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 As a child, I was told that my great-great-great-grandmother became a Christian Science practitioner after experiencing healing while reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. However, I certainly remember my grandfather - also a Christian Science practitioner - whom I loved immensely and could always turn to for help.

As a child, I loved listening to Bible stories, especially healings performed by Jesus. These gifts of God’s grace seemed so natural, yet I couldn’t understand why God would not allow for such healings today.

In the early 1990s I was healed quickly and decisively in Christian Science of a physical condition that had come to seem completely hopeless to me.  I had grown up as a Christian Scientist, and had seen many healings in my family of seven, so I knew the effectiveness of Christian Science prayer.

Growing up with the stories of the healings that had brought my family into Christian Science – a great uncle healed of polio, my mother and aunt healed of leukemia – it seemed entirely natural to me, as a second-grader, to agree to pray for a sobbing playmate who asked me to do so after she tumbled off a swing-set. The fact that she quickly returned to play seemed equally natural.

Although I was raised in Christian Science, in a sense I feel that Christian Science raised me. The teachings of the Bible, the mission of our Master, Christ Jesus, and the revealed message of spiritual truth explained in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy provided a natural pathway of learning and purpose early in my life.

I grew up with parents who loved and practiced Christian Science, and I experienced consistent and decisive healings as a kid and teen. After my daughter was born, and while still in the hospital, I was instantly healed of an extremely high and life-threatening fever, much to the amazement of the medical staff.  Even so, a few years later, while going through some really tough times, I stepped away from Christian Science. This wasn’t a bad thing, though, because it was during this time that I did some deep soul-searching and honest questioning which developed into more appreciation for God and what God is. That spiritual curiosity led to satisfying answers and continues to this day. More committed than ever to practicing spiritual healing, I started receiving calls from friends and family who were seeking healing.  I’ve worked in a variety of editorial positions for The Christian Science Publishing Society, which has only deepened my love for all that Mary Baker Eddy established and shared with the world. I began advertising in The Christian Science Journal as a Christian Science practitioner in 2017 and went through Normal class to become an authorized teacher of Christian Science in 2024.

I’d love to meet you and cherish your spiritual search! I’m Suzanne Riedel, C.S.B., and I live and teach in the Austin, Texas area. I am guessing we may have some experiences in common . M ine have been varied. My marriage, five children, graduate school, and teaching high school and middle school for 20 years all were proving grounds for what I was learning about God and the great Love we all have.

I have always had a love of healing in Christian Science. My first family stories were of how my grandfather’s immediate conviction of the Science of the Christ healed my uncles and aunts in their moments of great need.

I grew up in Malaga, Spain. My desire to serve others led me to join the Society of Jesus where I was an ordained priest.

When we don’t feel freedom, whether our bodies feel constrained, or our thoughts seem out of control, is it because of some outside power or cause? Or is it that the forms of imprisonment we face are mental—the result of false beliefs, fears, and ignorance about God and God’s creation. Christian Science shows how an understanding of the mental nature of any challenge we face enables us to overcome, through God’s power, all forms of imprisonment, including fear, sickness, confusion, injustices, etc.