“How are we going to reconcile suffering and lack with the Goodness of God? The difficulty is solved when we realize that all creation is an effect.”
— Ernest Holmes

What I love about the teaching of the Science of Mind is that there is always an answer for me for every problem or challenge I have. It’s not always easy to hear the answer, and I know, as a teacher, that sometimes you can’t always share what you know because people are not ready to receive it.

For example, I have never been in a Science of Mind 101 class where, when explaining Cause and Effect and God as a Loving Presence, the question of the Holocaust doesn’t come up. The first question out of the student’s mouth isn’t, “How can I apply this and use this in my life?” Instead, it’s: “What about Hitler?”

Well, what about him? What about suffering? What about all the atrocious things that are happening today in our current situation—nationwide and globally? Ernest answers the question with the simple statement: “All creation is an effect.”

The question now is: Do we believe this statement, or do we continue to point our finger outward, as if these challenges and atrocities just came out of nowhere? If they are indeed effects, what does that mean regarding the solution?

Science of Mind would tell us that if there is an effect, then there must be a cause. And if there is a cause, then the cause must be alive within us. We are the cause, and we can create a new effect. That’s the good news. We can change the direction of causation in any moment when we decide to do so. However, if we keep thinking someone else is going to do it, or that it is someone else’s fault, there is no solution.

What can we, as individuals, do today to change the direction of causation? We each have our own way, and we must find it. I use meditation, visualization, spiritual mind treatment, and action. I listened to the leader of the walking monks yesterday, and he and his colleagues participated in a walk for peace. By doing that—because we are all entangled—they created a wave of peace across the U.S. and the world during that walk, whether people watched it online or were actually present.

I am in congruence with Anne Frank’s statement about people being innately good. If she could say that in the world she lived in, in the looming certainty of her own demise, I know we can find the good. We are good. The Divine Presence is Good. When we align ourselves with that Good, focus on its Power, and take it out into our world, the effects we presently see will change. In fact, if we look for what we want to see, we will notice that they are already changing.

Love and Aloha,
Rev. Dr. Rita Andriello-Feren, Author, Co-Founding Director CSL Kaua’i, Institute of Magnificence, Partners in Empowerment