The Slow Work of God

I was on a call recently and a participant read this to us. I was so moved by it that I asked if he would share the document with me. It was one of those things that moves you and want to revisit it over and over, looking for the points that moved you. I recorded a video with the text, in lectio divina fashion, reading three times, slowly, letting the words soak in. I wanted to share it again here, both text and audio. I hope you enjoy it.

Trust in the Slow Work of God

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. 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 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 of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within 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.
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (1881-1955)