Inquirers often wonder if they can pray for family members who are struggling with illness, even though that family member has not asked for prayerful help.
The best answer to that question is to understand that divine Love always finds a way to help! The Love of God is all-inclusive, all-encompassing, everywhere all the time, and always present to bless everyone it touches, including your family member! No one ever stands outside of the ever-comforting care and healing power of divine Love.
If the family member is pursuing forms of treatment other than Christian Science, those choices should be respected in the spirit of the Golden Rule, but one still has a moral obligation to keep their own thought correct about the person they love. One would treat their own thought to be sure they are seeing their loved one from God’s point of view, and not from a lesser material point of view.
Our right thinking about people around us help them even when we are not directly treating their thought. That’s okay. It’s like a person walking near a bright streetlight. That streetlight is not conscious of the person walking in its shine, but that person benefits from the shine anyway. The light emitting from the streetlight blesses anyone in its proximity.
Your prayers of spiritual understanding will act like a bright streetlight in your family member’s experience. The light you see can penetrate any type of darkness around you, for darkness cannot resist light. Error cannot resist Truth.
Mary Baker Eddy writes, “Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited” (Miscellany, p. 210:).
Be a bright light! The Light of God you reflect will take care of the rest.
Thank you. This is just what I need today. My sister has what doctors say is incurable . She is following the treatments they gave her. I have been focusing on seeing her as a child of God, perfect. I was wondering if my prayers could have any affect at all. She has stopped to drink daily alcohol out of fear for more sides effects from the meds. But yesterday she told me she is happy drinking tea instead of wine and she is even considering to quit smoking after 40 years. I was surprised when she told me. I don’t know if the light of my thinking helped or if she is acting purely out of fear. Only God knows. What matters is the positive result.
I, too, had an opportunity to pray for my sister who was under medical care last year. I was already working with a practitioner and I asked him if he would pray for her. He asked me to share with her what we were talking about, working with. She was extremely receptive and had an immediate turn around and was discharged from the hospital. Share your thoughts with her.
Also…there is nothing incurable. We can change (heal) our thought (where the problem lies) and the evidence of a healed thought will soon follow. ❣️
That is wonderful ! Since I am the only CS in my family it is helpful to know our prayers can bless all . I love Evan’s perspective of inclusiveness and was told by my practioner this morning to pray for the captors of a kidnapped girl on news today too.
Great news !
Thank you Patty for sharing your experience
Thank you Patty for sharing your ideas.
Glad your sister has taken steps to quit both wine and smoking. God is working HIS purpose out, as years succeeds to years. It’s NEVER too late, to see one suffering, completely healed by GOD! You give me hope as I pray for my family member who’s not working but affected negatively from a physical problem. THERE IS GOD directing the light of healing all around her.
I found this very helpful as well, I have a brother who I know was raised in Christian Science and who is a member of the Mother Church who has turned to medical means. When he was in hospital, I tried to keep my thought clear about who was really caring for him. As soon as he was able to read what was sent, I began sending him hymns from The Christian Science Hymnal for him to read. I also sent a very small copy of Science and Health (one given to the soldiers during WW1 and WW2) and the words only hymnal that had been used by our mother in her many years of readership (it was a very small Society). I thought he would be more likely to use the hymnal that had been hers. He began thanking me for sending the citations from Science and Health and the hymns. At one point, not longer after I started sending the hymns and citations, I asked if he wanted me to continue to do so and he said yes, I asked again later (in a round about way) when I asked him what he wanted me to send citations about. When I got an answer, I continued to daily send various citations, links to Daily lifts, to this blog, to the Sunday and Wednesday Services and so on. He has email and so we communicate in that manner. His replies are brief, thanking me for sending the inspiring citations, hymns or links. The other day he asked for a link to the Sunday Service and afterward said he had listened. I am very grateful that he has left the hospital and is staying with friends. I am grateful that he has the friends that will care for him, as otherwise he would still be in hospital or in a nursing home or rehab center as he lives alone. I know that the friends are caring for him in the best way they know how and that he can use his Science, if he wants. I know too that the hymns and citations I have been sending him for the past month have been received and studied from comments in his return emails.
