By Flapper Press Poetry Café:
The Flapper Press Poetry Café continues a series of articles about favorite lines of poetry and the poets who wrote them. We’re reaching out to poets, writers, and lovers of poetry to submit their favorite lines of poetry and tell us why you love them.
Check out our submission guidelines and send us your favorites!
We'll feature your submission sometime this year on our site!
This week, our submission comes from John Reyna.
This line reminds me to seek mystery.
— John Reyna
Patient Trust
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, SJ, excerpted from Hearts on Fire
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born May 1, 1881, and died April,10, 1955. He was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher, and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and philosophical books.
His mainstream scientific achievements included taking part in the discovery of Peking Man. His more speculative ideas, sometimes criticized as pseudoscientific, have included a vitalist conception of the Omega Point and the development, along with Vladimir Vernadsky, of the concept of a noosphere.
In 1962, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith condemned several of de Chardin's works based on their alleged ambiguities and doctrinal errors. Some eminent Catholic figures, including Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, have made positive comments on some of his ideas since. The response to his writings by scientists has been divided.
Teilhard served in World War I as a stretcher-bearer. He received several citations and was awarded the Médaille militaire and the Legion of Honor, the highest French order of merit, both military and civil.
John Reyna is always aware of spiritual care in context with his work in radiology and teaching as an MRI and Computer Tomography Radiographer. He is very mindful of the applied physics he employs in his patient care, its awe and wonder to harness and use the unseen to allow the human body to be seen in eloquent detail. His medical career spans 35 years—indeed, his entire adult life. The curious mystery of what direction his life journey would take began in middle school, and he stayed on the course. He is a member of the Hunkpapa (Lakota: Húŋkpapȟa) Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name Húŋkpapȟa is a Lakota word meaning "Head of the Circle.”
Presenting a wide range of poetry with a mission to promote a love and understanding of poetry for all. We welcome submissions for compelling poetry and look forward to publishing and supporting your creative endeavors. Submissions may also be considered for the Pushcart Prize. Please review our Guidelines before submitting!