As far as I'm concerned, I eagerly take the opportunity to introduce myself as a priest to the new members of the regiment this Christmas, which has a touch of religious sentiment, especially to the officers. (…) I think you will understand when I confess that at certain moments it feels somewhat bitter to return to my rough and noisy men. But that is just nature, isn’t it… If our Lord were not forgiving, He would have stayed in heaven and would not have come to kindly and lovingly engage with our rough nature. I must say – and I believe I will eventually feel it – that Christmas night has never meant as much to me as the one I will spend tonight on the straw in the company of less sympathetic men, with whom I am sure I truly love with a Christian love.
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ /1881–1955/, letter from the front, to his cousin, December 24, 1915;
quoted from the book Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Birth of Thought. Letters 1914–1919, Malvern 2021)
