A love letter to Ilia and Peirre Teilhard de Chardin Dear Ilia,
I am so grateful to have found your books, your website, the Omega community and you, the prophet. Of course none of this was accidental. It all started with a car accident on my 21st birthday in 1968. I was driving alone at night, back to my job as a junior housemistress in a rural boarding school in Australia. Only my knee was badly injured in the accident but when I regained consciousness in the ambulance, I was aware of a terrible pain in my chest (bruising from the impact against the steering wheel before seat belts) as I struggled to breathe, it crossed my mind that I might be dying. I remember clearly thinking ‘what did the nuns teach us to do when one is dying?’. I was feeling pretty panicky by now and said the ‘Our Father’ as I was praying I relaxed with great relief because I knew from that moment (since never waived in my whole body conviction), that I actually, after all that teenage angst and doubt , did believe in God and more importantly that he/she believed in me. It was the greatest birthday gift I could have wished for . However it took about 15 years of ‘unfolding’’ to recognise the giftedness of this experience. The freedom of discovering that “faith” is not a noun but a verb of growing and becoming has given me licence to come and go, explore here and there, on and off. From Liberation theology, to the feminist project, sojouning with protestant friends and projects in social justice and ecological activism to Francis’ Laudato Si, the testament in scripture and finally home to the cosmic Christ and Teilhard de Chardin. Recently I get quite giddy, or ‘tipsy’, in awe and wonder at evolutionary creation and sometimes can cry at the privilege of being part of it. When I see an ant, busy about its business, or a weed struggling between the paving stones, I say to them,’even to be one of you would have been a great gig in this universe!, but to be chosen to be human through chance and natural selection, at this time of internet and DNA, to live in this country of security and more than my needs, to be a woman, a mother, grandmother and to have reached this consciousness of ’ unbearable wholeness’ and all that that means takes my breath away, like a car crash! Just one question. I don’t believe in “supernatural” any more. Is that heresy? The more I read about evolutionary biology and ponder on its implications for an evolutionary chistology, the more it seems to me that from the sub atomic to the cosmic scale, natural creativity, interconnectivity, communication networks, diversity, regeneration: have it all in hand. Thus the concept of ’super-nature’ is a tautology. I hope humanity can redeem itself, so that homo sapiens can continue to evolve into communities of healing and peace, but if not, then the infinite impulse will mourn the suffering and loss, but life is’ immortal and love is eternal’ (Bede Jarret) Resurrection goes on in the now, on the cusp of creating the future. Many thanks for your website. People like me need your company and inspiration. Patricia
Patricia DevlinMonasterevin, co.Kildare.Ireland, AK
Thank you so much for your wonderful presentation the other day and now for a copy of it. I intend to share it with many people. I also want to keep involved with your Center and am on your mailing list.
A few thoughts re: science/religion synthesis. First, such a synthesis is useful, but not necessary in one’s faith walk, or in activating spiritual consciousness. The only requirement for same is a heart-felt belief in the efficacy of gospel and mystery of the incarnation without empirical proof. Second, for those curious, science-minded folk interested in the so-called “third” (organic) nature of Christ who “fills all things” seamlessly, be advised. In synthesis, the new wine won’t fit into the old science, religion, or theology bottles. A new bottle/container must be developed, one Teilhard advocated for — Spirit Science. Why? Science, religion and theology are abstractions, threads plucked from a unified tapestry (field of forces) that embraces them both without distinction. From the perspective of the whole, their apparent difference is no difference at all, merely the result of three disciplines viewing the same crossover reality from different access points, using different language to describe it. Mind you, not God’s language, but that of dual-thinking men. Hence, science, religion and theology are competing partial truths that originate and are shaped by the same universal, sliced and diced, non-local energy field called science, religion or theology. Since institutional forms of the faith can’t/won’t give or teach you that — ever — “why seek ye the living among the dead?”
Thank you for doing this. I’ve been watching your wonderful video in half-hour time chunks, which end up being much longer because I stop so often to take notes. Would you happen to have a transcript of it?
Dear Emily, We currently do not have automatic transcripts and depend on the good will of volunteers but we are looking into it. Christmas blessings!
Thanks, Isabelle, for your response. When I do Zoom webinars with my students the program automatically produces a transcript, but they are usually somewhat indecipherable in terms of accurately representing what was actually said. I would be happy to share my notes, which include several quotes, with anyone who is interested. But I admittedly listen for particular ideas that are pertinent to my own work, thus they may not be helpful to all.
Thank you Ilia for all your wonderful hard work in 2021. Wishing you and all your community a Peaceful and Joyful Christmas and a Healthy and exciting New Year.