CAUSE or Movement?

Dear __________,

Your message to _______, stirs thought to reflect
upon the fact that when one checks ones Concordance,
it is evident in the various books found in Prose
Works, including the Church Manual that the
Pastor Emeritus of The Mother Church referenced
the Cause of Christian Science many more times than
she did the Movement of Christian Science. A
comparison of these terms is noteworthy. The great
Cause of Christian Science is going on always and
we must only bring ourselves in alignment with it.

Certainly to enter a Christian Science church service
with thoughts filled with self concern or arrogance,
will not afford one the joy of bringing out and
sharing those spiritual gifts of blessing that he or
she alone may share. What is needful is for each
one to fill his or her thought with,

"Oil.Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration."1.

One must leave a false sense of self outside the door so that
one may fulfill the imperative demand of attending to the business
at hand of prayer, that is blessing the congregation.

Of this, our Leader admonishes in the Church Manual,
page 42, under DISCIPLINE that:

"Prayer in Church. Sect. 5. The prayers in
Christian Science churches shall be offered for
the congregations collectively and exclusively."

Visiting other churches I have noted that their prayer
intentions are for the world or for a particular
political outcome, or for the community. However,
we do not have that same path. The Christian Science
service in praising our God is devoted to the realization
of the wholeness of all those present who are termed
the congregation.

It is obvious why this is so. We may only love our neighbors
as we love ourselves. By leaving a false sense of self out
of the equation and blessing the entire congregation with
Christly love and caring - with prayers that divine Mind gives
each individual heart to bless the whole - *this* does more for the
community and the world than anything else. The attendees may then
go forth refortified to extend their sense of Truth and
wholeness to the community, their neighborhoods,
state, country, the world and so on.

The best way to accomplish this is not by revved up organization
but by the humble simplicity of prayer and heavenly inspiration.

It has really nothing to do with too many committees,
long meetings that drain one of spiritual sense and
incite recognition of the personal sense of this one
or that.

Members who have been truly touched by the Christ-Light
of perfect BEING will want to depart in holy reflection
along with a natural friendliness among the other
attendees. The thought that has been touched by the
Christ, that has received that cold cup of living water
is satisfied very simply. Not too much is required.
The least organization, the better. This was why it
was recommended by Mrs. Eddy for her followers to form
voluntary associations free of the heaviness and
social stratification inherent in the bonds of
ecclesiastical despotism.

In Christian Science as Paul preaches, and as
Marin Luther admonished 2., we are all fellow priests, each
one charged with commending to one another in our
congregations those infinite blessings unconfined
and divine.

Paula

1. Mary Baker Eddy, from the chapter Glossary from
the Key To The Scriptures in Science and
Health - page 592:25-26.

2. http://history.hanover.edu/texts/luthad.html