HEALTH IS A SPIRITUAL REALITY
Athens, Georgia: What can we do to maintain our health and our bodies? Our society offers many forms of health maintenance and therapies. The gym, the spa, exercise classes, diets, and so on, occupy a great deal of our thought and time. 
This approach is not new. 2,000-some years ago, one of the dominant cultures of the time–the Greco-Roman culture–included a heavy focus on cultivating the health of the physique and stressing the importance of physical beauty. So when Christ Jesus appeared on the scene, preaching an opposite kind of existence–one that is not earthly, material, or physical and yet still filled with beauty and health, his preaching was not readily accepted.
Nevertheless, what Jesus’ example showed about the nature of God and God’s kingdom would impact more than just the people whom he healed during his ministry. It would also restore the health of those who, centuries later, embraced as fact God as Spirit, and all existence as God’s likeness, purely spiritual. One of Jesus’ more recent followers was Mary Baker Eddy, a committed student of the Bible and fervent Christian. She felt she discovered the divine laws that govern this existence, spiritual reality, which help anyone experience health and harmony in the way Jesus modeled. She healed many, and went on to explain her discovery in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures so that others would do the same.
Because this textbook focuses on a spiritually scientific approach to health, it helps us discover that reliable health and real beauty can be maintained by understanding the nature of God’s kingdom in and of Spirit, here and now. Then we find that health is a natural part of genuine spirituality.
The ideas in this lecture are based on the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Bible, and as discussed in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy.
Saturday, April 28th, 2018 at 2:00 pm
Athens-Clarke County Library
2025 Baxter Street, Athens, Georgia 30606
678-472-1784
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About the lecturer: Heloisa Gelber Rivas
Raised in a multilingual Brazilian family, Heloísa speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, French, and Italian. Her facility with languages has been invaluable in preparing her for many opportunities.
After earning a degree in sociology and politics at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, Heloísa began to work as a translator for the Christian Science Publishing Society and became responsible for materials translated into Portuguese, her native tongue. After getting married, she accompanied her husband, a Christian Science lecturer and teacher, on trips throughout the world. When he passed on, she continued working for The Mother Church and became a lecturer and a teacher herself.
Heloísa has been in the Christian Science practice since 1988. From 2000 to 2002 she was Associate Editor for the Christian Science Publishing Society and managing editor of The Herald of Christian Science, an international magazine published in 13 languages, and she also participated as guest speaker or co-hostess—in four languages—on the radio edition of the same magazine.
Heloísa has been, a member of the Board of Lectureship since 1999, a teacher of Christian Science since 2000, and in 2005 served a term as president of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.
A speaker who has toured the world sharing ideas about prayer and healing, Heloísa has always been impelled by a deep desire to help mankind. Her warmth and enthusiasm shine through in her presentations as she helps audiences explore how prayer can improve life conditions—in any language. Heloísa is available to give talks in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
See you at the lecture!