Putting a Focus on Spiritual Wellness

Michael Schnable sits and reads his daily devotional reading before going to bed.

The author of this piece is related to Michael Schnable.

When many people think of wellness they think of physical and mental wellness. They don’t often think of spiritual wellness. However one St. Louis man has made it his intention to work on his spiritual wellness more than any other area during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spiritual wellness provides us with systems of faith, beliefs, values, ethics, principles and morals. It allows one to live a life in harmony with their own beliefs and moral systems — often establishing a feeling of purpose in their life.

Michael Schnable has been a member of the Catholic church since birth. His faith is super important to him, in fact he’s even considering becoming a deacon to further improve on his relationship with god.

Schnable considers his relationship with God as the most important thing in his life and that’s why he’s focused more on his spiritual health.

Despite churches shutting down in order to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Schnable has found ways to look inward and improve himself.

He said he’s prayed a lot and really focused on his education in order to further his relationship with christ.

“My personal relationship with Christ is closer than it’s ever been,” Schnable said. “I think it’s because for the longest time that’s all we had was you and your prayer life, because churches were shut down. You had to do what you wanted to do with it to make it what it is.”

Schnable is a member of Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Maryland Heights, MO. He’s been an active member for over 10 years and was even selected to be the director of a retreat.

Unfortunately, that retreat was cancelled — just one area of Schnable’s religious life impacted by the pandemic.

“I really enjoyed the community aspect of faith and that is basically non-existent,” Schnable said.

Holy Spirit has focused on creating a loving atmosphere for it’s virtual masses. The priest filled the pews with pictures of his congregation, even trying to hone in on where they typically sit.

However, even when masses did begin to open to the public Schnable had to steer clear.

“I have an immunocompromised child and it just wasn’t worth the risk. As much as I wanted to go and celebrate the word of the Lord, I couldn’t hurt my child like that.”

Schnable still makes a point to engage with the community of catholics he’s built upon.

He attends personal meetings with his parish priest. He’s also a member of a prayer group and has bi-weekly zoom meetings with them. His group is called “The Mafia” and is made up of other middle-aged men devoted to the word of the Lord.

Despite all the challenges, Schnable said it’s more important than ever to continue to grow his relationship with god.