I want to tell you how painfully I was shocked by the news of Mr. Auffray's death. Please convey my sincere condolences to Mrs. de Margerie. However, I primarily think of you, who is losing a protector and a friend. I don’t know why (or rather I know all too well why) we imagine that the environment of our lives must last as long as we do. We cannot accept that those we have known all our lives or those we one day counted among the definitive supports and external surroundings of our person would disappear before we do… As if the countless cracks that appear before our eyes every day must always respect that small circle of our affections. – I would like this new pain and disappointment, which add to so many others, not to throw you off balance. We have no other permanent dwelling than Heaven: that is always an old truth that we must continually learn, and with which we reconcile only under the blows of painful experiences. (…) I ask our Lord to let you feel that He can and wants to replace all the human supports that are taken away from you.
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ /1881–1955/, letter from the front, to his cousin, April 9, 1916;
quoted from the book Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Birth of Thought. Letters 1914–1919, Malvern 2021)
