Over two years ago, I was invited to participate in a project where I (and forty others) was asked to write a short testimonial essay describing the impact of French Jesuit scientist and mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on my life and work. This project eventually became “Convergencias” (“Convergences: Forty Encounters with Teilhard de Chardin”) which is published in Spanish and is available through publisher Sal Terrae, an imprint of Grupo Comunicación de Loyola.

The project was then picked up by Orbis Books, who published 25 of the original 40 essays. Just this week, I received a copy of “Encountering Teilhard: The Living Legacy of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,” which is the English version of the essays.

It is truly an honor to be invited to participate in this project including many prominent spiritual leaders and teachers…and to be considered to be part of the living legacy of Teilhard and his larger vision of and hope in the future of the world, united by the energies of love. Big thanks to Juan Fernández Dela Gala for all of your good working pulling this project together!!

Link to purchase “Encounter Teilhard” from Orbis Books.

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“Encountering Teilhard: The Living Legacy of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin” is available through Orbis Books and all major booksellers.

As the influence of French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin continues to expand in the church, the academy, and beyond, Encountering Teilhard offers a fascinating testament to his importance through reflections by many who have studied and been shaped by his unique integration of science and Christian faith. Contributors includeJoan Chittister, Ilia Delio, John Haught, Matthew Fox, Kathleen Duffy, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, Libby Osgood, Leonardo Boff, José Ignacio Gonzalez-Faus, SJ, Antonio Spadaro, SJ, and many more. Their testimonies speak not only of the gratitude so many feel for Teilhard’s prophetic intuitions, but also of how much his thought can still contribute to the Church of the future.

As the editor notes, Teilhard lived during dark times―as a stretcher-bearer in World War I, and later enduring exile and restrictions on his work by the Vatican and his Jesuit order. “Nevertheless, Teilhard knew how to keep his hope unscathed.” In one of his prayers he wrote, “Do not be troubled by the difficulties of life, by its ups and downs or by its disappointments, or because the future seems at times a little bleak. / Want what God wants. Abandon yourself into his hands of providence, and trust blindly in that God who wants you for himself just as you are.”