MANTUA, Italy — Seeing the glimmerings of a collective identity in the world’s response to the global health crisis and inspired by the vision of a better world, groups of young Italians are using media to explore profound themes related to social transformation.

“An unprecedented collective effort is required on the part of humanity at this time,” describes one of the youth in a video she shared online, “one that requires us to develop our capacity to truly take care of one another.”

These youth are fostering a greater sense of unity during this crisis by offering songs and artistic presentations online. They are compelled, as a young person from Trentino puts it, “by a hope that burns in the heart.” In an effort to build bonds of friendship between people of all backgrounds, the youth have also helped to create a website on which prayers and sacred writings can be posted by anyone.

A source of inspiration for these efforts is ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s assertion that humanity is to be regarded as “the waves of one ocean, the drops of one sea, the flowers of one rose-garden, the trees of one orchard, the grains of one harvest and the plants of one meadow.”

In one of their videos, a youth speaking about being of service to others says, “this is not going to be the last challenge we face, but we know that we can overcome this if each of us is motivated out of our love for humanity to give up something less important for something more important.”

The youth have noted that people are asking profound questions about the very nature of society and the relationships among various entities and that many are calling for basic assumptions about how the world is ordered to be reexamined.

There is a greatly heightened consciousness of humanity’s inherent oneness. As one young person says, many now wish to explore how to “organize our society in such a way as to make decisions for the good of all.”

Another youth describes unity as “not just an emotion or a beautiful idea”, but central to “facing the challenges that will inevitably come.” Another young Italian shared that as people are becoming acutely conscious of their personal responsibility toward the collective, what is becoming apparent is that achieving a better world “requires discipline and much love toward all.”