Beautiful Esther, thank you. So happy for you and your family. ❣️
This is something I have often wondered about. Thank you, Evan for such a clear, practical and loving explanation.
Thank you, Evan. This was a great concern for me year ago. I wonder where does my responsibility rest for Christian Science treatment of a family member, friend or aquaintence who when I was informed of their trial was my responsibility. Sometimes, I would be alert in the silence of some form of transgression and I would instantly react to that is not right, but is it that which is the cause. I finally, came to the conclusion that I must first treat my own thought of God’s man and not allow any deteriorate thought in my own experience. The thought which came to me may or may not have been the experience of that life. Yet, I can rely on the my knowledge of Christian Science to see God’s man as true and perfect, harmonious, joyful, full of grace.
Shining the light on what is NOT RIGHT, brings me confidence, thank you Josef. Your awareness, to “first treat my own thought of God’s man (or woman) sets me straight. First thought is to help, but GOD’s help is what’s needed, not human, but DIVINE Life, Truth, and Love, leads the way. Sticking with the healing Truth, while error attempts to throw it’s weight around does NOT heal. This is universal but never helpful. I thank you Josef for clearly seeing what GOD is; ALL SEEING, OVER ALL, totally, never partially.
Yes, this is very profound. No THIS healing THAT! Thank you to all.
Evan, I am really grateful for these timely and inspiring comments today.
As we read in the Bible lesson this week: “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”.
Thanks to all of you sharing your experiences in how to pray for yourself when confronted with another’s suffering. It can be a conundrum at times. But, I see it as a wonderful opportunity to help your fellowman in the way it comes to each of us as Evan has so clearly presented on how to pray then act on any given situation that might present itself.
Absolutely wonderful Evan…thank you so much.
As a person completely surrounded by non CS family and friends I love to be reminded of the complete inclusion and effectiveness toward everyone in our prayers. We know it but it is so helpful to be reminded as you have lovingly done today.
What a grand statement you quote from miscellany. So many times I’ve found M Writings full of extra spiritual help . The quote above says it all.
You wrote to me some time ago..’ God doesn’t stop at the hospital door’’ or some words similar. This has been such a great help personally but the implication is as you say, all prayer benefits man and it starts with ourselves..ie to maintain the correct view of being. This is a truly beneficial subject today. I’m most grateful.
We must never doubt the efficacy of seeking Gods help. I feel this is fear trying to sneak in the back door. It would be wonderful for someone to ask for prayerful help from me , but until that happens surely we must express the all powerful Love we are all part of.❣️
A recent Sentinel Watch with Beth Packer was so helpful. Her comment: “I don’t accept that” in reference to a statement made about the inevitability of aging, has given me new ammunition in combating all lies about God and man that come my way. That I can always do: refuse to accept the misinformation that the original standard, perfect God and perfect man, has somehow fallen. It’s been a wonderful new tool for facing untruths. “I don’t accept that” (whatever it is) and here’s why. And then I affirm the truth. It’s making me a better pray-er on all fronts.
That’s great to hear Grace, your arsenal of spiritual understanding truths has been been strengthened. If anyone missed that Beth Packer Sentinel Watch episode from Jan 26 (on topic of aging), here is a link. It’s been mentioned several times here on SV and well worth listening and re-listening.
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1eij571m5gm?s=copylink
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this important topic, Evan. We can always go to God in prayer and ask what to do, to know, etc. Jesus told us we could ask:)) Everything is about God since He is All so the problem confronting us or a loved one is a misunderstanding about God and Her creation in some way. And that loving desire to help comes from Divine Love. I think we can and should always go to God to guide our prayers generically for someone, ie: to feel His Love but it would not be right to treat their thought specifically without their consent as Evan said. Correcting our own thought is essential and we start by taking our concerns straight to the one and only Mind. Mrs. Eddy made some clear distinctions between prayer and prayerful treatment. Generic and specific ideas are shared in the chapter on Prayer and starting on page 410 in SH. But she often healed others without their consent while on her buggy rides and at other times, too. She wouldn’t and couldn’t tolerate suffering of any kind as it didn’t come from God. Her thought must have been so clear and so in sync with God that the suffering just couldn’t stay. Jesus always had that “correct view” of man and healed this way. The Divine Comforter always wins❤️ Thanks again, Evan.
