As we continue the urgent work of these times, we remember the advice of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. He says:
Above all, trust in the slow work of God [and humans].
We are quite naturally impatient
to reach the end without delay.
We should 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 [us]; [our] ideas mature gradually—let them grow;
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Do not try to force them on,
as though [we] could be today what grace and circumstances
will make of [us] tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming will be.
Let God’s hand lead [us],
and accept the anxiety of feeling
in suspense and incomplete.
(From Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ written to his cousin, Marguerite Teillard-Chambon)
So, gracious and loving God, help us to discern where we need to wait with patience and where we have waited long enough.—AMEN.