The Unity School of Christianity's emphasis on practicality and meditation appeal to Patricia B. Holt. (By Michael Williamson – Washington Post)

By Patricia B. Holt
Saturday, August 15, 1998; Page C09

I lost my religion when I lost my mother. My family of origin consisted of my parents, a younger sister and my paternal grandparents, with whom we shared a duplex. I was reared in the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church. My grandmother was very spiritual and active in the church.

When my mother died, I was 16 and my sister was 14. My father, who up until then was an occasional drinker, took up drinking full time. My grandma, who had been becoming a little forgetful, went into what I now believe was full-blown Alzheimer's disease.

My life went from almost idyllic to hellish. I married at 19 to get out of the house. By then I had stopped going to church. I could not believe that a God who said he loved me could do all this to me.

Questions that had been in the back of my mind – and that I had been too good of a Christian child to ask – came marching forward.

What kind of Father would punish his children for disobedience by saying they would never reach their home in Paradise? Was that an act of a God of love? And who would sentence people to Hell because they had not heard of the name of Jesus Christ, even if they had led an exemplary life?

Things only got worse. An aunt, who left her mother in the care of my father, my sister and me (even though my sister and I were still in high school) because she could not bear to deal with her mother's senility, became senile herself. When I was 34, my sister was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She became a quadriplegic and survived in that state for six years. My father died of a heart attack after surviving cancer of the larynx.

I took responsibility for and eventually buried them all.

By the age of 40, I had developed severe allergies and arthritis, and a bout with bronchitis left me with asthma.

Somewhere I picked up a copy of the Daily Word [a devotional guide published by the Unity School of Christianity]. I could remember as a child watching my grandmother reading those devotionals. Their words were soothing, positive and uplifting.

On Sundays, I started conducting my own services in my living room. I read other Unity publications and learned that diseases can be manifestations of our thoughts and emotions.

When my daughter moved to Hampton, Va., and had trouble finding the right church, I suggested a Unity church. When I visited her church, it was the second time I had been to a church service in 24 years.

Unity's practical approach to Christianity and emphasis on meditation led me to the point where one afternoon I sat down to meditate. When I got up, I no longer had asthma. It was a wondrous spiritual experience. Gradually, the allergies have almost disappeared.

Unity teaches that there is a spark of divinity, the Christ within every person. It is up to us to recognize it and put that force to work in our lives.

"There is only one Presence and one Power in the universe and in my life – God, the good Omnipotent," says one Unity teaching.

I believe in free will, that God enters the material world through us. Anything in the world that is not of God is what we as humans have created. Every time we act kindly to one another, bless each other, pray for each other, when we love each other, we are doing God's work in this world.

My present husband and I now live a very happy life in Newport News with two allergen-filled cats, close to our daughter, her husband and their two sons.

Patricia B. Holt, 53, was a D.C. resident and C&P Telephone Co. employee for more than 25 years.