2/18/2013 Reaching someone who seems beyond help QUESTION: “How does one heal someone who has lost their sense of orientation, who is 80 percent deaf, who doesn’t know who he is, or with whom he is, anymore? I believe in spiritual healing. I want to see such healing for this man.” (Question originally asked in French.) RESPONSE: Prayer is especially helpful in such cases because it bypasses broken down lines of human communication and lifts the case directly to God. Prayer involves engaging spiritual sense, which is the innate capacity we all have to discern spiritual reality. Through spiritual sense we can discern the true and present nature of God and man and prove that no one is out of reach of God’s care. When the material senses break down, a case can seem unreachable. But this evidence of deterioration only points to a mortal belief about man as cut off from good. This is never the actual case. No one is without hope or help. Your prayers that seek out God’s perspective of His creation can lead you to the truth about the material senses – that they neither limit nor define a man’s capabilities. When we stop fretting over what seems to limit the person and discover real life to be limitless and free in God, the door opens wide to healing. The identity and liberty of each one of God’s children are intact and safe. Never separated from the divine Life that is God, real life is completely free from limiting, material conditions. We don't have to wait for some hereafter moment to experience the freedom of spiritual being. This present state of existence is completely discoverable through prayer. A marginal heading, “Identity not lost” appears twice in Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “What is man? Brain, heart, blood, bones, etc., the material structure? If the real man is in the material body, you take away a portion of the man when you amputate a limb; the surgeon destroys manhood, and worms annihilate it. But the loss of a limb or injury to a tissue is sometimes the quickener of manliness; and the unfortunate cripple may present more nobility than the statuesque athlete, — teaching us by his very deprivations, that ‘a man’s a man, for a’ that.’” (172) “The material body and mind are temporal, but the real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the real man is not lost, but found through this explanation; for the conscious infinitude of existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and remains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his. The notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleasures and pains, the birth, sin, sickness, and death of matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this belief is all that will ever be lost.” (302) If you are worried that your prayers “here” may not reach one in need “there,” don’t be. It has been scientifically proven that the discernment of the true nature of man in one human consciousness can set others free from their false beliefs about themselves. Christ Jesus discerned the perfect man that divine Truth, God, creates and maintains. He did this in cases where, to material sense, the patient seemed completely out of reach. (See the healing of Jairus’ daughter, Gospel of Luke 8:41-56; and the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Gospel of John, chapter 11) Jesus proved that no one cut off from the Love that is God. He discerned the kingdom of God within us – the spiritual capacity to know and express the Life that is God. Mary Baker Eddy explained, “When speaking of God’s children, not the children of men, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you;” that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God’s image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy. Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect nor material.” (476) Jesus didn’t illustrate an exception to the rule. He showed that the power to heal belongs to each of us and can be demonstrated when we understand who we are as children of God. The divine perspective that heals the sick and raises oneself and others out of the oblivion of material sense is available to everyone who is willing to seek it out. Your prayers are important. Let your search for healing begin with deepening, expanding, your understanding of the true nature of God. The Bible and Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health are indispensable tools to aid you in your prayers. Let them open your eyes to what God is, and to what he is doing right now for His creation. I frequently receive questions from readers of this blog concerning the practice of healing prayer. Many questions are personal in nature, but occasionally I receive a question generic enough to be addressed for a wider audience. If you have helpful thoughts to share with this questioner, please feel free to leave them in your comment below. Love it? Please share.
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nancy
2/19/2013 04:21:44 am
This timely (for me) blog ties in with an experience I am having with a dear dear relative diagnosed with "dementia" and who has been put in a home by her kids. Needless to say I absolutely refused that diagnosis. As she is a devoted Christian Scientist, in my weekly cards to her I include a quotation from Mrs. Eddy's writings, poems, hymns.. that can relate to the picture on the card. Just something short, not a thesis. I have been told that she loves the mail and shares with everyone.
Michelle Nanouche
2/19/2013 10:51:40 am
Such great example of reaching out in a meaningful way. And of your relative's refusal to be defined in material terms. Thank you so much for telling your/her story.
Kathleen
2/19/2013 06:17:19 am
Michelle, this article is very helpful for me right now. I have a dear friend who has lost her husband. After some time of being alcohol-free, she has turned to it again in her grief. In a way, alcoholism, or any illness, is similar to dementia or deafness. One feels no longer in the safety and presence of divine Mind, our true home and (seemingly) no longer listen's to Mind's guidance. It is not my responsibility to heal my friend (she has not asked for my help), but it is my responsibility to see all of God's children as He made them
Michelle Nanouche
2/19/2013 10:54:19 am
So glad that you are ready to witness to the truth about God's child. Don't underestimate the healing power of even an indirect spiritual thought. You are a healer, Kathleen. And thanks for sharing the link, too.
Kris
2/19/2013 07:18:53 am
Beautiful hopeful blog, Michelle. As I read it, I thought of "Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts consciousness...." (Science and Health). It's never what "we" are thinking or "they" are thinking, is it? It's what God is knowing and imparting to us and to each one, and THAT knowing cuts through all human diagnosis and theory like a laser, to reveal the man of God's making. I love your writing and am so grateful you are sharing it through this blog. Merci!
Michelle Nanouche
2/21/2013 01:49:52 am
Right on, Kris. And we make a great pair. You love reading the posts and I love writing them. Let's meet here again soon! Comments are closed.
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Find me on YouTube I have practiced Christian Science professionally in some form since 1979. But my journey with Christian Science started in a Sunday school where as a young child I was taught the Scriptures and some simple basics of Jesus' method of scientific Christian healing. A significant experience at the age of twelve opened my eyes to the great potential of this practice. After impaling my foot on a nail, I prayed the way I had learned in Sunday school. Within moments the pain stopped and healing began. By the next morning the wound had disappeared completely. Having experienced the great potential of Christian Science, there would be no turning back. |
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© 2011-2025 Michelle Boccanfuso Nanouche, CSB. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy. Site updated January 6, 2025.