without a single element of error.” [S&H 463:12]. Hence man is never under pressure, he can never be oppressed, suppressed or depressed. His health reflects wholeness, is sound and resilient. His bodily functions are unobtrusive and effortless. He lives and moves through Spirit, not muscles or other material elements. He is only “under the constant pressure of the apostolic command” to glorify God in his body

Man is a compound idea of all right ideas; hence the belief of blood pressure cannot enter or touch his substance. E.g. one of the requirements for seniors to renew their driving license is medical examination. This renewal process, when spiritualized, is obeying the law of the land. It is a symbol of identification. It cannot cause any anxiety, confusion, pressure, or worry. Renewal represents newness, freshness, growth, beauty, fruition, fertility, joy, blooming, and productivity. Its not a source of dismay or pressure. “The attraction between native qualities will be perpetual only as it is pure and true, bringing sweet seasons of renewal like the returning spring.” [S&H 57:11]

Love circulates good, it never stagnates, pressures or clogs. It flows smoothly. Mrs. Eddy defines “RIVER.  Channel of thought. When smooth and unobstructed, it typifies the course of Truth; but muddy, foaming, and dashing, it is a type of error.” [S&H 593:14-17]

TEMPLE.  Body; the idea of Life, substance, and intelligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of Love” [S&H 595:7]

Let us embrace this superstructure of Truth, as we go about our day to day experiences, and about our Father’s business, with joy, freedom, and gratitude.

The Psalmist says, “[DIVINE LOVE] is my shepherd; I shall not want.     Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [LOVE] for ever.] [S&H 578:5,16]

Divine Economy

Divine economy is stable and secure,
That which is incapable
Of discord, or being unsure-
God’s government forever, pure and assured.

Divine economy is steadfast,
Neither waxing nor waning,
Inexhaustible and undeclining,
Gently ever-flowing.

Divine economy is prosperous,
Free from want or woe,
Where superabundance of good is,
And no financial crunch or crisis can exist.

Divine economy is fruitful,
Its harvest full and abounds
With plenty, that surrounds-
And no chaos to confound.

Divine economy is safe,
Untarnished or undimmed.
“Above error’s awful din, [S&H 307:31]
Free from deceit, greed, or sin.

This divine economy is immutable,
Timeless and indestructible;
Continues to bless all mankind,
With its flourishing fruition.

Dee Mahuvawalla

Seeing ourselves as God made us

Have you ever dreamed that you could fly, where you have the ability to take off, soar over and look down on scenes below?  I had such a dream recently and it was quite wonderful.  I could move sideways and up and down.  I could push myself off the ground and shoot into the air as if I had a personal rocket strapped to my back.

This dream, together with inspiration from the weekly Bible Lesson on “Substance”, helped shine some light on the area of human disability and dysfunction.  The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 mandated that buildings, public transportation, housing, employment – sectors that had previously been mostly inaccessible - would need to be made accessible to those with disabilities, that accommodations would need to be made for their needs.  This act raised awareness in the rest of society of the obstacles and challenges faced by those who could not move about freely and independently, which was a good thing.  Such awareness can be a double-edged sword, however, allowing entrance into thought of the notion that disability is a fact that can limit being or action, for others or ourselves.  For me, there has been some acceptance that there will be a gradual loss of mobility as one ages or that joints may be stiff and painful.

In Christian Science, as the lesson on “Substance” made clear, we are learning to see ourselves as God made us – painless and free, unencumbered by what the material senses might report about our bodies or minds.  From Science and Health, these sentences were striking:  “It is a false supposition, the notion that there is real substance-matter, the opposite of Spirit” (p. 278) and “Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay” (p. 468).

Neither Christ Jesus nor Mary Baker Eddy accepted disability when they encountered it.  Both of these great healers met claims of paralysis, insanity, deformity, blindness, even death, with absolute confidence, knowing that the power of God, Spirit, was fully capable of rectifying and restoring what seemed to be abnormal or absent functioning (see the gospel of Luke, chapters 5, 7, 8, 13, and 18 and Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Healer, index, pages 610-613). 

Since, as we learn through our study and practice of Christian Science, our outward experience mirrors what we hold in consciousness, I’ve realized that what I accept about others, I’m accepting about myself and that what I affirm for myself, I’m affirming for everyone.  To be a Christian disciple and healer means continuously acknowledging limitless being as the spiritual fact for everyone.

Issues of an aging or disabled body - or a violence-prone, out of control world - are set aside with the realization that we are capable of soaring above and beyond the limitations of human sense and reasoning, denying and defying whatever would suggest that we are less than the perfect reflections of perfect Mind, God:  harmonious, peaceful, blessed.

Marilyn McPherson