January 30, 2017
 
Dear people,
 
As Christian Scientists we’re usually grateful for the good that we’ve had in our lives. But nevertheless we may find ourselves believing that our experience of good has stopped for some reason, perhaps because of adversity or routine or age or sadness about subsequent life events. 
 
The Christianly scientific fact is that it is the true nature of good to go on, continuously pouring out from its divine origins and producing an abundance of more new good. 
 
There are innumerable examples of that in the experiences of our Association family. I think for example of someone who was married and happily expecting a child. She’d gone through class. But not long after class she had an experience that seemed shattering – her husband who had been working late was murdered. She was left to raise her son alone. With the help of Science, she succeeded wonderfully in doing that.
 
Yet there was more good to come. She yearned to help others with what she’d learned in Christian Science and became a practitioner, and then a Committee on Publication. Her new good didn’t stop there but kept expanding. She became a lecturer, then began to write widely about Christian Science for publication in her country. Then married and became a teacher of Christian Science. And oh, yes, her son went through class and became a member of this Association as well.
 
Or I think of a man who with the help of Science and Primary class succeeded in a brand new, tremendously demanding job that called for immense physical stamina and courage. But economic and political circumstances changed and caused him to lose his livelihood and the job he loved so much.
 
But he went to school to acquire some very different skills, and with the help of Science he passed his courses with better grades than he’d ever had before. He married a woman who was not a Christian Scientist but rapidly became one. His good clearly wasn’t limited and kept growing. He found new positions that made use of his skills, and he now brings his devotion and demonstration to helping sustain a major Christian Science nursing facility. And yes, he and his wife are both members of our Association.
 
Isn’t this the very nature of good – to be ever enlarging in our experience? You see, the true nature of good isn’t found in a collection of personal and fortunate circumstances. The real nature of genuine good is that it is always a gleam of something larger, of infinite good, which is appearing in our lives in some degree. It’s a bit like a shaft of light breaking through the clouds. That light has a source way beyond its limited appearing.
 
Christian Science is revealing to each one of us illimitable good. Mary Baker Eddy explains, “A mortal, corporeal, or finite conception of God cannot embrace the glories of limitless, incorporeal Life and Love.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 258) The Christianly scientific fact is that the true nature of good is to continuously pour out from its divine origins and go on producing an abundance of more new good. If we accept this spiritual fact, it often brings about what seems a whole new beginning, a new life. 
 
And this brings us to the title of our Association address this year, which is “Finding your illimitable new Life”.
 
Yes, it takes serious effort, unselfing, and spiritual growth to change old habits of thought and a mind-set of living along in finite matter with limited time and life.  But the assured result of our effort, study, and communing with God is the awakening realization of the substantiality and endless nature of good.
 
Quite soon we’ll be sending out more new fruitage from your fellow Association members. I think as you read it in the light of our 2017 Association theme, you’ll feel more of the infinite nature of spiritual good that transforms one’s impression of what life is all about. 
 
With deepest affection,
Skip
Allison W. Phinney, C.S.B.
 
P.S. The quotation above, is from Science and Health, in the chapter “Creation”.  To read and live with that chapter this year is our assignment. (Don’t worry it’s only twelve pages; but what a spiritual and scientific launching pad for rising higher into newness of life and seeing the eternal universe of infinite good coming into view!)  See below for Assignment questions.
 
P.P.S. Information will be sent to you in February about the details of our Association meeting on Saturday, March 25 here at the Hynes Auditorium.  Next month we’ll also be sending study references for this year. 

Association assignment – 2017

Let’s get started on reading the assignment, which is to read and live with the chapter “Creation”, pp. 255-267.  We’d like you to answer for yourself the following questions, and then share your thoughts with the rest of us by sending along your answers to me, either by email to awphinney@comcast.net or for those without email, to the Association office:
581 Boylston Street, Suite #502, Boston, MA 02116.

  1. What do you feel the word creation implies?
     
  2. In your own words, describe your impressions of the chapter “Creation” in Science and Health.
     
  3. How can the increased understanding of true creation make a difference in your life? Better yet, share with us how the truth of creation has been, or is being, demonstrated in your life.