One of the least acknowledged spiritual
qualities is gratitude. In our modern world we pay the price for goods received,
because we have to do this. This is demanded. Unfortunately, in the process we
loose sight of this vital quality of our humanity that connects us with the
great heart of divine Love. We need to correct this loss of a divine quality in
our lives. The human economy has drifted far away from the platform of the
divine economy, but it really should pattern the divine.
The development of
gratitude in our lives is evidently an element of our spiritual development that
we cannot afford to neglect. In a metaphoric sense, it was really the lack of
gratitude, above all else, that got Adam expelled from the Garden of Eden.
Ingratitude and indifference are all too often blocking factors on the way to
healing. If God is Love, how can we not acknowledge this love, reflected in
ourselves in the form of gratitude? It appears that gratitude is our pathway to
God.
Mary Baker Eddy commented on Mary
Magdalene's affection for Christ Jesus in the house of the Pharisee. The rich
host had provided no water for his guest to wash his feet, a sign of curtsey,
but she had washed his feet with her tears, had dried them with her own hair,
and anointed them with a fragrant and costly oil.
Mary Baker Eddy writes under the
heading,
"Gratitude and Humility"
"This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not "for the loaves
and fishes," nor, like the Pharisee, with the arrogance of rank and display
of scholarship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the summit of devout consecration,
with the oil of gladness and the perfume of gratitude, with tears of
repentance and with those hairs all numbered by the Father." (S&H 367)
I find it increasingly appropriate
that Mary Baker Eddy's above statement on gratitude is located in the chapter, Christian
Science Practice, which is coincident with the highest element on the
foursquare matrix in the column of the river Hiddekel. Mary Baker Eddy has
defined this river as "divine Science understood and acknowledged." The top
element in this column is also the element to which the first half of the
painting Christian Unity belongs, and and its verse below, and also the
respective stanza for this element possition from the Lord's prayer enriched by
Mary Baker Eddy with the spiritual sense of it (see S&H 17).
For Christian Science brings to
view
The great I Am, -
Omniscient power, - gleaming through
Mind, mother, man.
And Love is reflected in love
I hope that
you find this Web-presentation useful. It is the product of countless
hours of work produced over many years. Should you care to send an
honorary acknowledgement for the work done, your support will gratefully appreciated.
Thank
you,
Yours in truth and love
Rolf
Witzsche
(or Cygni Communications Ltd.)
1110 Wellington Drive
North Vancouver, BC.
Canada, V7K - 1L2