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2021 Association

 

January 25, 2021

Association Assignment Part B

Dear People,

Many thanks to all who have contributed fruitage, remarks, and questions on the first part of our Association assignment.

If you haven’t yet read and/or responded to the accounts in the two expanded volumes of We Knew Mary Baker Eddy there’s still time! You can send in your experiences with these books right up until our Association day in May.

If you haven’t looked recently, do go to our Google file and catch up with what members have been sending in.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15U8mRd-Pau0qiDspZyQ-ZYEsnoO5JgrEsDVMOtBS3a8/edit?usp=sharing

Part B of our assignment:

  • Please read Matthew 5-7 - The Sermon on the Mount, five days in a row.

  • Please consider the passage in Science and Health: S&H 115: 19-10, keeping in view that this describes the translation (or conversion) of mortal mind. It is not a description of any person, but of how thought changes.

  • Please read the short chapter in Science and Health: Animal Magnetism (S&H pgs. 100 - 106)

  • Please read the two attached pdfs.

  • Please re-read Annie Knott’s account in the expanded We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Vol. 1

  • Please send in your response, experiences, and/or questions about these.

Don’t be daunted by the long list! All together this is no more than four hours of reading (the amount of time Mrs. Eddy said students should spend daily in prayer and study).

I look forward to your responses!

with love,

Caryl

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Christmas Letter

December 5, 2020

Dear People,

Warm Christmas wishes to you all.

Mrs. Eddy’s words at the 1904 Communion Service beautifully express the Christ thought I have for you all: "My Beloved Brethren: — My heart goes out to you as ever in daily desire that the Giver of all good transform you into His own image and likeness." (Mis 15:12–14) You are much loved and cherished in His eyes and mine.

During these months of reading and working to imbibe the lessons found in the accounts in We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Vol. 1&2, I have felt a powerful sense of what our Leader expected of her students as well as the pervasive love of God and man that based all her efforts on our behalf.

I have thought many times since we started this assignment that Mind has blessed us with this work and over and again its particulars have proved to be the right thoughts at the right time.

Back in October, my husband, Joe came down with what first seemed like a cold or flu but quickly expanded into all the symptoms of Covid that we hear so much about. Before I knew it, I was sharing those same symptoms.

That week I was reading an account in Vol. 2 which quoted Mrs. Eddy urging her students to help each other and turn to each other in need. I felt inspired to overcome my usual reticence to ask anyone for aid and called a fellow church member who had healed her son of the virus. That afternoon she sent me an email with some very specific and helpful spiritual truths and that night I felt as if I were surrounded by God’s angels. In the company of those comforting and healing thoughts there was no room for fear or anything contrary to God’s good. Within a few days both Joe and I were relieved of all the Covid indicators.

Both I and our fellow student felt led and held by the Christ - a tangible sense of inseparability from God. This spiritual sense was so powerful that it truly felt like it was the only thing really going on. This revelation, which has been like a pebble cast in the pond of thought, continues to send its ripples outward for all three of us, resulting in increased opportunities to help and heal. Truly, God is communicating both His present goodness and providing unparalleled opportunities for growth in grace.

Not long after that, I was attending a TMC webinar when another of the attendees shared the thought that we are all together at “Lydia’s house”. Lydia, as you may recall, shows up in the accounts of Paul:

"And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us. ¶ And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. ¶ And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. ¶ And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. … And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed.

(Acts 16:14–26, 40)

What a beautiful description of the fellowship that so many of us have been experiencing since our Association day in our churches and societies. The more deeply we go into our study and practice, the more comfort and inspiration we find. Even in the midst of great trouble and upset.

I know that the past six months have been no walk in a garden. I don’t actually know of anyone who has not been sorely challenged and has struggled. The work of meeting resistance to the babe of Christian healing, our awareness of the present goodness and grace of Love for ourselves and all mankind, goes on. But as we read account after account from our assignment volumes, we find that the support and loving care of Lydia’s house. We are all in this together, we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before, we have been prayed for by Christ Jesus himself and by our Leader, and we are not alone in our efforts but upheld and supported by Love.

As promised when I shared the assignment with you, it’s now time to comfort and inspire each other with what has come to you as you have been reading We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, expanded edition.

This was the assignment as sent out September 2:

Please obtain (if you don’t already own them) copies of the expanded editions of We Knew Mary Baker Eddy Volumes 1 and 2.

