Prayer with our waking thought ascends

New Year’s Eve readings, 2nd Church, Berkeley
SH Eph 4:7 1st unto, 8
7 …unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
SH John 6:53, 57, 58, 60-63
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. 60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? 61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? 62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? 63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
SH John 3:5 1st I, 12, 13
5 …I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
SH John 20:11-17 1st Mary
11 …Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, 12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my LORD, and I know not where they have laid him. 14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. 17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
SH Luke 24:45-49 (to 1st :), 50-53
45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, 46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 And ye are witnesses of these things. 49 And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: 50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: 53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
SH 292:31-2
In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus showed
that a mortal man is not the real essence of manhood, and
that this unreal material mortality disappears in presence
of the reality.
SH 25:10-12
His true flesh and blood were his Life; and they truly eat
his flesh and drink his blood, who partake of that divine
Life.
SH 34:18-21
Through all the disciples experienced, they became more
spiritual and understood better what the Master had
taught. His resurrection was also their resur-
rection.
SH 46:13-17
The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit,
and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses
that his body was not changed until he himself
ascended, – or, in other words, rose even
higher in the understanding of Spirit, God.
SH 334:12-20
This dual personality of the
unseen and the seen, the spiritual and mate-
rial, the eternal Christ and the corporeal Jesus manifest
in flesh, continued until the Master’s ascension, when
the human, material concept, or Jesus, disappeared,
while the spiritual self, or Christ, continues to exist in
the eternal order of divine Science, taking away the sins
of the world, as the Christ has always done, even before
the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes.
SH 189:18-24
The human
mortal mind, by an inevitable perversion, makes all
things start from the lowest instead of from the highest
mortal thought. The reverse is the case with all the
formations of the immortal divine Mind. They proceed
from the divine source; and so, in tracing them, we con-
stantly ascend in infinite being.
SH 313:30-5
To show
that the substance of himself was Spirit and the body
no more perfect because of death and no less material
until the ascension (his further spiritual exaltation),
Jesus waited until the mortal or fleshly sense had re-
linquished the belief of substance-matter, and spiritual
sense had quenched all earthly yearnings.
SH 407:6-8, 11
Man’s enslavement to the most relentless masters –
passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge – is con-
quered only by a mighty struggle.
Here Christian
Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the
weakness of mortal mind, – strength from the immortal
and omnipotent Mind, – and lifting humanity above
itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and
good-will to man.
SH 501:10-13
The incarnation of Truth, that amplifi-
cation of wonder and glory which angels could only
whisper and which God illustrated by light and har-
mony, is consonant with ever-present Love.
SH 502:9-20
Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history
of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This
deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to
suggest the proper reflection of God and the
spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapter
of Genesis. Even thus the crude forms of human thought
take on higher symbols and significations, when scien-
tifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminat-
ing time with the glory of eternity.
In the following exegesis, each text is followed by its
spiritual interpretation according to the teachings of Chris-
tian Science.
SH 508:26-8
13. And the evening and the morning were
the third day.
The third stage in the order of Christian Science is an
important one to the human thought, letting in the light
of spiritual understanding. This period corresponds to
the resurrection, when Spirit is discerned to be the Life of
all, and the deathless Life, or Mind, dependent
upon no material organization. Our Master
reappeared to his students, – to their apprehension he
rose from the grave, – on the third day of his ascending
thought, and so presented to them the certain sense of
eternal Life.
SH 509:9, 15, 24-28
14. And God said, Let there be lights in the
firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night;
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days,
and years.
This text gives the idea of the rarefaction of
thought as it ascends higher. God forms and
peoples the universe. The light of spiritual understand-
ing gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indi-
cate the immensity of space.
The periods of
spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind’s
creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness
– yea, the divine nature – appear in man and the uni-
verse never to disappear.
Eph 4:7 unto, 8
John 6:53, 57, 58, 60-63
John 3:5 I, 12, 13
John 20:11-17 Mary
Luke 24:45-49 (to :), 50-53
SH 292:31-2
SH 25:10-12
SH 34:18-21
SH 46:13-17
SH 334:12-20
SH 189:18-24
SH 313:30-5
SH 407:6-8, 11
SH 501:10-13
SH 502:9-20
SH 508:26-8
SH 509:9, 15, 24-28

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.