Pierre Teilhard de Chardin spent his life being misunderstood by both his church and the scientific community. The following is a piece of advice by him:
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient for everything
to reach the end without delay.
We would like to skip the intermediate stages….
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually…
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what…
grace and circumstances…
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God can say what this new spirit… will be.
Let [God’s] hand lead you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
Gracious God, help us to discern where we need to wait with patience and where we have waited long enough.—AMEN.
