Deep down, I am happy that I went through Ypres (1). I hope I emerged from it more as a man and a priest. And more than ever, I believe that life is beautiful, even in the worst of circumstances – when we gaze upon God, who is always present there.
(1): Chardin mentions, with just three days' hindsight, the 2nd Battle of Ypres, which took place from April 22 to May 25, 1915, and which claimed approximately one hundred thousand lives in just one month: the German army here first used chemical weapons en masse, specifically chlorine; later, the combat gas named after this city, mustard gas, was developed.
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ /1881–1955/, letter from the front, to his cousin, May 28, 1915;
quoted according to the book Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Birth of Thought. Letters 1914–1919, Malvern 2021)
