Patient Trust: Wisdom for the Soul from a Paleontologist

Photo by Jacqueline Martinez on Unsplash

​There are those poems and prayers that one returns to again and again.  This is one of those for me.  Patient Trust was written by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit biologist, philosopher, and paleontologist. 

Paleontology is the study of ancient life and its changes through the fossil record.  Fossils take  a long time to form.  The processes Chardin observed in nature, he also observed in the soul.  Let's not forget that we, too, are part of nature!  And the Earth has wisdom to share with us who are often hurried and harried.  

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
             to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
             unknown, something new.
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 grow,
             let them shape themselves without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
             as though you could be today what time
             (that is to say, grace and circumstances
             acting on your own good will)
             will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
            gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
            that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
           in suspense and incomplete.

-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, 1881-1955, French Jesuit, paleontologist, biologist,
and philosopher. Found in Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits, p. 102-103.

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• Read through the poem-prayer 2-3 times.
• What word or phrase sticks out to you?
• Reflect on and "rest with" that word/phrase for a few moments (or throughout your day).  How does it speak to life right now? What is God's invitation to you through that word or phrase?

Live with this poem-prayer for an extended amount of time.  Notice if you are drawn to the same word or phrase or different ones.  What is Patient Trust's impact on you? Do you detect any soul shifts (even if subtle)?  

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