Your analogy of the bright streetlight reminded me of something I read a number of years ago that has stuck with me. (Wish I could recall where I read it so I could give the author credit.). Anyway, he said that the, “People weren’t healed because they were in the presence of Jesus, but because they were in the presence of what Jesus KNEW.” Thanks to the Bible and Science and Health, we can know everything that Jesus did. I often ask myself, “Are people being healed because they’re in the presence of what I know?” It’s an immediate and effective reminder to me to “true up” my thinking and seeing…to, as quoted above, “Behold in Science the perfect man….”!
Thank you, Evan–this is very helpful and clarifying. And thank you, Robyn. Also, very clarifying.
Thank you Robyn, what you say here is very powerful, that people were healed by being in the presence of someone knowing the Truth, the spiritual Truth, about them.
I’ve sometimes wondered how our knowing the truth about someone else can reach their thought and heal them. When I pray for myself I understand how my thought is awakened and uplifted. But when others ask for prayer, how is that kind of prayer different from knowing and treating of our own thought in being sure we see the person exactly as God made them (and not fall for believing the so-called material evidence). If anyone has thoughts on this I thank you in advance.
Rose, in the biographies, I recall reading instances of Mrs. Eddy healing people she encountered who didn’t ask for her help. There was one of a clerk in a furniture store with an eye problem (I think) and a cripple on the sidewalk that she noticed as her carriage passed him. Those cases were healed just because of what Mrs. Eddy beheld instead of the lie that mortal mind was trying to trick everyone into believing. One of the things that Mrs. Eddy was much better at than I am (actually, there are MANY things she was much better at, by the way), was KNOWING that there’s only the One Mind and that Mind was hers and the other person’s so there was no separation between the people needing healing and her thought when she beheld them as perfect!
Thank you for your question and comment Rose. And also Robyn. I wrote this down, I believe when Evan had a topic on Forgiveness…I could be wrong, but I think someone made a comment that said, “everyone is at every moment at their highest level of consciousness.”. I love that thought.
Wonderful thought, J!!! And a wonderful treatment when error suggests that you’re dealing with someone who seems to be manifesting a physical or emotional problem! It also reminds me of a quote from a lecture transcript I read (I’m pretty sure the lecturer was Jules Cern) who had gone to visit a patient who presented an alarming picture. As he left, he said, “Father, You were there, what did You see?” The patient’s healing soon followed!
Thank you Robyn and J for your replies. It makes it clearer Robyn that since there is only one Mind not separate minds, then that one Mind, containing only good, is shared by all. So when I am clearly in tune with and aligned with divine Mind, that will have a positive effect on everyone upon whom my thoughts rest (and maybe even those I am not specifically thinking of).
Still not perfectly clear on how, as Evan says, “our right thinking about people around us help them even when we are not directly treating their thought.” How would one “directly treat someone’s thought” (when they ask) versus making sure our thought is spiritually correct about that person and about the true nature of being (when they don’t specifically ask for prayer). Seems the same process to me…..to know the truth about them as God knows it and reveals it to us.
Rose, this is my understanding of what Evan meant: “Directly treating” someone’s thought would be prayerfully treating someone who has asked for your prayerful treatment (or someone like a child in your care). “Not directly treating” would be correct thinking about another person who has not asked but is something we should always do…it’s what Jesus did. If we see another person as ill or ill-tempered or whatever, we are believing the lie mortal mind has attached to them. We’re also believing that it’s a real condition anyone can have…even ourselves! When I call a practitioner for help, they’re going to be treating my thought, not a material body claiming to be ill. All CS treatment is in the realm of thought because there truly isn’t any other realm. “All is Mind and its manifestation.”
Dear Rose from NY I will try and share my thoughts on your query. My thoughts are that the Truth is the Truth, and nothing else can be, for there is only one Truth = that which Christ Jesus taught and demonstrated for us. It is everywhere all the time. When we really understand and have proved it in some ways in our own lives, then we know that it is the truth, because we have witnessed the lies disappear, because truth and error can’t exist together. We know that there is only one God and therefore only one Mind, and that as God’s reflection, we also have the same, mind – i.e. the mind of Christ.
