The whole life lies in the verb seeing.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
For me, the Immaculate Conception is the feast of 'passive action,' the action that functions simply by the transmission through us of divine energy. Purity, in spite of outward appearances, is essentially an active virtue, because it concentrates God in us and on those who are subject to our influence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the idea of divine energy being transmitted through individuals, highlighting the active nature of purity and its influence on others.
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin's quote reflects on the concept of the Immaculate Conception as a celebration of 'passive action,' signifying that true purity and virtue stem from allowing divine energy to flow through us. Rather than merely appearing pure, this active virtue shapes our essence and those around us, demonstrating that genuine spirituality is rooted in the engagement with divine presence.
Themes
PurityDivine EnergyActive VirtueInfluenceSpirituality
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about spirituality, one might invoke this quote to illustrate the power of divine influence in our actions.
More from Pierre Teilhard De Chardin
All quotes →Religion and science are the two conjugated faces or phases of one and the same complete act of knowledge - the only one which can embrace the past and future of evolution and so contemplate, measure and fulfil them.
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The mineral world is a much more supple and mobile world than could be imagined by the science of the ancients. Vaguely analogous to the metamorphoses of living creatures, there occurs in the most solid rocks, as we now know, perpetual transformation of a mineral species.
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We may, perhaps, imagine that the creation was finished long ago. But that would be quite wrong. It continues still more magnificently, and at the highest levels of the world.
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Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves. All we need is to imagine our ability to love developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
If there is one thing I fear less than everything else, it is, I believe, persecution for my opinions. There are a good many points about which I may be diffident, but when it comes to questions of Truth and intellectual independence, there is no holding me - I can envisage no finer end than to sacrifice oneself for a conviction.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
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