When I first began to play the organ for churches other than my childhood Christian Science Society, I did not understand many of the terms used in their services. There were different types of prayer, different reasons for communion, ways of thinking about sin, with which I was unfamiliar. Jesus was God and Mary was Mother of God — foreign thinking for me. But now, after a decade of watching three beautiful congregations of Methodists, Presbyterians, and Catholics, I think I get it. We all need comfort and love. Many of us are at peace when we see that all our needs are already supplied, and it’s up to us to accept divine Love. Some of us feel like sinners and need absolution in order to survive and thrive. Many want the communion of like-minded folk, to walk hand-in-hand with a tribe, to have someone to call on in times of need. But the bottom line is we all want to feel and share the Love which is God. Because there is no other love, not in reality. Whatever you do which expresses kindness and charity, whatever brings you comfort, whatever helps you see yourself as One with All That Is — Keep on doing it! And don’t be afraid to think outside of your comfort zone.
“The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is Life eternal.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page vii: 13-15
“Right perception is necessary before God can communicate directly to His altars, which He established in His Sons. There He can communicate His certainty, and His knowledge will bring peace without question. God is not a stranger to His Sons, and His Sons are not strangers to each other. Knowledge preceded both perception and time, and will ultimately replace them. That is the real meaning of ‘Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,’ and ‘Before Abraham was I am.’ Perception can and must be stabilized, but knowledge is stable. ‘Fear God and keep His commandments’ becomes ‘Know God and accept His certainty.’”
A Course in Miracles T-3.III.6:1-7
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