October 1923, to his cousin Marguerite Teillard-Chambon, back from his first geological excursion in Mongolia.
[…] I have seen nothing in Mongolia that has awakened in me ” the other life “.
Pilgrim of the Future, I return from a journey entirely accomplished in the Past.
But isn’t the past, seen in a certain way, transformable into the future ? Isn’t the wider awareness of what is and what was the essential basis for any spiritual progress ? Is not my whole life as a paleontologist sustained by the sole hope of cooperating in a forward march ? […]
Through the civilizations that move, the World does not go at random nor does it trample, but under the universal agitation of beings, something is done, something celestial no doubt, but first of all temporal. Nothing is lost here below for the Man, of the sorrow of the growth of the Universe, I was worried to have seen during this voyage only the traces of a vanished world. And why this emotion ? Does the wake left behind by humanity on the move reveal its movement less well than the foam spouted, elsewhere, under the bow of the peoples ?
On September 8, 1935, aboard the Cathay, on the Red Sea, to Fr.
The Past revealed to me the construction of the Future. And concern for the future tends to sweep everything away. […] Now that the fundamental discovery has been made, that we are carried by a walking wave of consciousness, what is important to find behind us ?
September 14, 1935, still on the Cathay, to his brother Joseph.
And here I am again, back to my wandering existence. Enthusiasm has lost its former freshness. But I like to follow destiny and trust it. I never, in fact, knew less where it was leading me. Probably to nothing but further travel, until I end up on the side of a road. But even this, perhaps, has its significance.
The same day, to Max and Simone Begouën.
[…] I wrote a short article on ” the discovery of the Past “*. […] Finally, I conclude that there is only one true way to discover (taught by the research of history), and that is to build the future. It’s very simple, but there are still so many people who act as if the past is of interest in itself and treat it as only the future deserves.
And there you have it. Keep your light and your smile. More people are living it around you than you think. And be sure of my ever-growing affection.
Teilhard.
* was published in the StudiesNovember 20, 1935. T. III, p. 257-269.
(Lettres de voyage 1923-1955, François Maspero/ La Découverte, 1982, p. 104-106, p. 230, p. 231-232) –
Based on an initial idea by Francine RENAUDEAU, La Baule-Escoublac Reading Group.
***
And to go further in these days of (partial) end of confinement which revealed so many wonderful impulses of solidarity and fraternity…
reread
Promised land
an essay written by Pierre Teilhard, in February 1919, in Goldscheuer, Baden. To his cousin Marguerite, he writes that in this text he “seeks to specify what remains us of the effort of the war, among the disappointments of the peace, and seeks to show that it is the conscience that we have taken, one instant, of the spiritual foce included in the union”. (Genesis of a thought, Grasset, 1961, p. 370). This essay is published in Les Ecrits du temps de la guerre, T. XII, Seuil 1965, pp. 415-428). Suggested by Henri François PONCET, Carcassonne Reading Group.
***
Link to the article by Michel COOL
which establishes a parallel between the daily masses of Pope Francis, broadcast by KTO and
The Mass on the world
by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Proposed by Jacqueline BARTHES, Neuilly Reading Group.
***
