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All-presence

Wherever we may be, and whatever issues we may face, divine Love is present to guide, help, and heal, as this poem conveys.

  • By Peter J. Henniker-Heaton

Christian Science Perspective audio edition
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We cannot turn away from God
because, whichever way we face,
Spirit is there. In every place,
every direction, everywhere,
Spirit is there.

Whether we turn to left or right,
to north or south or east or west,
we meet with Love – and we are blessed.
Upward or down, below, above,
we meet with Love.

Whether we plunge to ocean trench
or plot our course for farthest space,
Love’s law controls. Whatever race
we enter toward whatever goals,
Love’s law controls.

Whether we build for centuries hence
or let tomorrow bound our aim,
God sets the pace. Always the same,
with instant and eternal grace,
God sets the pace.

Originally published in the Nov. 18, 1972, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel, this poem also appears as a hymn in the “Christian Science Hymnal: Hymns 430-603” (No. 591).

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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