I experience a certain feeling of peace and fullness knowing that I am heading into the unknown, or more precisely into a realm that cannot be defined by our own means. As long as we live in the sphere of elements that depend on our freedom or the freedom of others, we convince ourselves that we can manage on our own, and then our world seems terribly impoverished, it seems to me. From the moment we perceive how a force, which nothing human can tame, controls us and tosses us about, I have a nearly physical sensation that God is again grasping me and holding me tighter than before. As if, as the path fades before us - and the people around us vanish, unable to help us effectively (I am not of course speaking of friendship and protective prayers, like yours, as they merge with God) - God were the only one before us and around us - and as if He were intensifying (if I may say so) to the extent that we move forward.
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ /1881–1955/, letter from the front, to his cousin, October 4, 1917;
quoted from the book Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Birth of Thought. Letters 1914–1919, Malvern 2021)
