2023 Association
February 27, 2023 Letter (Expanded Assignment)
Dear People,
The subject line says this is our Spring letter. Yesterday Santa Fe had an ice storm, but the sun is out this morning and there is the promise of Spring in the air. Thinking of that seasonal promise I am reminded of the promise that is God’s covenant with us as the newborn of Spirit - we are always able to claim our inheritance as the sons and daughters of divine Love. And the truth of our identity as Love’s own expressions is fulfilled in our readiness to comfort others, “by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God”. (II Cor 1:4)
I would like to draw your attention to this excerpt from St. Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colossae:
“Put on therefore… bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Col 2:12-14, 16
Church, as we’ve often noted, is more of a verb than a noun. The “structure of Truth and Love” is a continual unfoldment of God’s goodness as expressed by Mind’s ideas - you.
Association (as we’ve also often noted) is not a one day gathering in a Madison building, it is the ongoing activity of the Christ in your lives. It is also an activity provided in The Manual of the Mother Church, and like all church activities, it depends on your participation.
We’re all in this together and sharing with each other is a joy and our natural response to divine Love.
Please take 13 minutes and watch this video from the Longyear Museum. This is the spirit we share:
Our Christmas compilation of testimonies was a joyous inspiration that I go back to when praying for our Association. Now it is time to revisit our assignment and share with love and honesty your experiences.
For convenience, I’ll include the assignment here:
Make a record of every healing in Christian Science you’ve ever been part of.
There is no carved-in-stone criteria for a healing in Science. Having said that, it probably didn’t involve medical care (though there are certainly cases that began with medical care that ended in spiritual care). Speaking generally, a demonstration of Christian Science is any experience based in divine Principle (as opposed to the carnal mind that is mired in the primacy of material conditions). In a Christian Science healing, God’s law, above and independent of material conditions and the expectations of mortal mind was seen and felt. This may have involved a physical healing, or a change of thought that recognized divine good as present and at work, or it might have involved a change in circumstances that defied what seemed likely given the material factors.
As you are willing to allow that you actually have experienced healing in Science (yes, animal magnetism will try to suggest you never really did, and as usual mortal mind will have gotten it wrong) you will find yourself remembering more and more examples of God’s care in your experience. That’s why it is best to begin at once. This assignment will itself be a demonstration. The more you remember that God has always been with you, the more occasions of Spirit’s supremacy in your life you will find.
Let us know how this assignment has impacted your practice of Christian Science.
Keep a daily log of spiritual growth.
Get a notebook, or start an online document, or send yourself texts - it doesn’t matter how you do it, just take a minute each day to note what you’re working with: what inspired you, what you’re grateful for, what revelation occurred to you, how the Lesson helped get you through the day, questions that you’d like to have answered, statements from Science and Health that have become clearer… any of the above is appropriate.
Let us know how making these daily notes has impacted your practice of Christian Science.
I look forward to your responses which will support this year’s address.
The 2023 Association meeting will take place in Madison, Wisconsin at Concord House, 315 N. Mills Street on Saturday, May 20 at 9 a.m. There is no more meaningful place for us to be.
with love,
Caryl
December 7, 2022 Letter
Dear People,
At the Thanksgiving service this year I listened to members give thanks for their experiences in Christian Science and thought of you all and the many experiences you’ve been recalling and noting for this year’s assignment. I trust that you all have begun writing down accounts of the healings you’ve experienced and been part of. The blessings of remembering the specific examples of God’s goodness in your lives and the gratitude they inspire bring blessings manifold!
For Christmas, I’d like you all to share just one of those fruitage accounts - send it to me and I will compile them and share them with the Association; a truly Christian Christmas celebration.
Then, beginning on December 26th, in addition to continuing to write down all those healings, I’d like you to begin keeping a daily log of spiritual growth. Get a notebook, or start an online document, or send yourself texts - it doesn’t matter how you do it, just take a minute each day to note what you’re working with: what inspired you, what you’re grateful for, what revelation occurred to you, how the Lesson helped get you through the day, questions that you’d like to have answered, statements from Science and Health that have become clearer… any of the above is appropriate.
The topic of this year’s Association is: The mind of Christ.
Details of our Association day are in the previous letter (below).
I leave you with this extract from a Christmas Letter from our Leader:
Beloved Students: — My heart has many rooms: one of these is sacred to the memory of my students. Into this upper chamber, where all things are pure and of good report, — into this sanctuary of love, — I often retreat, sit silently, and ponder. ... This is my Christmas storehouse. Its goods commemorate, — not so much the Bethlehem babe, as the man of God, the risen Christ, and the adult Jesus. Here I deposit the gifts that my dear students offer at the shrine of Christian Science, and to their lone Leader. ...
Thus may our lives flow on in the same sweet rhythm of head and heart, till they meet and mingle in bliss supernal. There is a special joy in knowing that one is gaining constantly in the knowledge of Truth and divine Love. Your progress, the past year, has been marked. It satisfies my present hope. Of this we rest assured, that every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger and firmer in understanding and obedience.
Lovingly yours, Mary Baker G. Eddy
(Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 159:11–15, 17–22; 160:8–17)
with much love,
Caryl
September 17, 2022 Letter (Assignment)
Dear People,
"The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love." (SH 1:1–4)
One sentence with so many implications. One sentence that begins the first chapter of our textbook and manages to elucidate the entire revelation and method.
It speaks volumes about not only what sort of prayer Jesus taught and demonstrated but what sort of pray-er it takes to pray it.
And it begs the questions: Are you interested in that sort of prayer? Why does it interest you? And how committed to it are you?
These are some of the questions we’ll be exploring together to during the next eight months as we prepare for our 2023 Association meeting.
Starting now, I’d like you to make a record of every healing in Christian Science you’ve ever been part of.
There is no carved-in-stone criteria for a healing in Science. Having said that, it probably didn’t involve medical care (though there are certainly cases that began with medical care that ended in spiritual care). Speaking generally, a demonstration of Christian Science is any experience based in divine Principle (as opposed to the carnal mind that is mired in the primacy of material conditions). In a Christian Science healing, God’s law, above and independent of material conditions and the expectations of mortal mind was seen and felt. This may have involved a physical healing, or a change of thought that recognized divine good as present and at work, or it might have involved a change in circumstances that defied what seemed likely given the material factors.
As usual, I will implore you not to be daunted by the assignment and to get started immediately. Please, this year - take that request seriously!
As you are willing to allow that you actually have experienced healing in Science (yes, animal magnetism will try to suggest you never really did, and as usual mortal mind will have gotten it wrong) you will find yourself remembering more and more examples of God’s care in your experience. That’s why it is best to begin at once. This assignment will itself be a demonstration. The more you remember that God has always been with you, the more occasions of Spirit’s supremacy in your life you will find.
Let me know if you have any questions now, or along the way.
The 2023 Association meeting will take place in Madison, Wisconsin at Concord House, 315 N. Mills Street on Saturday, May 20 at 9 a.m. Start thinking now about the rightness of being there.
This excerpt from Fruitage in Science and Health speaks of our natural response to Christian Science:
"There was no joy ever greater than mine for this Christ-cure, for I was very weary and heavy laden. I thought very little of either sleeping or eating, and my heart was filled with gratitude, since I knew I had touched the hem of his garment.” (SH 604:17)
with much love and expectation of your own joy,
Caryl