So the Truth, which applies to everyone, must be present everywhere, and if
we are constantly filled with Truth and Love and expressing it, the
general atmosphere is purified and reaches everyone all around. Mrs. Eddy proved this,
and many people were naturally healed without her doing any specific work for them,
because she just exuded this great love that God has for His children.
Regarding when someone asks us for prayer, they obviously need someone who
practices the Science of Christ, to help them by pouring in truth through flood-tides of love.
Mrs. Eddy tells us to treat ourselves first with the truth, knowing that we can ‘t do anything ourselves, but reflect God’s loving presence towards us, and as we prayerfully look to Him for inspiration for that person, we receive it – Truth and Love will be doing the work, and we only reflect that which is already present and perfect. Mrs. Eddy says that “the truth whispered into the ear of mortal mind will bring relief”. (page374:3 sH) Truth is addressing the error, like Jesus commanding evil spirits to come out of a man, and they came out. He saw the man already perfect, and the devils and false claims trying to convince the man that it was his identity. Jesus separated the evil from the man, as he saw it as nothingness claiming to be something which it was not. So the truth of that man was able to be made manifest as his God-given true identity.
Thank you for posing this question , Rose- it made me think. .
Perhaps someone else has some thoughts on this important question.
I have done my best an I hope it is helpful and makes sense.
Maggie x
Thank you very much for sharing your wise thoughts Maggie, I appreciate you and it certainly does make sense. I hope to continue growing in my understanding and clarity about this, and I agree that it is an important topic.
I think it is important to realize that we can not believe in God/Good
and believe in matter at the same time, just as we can not see darkness
when there is light. We are either seeing ourselves or others as mortals
or as spiritual. We can not have both at the same time. I think Mrs. Eddy
proved this in her writings and in her daily life. Jesus proved this in his
parables and experiences that taught others by trying to get others to
think – like with the woman who the others were about to stone and one
by one the accusers left and he told the woman to sin no more. Our
actions are determined by thought – One Mind, in this case, where Jesus
saw so perfectly the Truth, that he Lived the Truth and saw Goodness in everyone and prompted them to see Goodness in themselves. He did not condemn, but simply said not to continue in the path they were going of materiality.
Mrs. Eddy wrote in S&H pg 275, “No wisdom is wise but His (God’s) wisdom:
no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but
the good God bestows… Mind is God, omnipotent, omnipresence, omniscience, That is, all power, all presence, all Science. Hence all is in
reality the manifestation of Mind.” She said that “the five material senses
are misdirected and these false beliefs and their products constitute the
flesh, and the flesh wars against Spirit.” It all comes down to what are
we believing in – the Spiritual or matter.
Very well explained Maggie. Thank you! And thank you again Evan and all the commenters and articles. Very much appreciated.
Such wonderful ideas shared today and I’m grateful. I feel strongly that this right thinking about people around us must also extend to members of our church families. We have some in our congregation who have challenges to meet and live alone with no Christian Scientist family members. Being clear in our own thought as to man’s spiritual identity and perfection will support and bless all “whom our thoughts rest upon.” Thank you, Evan, and thank you, all.
“Responding to public issues with prayer” By Colin Treworgy. From the January 19, 2026 issue of The Christian Science Sentinel:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1iuh288yrcs?s=copylink
Thank you Evan, and I appreciate everyone’s comments.
Maggie shared with us a very insightful article by Judy Wolff. Judy was praying for a person and also included the person’s family members with this statement: “… God, as the only Mind, is constantly revealing Life universally to all of His creation. Of course, I did not telepathically communicate this to anyone, but I recognized God as already actively imparting all that is true about man and Himself to all of us.”
“Present perfection” By Jeffrey Hildner with contributions from Judy Wolff. From the June 2006 issue of The Christian Science Journal:
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/gu59ga179w?s=copylink
Thank you, Evan. I have wondered about this subject often. Your SV today answers it clearly. And thank you, J, for sharing this Sentinel article. If there were any questions left unanswered after Evan’s SpiritView, they were answered here in this beautiful article.
