Hello February! It is the month popularly known for Valentine’s Day, the day and season for love. While not a public holiday in any country, it is recognized as a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and romantic love in many regions around the world.

But love is so much more than a cultural or commercial phenomenon. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and a pioneer thinker of the 20th century, learned many lessons on love. Here’s one:

“Love is not something put upon a shelf, to be taken down on rare occasions with sugar-tongs and laid on a rose-leaf. I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results. Unless these appear, I cast aside the word as a sham and counterfeit, having no ring of the true metal. Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power. As a human quality, the glorious significance of affection is more than words: it is the tender, unselfish deed done in secret; the silent, ceaseless prayer; the self-forgetful heart that overflows; the veiled form stealing on an errand of mercy, out of a side door; the little feet tripping along the sidewalk; the gentle hand opening the door that turns toward want and woe, sickness and sorrow, and thus lighting the dark places of earth” Miscellaneous Writings, p. 250:14.

But the most profound lesson that Mrs. Eddy learned and has shared with her students and people around the world came to her as a revelation that divine Love heals. In 1866, she gained a powerful insight when she experienced a dramatic recovery from a life-threatening accident after reading Jesus’ healings. From that pivotal moment, she sought an understanding of how she had been healed. She looked to the Bible for answers. It became clear to her that spiritual healing was based on divine laws of God, Spirit, and that these laws could be applied by anyone to heal every form of sickness, sin, and even death.

Amazing, isn’t it? So, let us deepen our understanding of this divine Love that heals all ills, “lighting the dark places of earth”. Then, we can each and together help heal the world.

With love,

Marivic B. Mabanag
Executive Director