The Slow Work of God

by Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin


Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are all, 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 and 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 can say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.

Give God the benefit of believing that the Spirit of God
is leading you, forming you, transforming you;

And accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

Stopping by

I am afraid that my hopes of blogging more now that I am back into the fall routine haven't materialized much! Long, busy days at work have left me tired in the evenings, mostly tired of typing at a computer screen, and so the motivation to blog has been lacking. But I think many bloggers tend to agree that the updating of these slates tend to ebb and flow, depending on our distraction and inspiration. Tis the reality of writing, and life! But for now, I just wanted to stop by and say a quick 'hello' to my loyal readers.

And now, a photo for your enjoyment.

Pastoral Tennessee, via the Natchez Trace Parkway

More than (continued)

"These notes will have been entirely useless if they have not helped to bring us to a place where our happiness does not depend on the work we are doing, the place we are in, our friends, our health, whether people notice us or not, praise us or not, understand us or not. No single one of the circumstances has any power in itself to upset the joy of God, but it can instantly and utterly quench it if we look at the circumstances instead of into the Face of light and love that is looking down upon us - the Face of our own God.

This is the shining path, stretching away from the place where we stand to-day to the very heart of God. This is the shining path that shineth more and more as we walk in it."

~ Amy Carmichael, The Edge of His Ways