I love this prayer I came across recently by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. It really spoke into my life experience and I hope it does to yours. May we truly be patient with the journey of our lives, trusting the slow work of God.
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 owngood will )will make of you tomorrow.Only God could say what this new spirit
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a French Jesuit priest, theologian, and paleontologist. In his prolific writings, he tried to integrate theology, science, and spirituality. His mystical vision of the world, which considered matter and spirit a unified reality, has captured the imagination of believers for decades.
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.
