Spirituality in the Midst of a Health Crisis

The virus has made the need for a positive spiritual response ever more urgent. The dread of disease and death have us continually questioning the meaning and purpose of our existence as we turn more and more to spirituality as a source of strength, hope and faith.

“We have gone ahead at breakneck speed, feeling powerful and able to do anything. Greedy for profit, we let ourselves get caught up in things, and lured away by haste. We did not stop at your reproach to us, we were not shaken awake by wars or injustice across the world, nor did we listen to the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet. We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick.” -Pope Francis, March 27, 2020 

 “This endless universe is like the human body, and all its parts are connected one with another and are linked together in the utmost perfection.” -Abdu’l-Baha 

 “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” - Krishnamurti  

“Anybody can be happy in the state of comfort, ease, health, success, pleasure and joy; but if one will be happy and contented in the time of trouble, hardship and prevailing disease, it is the proof of nobility.” - Abdu’l-Baha   

 "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." -Corinthians   

 “Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draws it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.” -Buddha 

 “We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life molds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it.” -Shoghi Effendi   

 “We become loveable by being a loving person. We find ourselves by devoting our lives to the service of other people.” -Kilroy J. Oldster   

 "Let us have love and more love, a love that melts all opposition, a love that conquers all foes, a love that sweeps away all barriers, a love that aboundeth in charity, large-heartedness, tolerance, and noble-striving, a love that triumphs over all obstacles, a boundless, resistless, sweeping love.” -Abdul-Baha 

“When day comes we step out of the shade, Aflame and unafraid The new dawn blooms as we free it For there is always light, If only we’re brave enough to see it If only we’re brave enough to be it.” -Amanda Gorman