Skip to footer

The breath of Spirit

Divine inspiration reveals what we all are as children of God – spiritual, pure, strong, joyful, united – and empowers us to actively live those qualities, as this poem conveys.

  • By Ken Cooper

Christian Science Perspective audio edition
Loading the player...

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
– John 1:1

The breath of Spirit voiced God’s Word:
The cosmos thus God-given;
And Love saw “it was very good”* –
All things in earth and heaven.

Hence man was formed by Spirit pure –
The breath of inspiration;
One cannot ask for any more,
This is our sure foundation.

Embraced in Love, in Truth, in Life –
In God we have our being;
Each breath of prayer unites us all:
In Spirit is true seeing.

Oh, let us live as Spirit guides,
To follow all Thy ways,
For in Thy purity we live,
Oh, sing with joy and praise!

*Genesis 1:31

Originally published in the March 4, 2019, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to The breath of Spirit
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/A-Christian-Science-Perspective/2021/1105/The-breath-of-Spirit
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe