For two weeks, we watched as the great day of attack slowly approached us. Everything pointed to it: from digging escape trenches to preparations for the evacuation of the wounded. Unfortunately, I do not belong to those directly threatened by the offensive; however, during this time, I clearly felt what it is like to witness life becoming a troubling affair as the date looms closer. The mind suddenly cannot latch onto any distant perspective, and one gradually finds oneself living as if no longer of this world.
What will arise from this terrible battle? It is an ever-deepening crisis and a desperately slow evolution of Europe. Could events unfold more quickly? … So as not to squander our lives and ruin them, let us offer them to God, that He may utilize the struggle surrounding us beyond all expectations.
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ /1881–1955/, letter from the front, to his cousin, October 7, 1915;
quoted from the book Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Birth of Thinking. Letters 1914–1919, 2021)