There are two volumes and they can be purchased at a Reading Room or online from the Publishing Society:

https://christianscience.buysub.com/biographies/we-knew-mary-baker-eddy-expanded-edition-volume-i.html

https://christianscience.buysub.com/biographies/we-knew-mary-baker-eddy-expanded-edition-volume-ii.html

They are somewhat expensive and if that is a concern, you might be able to read them at a local Reading Room or borrow them. They are also available, used, on Amazon for under $20. Please let me know if you have trouble getting your copies.

Between now and Christmas, I’d like you to read these accounts. Keep track in a notebook of anything you come across that particularly inspires you or brings up questions. In December I will ask you to send me those notes.

December is here so please reply before the end of the month so that these thoughts and experiences can be shared during the Christmas season.

  • What accounts were particularly meaningful to you.

  • What advice or revelation from an early worker inspired you.

  • How did you apply a particular inspiration your read in the accounts?

  • What fruit has this work borne so far?

In January I will send the assignment for the second half of our Association year.

I look forward with joy to hearing from you all.

with love,

Caryl

"The heart that yearns for righteousness, / With longing unalloyed, / In such desire sends up a prayer / That ne'er returneth void." (Hymn 269:2 2nd The)

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 September 2, 2020

Association Address and Assignment (part 1)

Dear People,

I hope you are all taking advantage of the strong impetus around us to turn Spiritward and develop a deeper understanding of God’s control of all His creation!

Church attendance (albeit on Zoom) is up. The Publishing Society is deluged with submissions of testimonies and articles. Members are reporting an increase in questions from the public about Christian Science resulting from their prayerful work. Humanly, you could say that this was, “the best of times and the worst of times”. We know that, “man’s extremity is God’s opportunity”.

Mind has graciously provided us with the topic of next year’s address earlier than usual. The title of the address will be, “To live what we learn”. And I’m ready to share with you the first part of a rolling series of assignments that will prepare us for next May’s meeting.

We say, during class, that Primary Class is not an information download so much as it is an education in “learning how to learn” in Christian Science. Those two weeks give us an opportunity to focus exclusively on deepening our knowledge of God and our own identity as image and likeness. Each day is filled with parables, explanations, study; processing the teachings of Jesus and Mrs. Eddy’s revelation. As many have said, “the best two weeks of my life!”

After class, it is a common experience to go home, get busy again with work and family, and at some point notice that the mountaintop feeling you had during class has slipped away. It is not unusual for people to wonder why this has happened - as if what was gained in class was the kind of learning that you can possess and take out whenever you need it and that it has somehow been mislaid! Of course, that sense of being in daily communion was not anything you could box up and put on a shelf.

The twelve days of Class showed you how to live. It showed you how to find and appreciate the manna of today. With nothing else to distract you, you put God first, willingly taking the time and energy to engage with life’s big questions. The lessons you learned about study and prayer were built on your focus and engagement with Truth, Life, and Love. 

It is entirely possible to continue to do this and have a job and family, but you have to keep the First Commandment focus that you demonstrated during the Class experience. This is not something that worldly thinking and the culture we live in encourages or supports, so it takes extra effort and care on our part.

This effort is not onerous; it takes nothing real, lasting, and valuable from you, but rather deepens your experience by revealing its essentially spiritual nature. This work satisfies the hungry heart and soul and makes you a blessing, as God intended you to be. 

Deepening our understanding of how to live the revelation of Christian Science will be our focus during this Association year.

Please obtain (if you don’t already own them) copies of the expanded editions of We Knew Mary Baker Eddy Volumes 1 and 2.

There are two volumes and they can be purchased at a Reading Room or online from the Publishing Society:

https://christianscience.buysub.com/biographies/we-knew-mary-baker-eddy-expanded-edition-volume-i.html

https://christianscience.buysub.com/biographies/we-knew-mary-baker-eddy-expanded-edition-volume-ii.html

They are somewhat expensive and if that is a concern, you might be able to read them at a local Reading Room or borrow them. They are also available, used, on Amazon for under $20. Please let me know if you have trouble getting your copies.

Between now and Christmas, I’d like you to read these accounts. Keep track in a notebook of anything you come across that particularly inspires you or brings up questions. In December I will ask you to send me those notes.

Mrs. Eddy writes in an address in Tremont Temple published in Miscellaneous Writings:

"The Scriptures inform us that man was made in the image and likeness of God ... To my sense, we have not seen all of man; he is more than personal sense can cognize, who is the image and likeness of the infinite. (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 97:21–27)

Let’s draw nearer to that man, to the man of God’s creating, our real selves, together this year.

With love,

Caryl

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