“The Earth does not belong to us,
we belong to the Earth.“
Thomas Berry
“We experience the universe
as a communion of subjects,
not as a collection of objects.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The Professed sisters of the European Region met in Ramegnies-Chin to reflect on ecological conversion, with the help of Ursula King, theologian and specialist of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry.
By listening to Teilhard, we were able to see the amplitude and unity of evolution, from the cosmic beginnings up to human beings, in whom evolution becomes conscious of itself, able to reflect and to take part in an active and orientated manner.
By listening to Thomas Berry, we contemplated the “community of the Earth”: a single community of all beings, including humans; a community with a single destiny.
At the end of the weekend, we understand better how much the pursuit of cosmic evolution depends on thinking beings; understanding also that ecology is a spritual dynamic of thoughtful cosmic evolution. It’s a dynamic that unifies and deepens in love (a dynamic of “amorisation”, in the words of Teilhard), which is at work since the beginning of time, turned towards a point of inifitely attractive, infinitely personnel and infinitely loveable convergence: the cosmic Christ, universal, “all in all”.
Some links for further reading:
- in English, The British Teilhard Network
- in French, l’Association des amis de Teilhard de Chardin
- in English, The American Teilhard Association
- in English, the site of Thomas Berry
- in French, English and Spanish, the site of the Earth charter
- in French, site about an exhibition on Teilhard de Chardin, Francis of Assisi and François Cheng
- information on the film Journey of the Universe, in English
- in German, Gesellschaft Teilhard de Chardin