Prayer Our Scientific Discovery Of God

What is prayer? To pray means to think, to commune, to discover, and therefore, to find out something. “It makes new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and power. It shows us more clearly than we saw before, what we already have and are; and most of all, it shows us what God is.” (No and Yes, p. 39)

Long ago you gave up the idea that prayer had anything to do with getting down on your knees. With the very first enlightenment of Christian Science, you drew away from that belief. There is no prayer but thinking, and thinking means right knowing. “Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,” – not someone else’s door – “pray to thy Father which is in secret.” (Matthew 6: 6)

What is the only thing that is in secret? Mind is all that is in secret, because it includes within itself nothing but itself. Not an element contrary to Mind is there. Then entering thy closet and shutting the door means communing with the one Mind and shutting out all else. There is no other possible way of gaining the kingdom of heaven than through the process of understanding.