Above All

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.
Yet, it is the law of all progress that is made
by passing through some stages of instability
and that 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.
Do not 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 you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new Spirit
gradually forming in 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.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
our loving vine-dresser.

Amen
– Pierre Teilhard de Chaudin

 

Confession of a Contrite Heart

Interesting, tragically so, that the night I had approached with a determination to commune with God only ended in my sin against Him.
And in my weakness, Satan used the very Word I relied on as a weapon against me.
God, could I still meet you here?
For years I’ve lived with my asceticism. But, is it not your lovingkindness which leads us to repentance?
God, I don’t deserve you. But, if you will have me, then take all of me.

Meet me in my brokenness.