You are troubled when you look at the virtues that grow beside you while you remain stationary. Humble yourself, pray, ask... But do not torment yourself! What matters is not that my soul is the holiest, most beloved, or most privileged. It is even better if our Lord is greatly loved around me (and to your comfort, you can add that these souls are somewhat that way because of you...). My only ideal is to be a servant, a handmaid, whom the Lord grants a place in His heart as He wishes, and who desires only one thing: to be faithful. – In the depths of your soul, establish above all the peace of God, like an unshakeable foundation for all your activities, as a criterion for the value and truth of the thoughts that overwhelm you. Everything that troubles and disturbs you is false...
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ /1881–1955/, letter from the front, to his cousin, November 7, 1915;
quoted from the book Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Birth of Thought. Letters 1914–1919, Malvern 2021)
