Selected and adapted
from
Teilhard de Chardin,
Mass on the World, 1923
tr. René Hague.
[ Offertorium ] , [ Fire Over Earth ] , [ Fire Within Earth ] , [ Communion ] , [ Prayer ] , [ Note ]
|
I have neither bread, nor wine,
nor altar. I will rise above those
symbols to the pure majesty of the
real itself. I will make the whole World
my altar. On it I offer you all of
the labors and sufferings of the
World. The sun has just touched
the farthest fringe of eastern
sky. Beneath its moving sheet of
fire the living surface of the
world awakes and trembles, and
once again begins its fearsome
travail. My paten and chalice are the depths of soul,
laid open to all the Forces which in
every moment rise up from all the Earth, to converge with Spirit. Grant me the remembrance
and the presence of all whom light awakens
to new day. One by one I see and love
all who sustain and charm my life;
and then I see beyond to embrace all
humanity, surrounding me and
supporting me in the impassioned affinity
for light even though I do not know
them. The immensity of the
restless multitude is daunting. Open me to the
relentless waves, both orderly and
confused, surging slowly through the troubled deep of humanity. Let me respond to it all. |
All that will grow today, all that will decay all that will die all this is what I wish to
offer, for this is all that you
desire. This is the sacrifice that
so mysteriously you need, carrying us ever onward in
the flow of your universal
becoming. Receive this Host, drawn to
you by your all-embracing
forces, offered at the dawn of new
day by your whole creation. Receive this Wine, our
pain, the pain of all that stirs
in this dark mass of matter, crying out from the depths of soul, >Lord, make all One.= Born of Mother Earth, we
climb in spirit to the heights. Bearing her
hopes and pain, for all who under this
rising sun will be born today or die we call down Fire. |
|
Fire is source of Being. When matter burns, that fire is but illusion. In the beginning was Fire,
intelligent, loving,
energizing. In the beginning was
Word, mastering, molding the
world of matter. In the beginning? Neither cold nor darkness. In the beginning was
Fire Before all else was Light.
We creatures are but
emptiness, obscure. You are the inmost depth,
eternal milieu beyond all space and time.
From you our cosmos continuously
emerges, dissolving boundaries
before our eyes, bringing into consummation lovely perfect union. |
All is Being, nothing but
Being, blazing Spirit, Fire,
personal without substance. Come within to breathe a soul into the fragile film of
matter with which today the world is newly
clothed. Radiant Word, blazing Power
shaping life, touch here and now and
there and here, throughout the immensity of
the all, the present and the past of
things. This is the world I have
gathered in my heart, which now I offer. Melt it, mold it, shape it, bring it into new being.
Endlessly evolve us and renew us. Over every living thing,
springing up anew, growing, flowering,
ripening, say again the words: This
is my body. Over every death-force,
straining to corrode, to wither, or divide, speak
again the highest mystery of the faith: This
is my blood. |
|
It is done. Fire has penetrated Earth. Not with crash of
thunderbolt, nor earthquake, nor with volcanic force B does a master break down a door to enter
his own house? Silently does the flame
light up the world, and flood the deep within,
from particle to cosmos, every element,
every form of energy, every interaction, such
that the world does seem spontaneously to be bursting into fire. Today the Word prolongs its
own unending birth, begetting new
humanity. The waters of Earth=s womb have been endued with life. All the Host of universe is
given life today, matter made mysteriously,
touched by the substance of the
super-substantial Word. From the moment of birth we
feel a desolate yearning mixed
with vexation and desire, standing in the
Presence which hovers all about us,
nameless and impalpable, indwelling all. The universe now
consecrate, suffused with fragrance, luminous,
takes on for me the subtle forms of body
and of face, Lord Iesu. Your reality binds the all
into only one true life. |
Thank you for drawing me
toward seeing the true simplicity of
things. In this sacrament of the world let
me savor that ecstatic vision,
tranquil yet intense, harmonious, coherent,
inexhaustible. In this vision, world
become your flesh, I long like the monist to be absorbed into your One, I long like the pagan to hold the object of my worship I long like the mystic to abandon all hint of self. Yet you perfect all of
these longings, receiving me as I lose
myself in you to find the goal of my own
individuality, to touch you through the
matter all around me, to be in you even as I
struggle in the world. Lord, here you are in this
day now beginning. Steer me safe from harm,
from all destruction and confusion. Keep clear my inner eye called >faith=. |
|
Fire has come down into the
heart of the world. All my energies take part
in the consecration which causes the flame to
leap forth. Let it find in me the fuel it
must seek. I prostrate myself before
the Presence, now become a living flame. I reach for the luminous
Bread, source and secret of my
destiny. Through this communion of
the Bread I throw myself into the
vortex of energies and conflicts
from which must come the Power to
apprehend the holy Presence. |
Nor may I refuse the
chalice. It is not myself alone who
struggles. The totality of the
universe labors toward its consummation in the
pre-existent Fire. Living, dying pours into
the chalice all the pain of ego
separation, all the limitations of the
matter-world, all the bitterness of
dissolution and misunderstanding. >Let me drink all of this= in my own name and for the
world, sharing in your being. |
|
Tu autem, Domine mi, include me in imis
visceribus Cordis tui. Atque ibi me detine,
exoque, expurga, accende,
ignifac, sublima, ad purissimum Cordis tui
gustum atque placitum ad puram annihilationem
meam. |
>Lord, lock me up in the
deepest regions of
your heart. Then, holding me there burn
me, purify me, ignite me, sublimate me until
I am utterly what you would have me be, my >I myself= made absolutely into
nothing. |
Eucharistic
Sentences, Selected and adapted
from Teilhard de Chardin, Mass on the World, 1923 tr. René Hague.
There is, of course,
a limit to what properly may be done in manipulating the work of others. I have proceeded, thinking that perhaps
manipulation is acceptable if the intention agrees with the original, if the
process is explained, and proper credit is given.
Mass on the World by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is a prose
work of some fifteen pages. It is often intensely poetic, meditative, and inspirational in style and feeling, but it is also a
theological essay, communicating subtle nuances in sometimes complicated
sentences. My purpose here has
been simply to distill it into a
shorter form convenient for my own personal reflection, having already
subscribed to Teilhard=s worldview of a cosmos spiritually as well
as physically evolving .
I have sought to
avoid interposing any of my own ideas, and to preserve Teilhard=s own imagery. I must caution, however, that sometimes the distillation process
is especially severe. I hope no one will use this, nor attribute any ideas from
it to Teilhard, without first carefully reading his original. On the other
hand, if this should help someone else to discover Teilhard, I will be quite
content.
Donivan Bessinger, Feb 2005
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