Translation Work for The Mother Church

Being asked to do translation work for the Mother Church felt both a privilege and overwhelming at first, but every single time I sat down to work on it, I got up blessed. I loved the opportunity to work for the Church which I feel is working so much for me, giving me that sense of a global family, a sense of unity, a spiritual home. It felt like a great opportunity to help broaden the accessibility to this special “Church,” as well as to Mary Baker Eddy’s discoveries and thoughts, to people who wouldn’t have access to the English originals.

As I was working with excerpts of letters Mary Baker Eddy had written to her students, I felt I was getting a new friend! The shyness in the beginning with thoughts like “who am I to do this work?!?” gave way to a deep humility and a great sense of Mary Baker Eddy’s amazing love for every single of her students. I felt very much included in this love, and often the excerpts of letters I was translating contained a very helpful, healing thought for issues I was dealing with at the time, so I often felt “oh, it’s written to me!”

Translating made me dive into texts at a level I rarely manage to achieve when I read and even study otherwise. I felt often very humbled by the extraordinary elegance, eloquence, clarity, beauty and sometimes nonchalance in Mary Baker Eddy’s language, her joy of playing with words, even making up words, and a sound portion of humor. And still, the joy of language was only a small part of the whole project. While working on the translation the most important requirement to get down to work was my own attitude, an open, humble, listening heart. It really would be the better word – it was more of a listening-job than a translation-job. Sometimes words would flow easily, and sometimes it took a lot of stillness to even only get a glimpse of what these grand ideas mean.

When I was re-reading the whole at the end, it neither felt like I had done it personally, nor did it feel like “now it’s finished”! It is still going on. It simply felt great to know that a lot more people speaking this language would soon be able to read more about the extraordinary life of Mary Baker Eddy and about the thoughts and ideas she had shared – with her pupils and with us. My view of Mary Baker Eddy changed completely, leaving me in great awe for this woman, who discovered the laws underlying the universe! Who practiced, demonstrated and built up so much by listening and reasoning and following God’s direction so selflessly and persistently.