I would like to clarify that when I refer to the “beautiful article,” I am talking about “Responding to public issues with prayer,” that J initially posted. (My reply to her post appeared after her second post of the day which shared a different article.)
Thank you for this great reminder about maintaining our “right thinking” — and that the “light” of Love shines on everyone, all the time. So helpful.
Just listened to a Sentinel Watch last night that included a description of how we can pray to free our thought from issues other people are having without specifically praying for them. Link below . This is Deborah Packer… not the same Sentinel Watch as was shared last Friday with Beth Packer. Are Beth and Deborah sisters?
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1eij571lxii?s=copylink
Thank you, RobertH. Yes, they are sisters and have sometimes referred to one another in articles and testimonies. Here is a link to the article by Deborah Packer that appears in the Show Notes of the Sentinel Watch that you have shared.
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1fhz6q2784e?s=copylink
Thank you Cheryl!
If God is the all knowing and all seeing that is all that we can know and see. Thanks for all the sharing.
Thank you SO MUCH Evan for your clear and supportive answer! “The loveliness of Love is all around” Amen!
The analogy of the bright light is just brilliant!!! Thank you !!
Here is a really good article with an example about how treating yourself can result in healing others.
“Treat Yourself” by Doris Edington from 2013
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1a6d8asvhq?s=copylink
Thank you KH for sharing this very helpful article!
Thank you, KH. I love this article. It is excellent.
I am deeply thankful for today’s blog and all of the comments. My dear granddaughter is currently undergoing long term medical treatment for a diagnosed condition they hope to modify but don’t really expect to heal. I have started a small journal just to correct my own thinking about the situation. I write down Bible verses, quotes from Mrs. Eddy’s writings, passages from articles that uplift my thought, favorite hymns, as well as citations from the lesson that seem applicable. I am adding to it regularly, and whenever fear raises its ugly head, I can turn to these healing affirmations to find peace and assurance that all is well.
Evan wrote: “One would treat their own thought to be sure they are seeing their
loved one from God’s point of view, and not from a lesser material point of view”.
I take from that – that we are all unique individuals and are divinely inspired – not
through mortality thinking or actions and as one of the articles points out … through
Spiritual reality … rather than as the matter based universe that we perceive through
our physical senses. From what I understand from that, what we seem to see
through mortal “sight”, which can be good, but which can also seem to be not good,
if seen through the lens of human or carnal mind or the physical evidence of something.
To my understanding, this is not what God “sees”, for God’s viewpoint is purely
perfect Ideas of infinite Mind and Love.
Through divine Love, we strive to see ourselves and others as God sees us/them –
not as mortals capable of erring through matter based thinking, but as the sweet photo
above – pure, innocent and looking up to heaven: “harmony, the atmosphere of Soul” _
(Mrs. Eddy’s definition).
Evan, I have been reading or listening to Spirit View for many years, and sometimes copying a thought to save. Today I wanted the whole article for my Daughter, who is supporting a family member. (It was too much for me to copy.) I was guided to notice the Print Icon, which I had never noticed before !!!!!
Gratitude for Love’s ideas !!
Evan,
I love this thinking about our thoughts being like a street light blessing those that walks under it. I have been wondering about this as well in my own life and it clarifies how I can pray for both my son and a friend of mine’s grandson.
Thank you so much
Evan and all….when I read this super helpful SV this morning I knew it would generate a lot of sharing as we all have deep compassion and love for our fellow man as well as an honest desire to be healers and helpers. Sometimes I am not sure if my prayers help but recently I am trusting more and more that our honest desire to see what God sees in every situation is effective and ripples out in helpful ways. When we do this we are opening up to more and more light until we are certain there is only divine Love. How wonderful. Thank you all for your comments and links to articles. I feel that we are united by good purpose as we join in confidently seeing more of what God is showing us.
I wish there was a button to ‘like’ or ‘love’ these contributions. You people fill my cup….every day.
I have come to love this page so much, Evan. You are an absolute blessing to us all.