The Christian Science Monitor recently shared a perspective on the United States Surgeon General’s May 2023 report about loneliness and isolation as a profound challenge to public health and well-being. The report offered social connection as the antidote, and yet, as the Monitor points out, many “are struggling to rediscover their spirit of community and connection after a pandemic that left behind an epidemic of loneliness” (Harry Bruinius and Sophie Hills, “One is the loneliest number: What will help people connect again?” June 9, 2023).

We can feel lonely when surrounded by a crowd or perfectly companioned when all alone. This hints, then, that connection is more a matter of thought than of circumstance. Beginning with prayer and in communion with our true source, God, divine Love, we discover that loneliness and isolation yield to dawning inspiration and spiritual discernment. Prayer shows us that we are actually never alone and that all of God’s children are beautifully connected through their shared source. Each of us is firmly rooted in the family of God, a “universal family, held in the gospel of Love” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 577). Awareness of this brings spiritual fulfillment and a clarity about our most fundamental connection—to God, where we always belong.

Jesus came to show us what this divine union means and does through his demonstration of Christ, or “Immanuel, God with us” (Science and Health, p. 107). The Bible tells of Jesus at times retiring to a quiet place, communing with God, his Father-Mother, in solitude. Here he must have felt divine Love’s power to inspire and lead him in his mission to heal and inspire others. Eddy wrote of Jesus’ impact on those he chose to be his students, “When he was with them, . . . the solitude was peopled with holy messages from the All-Father” (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 91).