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I was raised in Angola. In 1971 I finished secondary school, received a certificate in general pedagogy, and started working as a teacher.

During college, a significant healing established me on a path to not only better know and understand God, but also to understand why that mattered . After being ill in bed for a week, I was healed overnight after a Christian Science practitioner (whom I’d asked to pray for me) spoke to me about the First Commandment in a way that challenged and revitalized my thinking.

Attending Christian Science Sunday School as a child, I loved what I learned there of God—He’s everywhere, always Love, and All. But going out into the “cold, cruel world,” I couldn’t reconcile what I was seeing with a God who is Love. Putting my Bible and Science and Health on the shelf, I forged ahead, just trying to live a moral, meaningful life. I married, had children, was happy, but missing was a depth to life.  Science and Health beckoned to me. Opening it, I saw my grandmother’s note inside: “Judith Ann—Read this.  You owe it to yourself.” I did, for the first time. When I came to “The calm, strong currents of true spirituality.

Christian Science and community service were strong influences in my home growing up.  I found fulfilling ways to help disadvantaged people over the years, but in college I became convinced that the best way to accomplish lasting justice and peace was Jesus’ path of breaking through the illusion of evil and many minds to the perfection of God’s spiritual universe.  I wanted to devote myself to Christian Science healing, but wasn’t sure how to launch. My next step was to become a Christian Science nurse.

I was in my late teens when God became more real to me as an infinitely loving presence. At the time, I was struggling with tough relationship problems, so I was wide open to seeking divine answers.

As the universal Pastor for the Church of Christ, Scientist, the Bible and Science and Health embrace church congregations with a message of Christian love, preach the Word with clarity, minister to those needing care in every place and circumstance, and prove their worth through healing transformation.

Interactive stories highlight profiles of people around the world making a difference in their communities. Each story from the pages of The Christian Science Monitor highlights universal qualities that nurture progress, including hope, resilience, joy, gratitude, compassion, generosity, courage, and forgiveness.

Christian Science audio from The First Church of Christ, Scientist. Ready whenever you need inspiration, answers, healing, or just a fresh perspective.

This letter was submitted in response to a Times commentary on “manifesting” that erroneously associates Christian Science with New Thought and the New Age practice of manifesting.

My deep love for Christian Science healing began as a young teenager. My mother and grandmother were healed of chronic ailments, and I was permanently healed of migraine headaches by reading Mary Baker Eddy’s textbook,  Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.