I thank you, my God for having in a thousand

different ways led my eyes to discover the immense

simplicity of things. Little by little, through the irresistible

development of those yearnings you implanted in me

as a child, through the influence of gifted friends

who entered my life at certain moments to bring light

and strength to my mind, and through the awakenings

of spirit I owe to successive initiations, gentle and terrible,

which you cause me to undergo, through all these

I have been brought to the point where I can no longer see

anything, nor any longer breathe, outside the milieu

in which all is made one.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.